A true story.
You went through an unwilling gradual transformation to a potentially un-healthy version of yourself.
But hey, I am in no way judging or shaming you at all, I’ve been there too. Whenever I changed country I shrank losing weight at a fast pace that wasn’t exactly ideal either, I know that the opposite could be more frequent but there are situations like this too, and the common background is the same:
moving from a state of balance, to an unbalanced state whether it’s towards a plus or a minus.
Over the course of this past 4+ years I was able to drastically change my body, I stopped shrinking (hurray!) and managed to gradually increase my weight and transform my body composition improving the quality of my sleep, my strength, my muscle mass, my endurance, my satisfaction and consequently, all of those emotional and psychological aspects coming after this:
- better self-esteem
- better manageable levels of internal stress
- better relationship with food and with my body image
Mind you, I’m bald, and I started losing hair already towards the end of high school but kept on clinging to what was left on my head until it was becoming laughable so taking the path of shaving my head was one very hard but important decision.
It’s not easy to go bald, it’s quite uncomfortable and makes you feel ashamed but the sooner you realized that nobody cares the better it is and, as I say now, better bald that be scared of the first gust of wind.
This brings me straight to today’s topic. Past you VS future you.
What am I talking about? Am I going to read your horoscope and tell you your future? Am I going to read your hand and tell you your past? Not even close.
I realized that every time I made poor choices when it came to nutrition and fitness, such as binge eating or drinking, overtraining, cut my sleep and others, there was a pattern
I have subconsciously developed a strategy, a trick, a mind-hack a call-it-whatever-you-want way to help my consistency and my adherence to the plans I had for myself.
Today I want to share it with you hoping that this might turn into something beneficial for your path as well.
A 100% real story
I realized that every time I made poor choices when it came to nutrition and fitness, such as binge eating or drinking, overtraining, cut my sleep and others, there was a pattern: the day/days after or in some cases the weeks after I would pay the consequences (injuries, exhaustion) of those choices and curse the moment I took those decisions telling myself a clear “this is the last time” to then do it again and spiral in the same loop.
The breakthrough came one day a couple of years ago in a complete different setup, and this is a 100% true story.
When I was practicing Kyokushin Karate I had a very crowded long daily schedule:
- I’d come back every night at least at 11 pm
- Drop my bag with the sweaty karate uniform next to the door and unpack it right there and then leaving stuff on the floor
- Drag myself in the kitchen
- Cook something quick
- Eat
- Leave the dishes and the pan in the sink (along with the blender and the bowl from my breakfast)
- Take a shower and lie down scrolling on Instagram until I realized it was way past midnight and time to sleep (my alarm was at 7am to leave on time by 8am the latest)
Scrolling at night is a terrible idea.
One day I did all of that BUT my alarm didn’t ring so I randomly woke up at 7:40 having to leave at 8 from my place still having to:
- have breakfast
- pack my training bag
- dash out to catch the train to not be late
you can imagine the face of horror I had when realized that my training gear was all over the floor still sweaty and dirty next to the door and the blender I used to make my morning smoothie was still dirty from the day before.
While panicking to get my s**t together I found myself cursing at the “past Carlo”, I swear it’s the truth, I was insulting yesterday’s version of me.
I kept on internally mumbling a list of “damn if only I cleaned the dishes yesterday…if only I prepared my bag before, or slept earlier instead of staring at my phone for one hour until it was too late…” and all sorts of similar thoughts kept my mind busy the entire day.
Past you vs future you. The breakthrough
When I got home that day, I did what I had to do, have everything clean and ready for the…guess what? “future Carlo”. When I woke up the day after I felt like I should be grateful to “past Carlo” for allowing me to have breakfast without the anxiety of the tickling clock and the fear of being late.
This thing strung a cord and the idea of Past and Future Carlo is still what drives my decisions – and my laziness – when I feel like I don’t want to wash dishes and leave them there, I think that future Carlo might be in a rush and be late because of the full sink.
When I feel like I want eat peanut butter right from the jar with a spoon, I ask myself if Future Carlo would be ok with that choice, when I don’t want to get up and walk or workout….you guessed right, an image of my future self is there and he’s asking himself if that was the right choice.
This also works the opposite way, when I feel like I squeezed the life out of my muscles during deadlifting and my form is crumbling exposing me to a greater risk of injury and the “one more set” desire lurks in …here is future Carlo, he can either be injured, in pain, depressed because of the setback or…he can be healthy, strong and progressing because today I stopped before snapping my back.
You see what I mean here? I subconsciously use this system for a whole list of things, from the most menial tasks such as cleaning, to the ones around my health and… it works.
I can’t imagine a future me that would be proud of detrimental decisions towards his health and daily life
How can you "trick" your brain to help your consistency?
Past you VS Future is a concept you can apply to you too as most of the time the choices that you make, when it comes to your health, do have clear consequences in your mind.
It is complex to see consequences in the future or imagine them as they sound distant or foggy but, if you imagine yourself looking back to the choices you make today it becomes a whole lot clearer.
Can you be ok or at ease with them? Are you going to be pissed or regret them?
The last implication of this Past You vs Future you strategy is that there is no one shaming or judging yourself, there will be no one that will point the fingers at you.
It’s just…you.
There’s no angel or devil on your shoulders whispering to help you decide, as the decision you make for your health, as long as made consciously, are neither good or bad as long as consequences are clear to you.
Being aware of your own choices is essential to understand that your progress is based on them so as long as you’re ok with it, nobody can say anything about it.
I hope this can help you as it helps me daily.
Feel free to share your experience in the comments below!