Don’t Feed The Weekend Wolves | sixpackforgirls.com

If you’ve ever spent any time with my darling husband, and SPFGs coach, either online (in emails or on Skype) or in person, then you’ll already know a couple of things:

He has an uncanny knack of knowing what you’re thinking, and feeling, even if you don’t tell him – almost more so when you don’t tell him! (he can even do this with me when we’re 6,000 miles apart!)
He has the most wonderful way of clearing the ‘fog’ to allow you to see things in the most glorious clarity; by the time he’s ‘done with you’ you feel you can go and climb Mount Everest, reach the summit and be back home again in time for dinner!

I must confess to feeling very fortunate, and more than a little spoiled, to have unlimited access to him!

One of my favourite lessons from him, and one I refer back to often, is the story of The Wolves.

Written in his words, and taken from his website, it goes like this…

Outside a tepee, with smoke from an hypnotic fire gently finding it’s way into the fading light, sat an elder from the tribe and a small boy.

“Father” the boy said looking at the elder with puzzled brow. “Yes my son,” he replied, with a loving half smile in anticipation of the question he had been asked many times before by the other children in many different ways.

“Father, in my head I have bad wolves and these wolves are always fighting with each other, snarling, scrapping, biting each other, stealing food from each other; they are always howling in anger and they have fire in their eyes.

But I also have good wolves in my head and these wolves are happy – they play with each other, rough and tumble, share food with each other and howl with happiness. These wolves, the good and the bad, often fight with each other….FATHER, which ones will win?”

“My son,” the tribal elder said gently putting his weathered hand lovingly on the boys shoulder, ”the ones you feed the most!”

The wolves were in full battle on my way home tonight; I had to smile, as I’d already decided to share the wolves story with you way back early this morning.

This last week has been off the scale in terms of craziness for us here at SPFGs (if you’ve sent us an email and haven’t had a reply yet, don’t worry – we know you’re waiting and won’t keep you hanging on too much longer) and today was no exception.

Due to demand we’re completely overhauling our Challenge format and are in the process of putting the new systems through their paces; other writing commitments needed to be fulfilled, emails had to be sorted through and answered, phone calls made and answered too.

Early this afternoon I had to go and visit a local six-pack client to run through and calculate his measurements and food numbers (his, yes you read that right (I almost feel like a traitor , because he loathes working out it all out, so pays me to do it instead – good job I like them!), after that I had a 30 mile drive across to the other side of town to watch my youngest son swim.

This is always followed by building Lego models and playing various games on the Nintendo Wii (he gave me a good thrashing at Wii Fencing this evening, and I wasn’t just letting him win – I’m a bit miffed about being beaten by an almost six-year old!) and a bed time story before I drive back home (in case you’re confused, he lives with his dad a couple of villages along from my home in the UK).

So, I leave him fast asleep at 8.15pm and make my way home; by this time, I’m tired and I’m HUNGRY!

On my way home I pass very close by the supermarket; it’s open 24 hours a day…

Hungry and Tired Wolf v Six-Pack Wolf

HUNGRY and TIRED WOLF: Y’know, you could just pop in there on your way back and grab something for dinner…

SIX-PACK WOLF: I could, but I don’t really know what I want. Maybe some nice fresh salmon!

HUNGRY and TIRED WOLF: Well you could, but then you’d still have to cook it when you got home and it’ll be 9pm by the time you’ve stopped, gone in, come back out and driven home.

SIX-PACK WOLF: Hmmmm – that’s late; let’s just carry on.

HUNGRY and TIRED WOLF: Okay…

And we drove straight past the supermarket junction and carried on heading for home. Five miles later…

HUNGRY and TIRED WOLF: We’re almost home now, you’re looking really tired – have you decided what to have for dinner yet?

SIX-PACK WOLF: No.

HUNGRY and TIRED WOLF: Y’know, we could stop at the little shop just a couple of miles away from home; pick up a few snacks – crisps, nuts and perhaps a bar of chocolate to eat in the car?

SIX-PACK WOLF: No, I don’t really fancy all that.

HUNGRY and TIRED WOLF: Okay, OKAY! HOW ABOUT….fish and chips from the fish and chip shop?! GENIUS – it won’t take two seconds, it’s not out of our way, it’s something hot and you won’t have to cook anything!

SIX-PACK WOLF: NO!

HUNGRY and TIRED WOLF: Oh come ON!!! You’ve trained like an animal all week, you’ve been bang on with everything – you can afford one night off surely!

SIX-PACK WOLF: I’m not listening to you anymore *la-la-la-laaaaaa!*

HUNGRY and TIRED WOLF: Just this once – you hardly ever do it; it won’t make any difference!

SIX-PACK WOLF: Sorry, did someone say something?

HUNGRY and TIRED WOLF: What are you doing?! You’ve taken the wrong turning! The fish and chip shop is the other way!

SIX-PACK WOLF: I think a bit of singing along to Florence and The Machine is in order, VERY LOUD!

HUNGRY and TIRED WOLF: can you hear me? I said the fish and chip shop is the OTHER WAY!

SIX-PACK WOLF: *Sings* ”…..and it’s hard to dance with the devil [or wolf!] on your back, so shake it off! It’s always darkest before the dawn…..tra-la-laaaaa!”

I pulled up at home, switched the engine off, came inside, locked the HUNGRY and TIRED WOLF outside and cooked myself a quick mushroom omelette.

VICTORY!

I am under no illusion that those wolves won’t return. I know they argue like that when I’m tired and hungry, I have to choose which one I’m going to feed the most – all the while I choose to feed the SIX-PACK WOLF, I’ll continue to reinforce the positive habits that allow me to be in the shape I’m in and keep me there.

I also have an EMOTIONAL WOLF that likes to argue with the SIX-PACK WOLF on occasion – they get short shrift too.

I know a lot of people have a WEEKEND WOLF who just loves to drop in and visit on a Friday evening.

WEEKEND WOLF: It’s been a tough week, why not just forget everything for tonight – treat yourself to a take-away followed by some chocolate/cake/ice-cream. In fact, if you’re going to do that, you might as well just go crazy over the entire weekend.

You can start properly on Monday; that’s probably a really GOOD idea actually – you’ll have ‘done’ all the sweet and savoury junk things by Sunday night, you’ll feel much better as a result and will be REALLY ready to get healthy again come Monday morning!

Which wolves are you going to feed most this weekend?

The HUNGRY and TIRED WOLF? The EMOTIONAL WOLF? The WEEKEND WOLF? The NEGATIVE WOLF perhaps?

Or are you going to feed your SIX-PACK WOLF? Your POSITIVE and IN CONTROL WOLF? Your VICTORIOUS WOLF?

By the way, the ‘good wolves’ look awesome – they’re strong, they have an awesome presence, their eyes are BRIGHT and their coats are glossy; they’re quite something to behold.

The ‘bad wolves’ – they don’t look so hot, funnily enough; they skulk around in the shadows and are easily chased away if you mean it when you confront them.

If you’re having a tough time making positive changes and staying on track – print this out and stick it up, EVERYWHERE as a visual reminder: I AM A SIX-PACK WOLF – I AM POSITIVE and IN CONTROL – I AM THE VICTORIOUS WOLF!

Now I know some of you might think I’ve temporarily lost my mind, talking about ‘voices’ and telling you to picture yourselves as wolves -“That just sounds a bit mad, ‘out there’ and woo-woo for my liking!” – but trust me, these things work!

Stick that picture on your fridge and I guarantee you’ll find it MUCH easier to not to raid it if, for whatever reason, your resolve starts to falter.

Keep the positive wolves close and chase away the bad ones – all you have to do is CHOOSE.

Try it and let me know how you got on, on our Facebook page, first thing Monday morning – www.facebook.com/sixPackForGirls

Have a SUPERB SATURDAY and SUNDAY, rather than ‘slippery slope’ ones