Imagine committing yourself to the strictest of diets. You brainstorm all the foods you love to eat and then your trainer tells you that you can’t eat them anymore. Say goodbye to chocolate covered chocolate. Because you respect your trainer and because your doctor told you to lose weight or die, you commit to this new way of eating.
The first week is brutal. You’re working hard to break bad habits, and constantly having to guard yourself against temptation. You’re miserable, but you persist, all the way to counting out the nine almonds you’re allowed at dinner.
After a week, you go to your trainer and weigh-in and find out that despite all your hard work, you haven’t lost a pound. Pretty discouraging, but not unexpected. It can take a week of clean eating for the body to adjust. Your trainer tells you this and promises that if you keep at it you’ll start seeing results.
So you buckle down for another week. Still hard, but you refuse to give up. Once again, at weigh-in the scale doesn’t budge. No weight loss. Super discouraging. The trainer skeptically asks if you’re following the plan. You punch him in the nose and then show him your food log. He tells you to keep going and look forward to next week’s weigh-in.
You slog through another week of eating green cardboard and cinnamon styrofoam. Week three weigh-in: Still no change!
How much longer would you continue to follow this plan and not get results? Another week? Maybe two? Or would you quit and go search for something else that will actually work?
How long would you persist in following a path that isn’t delivering the results it promises?
Just a question.
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons
I would have definitely quit after the second week, right after punching the trainer on the nose. But I guess persistence is not my forte.