When I was a little kid, I went as Superman for Halloween probably five or six years in a row.  I’m not kidding.  I freaking loved Superman, watching all of the movies on repeat and wearing a cape as often as possible.  I even wore red undies on the outside sometimes.  Yup.  So, why did I love Superman so much?

Because he’s a total badass!

Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound – who WOULDN’T want to be Superman, right?  Now, although the Man of Steel is pretty much indestructible, there’s one thing that can take him down quickly: Kryptonite.

Suck.

Pretend for a minute that you’re Superman in a quest for weight loss and a healthier lifestyle. I bet you’ve tried to get in shape in the past, you’ve probably even had some success and watched the number on your scale get smaller and smaller.  However, there’s that one thing (or two) that eventually always knocked you off your path and sent you in downward spiral back to complacency and unhealthiness.

This failure is your Kryptonite, and if you really want to become a superhero you’re going to have to learn how to deal with it.

Identify It.

If you’ve tried to get in shape before and failed, obviously something went wrong or you’d already be where you want to be.  Did you get sick and give up?  Did you drown your sorrows in a week long binge after your team lost in the playoffs?  Did you have a birthday at work and eat an entire cookie cake by yourself?  Maybe you just ran out of steam and lost your motivation.

Think about your past experiences with fitness and wellness and write down what went wrong. Usually there’s an event or two that you can point to as the cause of your downfall.

This is important – don’t beat yourself up about having a weakness.  If Superman can have one, so can you.  Now, Superman’s weakness is easy for him to identify: it’s green, it came from a meteorite, it glows, and makes him feel like ass.  Discovering yours might not be so easy.

These are mine.

• Traveling for work. My job at Sixthman has me traveling quite a bit on cruise ships.  While on these ships, I take terrible care of myself.  I barely eat, I rarely sleep, and I usually end up sick as a dog for the week after each cruise due to my immune system being so worn down.  This derails my efforts to build strength and muscle, every time.
• Absentmindedness at work. When I’m NOT traveling, I sometimes that I get so absorbed in work that I often forget to eat lunch or my snacks throughout the day.  If I’m going to build some serious muscle, I need to be eating great food, all day, every day.  Whether it’s muscle gain or weight loss, diet is the most important thing and I fail more often than I should.
• Time management. I work on Nerd Fitness in my free-time, and I’m a terrible time manager.  I don’t sleep enough and I don’t get to work out as often as I’d like because I dump all of my free time into this website…which I don’t mind because I love helping people!

Make a Plan to Deal With It.

Once you’ve figured out your Kryptonite, it’s time to take care of business, put on your cape, and make sure your Kryptonite doesn’t take you down again.  The best solution I’ve found for setting new habits comes from Leo over at ZenHabits:

1. Write down your plan.
2. Identify your triggers and replacement habits.
3. Focus on doing the replacement habits every single time the triggers happen, for about 30 days.

If you signed up for the 28-day challenge on the Nerd Fitness Message Boards (it’s where the cool kids hang out), this is a perfect opportunity for you to kick your Kryptonite to the kur…curb.

Here’s how I plan on dealing with mine:

• Traveling for work. I need to take better care of myself on these cruises.  I have two more cruises coming up in April and May – and I need to take at least one night on each where I don’t stay out after a long day of work and just get some sleep!  Recharging my batteries once in the middle of a cruise should be enough for me to not get sick afterwards.
• Absentmindedness at work. I’ve set a reminder on my computer to remind me every day to eat lunch.  Yes, this sounds ridiculous, but it works.  I also make sure I put a big bag of almonds on my desk as soon as I walk in the office so my brain remembers to eat them throughout the day.
• Time management. I need to take care of myself.  I spend too much time messing around on the internet when trying to write these articles, so I’m working on writing shorter, more concise posts that still have the same impact with NF readers.  I will always battle to be healthy if I can’t find a way to get more sleep.  This is really tough for me, so any advice would be helpful!

What’s your Kryptonite, and how do you plan on dealing with it? There’s no reason we all can’t be superheroes, so let’s help each other out!

-Steve

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