For a couple of years now I've been giving you guys a blueprint for how to get from 35% body fat down to 12%. Not only so that you can get your dream body. But how you can actually leverage it in the real world.
This is exactly what happened to me. Getting to 12% body fat was not the actual end goal. The real reward is the person I'm becoming through the process, by God's grace. You see, a couple of years ago something switched inside my brain. I realized that there was something more foundational to this process than diet and nutrition, exercise and strength training, daily step count and recovery. These are important of course. But the foundation is key. If we do not have this foundation, we are building a house on sand that will eventually collapse. Your identity (the way you view yourself) is the most important thing about the whole process. If you do not truly believe it in your mind, then you will always subconsciously fail to become the person you want to be. It doesn't matter if you have the perfect diet or workout routine. You have to believe that you can get the physique you want before it is actually manifested in reality. You have to become worthy of the physique you want.
I'm not going to lie to you. Getting down to 12% body fat for the first time is hard, especially if, like me, you have to lose 50 pounds to do it. You have to realize what you're actually capable of. This is the whole point of growth. You realize that you can change for the better. It's only after you have the confidence to actually attack the life you want that your body will ever change. The whole purpose is to completely change the way you think about yourself. You must see yourself as getting the life you want. You are no longer just someone who exercises. You are an athlete. You need to drop language that says you lack what it takes to get fit. You need to pursue a place of abundance as though you already have it. You have to do all the actions at 35% body fat that the version of you at 12% does. And you need to do it from day one throughout the whole process. You need to completely rewire your brain. And you need to build non-negotiable habits on a daily basis. Stop trying to become a guy who is trying to get into shape. You are a guy who is getting into shape, and your actions reflect how you see yourself automatically.
It's the same thing with the Christian life. Living the Christian life means bringing your everyday actions into alignment with your position in Christ. You actually live out the grace you've already been given by him. Many of us mistakenly think we have to be "good enough" to make progress in the Christian life. The gospel flips this on its head. We are accepted by God first, and then we change because we belong to him. Our growth in Christ is simply about aligning our behaviors with the identity we already possess. When this happens, disciplines like prayer, Scripture reading, and service become natural habits. In essence, you are laboring to become who you already are as you allow the indwelling Holy Spirit to transform your character. So when you're tempted to sin (to behave in a way that doesn't align with your position in Christ), you can draw on the power of the Spirit and you can actually say "no" to the flesh. Likewise, as you begin your physical transformation, the key outcome is produced by this identity shift. Your actions reflect how you see yourself automatically. When you are tempted to give up, you can say "no." If you don't do this, you are constantly pushing a boulder up a hill and making the process more difficult than it needs to be. This is all about just getting things to align with your new identity.
Again, the physique is not the foundation. Your lifestyle is the foundation. Before you actually start accomplishing things in your life that you really want to do, you need to believe that you can do it. You can say no to sin. You can say no to your old nature. You can become who you are in Christ. And you can become fit and healthy. This is honestly going to be one of the most difficult things you do. This is where you're truly pushing yourself. You are truly testing to see if you are worthy to have the physique you want. That's what it's all about guys. The internal state that you create is the only thing that will make this transformation possible, because you want it. I truly believe that every one of us wants the same thing. We all want to take care of the temple. We all want to become all that we are capable of becoming. There is one outcome that we're all trying to get, and this is a repeatable formula that literally anyone can do.
Make sure you start with the identity shift. This is the exact thing that happened to me. I have truly lived this. And I am not done -- either with becoming a healthier version of myself, or a more Christlike follower of the Lord Jesus.
Have a wonderful evening!