I had a stubborn client. She had been with me for about 6 months. Her strength was clearly building, it showed every week. She was frustrated because she wasn’t seeing results. I had asked her if she’d been following her meal plan and she gave me the usual “pretty much. I love baked goods and I haven’t quite given them up yet.” My response was obvious, how often and how much. She confessed to having a few cupcakes at a birthday party, a couple brownies the other day and 3 glazed donuts Sunday but had eaten healthy the rest of the day. I told her “at your Monday afternoon session, bring 3 glazed donuts. I’m going to open your eyes because if we don’t get passed this you are going to continue to struggle & be frustrated. If you’re continuously frustrated you will start to ask yourself why am I trying, and then you will give up. I see it all the time.” So she brings her 3 glazed donuts and I set them aside and we begin our hour session. After about 30 minutes of intense conditioning, I toss a donut in the trash. After 15 more minutes of circuits, I toss another donut. After closing conditioning I toss the other donut and I said “I took the liberty of finding the donut with lowest calories 190 multiplied it by 3 which was 570 calories. Mostly fat,carbs and sugar. You burned 610 calories according to your watch which is honestly just an estimate. So taking the calories you expended subtract the calories from the donuts, you burned 40 calories. Is that progress? Absofuckinglutely. Will it get you to your goal? Probably….if you don’t quit. But this is SLOW progress. Glacial. This is why people give up. It takes too long…It’s a slow process and people make it slower by self sabotaging and shrugging it off because they’ll ‘work it off’. Now if you’d just eaten one….your 40 would be a 420 calorie deficit. You’ll see results much quicker with those numbers. You don’t need to completely give up the things you enjoy …you just need to reduce. You have to pick your sacrifice right now if you want see the results in the mirror that you show in this gym. So…Have your 3 donuts and sacrifice the speed in which you see your results, or sacrifice 2 donuts to increase the speed….You just busted your ass for an entire hour…..all that work….all that sweat….and not even for results…..but for 3 donuts. Pick your sacrifice.”
She then says “you could of just TOLD me that instead of making me waste money on the donuts.”
To which I replied “I want you to be just as concerned about wasting calories on the donuts….as you are about wasting money on them.”
She is now 9 months in and has lost 18 lbs and 12 inches all over and dropped 2 pant sizes……She’s now trying to build muscle and no longer fights with food. She doesn’t struggle with cravings all the time. She still has her donut….but now she doesn’t have to fight the urge to eat 2 more. Her sacrifice built her that discipline. Pick. Your. Sacrifice.
Iron & Grit 