Peisch's guide to a virtuous life

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The Right Stuff

Peisch's guide to a virtuous life

This piece represents the opinion of the author:

February 25, 2005

Tons of people are making millions off of fad diets and "get-in-shape quick" schemes pedaled on TV. In my humble opinion, every one of these people is wrong. They target the feeble in spirit to take their money, while offering very little in the form of lifestyle change. They offer complex yet incomplete answers to simple problems. Because I love you, gentle reader, I give you the Ben Peisch lifestyle, completely free. I do accept tips, however. If you are ready for a new "you," read on!

First, take responsibility for your actions. If you have been raised in the United States in second half of the 20th century, you have been systematically conditioned to build an arsenal of excuses from the day you were born. Watson Fitness Center is crowded... the machines are not new enough... you only have eight free hours a day... the list goes on and on.

Stop whining! No amount of complaining will change anything about your fitness. It does not raise your heart rate and it irritates everyone around you. Rocky IV is a good example of how NOT to whine. Drago had all the fancy machines and designer steroids a cheating communist bastard could handle, while our all-American boy Rocky had a little hat, a fur-lined leather jacket, a log cabin, and a thousand square miles of Siberian snow. I hate to be a spoiler, but Rocky won in the end, folks. Take a page from his book, drop the excuses, and commit yourself to success.

You will need the truth to set yourself on the right path. There are fundamental truths. Eat healthy foods from all the food groups. Exercise enough so that you build up a good sweat. Sleep eight hours a night. Quacks on TV will tell you that you can eat whatever you want and lose weight, you only need to work out five minutes a day to have rock hard abs... these people have based their programs on false principals. If it sounds like a gimmick, it probably is. Go back to basics.

Now that you have the truth about fitness, you will need to commit to making the right choices. You will be tempted. You will have opportunities to fail, and opportunities to succeed, and your level of success will depend almost completely on the choices you make. If you choose to eat McDonald's for three meals a day for a month, sit around a hotel room, and whine to a video camera about how hard your life is, you WILL turn into a whining tub of lard... and it will be your own fault.

Contrary to popular opinion, McDonald's is not a mind-controlling, opiate-pushing criminal that preys on our young. It is a fast food restaurant. You must drive to the building, open the door, order the food, and eat it. You control your fate! You live in a free country, and you have free will! With that freedom comes the responsibility to do the right thing.

Accepting truth and responsibility is important in your quest to get a grip on reality. The fitness and diet scam artists prey on people that think that the world is fair. The world is not fair. Nor is it easy. These are two more fundamental truths that must be accepted. Few things in life, as well as fitness, will come easily. You will have setbacks. Accept them, learn from them, and move on. Dwelling on them is pointless.

The next step is setting your goals and priorities straight. These need to be both realistic and achievable. Part of this process includes weeding out your self-destructive behaviors that have been holding you back. Sacrifice is a fundamental component of success. You will need to forgo some of your guilty pleasures. For instance, if you have the habit of blacking out and eating a dozen doughnuts at 3 a.m. every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday... this will definitely be problematic. All actions have consequences, and as we know now, you control all of your actions. You have no one to blame but yourself for your mistakes.

There you have it. In 700 words or less, I have given you, my beloved reader, the lifestyle that will work for everyone. Search for the truth, and set the truth as your foundation. Hold yourself responsible for your actions. Make the right choices. Keep a proper perspective, and work hard. If you follow all of these steps, before you know it, you will be a great conservative?I mean, you'll be in great shape!

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