You Get What You Give

I just had dinner at Boston Pizza. A person at the next table gave me the inspiration to write this blog post.

I'm working out of town right now, and I just got back from dinner. I'm in a city known primarily for its oil refineries and chemical plants, so the restaurant selection wasn't that great. I eventually chose Boston Pizza because I knew I could get something both tasty and healthy there. I had a small vegetarian pizza (multigrain crust, extra sauce, light cheese), and took advantage of the warm evening by sitting on the patio. Since I was by myself, I split my dinner between reading a book I'd brought and listening to their conversation. (Oh, come on. You would have eavesdropped too.)

Towards the end of my meal, believe it or not, their conversation turned to P90X. One of them, a guy who looked to be in his 20s, said he and some friends had tried it. "We did about three workouts over a couple of weeks," he said. "It's friggin' hard. You can't commit 100% to it. You just can't."

Ok, P90X is a hard program. If he'd given it his best and come up short, no big deal. There are lots of other ways to improve fitness to the point where P90X is a realistic challenge, and there's no shame in not being able to finish it the first time you try. The thing is, everything else I saw and heard told me he didn't give it his best. Everything I saw and heard suggested fitness was the last thing on his mind.

First off, everyone at the table was smoking and drinking beer, including this person. He was talking about bars and restaurants he likes, and told of his favourite place for chicken wings. He was especially proud to have recently posted a personal best of 34 chicken wings in one sitting.

"You can't commit to it 100%. You just can't."

With all due respect, how would he know?

This kind of thing bothers me for two reasons. First, experiences like his can turn people off a program like P90X before they even try it. A person who wants to get in better shape, but isn't sure what to do, will eliminate P90X from consideration if they hear that it's effectively impossible to do. They won't consider the source of that opinion, or that he's the last person they should be taking fitness advice from. They'll just pass on it, and maybe miss the perfect opportunity to improve their lives.

Second, someone who smokes, drinks, and stuffs themselves with deep-fried crap is quite simply shortening his life. Period. He is increasing his risk of heart disease, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, and cancer. He's stressing his liver as it tries desperately to process all the toxins he's taking in. He's actively creating a life of illness, lethargy, and pain. I don't expect everyone I meet to have a bulletproof commitment to fitness every day of their lives, but when I see someone actively hurting themselves through laziness, it bothers me. To then have the gall to say that P90X is something that is impossible to commit to is laughable.

The title of this post is "You Get What You Give". I mean that if you aren't willing to give yourself the chance to be healthy, you can't expect to get anything out of a flirtation with exercise. Driving to the restaurant tonight, I passed a billboard with the following message on it: "Success is the combined effect of small efforts made every day". That is so very true. Success won't come if you spend most of your time sabotaging yourself. I know it sounds daunting, but you need to commit to your health to succeed. Every day, small efforts made to get active, to eat healthy, unprocessed foods, will add up to ultimate success. It might not be easy, but it's simple. You get what you give.