Day 166 - How Bad?

Still have lots to go over about ECSS, but if you have been following Adam's blog, you know that we are only releasing some of the things now and it is up to him how we do that, so you'll just have to be patient for a little longer. I know, the suspense is killing you all.
In the mean time, I thought I would put a little question out to you that we talked about somewhat at ECSS. It has come up again and again since I started making visible progress on my journey and Thursday it happened again. Several people complimented me on how I look (YAY!) and I said thanks with a smile. Then my one friend asked the most common follow up question to that, which is WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Other common iterations of this are WHAT DIET ARE YOU ON? WHAT'S THE SECRET? and my personal favorite I NEED A COPY OF THAT DIET YOU'RE ON (this one was from my mother-in-law).
So to all of you out there, if you are following the Shredder Lifestyle, how do you explain to people what you do and the role blogging and this community play in your transformation?
So many people out there (almost everyone, it seems) still think there's a "magic bullet" to weight loss, as made fun of in the video below. They are always looking for the next biggest, best thing. And actually, part of the problem is of course that many are just looking for "weight loss", not physique transformation, which are of course two totally different things. People (especially women) want to get down to that magic number they weighed when they got married, or in high school, or whenever that they felt they looked the best. And for some, that number may even be reasonable, but the quest for particular numbers often derails people in the pursuit of fitness and health. Because if you are only looking at the scale, you will try anything to get those numbers down, regardless of the health or body composition cost.
I have seen so many crazy fad diets, pills, and potions out there it makes me sick because they just focus on the pounds and on nothing else. Or people just starve themselves as long as they can because it makes the numbers go down, and then they get so hungry they binge and they go right back up, fatter than before because they burned precious muscle during starvation. Then their metabolism is slower because they burned muscle and then they have a harder time next time around losing, so they try something even more drastic. And they complain that "nothing works, I've tried everything!"
Well you haven't tried EVERYTHING, because if you had, you would have tried this and you would be on your way where you want to go. So if you are desperate enough to "try anything", why not try what will actually make a difference: CLEAN EATING and HARD SHREDDING!! Not as easy to sell, is it? As Tom V says "quick and easy sells, long and difficult does not". But that's the problem, because long and difficult works. People say they want to lose weight, but really most people aren't willing to do "anything", they are just willing to do anything that doesn't interfere with their regular life routine and they don't have to push themselves. It's so out of some people's realm that they aren't even willing to try.
Of course there are volumes already written on this topic, but sometimes it just really strikes me because people want to know what I am doing, and when I tell them all of the things I do: eat 5-6 meals a day, lift weights, avoid processed food, eat protein at every meal, don't drink alcohol, HIIT, learn all I can about fitness and nutrition, participate in support through this blog, etc etc, they do not want to hear it. So after I spend all that time being honest with them about how it's not a diet, it's a lifestyle and that you have to lift weights to get results, and so on, all they wanted to hear was "low carb" or "weight watchers" or whatever. They look at me kind of funny and think "wow, that's too much trouble", I'm sure. They don't really want it.
There's a song out there, How Bad Do You Want It? by Tim McGraw and that's how I try to live my life. The song says: "People always ask me, son what does it take, to reach out and touch your dreams, to them I always say: Are you hungry? Are you thirsty? Is it a fire that burns you up inside? How bad do you want it? How bad do you need it? Are you eating, sleeping, dreaming, with that one thing on your mind? How bad do you want it? Cause if you want it all you've gotta lay it all out on the line."
So that's the attitude I try to take - really with everything, and of course I'll never be 100%, but people who really want a change in their life have to ACTUALLY be willing to do WHATEVER IT TAKES. If they aren't, then they don't want it as bad as they say they do. If the pain of staying the same is less than the pain of change, nothing will happen. I see it all the time. People ask you a question, acting like you are the expert, since you are doing it, but when you don't tell them the answer they are expecting, all of a sudden they don't want your advice. "Oh, I don't want to have to do all that!" Well, then I hope you're happy being fat and tired because it will only get worse the older you get. And you don't have to be "overweight" to be fat either, I see that alot, too.
But I guess that's the way of the world these days. It's like half the country's population dying of cancer, and we know of a cure, but you have to put forth effort every day, and it's not even really that hard, it just requires a little planning, time, and discipline, and people are saying, nope, I'd rather just die of cancer. WHAT??? We're too busy scheduling our lives and never enjoying them. Because you can't enjoy your life when you are unhappy about yourself and if you have ever said "I want to lose weight" or any other version of that, you are unhappy with how you look. And being unhappy about how you look is either a result of or the cause of poor self image. I truly believe that's a fact. Because if you really cared as much about yourself as you think you do, you'd make the effort to improve. No matter what.
So why not take that step to REAL physique transformation? I PROMISE THE WORK AND EFFORT ARE WORTH IT. Discipline does pay off. Believe me, on the other side, you will wonder what you were thinking all those times when you wanted to do something crazy to lose that weight. I've been there. I still keep that nearly-full bottle of pills in my cabinet to remind me to never ever EVER be there again. Even if I would have lost "weight" with them, I would have been too ashamed to tell others how I did it. And I wouldn't look as good as I do now, even if the scale read the same as it does today. And my self esteem would be even lower. And I would eventually have to stop taking them and I would go right back to where I started. And I never would have found this fantastic group of people who I can truly call friends.
So for all those reasons, I beg you, if you really want lasting change, ask us how we did it. And listen to our answer. And be willing to do WHATEVER IT TAKES.