Battlefront: Fat Loss
Star Wars: Battlefront is officially out today!
As a rabid fan of the original Battlefront games, I dreamed for years that someone would make a new iteration of this franchise.
Luckily, DICE, the developers behind the Battlefield series, did just that.
The world was given a brief taste of Battlefront in October with a weekend long Beta.
As expected, thousands of voices cried out via forums or social media with their complaints. The main complaint from those playing the Beta was that Hoth was too difficult for the Rebels to win.
ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?
The movie was called Empire Strikes Back not “The Empire Gives the Rebels a Fighting Chance”.
Defeating the Empire on Hoth should make you feel like you and your team are the greatest bad asses in the universe.
If Hoth is too hard for you, maybe you should stick with playing Candy Crush Jar Jar.
The handful of times that my team won on Hoth we did it by:
- Playing as a team AND
- Controlling the flank.
Attacking the flank of your enemy is a basic military tactic implemented by every successful army in the history of the world.
When it comes to playing first person shooters online, it is often the one area that no one defends.
The tide of battle can be turned for you or against you all based on whether or not you protect or attack the flank.
According to military strategy, there are multiple ways to flank an enemy. These same tactics and strategies run parallel to your battle with losing body fat.
The Flanks of Fat Loss
Ambush (Social Gatherings)
The surprise attack may be the most common flank attack in our fat loss battle.
Birthday parties, Happy Hours, Holiday parties, or spontaneous guys/girls nights out can become an ambush attack for your fat loss.
Ambush attacks are designed to surprise and disorient your enemy causing them to break their training and cause an overreaction.
Parties can feel like an ambush attack with all the food or booze that can be present at them.
However, like an ambush, it’s our overreaction to indulging in those Holiday cookies, that extra beer or two, or another piece of birthday cake that can send us into a tailspin.
We starve ourselves to make up for it, but that tends to lead to more intense cravings binges, or we decide that we need to work harder to get back on track and push ourselves by adding more cardio, more reps, and stressing out over our “supposed” screw up.
Ambush attacks happen, but it is our over-reactions to them that cause more damage in the long term.
Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail
Millions of people will be making resolutions to lose weight in December. Yet, 25% of resolutions made are given up within the first seven days.
So many resolutions fail because too many people turn themselves into a giant Death Star ray and in one blast, try and blow up everything all at once.
Scorched Earth policies don’t work for fat loss.
You need a plan that helps you to gain small achievable victories that build up to your main goal.
Disorientations
Flashbang grenades in video games are awesome. Unless, like me, you only ever seem to flashbang yourself.
In our daily lives, it seems like we are “flashbanged” constantly by media online, in print, or on television.
Meat will give you cancer
Avocadoes burn belly fat
This one weird trick will help you drop the pounds
Squatting is bad for you
Gluten will eat your brain
Every week we see stories like these from the media and health organizations. These headlines make weight loss more confusing than a Rubix Cube.
Fat loss is actually fairly simple but this constant bombardment of misinformation and propaganda, much like a flashbang, confuses and dazes people into spinning in circles and never making progress in their battle.
Infiltration (Disorder in the Ranks)
Negativity is one of the fastest and most infectious viruses on Earth.
Once it is allowed to fester and infiltrate ranks, it can quickly bring down morale and create disorder.
What is even worse, especially with fat loss goals, is this infiltration tends to come from our friends, family, coworkers, or anyone you may spend large amounts of time with.
They may question your goals, put down your efforts, tempt you to skip the gym or break your diet, or try to tell you that your goal is a waste of time.
These defeatist attitudes and the pressures exerted on you by those around you can many times lead you to wave the white flag and accept defeat.
Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.- Willie Nelson
You don’t have to lose this battle! There are things you can do to protect your flank or fortify your defenses and keep the battle in your favor.
How To Protect Your Flank
Develop and Execute a Plan
Goals give us a point of reference for where we want to go on our journey. The goal, however, is not the key to success. The key comes from developing a plan and consistently executing the action steps within that plan.
Start your fat loss battle plan with small achievable action points and once you are able to consistently implement them, then you can add a new front to the war. Your plan could be laid out to look something like this:
- Eat one vegetable at each meal
- Drink a glass of water at each meal
- Exercise for 10 minutes each day
- Drink one less soda/beer a day
- Go to bed 10 minutes earlier than normal
- Prepare your breakfast for one week
Small achievable goals will help you maintain motivation and keep you focused on executing that part of the plan, instead of trying to scorch the Earth and burn it all down at once.
Forgive Yourself When You Fail
No plan is perfect.
Mistakes, missteps, and mishaps will occur.
Instead of overreacting and spinning out of control in the gym or starving yourself, get back to your plan.
Gain a couple small victories again. These small victories will help put you further down the path to success. Rely on what has worked so far and execute those actions again.
My bromate Tanner Baze recently got off track of his goals and he detailed his struggles after a move and a break up in this article.
In this piece, he mentions that what he coaches his clients to do and what helps him is getting back those small wins.
Stay on Target
A study on done by Dr. Gail Matthews found that those who write down their goals are 42% more likely to achieve them than those who do not.
The simple act of writing your goals down forces you to be more clear about what you want. It also gives you a goal to accomplish and when you have completed the goal the satisfaction that comes from marking it off your list can be a huge boost of motivation.
What works for me is planting Sticky Notes with my goals all around my office. The notes act as a constant reminder that I need to take action to complete these tasks.
Join a Group of Positive People
Robin Hood had a band of merry thieves, The Avengers defended Earth from its greatest enemies, and my best gaming memories came from playing with my clan.
When the battle gets tough it is good to know that you have a team of people working with you for success and not a pack of rabid lone wolves out for themselves.
Group based nutrition programs like Weight Watchers have helped millions achieve their goals.
In one study, those who went to meetings similar to Weight Watchers, lost more weight than those on doctor led programs.
Getting support from like-minded individuals who are on the same journey as you can be far more helpful and beneficial to your adherence and overall success.
Debrief
As you head off to shoot Rebels or Emperials on Hoth, Endor, or Tatooine in Battlefront remember if you want to achieve victory you need to protect your flank.
If you want to win your battle with fat loss, you need to be prepared for flank attacks.
Those attacks will come in many forms and you may fail or falter at times but as George S Patton once said:
I don’t measure a man’s success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.
Following the steps, I outlined above and working to protect and minimize damage on your flank can go a long way in achieving victory.
Distractions, infiltrations, and ambushes will happen. How we react to them and bounce back will determine whether we stand victorious in the end.
Join the Brotherhood and by clicking here and join a community of awesome nerds leveling up their health now.
