Picture the first time you fell in love.

When was the exact moment that it happened? What was the ONE thing that did it? That one thing that had you know, without question, that this was love and this was going to last.

When was the day that you became overweight?

That one moment when suddenly you were no longer fit, you were fat. Which meal exactly was it that caused that precise moment?

Here’s the problem. It likely wasn’t one moment.

Imagine you decide to get fit and start an exercise program. You go to the gym, take a great class, have fun, sweat, meet great people and work hard! Awesome! Then you go home, strip down and look at yourself in the mirror.

Nothing. The next day you eat a salad instead of a fully loaded burger, and go for a big walk. Back to the mirror.

Nothing. Another class, another big sweat-fest, more healthy eating, choosing water instead of pop. This time in the mirror……nothing.

Yet you KNOW that people have gotten in great shape, you know that people have changed, so why the nothing?

The truth is, it takes time, and what you are seeing in the mirror isn’t actually ‘nothing’, it’s just really, really, really, subtle, or even internal.

You cannot see muscles restructuring, hormones changing production, fat metabolizing and all the other magic that is happening, but rest assured it IS happening!

The changes are just too slight to see, and every day you adjust to the slightly newer version in the mirror.

It is the same way with children. We see them every day and the growth is so slight, that we hardly notice. However, when your friends or relatives that have not seen your child in six months see them, it’s ‘WOW have you EVER grown!’

This is why we take ‘before photos’ and freeze time. Then we do ‘nothing’ day after day for three weeks, six weeks, 12 weeks, even a year.

At each interval of our choosing we take more photos and the ‘nothing’ becomes something! Really something!

I didn’t ‘suddenly’ fall in love with my wife 30 years ago.

We were friends. She was nice. And eight months of ‘nothing’ started to add up. The way she smiled, the way she talked and more importantly, listened.

The way she was always happy to see me, little notes she left me, and thousands of other insignificant little moments all added up. We went from friends, to dating, to proclaiming that magical sentence: I love you.

Getting fit is a process. It requires time. You won’t notice the changes each day. If you will simply trust in the ‘nothing’ and do what you know you need to do, day after day, the changes will come and the photos will show you! Your friends will notice. Your pants will tell you when they start threatening to fall down!!

A river rushing over a rock looks like nothing. Every single day. But over time it becomes the grand canyon.

I am where I am today because of nothing. Lots and lots of nothing.

Scott McDermott is a personal trainer and the owner of Best Body Fitness in Sylvan Lake.