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You Canât F*ck This Up
Have you ever gone out to dinner, eaten enough chips and guac to feed a family of twelve, then worried because you thought you ruined your progress?
Have you ever been sick, injured, or traveling and had to skip a workout or even an entire week of workouts? And did you feel guilty or nervous that you messed everything up?
Listen. You canât screw this up.
Weâre gonna say it again. Keep reading.
You cannot screw this up.
We donât care if you blew past your calories by an extra 3,000. You didnât mess up. We donât care if you missed one workout or two workouts or a month of workouts. You didnât mess up. We donât care if you had an entire box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, six slices of pizza, four pints of Ben & Jerryâs, and a basketful of chocolate turtles. Thatâs definitely an odd combination of food choices. But you didnât mess up.
Because hereâs the part most âfitness gurusâ get wrong: the only way to mess up is to stop altogether. Give up. Quit. Say youâre done.
See, most people use âI messed upâ as an excuse to keep messing up. To stay off track. They let one bad meal turn into a day, then a week, then a month, then years. But thatâs nonsense. And as of this moment itâs not a valid excuse. Because you canât screw this up. Itâs impossible. As long as you get right back on track, youâre going to keep making progress.
This fitness thing? Itâs supposed to be fun. Itâs supposed to make you confident, happy, and healthy. Itâs not a competition. There is no finish line at which you need to arrive to achieve your goals. There is no rush. Youâre playing the long game here. Itâs for life, not seven or twenty-one or thirty days. This is forever. And when youâre playing forever, you canât screw up.
Before we dive into calories, protein, cardio, strength training, supplements, insulin, your thyroid, or anything else fitness gurus love to Instagram about, we need to discuss the most important precursor to your success: your mindset.
The hardest part of losing weight, getting stronger, and becoming healthier isnât figuring out what to eat or finding the perfect workout plan or optimizing your macros. The hardest part is cultivating a mindset that allows you to believe in your ability to succeed and prevents you from quitting when you arenât losing weight as quickly as you would like.
The truth is, your progress will be slower than you want. Andâwe arenât going to sugarcoat thisâit will be a difficult process. But as long as you donât quit, you will succeed. Itâs not a question of âif,â only a matter of âwhen.â
The deciding factor isnât the latest âsuper foodâ nonsense like goji berries or raspberry ketones, itâs whether youâre willing to keep trying when the easier choice is to quit altogether.
So if youâre ready to give this a shot, weâre ready to help.
The First Step
A woman emailed us saying she felt anxious about getting started and needed some advice.
âIâm forty-nine years old,â she said. âIâm severely overweight. Beyond out of shape. And I havenât exercised in years. How does someone like me start? I canât even do knee push-ups. Iâm hopeless. Can you help?â
âWhat about walking?â we asked.
âWalking works!â
Donât let the illusion of complexity fool you into thinking you donât know where to start or that you canât do anything worthwhile. You can. You can always walk. You can always stretch. You can always drink more water. You can always eat more fruits and vegetables. You can always do something. And as long as you do something, and do it consistently, no matter how simple it may seem, you will make progress.
Thereâs a fallacy about health and fitness: that if you canât do a comprehensive, hour-long workout itâs not worth working out at all. Thatâs nonsense. Something is always better than nothing. We donât care if itâs a 15-minute circuit, 5-minute walk, or a 10-second hamstring stretch. Action leads to motivation. Not the other way around. Doing one small thing will act as the catalyst for you to do it again. And again. And again. From those small, consistent actions youâll make progress. From that progress youâll get more confidence. And with that confidence youâll take more action. And so the cycle continues.
Stop wasting time looking for the âbestâ workout program or the âperfectâ diet. They donât exist. And the more time you spend searching, the longer youâll be disappointed with your lack of progress. Youâre never going to feel 100 percent ready to begin. You will always have a reason not to start. And there will always be something more important to do. You will mess up. And you will make mistakes. Donât let that prevent you from getting started. Because just like no one ever got skinny from eating one salad, no one ever got fat from eating one doughnut. Progress, in either direction, takes time and consistency. And the only way to fail is if you quit altogether.
Not sure what to do? Thatâs why youâre reading this book, silly. Weâre going to take away all the guesswork so there are no questions and thereâs zero ambiguity. Weâre going to give you a step-by-step plan that shows you exactly how to lose fat, get stronger, and live a healthier, happier life. Just make a promise to us and, more important, yourself: you are going to take the first step. Today. Right now. Even if itâs going for a walk around the block. Or drinking an extra glass of water. Just begin. Your weight may not drop the first week, or even the first two weeks, but youâll feel better. Youâll have more energy. And youâll be proud of yourself for making better decisions. You donât need to hit your goals perfectly every day. You wonât. The goal isnât to be perfect. The goal is to be consistent. And as long as youâre consistently trying to improve, you will make progress.
You Know That Friend Who Can Eat Whatever They Want without Gaining Weight?
Theyâre the worst, right? Kidding. Sort of. First, letâs set the scene:
Itâs 8:00 p.m. on a Friday. Youâre out to dinner with a few friends from work and youâre stoked because youâve been on point with your diet all week, but now youâre getting anxious because you donât want to ruin your progress. You also donât want to be âthat personâ who refuses to eat or drink anything unhealthy. You want to enjoy yourself with everyone, but the ever-present fear of ruining all your progress in one fell swoop is getting stronger.
As if it wasnât already bad enough, your friend who can eat whatever they want without gaining weight is happily enjoying a plateful of french fries while downing their second margarita without a care in the world.
How can they eat whatever they want and still look like that? you ask yourself. Itâs ridiculous. I so much as make eye contact with a french fry and immediately look like a beluga whale.
Should you tell everyone youâre full so you donât have to eat? Should you say you arenât feeling well so you can go home early and get out of the situation altogether? Or maybe you should just say âscrew itâ and eat whatever you want, because you were perfect all week and youâre tired of being so damn strict with your diet.
None of the options sound good, but you see all your friends eating and drinking and enjoying themselves, so eventually you say âscrew itâ and go all out. You have several margaritas, entirely too many dinner rolls, a basket of french fries, three tacos, and a full ice cream sundae to yourself. When you get home you arenât hungry, yet you make a super necessary pit stop in the kitchen for a few chocolate chip cookies and two oatmeal cream pies for good measure.
You make your way to bed feeling uncomfortably full, disappointed in your lack of self-control, and resentful of your friend who can eat whatever they want without gaining weight while you just undid all your hard work from the past week.
Saturday morning you wake up late and skip your workout because why bother? You already screwed up last night, so you might as well make yourself some pancakes with syrup and whipped cream today, then get back on track on Monday. You spend the rest of the weekend eating as much as you possibly can of all the âbadâ foods you arenât going to allow yourself to eat during the week.
On Monday morning you weigh in, disgusted with yourself, and swear to never eat another carb for the rest of your life. You decide to fast the entire day so you can âundoâ the damage from the weekend and lose the weight as quickly as possible.
Of course, when youâre at the office you see your friend who can eat whatever they want without gaining weight inhaling a Hersheyâs chocolate bar after lunch.
What the hell!? you shriek in your head. Here I am starving myself all day while they go around eating chocolate and looking amazing without gaining an ounce of fat? Itâs not fair!
Listen. If this sounds the least bit familiar itâs because it happens more than you could imagine. More people struggle with this than you think. The issue, however, isnât a matter of fairness. The issue is your perception of whatâs actually happening.
You know your friend who can eat whatever they want without gaining weight? What you didnât realize at dinner is they didnât finish the entire plate of french fries. And instead of having a whole dessert to themself, they had a few bites, then stopped eating once they were full.
When they got home they had a glass of water and went to bed so they could wake up hydrated and get their workout in. They stayed on track with their regular schedule, and they knew they didnât ruin any of their progress the night before, so they didnât feel the urge to stuff themselves all weekend.
They woke up on Monday morning and had a great breakfast of oatmeal, a couple of eggs, and some fruit. For lunch they had a big salad with lots of fresh vegetables and grilled chicken on top. For dessert they packed a Hersheyâs chocolate bar, which you conveniently spotted them eating after they finished their salad. This led you to jump to conclusions and get angry that they can eat whatever they want without gaining weight while you âneed to starve yourselfâ in order to make progress.
See, the issue isnât your friend, your metabolism, your age, your gender, or your genetics. The issue is your relationship with food. The issue is your all-or-nothing mentality. And the issue is, above all else, your lack of consistency. The moment you thought you screwed up, you justified eating as much as you possibly could for the rest of the weekend, which only made you feel worse about yourself and your lack of progress.
It would be like getting a flat tire and then proceeding to slash your other three. It doesnât make sense. It only perpetuates the problem. And from this moment forward, you wonât be doing it anymore. Youâre ending the cycle right here, right now, once and for all. All you need to do is understand you canât screw this up. You canât. Itâs impossible. Remember, youâre never more than one bite away from getting right back on track. And as long as you stay consistent (not perfect) and get back to doing what you know is right, you will make progress and achieve your goals.
Just donât quit.
Last Words Before We Start
It canât be said enough, so let us make this abundantly clear.
Consistently good is infinitely better than inconsistently perfect. This is not our way of encouraging you to be lazy or make a half-assed effort. Rather itâs our way of:
- Getting you to stop beating yourself up after eating half a pizza or a whole box of powdered doughnuts. Ideally, you wonât make that a regular habit. But on the off chance you have a bad day and eat more than you should, itâs not going to make or break your progress. So relax. Stop beating yourself up. Enjoy it. Then get back on track.
- Encouraging you to stop wasting time waiting for the âperfectâ moment to commit to your goals. Itâs never going to come. You will always be busy. You will always have other responsibilities and obligations. You will rarely (if ever) think youâre 100 percent ready to dive in. But the longer you wait for the timing to be âperfect,â the longer ...
