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By Phil Stevens
In part
one I discussed the broad mind set that is needed to truly progress
to ones goals in a successful and sane way.
In this second installment I am going
to start to cover one of my personal experiences in my own drastic,
broad scope body and lifestyle transformations that will lend some
clarity to how this mind set works and the initial steps to gaining
the athletic mindset.
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A jump back in the history to
my first glimpse of the positive performance based mindset,
and arguably my most impressive and drastic change to date.
I was fat, down right obese at 300+ lbs on a 6’ 1”
only slightly trained frame.
I was active, so I had some
lean mass, but I was fat. I ate crap, and as much crap as
I wanted, and drank copious amounts of hops, barley and soda
pop. I had half heartedly tried this or that restrictive diet
or that training approach over the years, all with one of
two things common.
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They were either based on how much
you have to suffer and/or the pain you must create, or how simple
and effortless they were to a fault. “just jump on the Ronco
ab buster 3 times a week for thee minutes and you’ll look like
THIS.” Or just walk and you’ll be lean in no time.
One day I wanted
it.
Literally one day I woke up and took
the most critical step, I wanted to change. I wanted it, Me, not
because others said I should, I wanted to change. This is the first
step anyone has to have to make drastic change in their life, you
have to want it for you. I was dead friggin set on it, there was
no question in my mind. It’s night and day the mind set now
looking back.
The reason I didn’t change prior
wasn’t do to the use of lack luster “secret” methods
or diets, it was simply not really wanting to change. Yeah, prior
I kinda wanted it. Others, my family, said I should and pushed me,
or even tried to force it in belittlement. That approach doesn’t
work, it just makes you do the opposite in spite, if you're any
kind of type 1 personality.
I loved cramming my pie hole with
bags of chips, doughnuts, and chasing that with cases of beer and
liquor, followed by late night pizza. It’s honestly was hard
damn work to be that big. You have to try. Like getting to any extreme,
you're putting in effort to be FAT.
Now it was different, I honestly whole
heartedly wanted to make a change, nothing was going to stop me.
Desire turned into action, change, and change quickly turned into
results. FAST results.
There were three
critical differences this time.
I made goals to change my life. I
was fed up and was going to lose weight. NOW, not fat but weight
which was most important to me, at a bubblery 300 lbs it didn’t
matter. If I trained at all, and was active I was not going to lose
muscle on my folding, flopping physique. So why sweat it, I simply
needed to lose weight and size. I set a goal of 215lbs. My dad was
nearly the same build as me and kind of a stud at 215. So there
it was, a concrete goal.
Next the tools. The Knowledge. The
steps/changes. I believe ignorance was a blessing to me at this
point. I lifted but knew very little of the lifting, I could bench
and could ¼ squat 315, I was active and worked heavy steel
construction. I ate but honestly knew very little of sound eating
practice.
I was lucky in coming from a family
where I was taught to cook and loved spices. BOY did I love to cook,
and it showed. I was on my own to do this. Just implement changes
that I thought would work. I wasn’t overwhelmed by this over
that approach, or this over that technique. I wasn’t aware
of paralysis by analysis due to plain ignorance.
I had two tools, one training and
one diet related and I did ‘EM to the fullest.
Like has been said, any plan can work
if you DO THE PLAN, just do it and stick to it. All diets work if
you do them, all training will produce results if you do it. That
aint no Bull pucky. Try it. Pick something and actually commit and
believe in it. Don’t question it or yourself just DO it. See
what happens, you’ll be surprised.
Last thing. I kept it quiet. I didn’t
tell people save for a select few. I had my goals had my missions
and was going to let the actions speak for them selves. Instead
of looking for outside support from the whole damn world, I told
a very few select people (one I think) and let the others catch
on. I was NOT going to let the goal / life sucking Piranha that
is society (even friends and family) have a chance at putting doubt
or negative thought in my head. I didn’t need them. It was
me who wanted this, and it was me that had to do this.
It was GO time.
About The Author
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Phil, while attaining both his
Bachelors and Masters degrees in studio art found another
passion, that of training and nutrition. A constant student,
his real-world under-the-barbell and behind-the-fork approach
has led to many an opportunity, experience, and change in
his life as well as those he has worked.
Phil currently, aside from his
varied work with Team Staley, is a working and showing artist
(http://www.philstevens.com).
His current personal fitness goals are to become a competitive
force as middleweight strongman competitor, while building
upon his power lifting experience in which he has seen as
high as a top ten national ranking; with a two year goal of
obtaining an elite ranking as a 242 or 275lb weight class
RAW power lifter.
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