When you ask a super fit person how they got in shape, they usually give you a very passive tl;dr “Oh I just cut down on some carbs and started working out 4 days per week and wouldn’t you know it, four weeks later… voila!”
Your response is to tighten the grip on your glass until it breaks and then consider doing violent things with the shards. You’ve tried your best at everything and know it’s not this easy.
At first glance, Louise P has a similar, laid-back outlook. She joined BOMB a year ago, losing 11lbs within her first month.
She comes to BOMB 4 days per week and has ran through the gamut of group fitness – from the regular classes, to The Beast, to The Spartan Race Team to Kettlebells – and has one eye on Barbell Club.
However, there are two important things Louise did that maybe you’ve not considered about your own transformation plans.
1 – She Got Curious
Louise said that she hated the thought of group fitness before joining. In fact, her plan was just to get moving for a bit and then stop – she wasn’t even going to follow the meal plan we gave her.
But then she got curious.
She tried a bunch of different classes at Beach then Danforth. She wondered if she could build up to ten push-ups. She wondered why she couldn’t even pull herself up onto the monkey bars while her kid could traverse it with ease.
When she got moving she said, “The motivation came from realizing I could do stuff and I got really curious about that. If you just get started, you’ll find a place for it.”
You may think that you have to build up motivation to go to the gym, or look for a new job. But true motivation is built by…
Doing Something + Liking It + Feeling Competent = Curiosity and Motivation
2 – She Changed Her Environment
With a 4-and-6 year old, Louise found it hard to keep up. While sitting at home she would always send her kid upstairs to fetch things for her, even if the remote control fell off the couch. She had also tried the Goodlife environment and that didn’t work out either.
By joining BOMB she quickly found out that she was surrounded by a different bunch of people.
“I’m a trained actress and so I know physical space and awareness. Even so, the coaches were super generous with corrections and you felt like they were focused on you – paying attention and constantly checking in with everyone.
More experienced members would also help me out with exercises and form suggestions. They weren’t judging me.”
By her own admission, Louise still calls herself a lazy person. But by changing her environment and being around a new tribe that were also trying to stay fit, she drew on the energy that environment change gave her.
She laughs, “I feel like I’ve drank the kool aid and joined a cult – in a good way!”
Louise is now down 25lbs in a year. She can do 18 full push-ups – 8 more than the 10 she imagined and she can crush the monkey bars at her kid’s school.
Her husband got curious too. He bought a rowing machine and is now down 75lbs himself.
“I don’t want to go back to where I was and that’s what gets me up at 5:40am to come to class. Not coming is not an option.
I look for opportunities to move instead of avoiding them. Needing to get something from upstairs is an opportunity to run up the stairs. Dropping something on the floor is an opportunity to do a squat.
That's what drives me.”
Kevin
