Unfortunately, fitness is something which is thought of as a luxury, a short term thing, and the first thing to hit the chopping block when time or money becomes tight.
In reality, fitness [and health for that matter] is integral in everything you do in life. Period. Full stop.
By improving your level of fitness you are improving your physical life, your emotional life, and your psychological life. Here are some truths about fitness for you to be mindful of:
1 – Outcomes vs Processes
Having a weight loss goal is great. Leveraging that weight loss goal as a means to build the habit of taking care of yourself is even better. In the bigger picture, all of this comes down to making this a part of who you are.
Put another way, leverage outcome goals [initially] to build the processes you will stick with for a lifetime.
For Example:
If my goal is to lose 20 pounds by my wedding at the end of the summer, I might employ things like going for walks twice per week, strength training twice per week, and making changes to my daily nutrition.
Well, if these changes are manageable for 4 months, why couldn’t they be done beyond that. Here’s the good part… 4 months is enough time for these things to actually stick and the wedding is enough of a pull that you’ll stay on track to help them stick.
Other good things will happen on the way to your wedding…
- Your blood markers improve (blood pressure, blood sugar, etc.)
- You get to buy a new wardrobe because your clothes are too big
- You don’t get winded taking the stairs anymore
- You’re noticing you have more energy
- You have a higher tolerance for stressful situations
- You are generally in a better mood throughout the day
2 – Celebrate Your Fitness Wins
When you first start working out, and keeping an eye on your nutrition, your wins generally show up quickly. The longer you train, the more you realize this stuff takes more and more time. And while I am not a believer in motivation as a key driver, sometimes it’s nice to have a little boost in motivation.
Enter ‘goal setting.’
Want a piece of advice from someone who has worked out for nearly 30 years and trained people [professionally] for the last 15? Set more than just your ‘A to Z’ goals.
An example of an ‘A to Z’ goal might be the 20 pounds we were talking about above. But 20 pounds takes time and anyone who has ever tried to lose weight can tell you it is not as fast as you want it to be.
Set an ‘A to B’ goal instead. This could be losing 3 pounds by the end of next week.
Then a ‘B to C’ goal. Maybe this is 6 pounds by the end of the month.
Then a ‘C to D’ goal. This, then, is likely 9 pounds by the end of 6 weeks.
Do not forget to celebrate these wins. I will say it again for the kids in the back… DO NOT FORGET TO CELEBRATE THESE WINS.
A common way to derail yourself is forgetting to look back at how far you’ve come. I cannot tell you how frustrating it is [as a trainer] to see someone who has made major progress only to quit because they haven’t made it to their ‘Z’ yet. They somehow forgot they made it from ‘A’ all the way to ‘X.’
So, one more time if you missed it: DO NOT FORGET TO CELEBRATE YOUR WINS.
3 – If At First You Don’t Succeed…
…don’t try and do the exact same thing again. Change something in the formula and go at it again.
You can make this as complicated as you want but let’s keep it simple:
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Training + Nutrition + Recovery = Results
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Maybe you added some running during the week and your body changed for a month and then stopped. Ok, so try adding some strength training to the mix. Or maybe make some nutritional adjustments. Perhaps you should focus on better quality sleep if you cannot get additional sleep.
There are [probably] an infinite number of ways to adjust this formula to balance out your daily habits to get the results you want. But the point is, don’t do the exact same thing that got you to where you are. This exact same thing will not work to get you where you want to go.
And if you feel like you’ve hit a plateau, we’d be happy to sit down with you to help you come up with a plan. Click HERE to set up your consult.
My Point on Fitness?
Change your focus, enjoy the process, and make things work for you. And don’t forget to high five some people along the way!
