by Dom Kotarski
7 years ago I was debating openly with myself and my friend about wether or not I would take on a coaching assignment which involved driving from my home in Bussum, Netherlands to Den Haag 3 days a week for the foreseeable future.
I wanted to assist my friend on his project but I was selfishly concerned about the 82 kms. Which could easily turn into an hour and half or two hour journey if traffic got heavy. I decided that I would have to leave home by 6:30 if I were to miss the rush hour Dutch traffic although I would arrive an hour before my coaching session were to begin. My good friend and soon to be client gave me a frank blank stare and said, “Dominic, you can get used to anything”
He then went on to explain about one of his early childhood memories growing up in Afghanistan during the Afghan-Russian war that went on for nearly 10 years from December 1979 to February 1989.
He was born in 1985 so right in the middle of this long war. He vividly remembers spending much of his childhood in a large underground cavern with many members of his community. He would wait anxiously for his father to return from the thunderous noise above ground with just enough food to feed his mom and brothers while his father would look on lovingly. He remembers how hungry his father looked but he always refused to eat and made sure that his family had enough nourishment to survive each day.
His story was a bit strong but just the medicine I needed. Here I was concerned about my own slight inconvenience meanwhile there’s undoubtedly a child at that moment experiencing my friends childhood predicament. However, he’s right and his point completely hit home and made a lifelong impact on me which I’ve used as motivation to assist me in creating better habits in my life ever since. And as it turns out I was eventually given the front door keys so I didn’t have to sit in my car for an hour waiting for the office to open. I could go up and make my coffee and study my coaching notes, get caught up on my educational/inspirational reading and get extremely prepared for the rest of my day.
I just recently decided to shave off a few pounds I had put on my tummy over the last few years since arriving back in North America. For some reason, my European eating habits and exercise regimen kept me a bit thinner. Or maybe I spent too much time indulging on some of my childhood favorites that I felt I’d missed out on during my European years??(in direct contrast to my friend) Nevertheless, I decided to eat only fruits and vegetables for the month of June. I allowed myself a bit of fish and skinless chicken every week but for the most part that’s about all I ate. Needless to say the slight bulge around my waste came off and I felt great pleasure tightening my belt on the last available loop.
It took quite a bit of discipline to break my old eating habits. Some of my favorite foods are spicy chilli, pizza, pasta and huge sandwiches with the works. I’m getting hungry just writing them down. Through a combination of avoidance tactics and copious fruit intake I was able to stick to my plan for all of June. I lapsed the first two weeks of July for my 50th Birthday and the World Cup. I was surrounded by too much temptation, great parties and reasons to celebrate – first for USA then Holland and finally Germany. I was born in the USA, lived in The Netherlands for 12 years and my wife is German. (See the connections)
I’m back on it as from today, Monday July 14th and will carry on for 4 more weeks to finish the job I started; get rid of the gut. The thing is, if I follow the wisdom of my good friend, “you can get used to anything” I will prevail.
He’s right you know, it’s just that we live too much for the moment and often our modern life is too gratifying and it’s too easy to say Carpe Diem! (Live for the Day!) In fact, temptation usually strikes the worst right when we’re on course to make a Big Change. A change like getting rid of the gut which we all know is good for our health especially for a middle aged man like myself. It’s just too easy to allow a comment either from my own little voice, a mate or hell a new acquaintance will do if a cold beer’s on offer. Something like, “come on mate, live your life! You don’t know if you’re gonna be around tomorrow, so enjoy the moment and let’s have this drink, eat this steak, enjoy this ice cream.”
I’m not proposing that I, we or you should live like a monk but I, you and we know that it’s sometimes a good idea to go without our favorite food or bad habit for a short period of time and then when we do get a chance to get back on it we will appreciate our devilish divulgence 10 times more. “Sweet” as my 17 year old would say.
It’s good to be your own disciple. In fact, disciple comes from the latin word “discipulus” which means “
Here’s my plan in case you’d like to know how I manage my eating and exercise regimen. If you get off course as we all do do, simply put yourself back on track and re-start wherever you are.
- I Work out a little everyday do different stuff though like swim, run, walk, ride a bike, push-ups, chin-ups, curls or just yoga and some stretching. You gotta commit to move everyday.
- My diet during the week consists mainly of fruits and vegetables, I normally start my day with a banana and tea or coffee, lunch is a big salad possibly with some grilled chicken or fish and dinner will be vegetables with some nice spices and hot peppers.
- Snacks consist of nuts or a spoonful of crunchy peanut butter and an excellent ice cream substitute is frozen fruit delicately blended together watch this video. Frozen Banana’s work great as a base and then you can add frozen strawberries, pineapples, blueberries. or any of your favorite fruits, very yummy and refreshing. This does the trick and kept me from filling up a big bowl of ice cream with chocolate sauce (my old nemesis).
- enjoy alcohol on weekends only and special occasions, just make sure there’s not a special occasion every day.
- I always say “yes” when my kids want to play some sports in the back yard.
- In fact, Say “yes” to all requests involving physical exertion.
Thanks to this simple and effective plan I was able to lose the bulk of my gut in four short weeks and I’m sure you can too if you need to or want to. Just stick to it for 1 little month and watch your waistline plummet.
Remember, chances are you don’t have to get used to eating morsels while living in a cave so you might as well try my diet and exercise plan for at least 1 month.
Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it, I promise!
Please let me know how it goes or share your amazing story of creating new, better habits for positive life change.
Dominc Kotarski, author of best selling Sales Guide – “The Making” and Founder of Sales Success Academy
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Dominic Kotarski writes, speaks, inspires, motivates and teaches on the most important 
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