Fake It Till You Make It?

Not really into your new workout plan?  Is this your first attempt at losing weight? Just fake it till you make it! Right?  I mean isn't that what all of the fitness gurus are telling us these days?  That if we just pretend like we are making progress, that if we pretend we are giving it our best effort that it will just flip a switch one day and we will start seeing results?

While that all sounds good and well, does it really work?  Will faking it till we make it help us transition from a sedentary lifestyle to a new active one?  No.  Not it does not.  Don't get me wrong, if it works for you then kudos.  Keep it up.  But let's be honest here.  Being healthy is one of the hardest easy things to do today.  I mean we all know that we just need to workout more and eat less food.  But it can be very hard to put that into practice.

I have had plenty of workouts where I really wish I was somewhere else.  I have eaten plenty of plates of broccoli wishing I had pizza instead.  And trust me, I have tried faking it until making it.  But it really didn't help me do anything than ignore the fact that I really was not trying hard enough.

Rather than putting on rose coloured glasses and pretending that I was enjoying what I was doing, I found that using my displeasure as a motivating force was much more effective.  Angry that you are not making any progress with your fitness goals?  Bring that anger to the gym.  No I am not advocating bludgeoning that jerk that always leaves the equipment sweaty and doesn't clean it up.  I mean take that anger and point it at the weights.  Curse at yourself (be courteous to your surroundings of course) during that bench press when you just feel like quitting even though you have another 2 or 3 reps in you.  Use that anger to push yourself a couple of extra miles during your next run/bike/whatever you do for cardio.

So next time you feel like faking it till you make it, just remember that Gandhi didn't wish for Indian independence.  Dr. King Jr. didn't pretend social equality already existed.  They took their displeasure and used it to their own benefit to make these lasting changes.  Do you like what you see when you look in the mirror?  No?  Then use that displeasure to make lasting changes to your health, fitness and life!