So, how do we find success in any given endeavor we may take on in life? You can make a huge list of things such as education, training and experience, etc…. But the biggest factor towards success is learning to pay attention to detail in everything you encounter. Learning to be able to distinguish items which are not so obvious, yet lay there before your wide open yet blind eyes. Being able to pick out and identify the fine details that are over looked by most is the key. And then of course you need to know what to do with the fine details after you have identified them.

When I joined the Navy, attention to detail was the very first thing which the Company Commanders began pounding into our young skulls. Shit that would not matter to anyone else in the world all of a sudden carried great importance. Simple things like having all your boot laces uniformly laced right over left. Making your bunk and ensuring your sheets had crisp 45 degree angle folds in the four corners of your mattress with the blanket pulled tight enough you cold bounce a quarter off of it. Even ensuring that every time you took a step, you lead off with your right foot.

Later into your training and then into the fleet, everything task you performed required close attention to detail. If you were working on electrical components or hydraulic systems, you had better damn well have those systems locked out and tagged out for safety. There had better be the proper tag and locking mechanism in place before beginning work as one simple fuck up of someone energizing the system you were working on could result in death, injury or destruction of equipment. If you were an aircraft mechanic of any type, no matter how many times you had completed a function, you had your technical manual open and you used it step by step even for the most routine of tasks. Every little thing you took out to the aircraft was 100% accounted for before leaving the aircraft and if you trimmed any safety wire or clipped cotter pins, you knew that even those little items had to be accounted for as one little piece of metal lodged into a flight control could cause it to bind which could and likely would result in the death of an aircrew and the destruction of a multi-million dollar aircraft. Attention to detail in aviation maintenance is so critical that when you inspect a completed job as a quality assurance representative, you not only look over the job completed, including in process witnessing of adjustments and torques on connectors, you also used the 18 inch rule where you look over everything else which is within 18 inches of the job you just oversaw. It is all attention to detail.

What the hell does all this attention to detail talk have to do with weight loss, health and wellness? Simple it has everything in the world to do with these issues. Spend any amount of time on Weight Watchers social media Connect and you are going to be bombarded with tales of woe as to why folks can not lose weight. You are going to see a multitude of problems such as metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and other ailments that will ruin your day. You will also see tons of testimony from folks who have made the assumption that special snow flakes are quite real as they are one too. You know the type, my body is different from your body so therefore it is obviously easier for you because I am special. Every time I see this I wonder if the individual really got through basic junior high school biology. I’m here to tell you, I do not give a goddamn what you think you can or can not do in regards to weight loss, I can take anyone and place them on a well regimented diet and exercise routine and the pounds will drop off. This is done with fat military recruits who got past MEPS stations and actually arrived at Basic Training out of shape every day. Youngsters who think they are special are in for a rude awakening on day one when they are calorie restricted and made to exercise like there is no tomorrow. It’s not just calorie restriction, it is also a restriction of the types of food they can eat. No cake for you Fattie. The real issue is, are you willing to do what it takes to lose weight and get into shape, and can you pay attention to details. Can you learn to look for the not so obvious details that may hamper your progress. If you can identify what hinders you, are you willing to take the steps to get past the obstacle in your path. Or, are you going to sit there like a blubbering baby and proclaim you can;t because you are special?

If you have paid your fees to Weight Watchers and have a phone app or access to their web sight, you have all the tools you need to lose those jelly rolls from your waist and hips. The details are there for you to use with very little effort required on your part. When you open the app, you immediately open to where your daily intake of food is logged and all of your points available and those which have been used are on full display. If you are not losing, are you paying attention to those numbers.

When you enter your food, before you touch Track, everything you need to know about that item is provided for you. The calories, fat, carb and protein amounts along with the amount of sugar and fiber contained with in. If you are having troubles losing, have you paid any mind to these important details? Have you taken the time to figure out what your caloric intake should be based on your Base Metabolic Rate? This is another detail you should pay attention to. Do you track every morsel you toss down your pie hole such as nibbles from a cookie, that couple bites of cake or pie, the crust from your kids peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Have you gone to the refrigerator and took a few big drinks of milf straight from the jug when no one was looking and then not tracked it? Have you considered all these little details that you may intentionally or not have overlooked might be what is fat fucking you? This is all about paying attention to detail.

How about Fit Points? Did you read and understand the descriptor of a given intensity before you tracked your exercise? Did you track something as high intensity when the reality is you should have tracked it as low intensity.. How did you justify it if you did? Were you so out of breath you could not speak? Was your heart rate truly elevated to cause you to feel like you were barely able to breath? Did you assume this little detail did not matter much and track a low intensity exercise as high in order to gain a few more Fit Points in order to be able to snarf down a hot fudge sundae later in the day without feeling guilt? If you are bypassing these details innocently or on purpose, the result is the same. You are only hurting your own progress. Details matter.

I do not want to appear to not accept there are medically valid reasons why some folks have great difficulty in losing weight. That being said, when I hear something along the lines of Binge Eating Disorder or Metabolic Syndrome which I know to be a real thing, the first thing that comes to my mind is you have received a politically correct medical diagnosis because maybe the doctor was afraid to give you an uncomfortable truth instead of telling you what you need to hear. These diagnosis are not helpful as they lead people into believing they are special, they are unique in that they can not lose body fat. I say bullshit to this most of the time. If you have been given either of these diagnosis, are you truly willing to do what it takes to lose weight. Will you commit to yourself a life time of health and wellness? Will you do everything that is required to get there. Will you pay attention to detail in order to get there? If not, then why look for excuses to justify it? If you are sincere, excuses from yourself or anyone else would just be a load of horse crap. By giving excuses you are really saying “I will not” even though the words you speak are “I can’t”, and you know this to be true whether you admit it or not.

Looking at the pictures I placed up top, there is a reason I maintain at 9% body fat while having eaten all my Fit Points, and have gone into the hole with my weeklies already with my weigh in and reset not being until Saturday. Besides the fact I exercise vigorously and do not over rate my efforts, I track every thing I eat, no matter how small. At any given time of the day, I know exactly how many calories I have consumed along with the macro nutrient totals. I know my caloric needs required by my Base Metabolic Rate and I pay close attention to every detail. This is just habit now and a part of my daily routine which takes very little time or effort. If you want to tell me that you can not lose weight, how about trying my way of getting there. There is no doubt in my mind that anyone who works my methods will lose weight in a healthy manner. Its just a matter of paying attention to detail and are you willing to do it. I find that in the weight loss community it is similar to the strength training community. Everyone wants to look like they are strong until it comes time to do what it takes to truly be strong. What are you wiling to do for yourself, and or your family? What kind of example do you want to be for your kids to emulate? Do you want your kids to grow up fat and miserable too. If not, then do something and quit making excuses.

If you are in the No Excuses crowd, yet justify your friends excuses, are you truly being their friend? Just asking….