Dateline: Summer 2007
Young Jon is the General Manager of Fitness First Sheffield Millhouses.
Having topped the charts with ‘Grace Kelly’ that January, singer Mika releases the song Big Girl (You Are Beautiful).
Described at the time as “an update of Queen’s ‘Fat Bottomed Girls'” and “an ode to the delights of the larger lady”, it reached number 9 in the UK charts.
Sadly, one of my main memories of the song is drunk guys in Sheffield using it to mock larger ladies on nights out.
And in the gym, the line “Diet Coke and a pizza please” seemed to cause a lot of conversation.
“No point having a Diet Coke if you’re having a whole pizza. It’s not going to help”
“They’d be better off not having the pizza”
“Diet Coke is just as bad as normal Coke”
And so on.
Now I don’t think anyone would argue that not having a pizza is going to help someone get better health / fitness / weight loss results than having a pizza would (all else being equal).
Clearly the Diet Coke isn’t going to “undo” the effect of the pizza.
And, yeah, pizza probably isn’t going to be part of the plan for someone who wants the very best results they can possibly get.
But…………
That’s not most people.
For most people, what needs to be done to get in phenomenal shape just isn’t worth it.
And that’s ok.
The balance of a life they’re happy living and forward progress is the sweet spot for most of us.
If you’re going to have a pizza (other calorie dense foods are available) then a few tactical choices around that (lower calorie pizza, lower calorie drinks, side or desserts and / or adjustments in the day or week) can make that still work, no problem.
Sure, Diet Coke probably isn’t quite as “good” as water, but it’s better than the normal version (all else being equal elsewhere).
We can make forward progress with an approach that does or doesn’t include pizza (et al).
What would stop us making forward progress is;
A – Thinking that if we have things like pizza that we’ve failed, should “write it off”, eat even more than we were going to and “start again next week” and / or;
B – Thinking the only way we can get results is by doing stuff we’re not actually willing to do and, therefore, not doing what we can to get results!
Much love,
Jon ‘My kids love Dominoes but, I’ll be honest, it leaves me feeling like I’ve eaten a brick’ Hall
P.S. You know the score by now. Fed up of no progress / regression? Like the idea of actual progress and willing to invest a little more (but not too much) time, effort and money in that? Then apply now for a place on our ‘Great in 8’ programme at www.myrise.co.uk/apply
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RISE in Macclesfield was established in 2012 and specialise in Group Personal Training weight loss programmes for those that don’t like the gym and find diets boring and restrictive!
