I recently read a ChangeThis manifesto, The New Time Management: Simply Focus on the Fundamentals, and Toss Away the Tips, By Francis Wade.
Francis describes 7 fundamentals he believes are critical for any professional to master Time Management. He makes the comparison to athletes who have to refocus on the fundamentals. For example:
- Tiger Woods going to practice and making 1000’s of putts a day.
- Or a Professional basketball player, such as Michael Jordan, taking 1000’s of free throws or jump shots a day.
- Or Maria Sharapova, a tennis player who takes thousands of tennis swings a day.
All of these all stars, or professional athletes, practice fundamentals deliberately every day.
Can we stop there? As a hobby trombonist taking lessons with Professional Trombone Performers, They all stress fundamental practices such as learning scales, breathing exercises, note flexibility studies, and so on and so forth.
Let’s rephrase Francis Wade’s Title:
Weight Loss Manifesto: The New Weight Loss System: Simply Focus on the Fundamentals and Throw Away the Tips.
Every day, we hear tips in the form of fad diets. Flat Belly MUFA Diet, South Beach Diet, Atkins Protein Diet, Mediterranean Diet, French Diet, Don’t Eat Anything Diet, See Food Diet, Peanut Butter and Jelly Diet, I could go on and on. As my brother says, in You don’t diet? you have a diet – now make it a good one.
What’s the deal? What should I do with all these fad diets? Francis Wade Suggest when it comes to Time Management Systems:
…The result is that the users of different systems are either raving fans, or failed adopters.
The fans are the lucky ones whose habits easily fit into the new system they are learning. The failures are those who get fired up for a few days, and after a week are forced to go back to their old habits.My observation is that the vast majority of professionals take a bit from here and a bit from there to craft their own unique set of habits. Unfortunately, they do so without understanding the fundamentals, and the results in some cases are disastrous.
Their system of habits doesn’t work, but they don’t know why. It allows stress, missed appointments and forgotten commitments to occur too frequently, but they don’t know where to start to fix their systems.
…
Luckily for them, the 7 fundamental practices are perfect for the job or fixing, upgrading or adapting personal time management systems.When a professional athlete’s game deteriorates, which happens to all of them at some point in time, they go back to the fundamentals. So must a working professional.
I would add so must an everyday healthy person. Everyday, we must be cognizant of our diet and exercise choices and focus on the fundamentals.
Often times, people start a new diet, see results at first, but then fall off the wagon. Why? Because that system doesn’t fit YOU. Everyone is different. Just as a professional must pick and choose what items fit in their own time management habits, we as healthy eaters must pick and choose habits that fit our own bodies and minds.
Okay, we understand. Focus on the Fundamentals: What are the fundamentals of a becoming physically fit the abridged version?
Monitor your Biometrics at regular intervals
Possible examples:
- weigh yourself everyday,
- measure your waist line every week
- Record your BMI every month
- take a picture of yourself every month
Exercise, and be mindful about the exercise
Find an exercise you like and do it effortlessly.
- Some people are Artists, I say then paint building sized murals that require dexterity.
- Some people are outdoors people, I say hike in the forest, or garden.
- Some people are shoppers, then I say go to the biggest mall you can find and walk and walk, and walk as much as you can as often as you can.
- Do it everyday.
Eat Standard Portions
Healthy Eating has its own set of Fundamentals which we’ll talk about sometime in the future. Generally, I’d say:
- Eat Protein and MUFA at every meal
- Eat Plants as much as possible.
- Learn what the correct portion is, and stick to it!
Retrain your Emotional and Social Eating
How do we do this?
- Keep a Food Diary. By keeping a food diary and writing down what you eat before you eat it, You’ll be mindful of what you are doing. This will you stop binges.
- Making your Weight Management Public and Social. By sharing your goals with your friends, you are putting peer pressure on yourself. It’s amazing how many people will not want to let someone else down, but they’ll let themselves down all the time. In other words, if you tell your friend you are not going to eat ice cream today. You don’t want to let that friend down. If you tell yourself and only yourself, you are more likely to break that self promise since it is not out in the public.
- Become a Positive person.
Some diets say exercise 8 minutes a day. Some diets say eat 60% protein, 30% fat, 10% carbs. Some Diets say eat fish and oil. Some diets suggest walking 10,00 steps a day. Whatever it is, Focus on the Fundamentals.
Since Weight Loss is personal and everyone is different, What are your fundamentals?