Know when to fold ’em

Good post from Josh Hillis today, about knowing when to quit. He’s more focused on getting women “bikini-ready”, but nevertheless the underlying concept is good — that you should understand:

• what reality looks like — what a fit body truly is
• how a fit body stacks up against the rest of the world (hint: 20% body fat is pretty good!)
• you should celebrate your accomplishments — modest as they may seem to you

As he writes, “Here is the problem: You actually don’t have any idea of what you look like. Sometimes you feel fat and gross, sometimes you feel skinny and hot, and neither is entirely connected to reality.” This is especially true for folks who don’t spend a lot of time in the world of athletic training, because they don’t have the context nor experience to properly evaluate things like “strong” or “fit” or “lean”.

We don’t know what fit women really look like. They sure as heck don’t look like magazine cover models. (And even magazine cover models don’t look like magazine cover models, as the example of Heidi Montag illustrates.)

If you’ve achieved a certain (fairly moderate) set of goals, he writes, you’re already a rockstar and there is nothing left to fix. Keep up the great work! YEAH!