The honest truth is that I have a tendency to want to color outside the lines and make exceptions for myself - just a little tweaking here and there, don't you know. While I may understand the principles and know the rules, "fine-tuning" things for myself has often been my approach.
When I was a senior in high school (just a few years back!) my piano teacher assigned Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" as the next piece for me to work on. Well, "Moonlight Sonata" is written in four sharps and I didn't (and don't) particularly like to play in sharps. So . . . I decided to play "Moonlight Sonata" in three flats instead, pitching the piece down one half step. (For those of you who don't read music and don't have a clue what this means, stay with me . . . ). The song sounded the same to me, just a half-step lower, and it was SO much easier to play! I worked on the piece all week and was full of confidence when I sat down at the piano at my next lesson, sure my teacher would applaud me for my brilliance. Well, that's not exactly what happened . . . about three measures into the piece, he stopped me and asked what on earth I was doing. I explained that I had decided to drop the pitch half a step to make it easier to play. He was NOT impressed :-). I then was given the piece again and told to learn it the way Beethoven intended it to be played. I think he was shocked that anybody would try to improve on Beethoven! In trying to improve upon Beethoven, I found out I wasn't quite as smart as I thought I was and it was hard to relearn "Moonlight Sonata" as written because I had worked so hard to learn it my way. But I eventually DID learn it through repetition and a commitment to practice.
So what's my point? I see people all the time who try to "improve" upon this program, who think that they have discovered a better way to do Take Shape for Life's 5&1 program. A little tweaking here and there, a little substituting of things that have "similar" carbs, calories and/or protein. A little wanting to color outside the lines. What I know is that this program has been proven effective in over 30 years of business and in a multitude of clinical studies. When followed as written, it really does work and there are lots and lots of people who are living proof - people, like me, who never thought they could really lose weight and keep it off.
I tried to "rewrite" every other weight loss program I'd tried, too, and through my repeated failure finally admitted that I wasn't quite as smart as I thought. When I started on 5&1, I made the decision to just follow the program as written - what a concept!
How are you approaching this program? Are you trying to rewrite it as you go, or are you following the protocols of 5&1? How you decide to do this program is up to you, but choose wisely :-)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment