Day 90 (Rather Day 92!) - It's strange, that this is the day I look forward to so much, the driving force to push on. Now that it's here (or was here), I really miss it. I miss the routine and I miss the food. Rather, over the last few days of "indulgence" (not exercising and not weighing out my food), something is amiss. I felt kind of crappy and unease. I do not know if it's physiological or psychological, somehow, somewhat, I just feel weird these days.Anyhow, this 90-days challenge is really quite cool, and aside the physical change, the PCP had brought about more realization on myself that am sure, will help me in my future endeavours.
1) Discipline - Outside in vs Inside out
I am not a very disciplined person. That was one reason why I took up the PCP. Health had always been an important aspect to me, but knowing and doing something about it is just a different ball game. Everyone knows that good eating habits and exercising are vital to keeping healthy. But who does it consistently? I for one had been feeding on my self-motivated strength to keep up a program, but the sustainability is doubtful. Hypothesizing that an outside-in approach could work better on me than a self-perpetuated/motivated one, I signed up for the PCP. It's interesting how this could work wonders - I realized that my accountability to someone else's requests outweighs accountability to my own requests. PCP's rules are far more demanding than if I had set rules for myself, yet, I was able to keep up to 90% of the program. Now, this is warped, (this lack of self love is intolerable). All I can say is, the Outside in approach hypothesis is proven. From henceforth, I need to feed on this momentum towards an Inside-out approach :)
2) Public declaration / support / reminder
My PCP had been a topic for the past 3 months. Or at least my BHAG of 6-packs had been talk of the town in my little community of family/friends. Making the public declaration had helped me throughout this process as everyone around me knows my intention and it's cute how people around me got involved in the process unknowingly. They started to take note of my "deviation" when I missed my exercise or if I had not taken my protein shake and started to question when I took up an offer of (someone's else's birthday) chocolate cake. They even celebrated my progress as we counted down the days left when I could finally join them for an indulgence (yes, I was entitled to 2!). It's lovely to see the involvement and I believe that the first step to make it public had allowed me to really focus on the process. Either via outside pressure or inside guilt, the fact that everyone knows about it means I got to make it work to my best ability!
3) Not-too-short term project.
90 days is good. It's not too short, and not too long. A period that needs strong commitment yet, it allows a foreseeable breather as I know it's not that long. The 90days challenge set a pace to my life, it's like, counting down to something tangible, makes it easier to track. I am able to see progression, and pace myself. I believe that's what people meant when they say "set a goal" and "break it down into chew-able size". That's what PCP is about for me. Set the goal of Six-Packs and start taking it a day at a time. Though I am still working towards my goal, along the way, I can see progression on my physique and strength. There's also breaks for celebration (indulgence!) and pushing towards my goal had been a main source of conversation and focus for the past 3 months! Possibly, that's why now I feel a tad lost and missing the daily mails that I get to help me focus on the end goal :) Moving forward, I am looking at more of such "not-too-short/long term" projects/challenge that I can embark on!
4) Finishing Strong
I realised that I am not a strong finisher. Towards the end of the PCP, I find myself letting me go a bit, which is, disappointing. It may be due to the birthday hype/celebrations (yeah, last week was my birthday week!) so that took focus away as I celebrated over dinners (there goes my weighed meals!) and skipping my exercises to chill out with friends after work. Okok, excuses, but I do notice that I have a great tendency to start gungho and towards the end, things dwindle down. Tsk tsk. Starting strong is as important as finishing strong. As I gained awareness on this gap, it is important for me to remind myself constantly and be firmed to close this gap in my next project / challenge!
5) PCP Community support
All in all, I couldn't have push thus far without the guidance of Patrick and my fellow PCPers. I do believe this PCP community, who was going through or had gone through the same process, displayed empathy and support towards one another's journey. I am really glad that I took this on as I had learnt from others and enabled my growth. I will continue my endeavor towards my Peak-er condition and maintaining it as I believe strongly that that's the support system to living my best self.
It's been a wonderful journey and I am truly grateful for this awesome experience!
THANK YOU!!!!
