“Simple, Not Easy”
As we roll into the second month of the New Year, many of you have been sticking with your fitness and nutrition resolutions, while others of you have trailed off and even went back to your “old ways” of eating and training. Proclaiming that you are going to make all these new changes and applying them to your life everyday sounds simple, but it is by no means easy. Many times, these two words; simple and easy, are used interchangeably, but they are in fact different words with different meanings.
First off, so many things can be described as simple. For instance, losing weight is simple, right? All you have to do is reduce your caloric intake, replace foods that negatively impact your health with foods that enhance your health, become more active and of course, work out. Simple? Not really!
The idea or theory of losing weight may be simple, but actually doing it is not easy. Changing your diet is difficult! It’s not easy to stay away from those foods that taste so good, but are so bad for you! Getting off the couch and heading to the gym is tough! We can simplify losing weight by eating better and moving more often. That’s it. As simple as it sounds, we all know that it’s not easy.
The Pull Up is a simple movement. Grip a lateral bar with your hands, suspend your body beneath the bar, then pull your body up until your chin is over the bar. That’s it! With that in mind, have you ever struggled doing a pull up? Are pull-ups easy for you to do? It’s simple, isn’t it? For those of us that have had difficulty doing a pull up, you know that there is so much involved in this simple movement and the struggle to get one is real. It is by far, not easy.
By now, you should be getting an understanding of the focus of this piece. There are so many things in life that are simple, but not easy. Ultimately, when we discover that something we viewed as “simple” is actually not easy at all, we tend to shy away from it and look for an easier solution. However, the simplest things in life and fitness are not easy to come by. They require hard work, dedication and willpower, but keeping the simple things simple, will make them easier to manage. If you truly want to make changes in your life and stick with them, don’t overlook them! Treat every “simple” idea as process that you will have to work towards. You cannot expect to obtain the results you want if you don’t develop the mindset to look deeper into the simple things and apply the willpower to keep moving forward!
Stay on the Grind, Team Manta Ray! Your Ability is Limitless!