The Gutter Ball Diet

This weekend I have been down in Shellharbour with my girlfriend Kiki and her family.

Shellharbour is about two hour drive south from Sydney.

We stayed Friday night and on Saturday decided to go bowling with her sister (Katie) and sisters husband (Jamie).

I love bowling but have always sucked. BAD.

I was looking forward to it because I'm competitive, so I really just wanted any chance to somehow win something.

First bowl of the night went to me.

If you don't speak 'bowling language', a spare is when you hit all the pins down in two shots and a strike is when you do it in one.

Opened with the best bowl of my night... a spare.

No one else beat my score for the first bowl so I knew that it was going to be an easy win from here on in.

To cut a long story short, I was completely wrong.

A lot of gutter balls later and some frustrated bowls hitting nothing but air, I lost both games.

I sucked.

When Jamie bowled it was like watching a graceful swan fly through the air.

When I bowled it looked like the swan was drunk and had one clipped wing.

Jamie was bowling strike after strike, getting better as the night progressed.

I started off with a spare but as the night went on, I crumbled.

I tried to muscle my way through the bowling alley but the harder I threw the ball, the worse I was.

Just like the diet that never lasts, I went too hard too early.

I was forcing the throw instead of being patient and trusting the process.

Bowling isn't about how hard you can throw the ball, it's about how you flow and trust the process.

JUST LIKE

Dieting isn't about how much you can starve yourself to force the weight loss, it's about making changes to your physical activity, nutrition and lifestyle to create a calorie deficit and lose weight.

Trying hard is not the issue, always give a 100%.

Forcing a result is.