Change your thinking to achieve goals!

Stop following quick fixes

You are not following a program or diet that is sustainable!  I frequently have discussions with people that immediately tell me they are following “xyz” diet. The first question I always ask them is “is this something you can do forever?”.  99.9% of the time their answer is a glaring realization of “no!”

As humans, we are great at justifying the reasons we are doing things. So, sometimes I am also met with the response of “No, but I just need to get this 20 pounds off and then I’ll stop it.”

The problem isn’t that you won’t lose the weight, it’s that you won’t keep it off!  The quick fix diet is not going to teach you how to eat intuitively and maintain your ideal body.  At the end of the day, we want to be able to eat in a way that matches our lifestyle, yet yields us the body that we desire!

Change your thinking

Your idea of how to get “fit” is wrong!  This applies mostly to women but some of you guys are guilty of this too!  You know how you want to look. You like the round shoulders, the broad back, the curvy legs and glutes.  But the endless bodyweight squats, dying on the spin bike,  burpee after burpee after box step ups are not going to get you the body you are actually after. In order to have those shoulders, broad back, and nice legs, you need to put on as much muscle as possible!

You are not using steroids and your genetics are probably not perfect for putting on muscle. So, as much muscle for you as possible isn’t going to turn you into Schwarzenegger overnight. Especially when it comes to girls, you simply don’t have the testosterone and muscle building capabilities that a man does. As a result, you won’t look like them from lifting heavy. So cut back on all of the jumping around and bodyweight exercises. Go throw around some heavy weights in that foreign part of the gym!

Keep your diet

You are punishing yourself for messing up on your diet with cardio. You snuck a cookie last night that turned into a whole box. Then, you indulged that heaping bowl of ice cream just before bed. Or decided that one glass of wine wouldn’t hurt and ended up drinking a bottle. After all these you justify it to yourself. And say “I’ll just do some extra cardio tomorrow.”

The problem is that you probably consumed far more calories than an extra 20-30 minutes of cardio is even going to burn.  What you truly need to fix is figuring out why you broke your diet. Most likely it is that you are too restricted. Or, you haven’t adopted the mindset that you are in a fat loss phase and hunger is going to happen no matter what you do.

This isn’t always easy, I’ve dealt with it too. However, if you don’t change something, you will be stuck in the endless cycle of binging and punishment.  If you are not in a fat loss phase and this is happening then it is probably time to implement a reverse diet. Increase your maintenance calories so that you can enjoy that cookie, serving of ice cream, or glass of wine and not binge.

Set goals and achieve them

You are half in and half out of making a serious change in your life!  You know what you want. Know what you want to eat, look and feel better, be more confident, not be embarrassed by your body. However, you aren’t taking the plunge to make the changes you need to. You are operating on motivation of what you want. However, you haven’t developed the discipline to get you through the tough times.

This is a time to make big changes and stick to them. Understand what things throw you off track and eliminate them from your life.

For example, your buddies always go out on the weekends and you end up having too many beers and capping the night off with pizza. In this case I’ll tell you the harsh truth. You need to make new friends that are going to support your change!  If having a box of cookies or a tub of ice cream in the house leads you straight to binging then it’s time to throw them out until you learn how to enjoy them without binging. Or, if you made a commitment to go to the gym 5 days a week but something always seems to interrupt, then its time to make that gym appointment. Moreover, treat it just as important as any other appointment that you would make.

It is a non-negotiable time that you are taking to make a serious change in your life.  You get the idea now, you need to jump in, head first, and commit. Only then you will take yourself and your goals seriously. Others around you will finally support you the way you have been looking for!

Trainer to help you achieve your goals

I’ll be the first one to tell you that not all of these are easy to do!  It can be even harder with so much poor information floating around us 24/7. We either begin to doubt ourselves and our methods. Or we make excuses and justify why it’s okay that we aren’t reaching our goals.

This is why I utilize a coach that guides me through nutrition and training, I could certainly do this on my own, and I did for many years!  However, having that guidance, second set of eyes, and accountability, keeps me on track. As a result, I have made more progress in the last two years with a good coach than I did for the previous 7+ years on my own!

For some, the biggest hurdle in hiring a coach is giving up the control of their diet and training. For others it’s the financial commitment. I understand  that hiring a coach is an investment the same way that college was an investment to get the job you desired. You may get there on your own, but the path will be tough, unclear, and slow.  The goal of a coach is to speed up the process of getting you to your goals. Moreover, one of the trainer’s goals is to teach you along the way how to do it on your own so that you don’t need a coach forever.