90 percent mental?

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Workout4Health
Workout4Health Posts: 447 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
What I've found is that this game/journey has a lot to do with patience, mental willpower, and discipline. Also a strong WHY helps. But then there are other factors such as knowledge, math, and common sense. I think it never hurts to be very educated, but then again maybe it's very hard without the burning desire or the passion.

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  • LittleWarriorBee
    LittleWarriorBee Posts: 53 Member
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    It might be 99%. :)
  • AglaeaC
    AglaeaC Posts: 1,974 Member
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    What else would it be than mental? What do you think the 10% is? I'm thinking 10% is a gross overestimate for other factors such as luck.
  • CA_Underdog
    CA_Underdog Posts: 733 Member
    edited January 2015
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    AglaeaC wrote: »
    What else would it be than mental? What do you think the 10% is? I'm thinking 10% is a gross overestimate for other factors such as luck.
    Education. Some people follow misguided diets.
  • AglaeaC
    AglaeaC Posts: 1,974 Member
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    CA_Underdog wrote: »
    AglaeaC wrote: »
    What else would it be than mental? What do you think the 10% is? I'm thinking 10% is a gross overestimate for other factors such as luck.
    Education. Some people follow misguided diets.

    I read it out of a successful perspective. Which would automatically translate to having the correct information.
  • davemahon927
    davemahon927 Posts: 22 Member
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    I see it as 99% motivation with the remaining 1% allocated to education, knowledge et al. I know what to eat, roughly when and how to eat but keeping motivated is the real cliff hanger. My biggest struggle is to reinvigorate that motivation if I start to fall by the wayside. That in itself requires 100% willpower, determination and asking myself myself: Why am I doing this? etc.
  • SingRunTing
    SingRunTing Posts: 2,604 Member
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    Yup. For me it is a mental game. If I have a "I can do this" attitude, I succeed. If I have a "I can't do this today" attitude, I fail. Everytime. This is true for my food intake, but also for my workouts (especially running). I learned that if I go into a run thinking that it's going to be a good run, 9/10 it will be. If I go into it thinking its going to be awful, 10/10 it will be.

    This is why my current favorite quote is:
    4v19itjiicn8.jpg
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
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    Most things are said to be 90% mental. :)

    Patience is huge. I am not really very patient by nature. This has forced me to be patient. That's probably a good thing for me. Annoying, but good. :)
  • yoovie
    yoovie Posts: 17,121 Member
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    I'd say 90% is a combination of mindset and willingness to learn - even if it means you find out you've been doing it wrong for so long. Which is where the balanced, positive mindset comes in.

    If you come into this ignorant, refusing to listen to those who have succeeded, avoiding reading any actual literature on your vague goals and are convinced you aren't going to make it anyway - you are 100% right.
  • kristimason3
    kristimason3 Posts: 131 Member
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    I agree with the above poster that patience is one of the hardest parts.
  • acorsaut89
    acorsaut89 Posts: 1,147 Member
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    SingRunTing wrote: »
    Yup. For me it is a mental game. If I have a "I can do this" attitude, I succeed. If I have a "I can't do this today" attitude, I fail. Everytime. This is true for my food intake, but also for my workouts (especially running). I learned that if I go into a run thinking that it's going to be a good run, 9/10 it will be. If I go into it thinking its going to be awful, 10/10 it will be.

    This is so incredibly true for me too, especially when I was doing C25K the first time. When I was in week 1, I peeked at week 5 and 6 and I was like nope, no way I can run for 8 or 12 minutes straight - just not happening. And that time I failed - I didn't even make it past week 2.

    This time, however, I knew what was coming but I just said take it one week at a time, just try it. Come Monday mornings (which is my Day 1 of every week) just see what happens. And if you can't run all 8 minutes, run 6 and then walk a little more until you can move up. Now - low and behold - I can run for 12 minutes without stopping. I just tried, and was pushing myself mentally. Physically, I've had some sore days and developed a minor form of tendinitis in my right leg because I'm so predominately right handed BUT with stretching and massage therapy we're all good to go. The muscle pains sometimes wanted me to stop but they weren't bad muscle pains (you know what I'm talking about) they were the muscle pains telling me my body isn't used to this, and the muscles are working to keep going. It's all mental. I do weight lifting on my off run days and I find some of that is mental, but not nearly as much as running is.
  • acorsaut89
    acorsaut89 Posts: 1,147 Member
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    yoovie wrote: »
    I'd say 90% is a combination of mindset and willingness to learn - even if it means you find out you've been doing it wrong for so long. Which is where the balanced, positive mindset comes in.

    If you come into this ignorant, refusing to listen to those who have succeeded, avoiding reading any actual literature on your vague goals and are convinced you aren't going to make it anyway - you are 100% right.

    I agree with a small caveat - taking what has worked for others (and I don't mean crash diets or the like) and tweaking it to make it your own. For example, a girl I know eats paleo and I reviewed the books she had, looked over her typical meal prep and so on. I knew it wasn't for me but I took some parts of it and incorporated it into my diet. Also, some people I know swear by heaving lifting only and others only run all the time. I'm not saying either is right or wrong, but I think the knowledge and learning comes from genuinely looking at how other people have done based on the lifestyle they have and ways they eat and seeing what works for you. Some people go cold turkey on foods and do not practice moderation, while others can practice moderation and still have those foods once in a while. It's all about learning what works for you, and that will be a massive trial and error period until you get it down.

    It's taken me a while to really figure out how to meal prep things that a) I enjoy eating and b) will keep me on track to sustain and make more progress because I make all my meals on Sundays and I usually eat the same thing for lunches all week, so I better like it lol.
  • yoovie
    yoovie Posts: 17,121 Member
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    acorsaut89 wrote: »
    yoovie wrote: »
    I'd say 90% is a combination of mindset and willingness to learn - even if it means you find out you've been doing it wrong for so long. Which is where the balanced, positive mindset comes in.

    If you come into this ignorant, refusing to listen to those who have succeeded, avoiding reading any actual literature on your vague goals and are convinced you aren't going to make it anyway - you are 100% right.

    I agree with a small caveat - taking what has worked for others (and I don't mean crash diets or the like) and tweaking it to make it your own. For example, a girl I know eats paleo and I reviewed the books she had, looked over her typical meal prep and so on. I knew it wasn't for me but I took some parts of it and incorporated it into my diet. Also, some people I know swear by heaving lifting only and others only run all the time. I'm not saying either is right or wrong, but I think the knowledge and learning comes from genuinely looking at how other people have done based on the lifestyle they have and ways they eat and seeing what works for you. Some people go cold turkey on foods and do not practice moderation, while others can practice moderation and still have those foods once in a while. It's all about learning what works for you, and that will be a massive trial and error period until you get it down.

    It's taken me a while to really figure out how to meal prep things that a) I enjoy eating and b) will keep me on track to sustain and make more progress because I make all my meals on Sundays and I usually eat the same thing for lunches all week, so I better like it lol.

    please leave me alone and stop quoting me everywhere to put incorrect words in my mouth.

    'taking what has worked for others and tweaking it and making it your own' is the same thing as 'listening to those who have succeeded'.

  • RaspberryTickleChicken
    RaspberryTickleChicken Posts: 629 Member
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    Workout4Health wrote: »
    What I've found is that this game/journey has a lot to do with patience, mental willpower, and discipline. Also a strong WHY helps. But then there are other factors such as knowledge, math, and common sense. I think it never hurts to be very educated, but then again maybe it's very hard without the burning desire or the passion.

    Spot on!

    In the long run there has to be a drive to not only lose the weight but to keep it off.
  • Roxiegirl2008
    Roxiegirl2008 Posts: 756 Member
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    SingRunTing wrote: »
    Yup. For me it is a mental game. If I have a "I can do this" attitude, I succeed. If I have a "I can't do this today" attitude, I fail. Everytime. This is true for my food intake, but also for my workouts (especially running). I learned that if I go into a run thinking that it's going to be a good run, 9/10 it will be. If I go into it thinking its going to be awful, 10/10 it will be.

    This is why my current favorite quote is:
    4v19itjiicn8.jpg

    Truer words never spoken! :D This weekend was my 20 mile run, which is my last long run before my marathon. I went into Saturday thinking "get the 20 miles you will have reached TAPER! You got this girl and don't worry about time just enjoy the music!" Well what do you know...at the end of 20 miles I felt strong and like I could take on anything!

    Ok confession- I cried tears of joy as well.

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