I currently have lots of opportunities to play doubles tennis with a lot of wonderful women. I find the interaction tremendously fun. So, because volleying is an integral part of doubles and since I want to be an asset to my “team,” I have been going to Mr. Tennis Pro to learn a bit about how to volley well. Being at the net, catching the ball on the fly, is something I have avoided for all of my tennis life.
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First thing Mr. Tennis Pro does is tell me to shift my grip.
Ok, now look here! I have been playing this game for years and this guy is telling me something that plainly just feels REALLY wrong?!? This can’t be right. Seriously…this feels counter-intuitive…worse. It doesn’t even make SENSE to me how this could be right. How can holding my racquet this way be a GOOD thing?
This is where my preference as a baseliner really comes through as the grip I typically use is the ONLY right grip for me. It is the one I have used for all the years of tennis I have played. You can’t mess with something that you are sooooo used to.
Hmm….
Do I want a different result? Do I want my “volleys” (using the term loosely for what was actually my slapping at the ball at the net) to be an effective offensive weapon in a match against opponents? Or do I want to patty-cake or, worse, hit the net or the back fence, thus giving point after point away? Do I want success badly enough to try something that feels SO cruddy?
So Mr. Tennis Pro starts pelting me at the net with balls, instructing me to trust him…put my hand on my racquet where he has shown me it needs to go, promising me that all will be good. Within moments, balls go off my racquet every which way. The “good” isn’t quick in coming. The promise is NOT realized! In fact, this is worse than before!
Mr. Tennis Pro says I have to trust him and, “Oh! By the way! Check your grip! It has slipped back to the old position!” …Yup, he is right. I have reverted to what is most comfortable. No wonder things aren’t working.
But even with my hand in the new position, progress isn’t instant. I can’t control the ball at all.
Frustration!
So this is where the old adage “It will get worse before it gets better” comes into play. Yet because Mr. Tennis Pro has been around for a long while and has helped a lot of players get better at volleys, I trust him. I am tempted to give up, but the promise lures me onward. I stick it out.
Lesson after lesson, practice session after practice session, match after match…guess what? I think I am finally seeing improvement! Last night and today I actually played three sets of doubles (for a total of six) and I actually hit volleys where I intended MORE than I didn’t! (This is a huge improvement!)
I wonder if many of us who struggle with extra weight on our bodies are like this with the Thin Within principles when we first start out.
Eating when hungry…
…stopping when no longer hungry…
…not worrying about WHAT…
…just when (when hungry)…
…and why (for nourishment, not as a recreational pastime)…
…just seem to go against everything we have ever done and everything we have ever “known” about how to lose weight.
But don’t we want *different* results than what we have gotten in the past? Not just to lose the extra weight we carry, but to keep it off?
Sort of like me with a volley at the net. I want something different–permanently. So I had to actually trust something that felt WRONG or WEIRD or went against what I thought I knew when I first committed myself to this course…and let it get worse before it gets better.
How about you? Have you given the 0 and 5 Thin Within principle a try? Have you given up or are you considering giving up? Does it just feel so *wrong*?
Maybe you need to trust the process. What if waiting for hunger isn’t wrong after all? What if eating the food you *want* to eat isn’t what makes you gain weight. What if eating foods you love when you are hungry and then stopping eating those same foods when you are no longer hungry will actually WORK–cause you to SUCCEED in your weight loss efforts–and in maintaining a healthy weight?
I know it has worked for me! I lost 100 pounds this way and have kept it off pretty much for four years so far. I have seen things that didn’t make *sense*…WORK!
Things may have to get worse before they get better. If you have been dieting as many years as I had been, I will be honest with you–all that freedom may trigger The Crazies! You may find yourself diving headlong into twelve hot fudge sundaes or plate upon plate of nachos with extra cheese (all ok to eat according to the Thin Within principles) or…well, whatever foods may have been on your “bad-for-you list.” The reality is, those foods aren’t bad for you. Overeating ANY food is “bad” for you!
So, why not try it? Eat whatever you like when you are physically hungry. Stop eating it when you are no longer physically hungry. Simple!
Like Mr. Tennis Pro encouraged me… trust me. This WILL work. Give it time!
Are you game? 🙂 
