Yesterday, I had a fabulous rest day over in Bev Hills. Okay, not at a spa or anything. I wasn't like, chillin' at Neiman Marcus or the Marc Jacobs store. I was at the WGA Theatre on Doheny for a screenwriting seminar. It was awesome. I won't bore you with the non-weight loss related details, but I learned so much there. I was inspired, rejuvenated and cleansed of my writing self-doubt. It's not like the panelists were trying to bolster us or make us think that everyone in the room could get their stuff produced. Nonetheless, after hearing what they had to say I was as excited as a starry eyed Tony Robbins cultist.*

My big takeaway from yesterday that applies to weight loss: if you want it, you gotta hustle.

Warning: semi-long story about hustling ahead - skip ahead to bold header if you want to. One of the panels included some awesome show runners of edgy television, including crowd favorite writer Alan Yang. He was a writer and producer on Parks & Recreation and is the showrunner on Master of None. If you like to laugh, this guy is your best friend. Anyway, during the question and answer part of the panel, one of the questions came from an immigrant with a remarkably complicated name. This guy had confidence and charm but was humble. He addressed Alan Yang and asked a good question about advice on breaking in. Alan amazed the crowd. Paraphrasing:

Alan Yang: "We've met, right?"

Unpronounceable: "Yeah."

Alan Yang: "You auditioned for Master of None, right?"

Unpronounceable: "Yeah, I did!"

The crowd at this point was murmuring loudly, at this point. We were all excited. Everyone was thinking the same thing: Holy crap. A leading showrunner for a much-praised, edgy Netflix show remembers one of us. Then Alan Yang blows us away. He says that the guy was pretty good, and that he knows that guy's hustlin' and respects it. The crowd goes wild. While the crowd is going wild, Alan further amazes us by recalling correctly how to spell this guy's unpronounceable name. AMAZING! The next thing the crowd thought was: It might take a couple of more years, but that guy is going to make it.

Why You Have to Hustle For Faster Weight Loss

There are two levels of hustle. You're either a hustlin' a little, or you're hustlin' a lot. If you have a long-term goal of losing 40 pounds, it doesn't matter if you lose it over four months or four years. The important thing is that you got rid of those pounds. The only way to lose those pounds is to apply a bit of focus, however. That's where a little hustle comes in. You have to have your goal in mind and chip away at it, persistently. You can't let excuses cause you to gain weight. The big hustle is when you have a deadline. It could be a wedding, losing weight to have a baby, wanting to impress friends at the Memorial Day picnic... Whatever. It brings focus to have that deadline. The thing is, if you want to reach your goal by deadline, you must work hard and not allow your past of overweight/obese-person habits drag you down.

I am tempted by my old habits all of the time. It's not easy to change your life. We all know that hard work is required, but are we following through? Are we walking the walk? More specifically and personally, am I?

My answer is no. My accomplishments in improved fitness have been decent so far, but I have only been hustling a little. That guy at the seminar yesterday is not only a comedy writer, he is performing comedy and was able to snag an audition for a cool show AND remain memorable to the big guy in charge. That guy didn't luck into being memorable. He hustled every day. Am I hustling every day? No.

Nobody's perfect. All I need to aim for is eating clean about 90% of the time, but I'm not doing that. It's more like 70% clean eating for me. Maybe 75%. I do not have control over my diet. My tracking of calories and macros has slipped. I am facing a choice. Do I want to lose between 0-10 pounds in the next 41 days before my husband and I go to Thailand? Or do I want to lose more? I have nearly six weeks until that flight and have the power to hustle my butt into a size 10 when we leave. I choose to hustle.

 

*I'm sorry if I've caused offense to Tony Robbins-ites.