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A few of us initially believe that these ostensible excuses are the real cause of us doing nothing when it comes to fitness. This is proved wrong when experiencing Stallone in his famous role. Suddenly, if only for a few hours, we become no longer too old or just fine the way we are. Still, there are those who are not moved, nor ever will be moved in this way. They continue to adamantly insist Yes but I still think  I'm too old or that I am OK enough. Perhaps, for them, there is no need to read further. But for those who secretly know that they are mouthing cliches, there is a need to continue on. These are the people who know there is a champion within them.

Getting back to Rocky Balboa, he got up early in the morning (early to bed, early to rise,) ate raw eggs (you need protein to build muscle), and ran through the streets of New York (so he could go the distance with the champ.) Of course, in real life, his training would have had to have gone on far longer than it did in the movie, but the idea is there. He was tough, so much so that he preferred pounding a side of beef to the standard leather bag. Further, he could take advantage of an opportunity, and nothing was going to stand in his way.  No one, or no thing, was going to hold him back.

Many of us watch a movie like this and get excited. We could do all of that, or so we think. It doesn't really require anything other than simply getting up to get going,  throwing a few raw eggs in the blender, and then pounding a side of beef --whatever that may translate to in our personal lives. Those things we can do. The only trouble is that almost none of us ever does. Why?

Most of us can identify with Rocky but will never make the necessary lifestyle changes to become like him. For a responsible adult it would be simply impossible, or so we think. Besides, no one would be comfortable with us if did. It's just counter to common sense, or so we have been lead to believe. After all, most of us have friends and relatives who caution against overdoing it, or acting in ways that simply are beyond our capabilities. Such is the role of the people we rely on. Keeping us safe is what they're all about. The same as it is for us in relation to them.

But these are not the only people who look out for us. As we get older we rely more on professionals to advise us. When it comes to health (including fitness), these are our doctors. Their job is supposedly to fix us up and keep us out of trouble. That is very much like what we expected from our parents--chicken soup to make the cold go away and good advice to keep us from getting sicker the next time.

The trouble (for anyone wanting to become a Rocky for more than just a little while) is in all of this goodness. It is good to be sure, but it tends to make us sensible adults instead of audacious world champ wannabes. That is, it makes us want to be more our everyday selves than to be like Rocky. That is even after watching Rocky I for the third time in the same weekend! Why? Because it's respectable. Its being grown-up, living within our means, acting our age, being ourselves a instead of what or whom we're not. That is the real us not the fictional Rocky, or so we think, not that long after the thrill of the movie fades into the background. Come Monday morning, we're back to living in the real world. Give us the pat on the back that we so richly deserve! Welcome back to the real world.

This is disastrous when it comes to fitness. Fitness takes guts. Just like Rocky getting ready to go the distance with Apollo Creed, it takes guts to do what he did every morning. And it takes guts to go the rounds with swollen bloody eyes.  How many times did Rocky wonder if he could keep on going? In the movie, never. But what about for us in a similar set of circumstances in real life? But we need to hang in there jsut like he did.  So how do we get like Rocky?

Being part of a group is best for people starting out. Even if it seems like we have to be the the lone wolf, being around others who have the same passion can work wonders. Those people also have the same problems and  therefore can become our friends. Being around them can help us make the necessary lifestyle changes without seriously rocking the boat. Meetings with them to talk about all of this really can help us make the necessary changes to get on and stay on track. Just realizing that someone else has a similar problem is extremely helpful. Finding a bright idea that could work in a particular situation is better yet.

Some will think of this as little more than the numerous support groups which used to abound in the late seventies and early eighties. Perhaps that is not so far off. But perhaps that's not so bad. After all, with fitness, there is a twist. Getting into fitness is not so much of a bad problem (such as alcohol addiction) that it cannot be talked about. One needn't worry that the membership roll remains anonymous. Granted, some of the personal reservations, which are sure to emerge, can be a little unnerving when talked about, but the basic being a good family member in search of a few more hours for a good thing is not something which any of us needs to hide. It just says that we are responsible adults, good family people, who know that things must be different for our highest well-being. Of course, that all can also rub off onto our families, but that is a subject to be left for later.

For those of us who are just starting out, there may be many fears about our ability to keep at it once we commit to starting. We know that we won't be able to find time for the gym. There is always someone who needs our time. We know don't have money for one more line item in the checkbook. So how do we buy the vitamin C and the multi-vitamins? We have a spouse who expects to share breakfast and dinner of real food with us. How do we get them to run with low fat low sugar eating to say nothing of gluten free? All of those are our equivalents of Rocky's morning run, his raw eggs and the pounding of the side of beef. We all know what we have to do Its just we can't see how we can really do any of it.

Again the group is the answer. Talking about all of this even it's to do no more than to defiantly say It's impossible, is a good thing. That at least raises up the goodness of fitness. Some people actually need to hear themselves say  there is no way before anything good happens. That often times gets a laugh from someone else who feels exactly the same but knows they need not continue on in the same way. All too many have said something similar only to find ways of making things work the next morning. Moreover, if we really believed that all was really impossible we never would have showed up at the group meeting in the first place.

What is the real problem? What is really going on when nothing seems to be happening? It is the fear of Change, little other.Going from the standard American lifestyle to a fitness lifestyle is a huge change. Therefore it is not easy. There is a sociology professor from Northwestern University, Bernard Mack, who said this about everything in general back in the late sixties. Do any of us really need to ask him if he still believes it, assuming he is still around? We are creatures of habit and therefore we all know that change is no paid vacation. It is hard, and we avoid it like we would someone who can't stop coughing because they just caught a cold. So, what is so problematic about the c-word?

1.) Change is hard on us as individuals. Granted, some of us are on low fat low sugar gluten free diets, but some is not all. In fact it's not very many. Same goes for working out. We all know we should, and there are some MDs who are beginning to actually support this. But rest and relaxation still wins the day. For instance, has your MD ever said you need to run a five mile every day just like me? Further, we work hard all day, so we think we deserve a break at night. Then too, there's supplements. Our doctors don't get excited over them, so where's the encouragement? A penny saved is a penny earned, or so we think; and so they lead us to believe. Developing the appropriate attitudes in relation to all of this will not be easy.

2.) Change is hard on our families. They expect us to be up at a certain time, home at a certain time, doing or not doing at other times. Say that you will be hitting the club every morning or evening and see what happens. Start talking about low fat low sugar gluten-free eating and see how far you get. Unless you have a spouse who wants to be trophy wife or if you are the one who is doing the cooking, you are going to run up against difficulty. Almost always, you will  be coming up against the good "normal" life which everyone knows nobody can live without. Then there is the vitamin charge on the credit card. With the price of gas as bad as it is how can this be an acceptable brand new line item?

3.) Change is hard on the workplace. We've got our people whom we always have coffee with. But that can be upset drastically by us getting into green tea (a cheaper more long lasting high than coffee, saying nothing about its anti-oxidant capabilities.) Then too there is lunch. What if we brought an apple two carrots, a few gluten-free crackers and a boiled egg? Perhaps this would be OK, but if you're laughing right now, it wouldn't. Real food is for real people and that's not real food. Then what about the supplements? Can you take yours in front of your co-workers? Probably not. For sure you can't offer them one. That would at best get a polite refusal. Of course, you'd probably be thinking that that is precisely what they need because they're always dragging at about two in the afternoon. But this is not a cause you can champion. In fact, being even the least vocal about this could get you into trouble with the boss in some places.

Then too there is you twenty pounds less. If you were fifty over by a doctor's standard, twenty will win you friends. If you were already Ok, not overweight, just average, you are headed for trouble. Twenty pounds less on most frames starts to spell looking good. That could mean upwardly mobile (like you are the one who is going to get the promotion) in some instances. In others, it could just mean that others will be inclined to treat you differently. Some new people may even start getting interested in you--ones that don't resonate with your old friends. In short, circumstances become different when we become different; this is change, and this is hard on people. Only by extreme luck does the workday world not get interrupted by differences such as these..

Clearly Rocky didn't have all of these problems. He lived alone, frequented the gym, and had a crush on Adrian--Talia Shire, who was supportive of his boxing efforts. Thus, in a way, he had it easy--or easier than almost all, if not all, of us. Besides there wasn't anything really holding him back such as I'm too old or I'm OK the way that I am. The only thing of real imposrtance was him as a nobody who had the burning desire and the opportunity to be a somebody.

We are all different than Rocky because we have all of our normal, adult-like, grown-up, mature sensible problems; and they are tough ones to deal with. Granted, we can simply put our foot down and say we're getting into fitness today : this is the way that its going to be; take it or leave it. That might be workable in our imaginations but is it really so in everyday life? Probably not. 

What can be done about all of this? The quick and dirty answer is this : get into a group of like minded individuals so that some answers to these not so pleasant questions can be found. Doing so has a far better chance of realistically making some major changes--changes which will not only last, but which may actually become enjoyable. That is, it hands down beats the draconian out of the blue setting of the alarm clock for four am, downing your equivalent of the six raw eggs, running a ten mile and pumping  iron just prior to kissing your Adrian ( or Rocky) good bye before commuting to the office. 

That is what goes behind the title Together We All Achieve More. Talking about the need to implement change and then doing something sensible, responsible and kind about it. Having that something be a plan that will actually work without upsetting things. That implies knowing what to do, how to talk about it, what to suggest, what to insist upon. None of that is easy. All of that requires sensitivity, finesse, political strategy.

Sharing concerns such as these with others who are going through the same things is highly beneficial. As mentioned earlier, just knowing that someone else has experienced, or is experiencing, the same difficulties can be, and almost always is, helpful. That provides a framework wherein we can come up with our own answers to the same difficulty.

To sum up, all of us live with other people. That is one of the big differences between us and Rocky. Rocky lived alone, so it was easier for him to strike out and just plain do it. Almost all of us have spouses and children. They expect things of us, and we don't mind that they do. We pride ourselves on being good spouses and parents. Of course, that's a twenty-four seven proposition, everyday of the week. And, who's complaining? After all, that is what makes us happiest. The trouble is that some significant sacrifices have to be made if we do in fact expect to become and stay fit.

The rest of this book is about pulling that off with the least amount of damage.

For further talk about Rocky visit my website ForeverFitness.info