Our NEXT 8 Week Challenge is starting and if you’re ready to make a BIG change in your life and lifestyle and get some amazing results now is the time! There’s a bonus of being super jacked and lean for the summer 🙂 We have our Early Bird Pricing going on so don’t miss out and email me at radixperformance@live,.com
My Dad just finished his second 8 week Challenge in a row, he started his first one in January at 317 pounds and we just scanned in yesterday to finish 16 weeks and he was 247 pounds! Thats 70 pou!nds GONE so far and guess what he’s not done, we’re going into Round 3 with the goal of 100 pounds lost.
The list of medical ailments he had was long and his doctors wanted to put him on permanent meds before we started, he had swollen legs that would get infected every month or so, his asthma was horrible and he would get bumps on his face. All these things have gone and his Doctor can’t even believe it. No Meds, just a proper diet and hard work. He went from walking 3k a day to 25k!! Using his puffer 10x a day down 1-2x per day. Its pretty incredible!
Coach Alli has been part of our group thats going into week 7 and she’s had some amazing results not just from a body comp standpoint but from a physically fit and health standpoint, I love when she messages me her PR HRV and RHR numbers!
Here are Coach Alli’s thoughts, way better written then me hahahaha 🙂
Thoughts on change while pulling weeds
So today was about the first afternoon in a long time where it’s been dry, sunny, and not altogether unpleasant to be outside. My small backyard has become a dandelion farm and I decided to finally tackle them today.
While pulling weeds, I had some thoughts about change and the 8 week challenge.
1. If I don’t get that dandelion by the root, it’s just going to come back later.
During the 8 week challenge, we are forced to make some lifestyle changes. Some of these are adopting better practices and others involve letting go of bad habits. Over the last six weeks, Dan has been encouraging to remember our “why”. Why are we committing to this challenge and change? As we reflect on the choices we make on a daily basis that ultimately land us where we are in the present, which things do we need to “root out” in our lives, and what new things are we planting in the good soil? If we only address the surface (think: pull the parts of the weeds we can see and not get to the root), we are bound to have the same issues come up in the future. When we change what we eat temporarily and not consider the broader questions (why did we eat the way we did before the challenge? was it a lack of knowledge? a lack of purpose? for emotional reasons? to fit in with friends/family?) then we are doomed to go back to the old ways of doing things when the challenge ends and normal life picks up again. Unless we understand and address the root cause of why we made poor choices, we are likely to regress in the future, leading to a cycle of cutting weight, getting complacent, returning to our old ways, and then doing another challenge. I am grateful for Dan’s regular reminders to consider our purpose: WHY we are making the changes we are implementing, and to think about the why behind our old habits. If we fail to understand our problematic history, we are doomed to repeat it. (Here come those same old weeds again!)
2. The dandelions are much easier to pull when the soil is a little damp from days and days of constant rain.
Some changes are easier to make when things have been rainy in our lives. We hit a low, realize we are dissatisfied, feel discouraged, take a few hard knocks. The upside? Conditions are ripe for change. As I was weeding, I was thinking about how if it had been warm and sunny for the past several weeks, the ground would have been rock hard and I’d have had a much harder time pulling those dandelions out. A silver lining: when things in life get tough, we are perhaps in a much better position to acknowledge that something needs to change and then to get on it.
3. When my neighbour’s lawn is covered in dandelions, it normalizes the weediness of my own lawn and I feel less bothered/compelled to get out there and make it look better.
When we have changes to make and are surrounded by others making those same poor choices, it’s a LOT harder to stick to our resolutions. Part of the reason for success so many of us have experienced during the 8 week challenge is being in community with others focused on the same goals and on building the same kinds of good habits. Living with others who make uninformed (or just plain bad) nutritional choices, drink regularly, or have unhealthy snack food around all the time makes it much more difficult to walk a different path. I am grateful for the Radix community who model daily what a commitment to health, well-being, recovery, sleep, and moving regularly. Watching others get after it helps me stay focused on being like-minded and staying committed to my own goals. We become what we behold.
4. I am, at times, overwhelmed by the sheer number of weeds I have to pull in my little square of grass, so I choose to focus on one area at a time rather than the entire giant job of trying to get every single one.
Change is hard. It takes effort and commitment. When there are a lot of changes you want to make and you try to attack all of them at once, it can be overwhelming and discouraging. Setting small, specific and measurable goals and finding pleasure in attainment is extremely motivating. The 8 week challenge demands many changes. Some of them have been easy to make, and others remain (still) just out of reach for me. I keep my eyes on my successes and make a promise to myself that I will slowly keep adding new ones in as I make progress.
Thanks to Dan, Rachael, the amazing team of 8 week challenge participants that keep me motivated, and the blessing of the weeds.
Coach Alli