For a number of years, the sports network, ESPN, would use country music star Hank Williams’s song for the opening of their Monday Night Football telecast. One of the famous lines that was used in the song was “ ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?”. I am writing this entry on the morning of the opening Sunday of the NFL football season. For you NFL fans lime me out there, the next several months will entail LOTS of football watching with some people experiencing lots of glee (i.e. those that root for teams that win lots) and others throwing beer cans at the TYV screen in anger (those watching their teams lose).
So, as an opening day tribute to the football season and my frequent analogies of weight control to the sporting world, here are some concepts in football that apply to weight control.
- MOMENTUM: Teams that start out fast and put up multiple scores while allowing the other team not to score tend to win lots more games than losses. In weight control, the same concept exists: Losing weight week after week will result in “momentum” that will allow LOTS of weight to come off
- GAME PLANNING: The really good coaches in the NFL devise a game plan against their opponent that hopefully optimizes the amount of productive plays that occur and minimizes the bad plays. In weight control “PLANNING” your meals and snacks for the week ahead will provide a much better chance of shedding weight as opposed to going into each day with no strategy
- NOT ALLOWING A BAD QUARTER OR HALF TO BRING DOWN THE ENTIRE GAME: In football, sometimes a team can have a bad half, go into the locker room at halftime, have the coaches redesign some strategies/plays, have the captains of the team provide a rousing pep talk, come out for the second half and blow the other team away. In weight control, there may be a week(s) in which weight goes up and discouragement set in. Provide a pep talk for yourself and then go out there for the next week(s) and kick ass following the plan.
- NOT ALLOWING EMOTIONS TO GO TOO HIGH OR TOO LOW: In football, players will often celebrate their great plays enthusiastically but get don on themselves badly if they make a poor play. In weight loss, it is best to even out the emotional responses, as it can be harmful to get down on ourselves if a week occurs when the weight goes up.
- NOT DEPENDING ON A HAIL MARY PLAY TO WIN: In football, if a team is down and only one more play occurs with lots of yards to go for a touchdown, the chances are low that the team will win. In football, it is best to follow the dietary plan script for losing weight consistently so there are no extreme “last second” efforts that are used to try to shed the weight.
Staying alive, in good health and being able to enjoy all of the fun things and people life has to offer is truly the “SUPERBOWL” win. Stay focused on your health and wellness goals.
P.S. NO beer, chips and the “usual” stuff while watching games.
Enjoy a throwback MNF theme song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=718swIfZKtY
