FAIL, TO SUCCEED

Week 9 Day 1

Anti-Slip Tips

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MINDSET RESET

Devil Slide. It’s Biology, Not Just You.

• Typically, 3-6 months after losing enough weight, your body’s biology has a built-in reset to gain it all back and then some. This “Devil Slide” makes you feel hungrier for food. It’s temporary, but if you feed or even over-feed it, the weight regain can enlarge and continue.
  

• A more gradual initial weight loss leads to a gentler subsequent slide and may even spare you altogether. Medical science recommends against losing more than 1-2 pounds a week.
  

• Counter-attack the rebound by slashing food portions another 1/8 or boosting exercise to 10 more minutes a day, or a bit of both. And have your small healthy snacks handy, selecting from the Mediterranean menu.

  
  

Most great people have achieved their greatest success
just one step beyond their greatest failure. 

Napoleon Hill

Breathing Room The nice thing about “failing” in a breathing exercise session is you can always try again, as long as you’re still breathing.

MOVING

• By now, you must have built your 150-minute-a-week exercise habit. Its street value is priceless. If not yet, you still have a month to get into that 20-minute or 10,000-steps-a-day habit. Spin that ‘neural loop’ down and tight so your good habit can’t slip off the safety belt, even on the Devil Slide.
  

• Sedentary Sickness Stopper:
  (Sadly, Sitting and Sitting is Sickly as Smoking)
  Stop Sitting Still. Stand-Stretch-Smile. Smarter Still, Stroll.
  Set to do this for Several minutes every Second hour or So:

Stand to spread energy.
Stretch to spread help.
Smile to spread joy.

EATING

• If you need not lose weight, this 1/4 sub-in with healthier food choices is still a better habit.
  

• If you want to lose weight, by now, 2 months into the program, you should have cut 400-500 calories off your daily intake (about 1/4 off all portions) from your old habit. If so, you are losing 1-2 lbs a week. If not, it still isn’t too late.

THOUGHT FOR FOOD

Don’t Forget, Forgive - Free yourself for better health and wellness

For-giving is not For-getting.
Par-doning is not Con-doning.
Ad-mitting it is over is not Per-mitting it to be done over.
Payback not expected is not Playback expected.

Metacardio©

(FORGIVENESS) You First

• The most important person you must forgive is yourself. It’s essential for wellness. Start by forgiving yourself for past unhealthy actions. Just don’t keep repeating the same mistakes.
  

• Your body can be quite forgiving. The mind is more often the stick in the mud. Get unstuck by correcting your behaviors and stay away from the swamp. Stop jabbing yourself with the ‘second arrow’.

REMINDER:

Another Ex-excuse

“I failed so many attempts, I‘ve given up.”

This time, you deserve to succeed. 2000+ people did by completing this program in a clinic. Some recently celebrated a 25-year reunion.
They had failed many other programs before—the reason they became patients.

See you tomorrow.

. . .

Footnote for The Newcomer:

Healing Habits for a Happy, Healthy, Hasslefree Lifestyle for Life are success stories collected from some 2000 of my patients and coworkers in a non-profit private clinic after-hour coaching program over 25 years. This series of posts are Metacardio Methods’ daily checklists in that 3-month program.

Pick and choose which of the items are useful for you to follow. The nutritional suggestions are as applicable to weight loss as transitioning to a healthier eating habit.

Where relevant, all suggestions have been updated to current national health guidelines and state-of-the-art expert consensus. Wisdom from sages over the ages remains perennial.

The basis for these suggestions is discussed in long-hand on 15 prior posts here. All are archived under “Healing Habits Blog”.

. . .

Week 9 Day 2

Anti-Skid Measures

MINDSET RESET

Guardrail: All in The Footwork

• This month is the prime time to get your moving and eating habits down pad, ready for the common weight rebound after the 3rd month.
  

• In case you hit this ‘Devil Slide’, you may have to cut another 1/8 off your plates if possible. Prepare small healthy snacks to combat the “Hunger Strikes” between meals.
  

• Get in shape and prepare a new schedule of increased activity to jump over the hump.

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again,
this time more intelligently.”

Henry Ford

Breathing Room

• The way to achieve calmness and clarity is to cultivate it at a time when you don’t need it yet. When “This Is Not A Drill”, it’s too late.

MOVING 

• If you fail to make your, say, 10,000 steps by the end of the day, make up for it by walking 1,000 extra steps each following day until it’s all paid off. The harsh payback will remind you not to fall short again. Instead, you’ll make bigger strides to get ahead of the curve.
  

• Sedentary Sickness Stopper:
  (Sadly, Sitting and Sitting is Sickly as Smoking)
  Stop Sitting Still. Stand-Stretch-Smile. Smarter Still, Stroll.
  Set to do this for Several minutes every Second hour or So:

Stand, to reach what you need.
Stretch, to reach for the stars.
Smile, to reach into hearts.

EATING

• If you’ve over-indulged, repay by an extra 1/8 trim in portions and/or by cutting out sugary drinks for several days until you get back to a zero balance. After that, don’t keep “overdrawing”. Some debts can become unforgiving.

THOUGHT FOR FOOD

(FORGIVENESS) Payback doesn’t pay, and it’s backward.

• Payback is a pain in the back but a good coach to kick yourself forward.
  

• You can only count on payback from yourself. No one else is under your direct control. Waiting for payback from others? Good luck! It’s bad luck.

REMINDER:

Pardoning is not condoning. Why beg for forgiveness for yourself if you don’t have to? Pre-empt it…at the fridge, for instance.

Another Ex-excuse

“Why do I want another failure?”

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal:
it is the courage to continue that count.”
Winston Churchill

See you tomorrow.

. . .

Week 9 Day 3

Light Up the Bulb

Image generated by DALL-E. None of the text is AI generated.

MINDSET RESET

Necessary Setbacks to Better Recovery

• Expect setbacks in a lifelong journey to good health and wellness.

• Only by learning and correcting mistakes can you reap the benefits of experience.

“I haven’t failed.
I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Thomas Edison

Breathing Room Warning: Once you’ve gotten into the meditative state, even if only for a moment, it’ll be like a light in darkness. And all the previous unsuccessful trials, like shots in the dark that failed, won’t matter anymore. Even a tiny flickering light can abolish vast darkness.  

MOVING

• If you are so behind and feel so tired you cannot possibly get on your workout routine today, just do a few minutes and permit your body to convince you what it wants after that. If it wants to rest, at least you’ve already spun another round in your habit loop.
  

• Sedentary Sickness Stopper:
  (Sadly, Sitting and Sitting is Sickly as Smoking)
  Stop Sitting Still. Stand-Stretch-Smile. Smarter Still, Stroll.
  Set to do this for Several minutes every Second hour or So:

Be stiff with your stand.
Be flexible with your stretch.
Be a puddle with your smile.

EATING

• If you have quit many diets in the past, list all the reasons and never repeat any of them. The more times you have failed, the smarter you are at avoiding downfalls.

THOUGHT FOR FOOD

(FORGIVENESS) The long and short of it

• Anger and revenge will often feel justified, even helpful, to get you through the moment, but don’t let it linger. Otherwise, it will gut you out inside, or grow your gut out, or both.
  

• Play the long game, forgive all the slip-ups in the short run. One who laughs last, lasts.

REMINDER:

Having 100 experiences is not the same as having the same experience 100 times.

If you always do what you always did
you’ll always get what you always got.

Many

See you tomorrow.

. . .

Week 9 Day 4

I.O.U. to Yourself

Image generated by DALL-E. None of the text is AI generated.

MINDSET RESET

Weight Goes Both Ways. Just Don’t Fall Too Far.

• Unlike most other long-term medical conditions, weight gain is reversible.
  

• Lose the weight again, and you can regain your health. Do it slowly and steadily to avoid the yo-yo jolts.
  

• Rapid weight loss is mostly from losing muscle mass. Rapid weight regain is mostly in the form of fat. Avoid both next time.

“One who has not repeatedly endured the bitterness of failure
cannot fully savor the sweetness of success.”

Theodore Roosevelt

Breathing Room

• Even all those “failed” meditation sessions have conferred unseen benefits unless you criticized yourself harshly for them. Unforgiveness negates all kinds of good.

MOVING 

• Physical fitness is an unfair bugaboo. It takes a lot of training for you to get in shape. It only takes a few days of slacking off to lose it. If it weren’t such a reversible process, you’d never forgive it. But since it is, you may forgive yourself if it comes to that.  
  

• Sedentary Sickness Stopper:
  (Sadly, Sitting and Sitting is Sickly as Smoking)
  Stop Sitting Still. Stand-Stretch-Smile. Smarter Still, Stroll.
  Set to do this for Several minutes every Second hour or So:

Stand tall.
Stretch far.
Smile wide.

EATING

• If you’re normal, you must have eaten things you knew were bad for your health. You felt awful afterward, paid for it for a long time, and may still be in debt for it. You had a great coach, then.  

THOUGHT FOR FOOD

(FORGIVENESS) It’s just you.

• Forgiveness doesn’t necessarily change other people. It changes you. In clearing your heart of toxic emotions, better things will enter beyond your wildest dreams.
  

• On reflection, you may find that the one who needs to be forgiven is yourself, after the initial unforgivable offender has long gone.  

REMINDER:

A mistake unrecognized leaves you just as inexperienced.
A failure overcome makes you better experienced than ever.

Metacardio

“The only real mistake is the one
from which we learn nothing.”

Henry Ford

See you tomorrow.

. . .

Week 9 Day 5

Keep On Dancing

Image generated by DALL-E. None of the text is AI generated.

MINDSET RESET

Life Is Uneven, Certainly Not Boring

• Habitual good health is one of the toughest challenges in modern life. Good thing you have a lifetime to win it. Don’t get tripped up by the small bumps. It’s not a flash dance. The long arch of success is what counts.

Even if you take one step backward
after taking two steps forward,
at least you’re dancing.

Metacardio©

Breathing Room Countless millions over millennia practice this every day because they experience inexplicable free benefits. Just like the weather, you can’t expect it to feel the same every day. Nature has good reasons for the variations.

MOVING 

• On a dance floor, you’re just going in circles, going nowhere. But, boy, how roundly enjoyable that is! Think of the same when you’re on a treadmill or a running track.
  

• Sedentary Sickness Stopper:
  (Sadly, Sitting and Sitting is Sickly as Smoking)
  Stop Sitting Still. Stand-Stretch-Smile. Smarter Still, Stroll.
  Set to do this for Several minutes every Second hour or So:

Stand even if you are the only one left.
Stretch even if no one else dares.
Smile even if everyone has forgotten how.

EATING

• If you’ve never had a bad meal, you’ve never had a good one. It’s a good thing the good ones outweigh the bad, or you wouldn’t still be here. It’s not a bad thing to make them better and better, both for taste and for you.

THOUGHT FOR FOOD

 (FORGIVENESS) Them or You?

• When people put you down, sometimes it’s because they feel even worse about themselves than about you.

• When people do something bad to you, they may be just doing their best for themselves, or what they can think of as best for most, sometimes even you. Calm down and look at it from a higher view.

• Other people may not be able to see beyond their own horizons, so you must define your own.

“Savor Sweet Success Subsequently”

Metacardio©

REMINDER:

Another Ex-excuse

“I’ve failed so many... “

Not this time, unless you start too late or quit too soon.

See you tomorrow.

. . .

Week 9 Day 6

Words From The Wise

MINDSET RESET

Ready For A Shortcut?

You’re going to learn a “shortcut” that has worked for thousands in this program. But first, get ready by contemplating on some great ideas in quotes today.

“Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.”

Oprah Winfrey

“Failure is not the opposite of success,
it’s part of success.”

Arianna Huffington

“You either get bitter or you get better…
The choice does not belong to fate, it belongs to you.”

Josh Shipp

“Birds make great sky-circles of their freedom.
How do they learn it?
They fall, and falling, they’re given wings.”

Rumi

“I never make the same mistake twice.
Every one of them is new
and worse than all the old ones.”

Metacardio©

Breathing Room

• If you can’t remember a single wise saying, and you’re just drawing a total blank in your mind. Congratulations! That is precisely what you want to achieve in this practice session. Keep it for as long as you can without trying too hard.

MOVING 

• During your workout, think about how the quotes above can apply to your life and help you succeed. If you can’t, you will still have already succeeded just by doing the workout.
  

• Sedentary Sickness Stopper:
  (Sadly, Sitting and Sitting is Sickly as Smoking)
  Stop Sitting Still. Stand-Stretch-Smile. Smarter Still, Stroll.
  Set to do this for Several minutes every Second hour or So:

Stand right here as if there'll be no tomorrow.
Stretch far beyond as if there was no yesterday.
Smile all around as if there's only today.

EATING   

• If you cannot help giving in to eating something you shouldn’t, pause and take a few breath cycles. If you still want it, take a bite, savor it slowly, drink a lot of water, and take a few more easy breaths. Your body-mind will inform you what to do next.

THOUGHT FOR FOOD

(FORGIVENESS) Getting back at them gets back to you.

• Revenge never heals and always makes things worse. It is destructive, often irreversibly and endlessly. All you really need is for the wrong not to be repeated—by them and you.
  

• If you still care about those who have wronged you but are more stuck than you are, go over to where they are. It may take the stronger one—you—to start the healing process.

REMINDER:

Admitting it’s over is not the same as permitting it to be done over again.

Another Ex-excuse

“I hate exercise”.

Then just do more of your usual fun activities, and don’t call that exercise. Dancing, for example.

Images curated from iStock with subscription.

See you tomorrow.

. . .

Week 9 Day 7

Ready To Try This at Home?

MINDSET RESET

Ultimate Shortcut. Now they tell me!

• Is it a self-deceiving shortcut or a self-defining promissory note? You decide, and design it.
  

• Affirm, “I am a happy person, I choose not to make that bad choice. That’s just not what I’d do. Not a healthy and fit person like me.” If you mean it, it will become you.

“The elevator to success is out of order.
You’ll have to use the stairs…
One step at a time.”

Joe Girard

Breathing Room

• You don’t want a shortcut to breathe and relax.
  You want it to take a good long time. Oh, yeah…

MOVING

• Don’t apologize, “I really should exercise. Oh, just look at me.”
  Proclaim, “I’m going to take a walk now. It makes a healthy and fit person like me feeling better every time.”
  

• Sedentary Sickness Stopper:
  (Sadly, Sitting and Sitting is Sickly as Smoking)
  Stop Sitting Still. Stand-Stretch-Smile. Smarter Still, Stroll.
  Set to do this for Several minutes every Second hour or So:

Stand like you won't forever stay young.
Stretch like you may be getting old.
Smile like you are always just a child.

EATING

• Don’t dare yourself, “Ooh, I shouldn’t eat that. It’ll make me fat.”
  Declare, “A healthy person like me doesn’t eat that. I have many better choices.”

THOUGHT FOR FOOD

(FORGIVENESS) Be Right or Be Good?

• If someone has wronged you, don’t let them keep hurting you. Isn’t it crazy to keep hurting yourself with your hurt feelings long after the initial hurt is over?
  

• Waiting for the offender to come around is wishful thinking. Forgiving is the only sure way to free yourself to feel better, now. Do it without demanding actions (usually no use, anyway) from the offender. In fact, you don’t even need their participation.
  

• Forgiveness frees the one and only hostage—you.

Don’t forget, forgive.
For-giving isn’t For-getting.
Still, you’ll be getting more for giving it.

Metacardio©

REMINDER:

This “shortcut” is not a put-on as in “fake it till you make it”.
It is a spot-on commitment as in “I’m making it because I’m doing it”.

You know you’ll get there. After a journey of 10,000 miles, no one would stop just before the final steps . And even if you do, for whatever reason, you’ve already racked up all those mileage points thus far. And you can get back on track any time. All that you already know, you can’t un-know it. 

See you next week.

Images curated from iStock with subscription.

Metacardio© 2024

. . .

Coming Up Next : 

Week 10 - Recap. Reorg. Redefine. Rebuild. Remake. Refrain. Restate.

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