Patience and a dose of realism is the name of the game

To lose weight or kill big deer you need a healthy dose of patience 
and a realistic outlook.

I have never passed on as many deer as I did on the first three days of the 2014 Missouri firearms season.  It was a continuous parade of a few does and many small bucks.  Since I have pictures of a monster eight and ten point on the farm I was in no hurry to pull the trigger.  Still, it was very tempting when you have bucks literally camp out in front of your stand to pull the trigger and get that immediate gratification our society craves.  It was at that moment that I realized that there is a direct correlation between killing BIG deer and losing weight.  Think I am crazy?  Let me make the connections for you!

Have you ever had a plan then ditched that plan for something much, much easier?  Of course you have.  We have all done it.  It is a whole lot easier to snuggle on a couch eating cookies by the fire than it is to lace up your shoes and go for a walk or run, so if the choice is workout in the cold or sit by the fire, many are going to be throwing some extra logs on and hunker down for the night.  But diverting from your plan won’t make the pounds disappear.  The same can be said for diverting from the hunting strategy 
you developed for getting your chance to knock down that booner on your trail cam. When buck fever hits it is easy to shoot the first deer that walks by (which there is nothing wrong with) but if your goal is a wall hanger, burning a tag on a spike isn’t sticking to the plan.

And then there is the lure of the cupcakes.  They talk…no, they sing to you don’t they?Pretty tunes saying “go ahead and have one or two….or three.”  I typically don’t fall for the lure of sweets but it was awfully hard not to pull the trigger on a small buck on day two.   He literally paced a 60 yard line back and forth for 30 minutes grunting at every step.  I think now it was just pure meanness on the buck’s part and he should have been put down for tempting me but I resisted.  Can you say the same when it comes to avoiding temptation and staying strong in the face of a delectable treat that you know will derail your weight loss efforts?  What kind of self-talk do you have with yourself when it comes to derailing your nutrition and hunting strategy?  Better yet, do you try to justify it?

There is also a time commitment to both weight loss success and killing monster deer. TV has led us to believe that body fat melts off just by ordering the High Intensity Fat Burning Bikini Boot Camp DVD in a moment of late night weakness.  And if you watch a lot of hunting television (and don’t think it through) it is easy to think that the few seconds from the time the hunting personality climbs into the stand and a non-typical 12 point strolls by at 10 yards is 100% normal.  Now, I think we all have killed a deer or 
turkey mere moments after getting set up but I think we also know this is not the norm. Weight loss takes weeks and weeks of sticking to both exercise, nutrition and stress management strategies and most hunting personalities are sitting in trees from sun up to sun down in order to get that kill shot on film.  That’s right, by the time you are getting cold and are ready for coffee and a nap (for me that is about 9am) those folks are still sitting in a tree.  All day long in order to accomplish their mission.  Bottom line: If you aren’t willing to put in the time expect both the scale to stay the same and to kill small deer.

Still, there has to be a dose of realism with everything we do.  On day four of firearms season the BIG ten point busted me before shooting light.  My one chance at him was shot to heck.  Nevertheless, I stayed vigilant and harvested a very respectable three year old seven point.  Did I want that ten?  More than anything but I was also presented an opportunity to harvest a nice deer so I had a choice to make (I still have two bow tags so that ten isn’t safe just yet).  With weight loss, you will also reach a point where you need to be realistic.  I run into a lot of people who want the magazine cover, washboard abs 
(who doesn’t) but aside from a great deal of air brushing, one has to understand that these models have:

1. Outstanding genetics
2. Exercise 5-6 days/week for 60+ min per session
3. Have an impeccably clean eating strategy

Most of us don’t want to or cannot adhere to such a stringent plan but we can achieve a lean, toned physique, lose weight and feel great!  Just keep in mind there is a big difference in what we see in media regarding what it takes to get that cover model physique and a monster buck.  Stay committed but also be realistic.

At Fit To Hunt we have always found that when you can correlate situations in other areas of life to a health, fitness or weight loss goal, it helps the client look at their objective in terms they can relate to and this is no different.  To lose weight or kill big deer it takes patience and a realistic outlook.

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