Rule No. 1 – here we go!

Rule number 1.

Starting November 1, 2005 I will wake up at 6am on a daily basis.

So what’s that all about – what does getting up each morning at 6am have to do with losing weight and being fit?

Well first of all getting up early in the morning is good for me.  It gets my day started early.  It gives me quiet uninterrupted time to read the bible, pray and journal.  It gives me a head start on everything that needs to get done during the day.  It eliminates all the bad things that occur when I stay up late, such as: eating a second late dinner, snacking on junk food (often in order to stay awake to read or watch TV).

Something really good happens when I start my day early – I "feel" better, I make better decisions, I think more clearly and with less pressure.  This in turn (somehow by default, and I can’t really explain this) causes me to make better decisions about what I’m eating throughout the day – and ultimately will lead to the path of fitness.

BTW, originally I had planned to make the first rule about going to bed by a certain time instead of waking up at a specific time, until I came across this blog entry by Steve Pavlina (he has written many personal development articles that I have found to be very inspiring, and although I do not always agree with Steve, this particular post was fantastic in the area of sleep).  This caused me to re-think the idea of going to bed at a specific time and instead made me make the rule to wake up at a certain time.  Take a moment and read the post on Steve’s blog, its well worth your time.

So what I am committing to is waking up at 6am everyday.  If I eat a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts every night, have onion rings for lunch, and french fries for breakfast – it doesn’t matter as long as I’m up and functional by 6am every day.  Of course as I do this I believe that my eating habits will change (Not that I’m eating anything like I just described!)

Well I better start looking at what I need to do before I go to bed……6am is not that long away.

Peace,
Tarry G

How does twelverules work?

Great question.  It simple, slow, discipline building.  There is no rocket science here – in fact nothing really new either, except as with all great ideas (oh no – I’ve just started and I’m already calling it a "great idea"…..LOL – did I tell you I was an optimist too) simple continual follow-through is the key.  Anyway what will hopefully make this great is that the rules are user defined (with some guidance/ideas) gentle and progressive.

The idea is that discipline begets discipline and if you start building the discipline muscle it will gradually get stronger and stronger.

I believe that if you make 12 simple rules (loosely oriented around fitness), one a month, cumulatively for a year that you will actually so transform your body that people will have difficulty recognizing you.  How can I claim that, do I have any proof or evidence? – no, but I’m (and whoever wants to join me) going to be the guinea pig/poster boy by doing it myself – publicly, right here on this blog.  I will post pictures – you will have to click to see them, because hey, I’m shy.  I will also post my experience and other things about this journey in real time.

Peace,
Tarry G

So what is this all about?

I was sitting at one of my favorite all you can eat meat buffet restaurants Samba (yah does that tell it all or what?!) with a friend of mine (who shares the same food orientation/bodystyle that I do – FAT), and I found myself saying to him – and to myself – that if "he" (and I) would just create and keep one simple rule every month cumulatively for 12 months, that at the end of the year he would be so transformed that he wouldn’t’t recognize himself!

As I said this – it hit me that this was the secret for me to change.  This was Thursday Oct 20, 2005.

I left our lunch very excited about this idea – having a deep sense that I had stumbled on something that could work for me in terms of bringing transformation and discipline into some of the areas of my life that were really lacking, starting with the physical.

No doubt you know the story of the race between the hare and tortoise.  Even though the tortoise starts and maintains a slow steady pace, way slower than the hare which is way faster, somehow at the end of the day the tortoise gets there first. In my life, particularly in the area of physical fitness – I’ve always been the hare but in my story I don’t get there last – I don’t get there at all !

Most of my life I’ve been the hare – always starting fast (kind of
obsessive compulsive), rushing forward with all guns blazing, 150% in
whatever direction I’m supposed to be going.

So – where did the name twelve rules come from?

Well first of all you need
to know that I’m big on slogans, memorable lines, and sayings.  I
needed to call this something that would be inspiring, attractive,
memorable, syllable friendly.  This idea is really about twelve simple
disciplines, but thats not a easy way to say it nor is it memorable enough, plus the syllable count is way too high!

So I played with a bunch of names/ideas and finally came up with the name twelverules, catchy, memorable, low syllable count and best of all the domain name twelverules.com was available!!

I then thought, what would be the best way to launch this idea both for myself and to give others the opportunity to build some disciplines into their life – The best thing I came up with so far was this, write a blog, share my experience, and help myself by being accountable to whoever would see it, and hopefully inspire others to do the same.  Maybe, but we will let God determine this, even start a "movement"!

This is what this weblog is about, this is how it has come to originate.  No doubt it will be a journey that will take many turns.  In the next few days/week.  I will be adding many things to this blog as time and (limited) skill permits.  Stay tuned. 

Peace – out.

Tarry G