Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

Last month, I wrote about this song and why I put it on my workout playlist.

• Starling Fitness » Monday Music Motivation: Week One

Everything You Know Is Wrong by Weird Al Yankovic: This song is kind of silly and the verses sing about everything EXCEPT working out (unless you count the Almighty running past your room in heaven). The chorus, however, reminds me that sometimes I believe things that aren’t true. If I’m feeling like I can’t finish my workout, listening to this song is really good at showing me that I might be wrong.

Apparently, this concept is new and can be a revelation to some. Here is a TED Talk about this very idea from Derek Sivers:

I love this quote from him:

I love that sometimes we need to go to the opposite side of the world to realize assumptions that we didn’t even know we had and realize that the opposite may also be true.

• Derek Sivers, TED Talk: Weird, or just different? Nov 2009

It’s the truth. Everything you know is wrong. If you think diets don’t work, then you’re wrong. If you think exercise makes you hungry, then you’re wrong. If you think your diet is the perfect one for everybody, then you’re wrong. If you think hard exercise is the best way to lose weight, then you’re wrong. No matter what you think about diet and fitness, you’re wrong. There is always someone out there who does well on a wacky diet. There is always someone out there who reacts to exercise differently. We are such a diverse species that there is a way for everything to work and there is a way for everything to fail.

You need to find what works for you and keep doing it until it doesn’t work anymore and then start the process all over again.

The next time that you feel like you can’t follow your diet anymore, repeat to yourself, “Everything you know is wrong.” The next time you feel like you are going to stop your workout before it’s finished, repeat to yourself, “Everything you know is wrong.” Make it your mantra any time that little voice inside your head is telling you that you cannot do something and you’ll find out all the different ways you have been wrong your entire life.