You’re busier than you’ve ever been- Kids. Careers. Commutes. Life can feel really demanding-and you’re struggling to stay healthy and fit. You’ve come to terms with the fact that you don’t have the metabolism of your 18 year old self anymore and you wonder if you’re doomed to pack on the pounds because you’ve tried shakes, patches, pills, restriction, yo-yo dieting, and tons of cardio but nothing works. You must be cursed with the inability to achieve your fitness goals, right? WRONG. What you need to do is throw away those patches, pills, and yo-yo dieting habits and start eating real food, moving your body and develop new habits of consistency and self-accountability within the context of YOUR demanding life. So how do you start?
Consistency and self-accountability are rooted in reality meaning you must set a realistic goal, have a realistic plan, find realistic resources, and be prepared to meet the vulnerability and resistance within yourself when you commit to a goal and/or lifestyle change.
Set A Realistic Goal
Most people fail before they have even start because they set unrealistic goals for themselves like losing 30lbs in 10 days by only eating 500 calories a day and doing 3 hours of cardio. It’s impossible to stay consistent and hold yourself accountable when you are trying outlandish and unstainable methods to try and drop weight fast. Your body will almost immediately turn against you sending signals for you to eat because it doesn’t care about your weight loss goal, it cares about keeping you alive, so start by setting a realistic goal.
Set a Realistic Plan
If you want to achieve a goal you need a realistic plan. Most people cannot spend two hours a day in the gym so determine what type of exercise will fit in to your life and commit to it. Get a personal trainer, hire an online coach, find an exercise buddy, join a group class, etc. Find an exercise you enjoy, set a schedule and commit. Does your exercise of choice align with your goals? If not determine which one needs to be adjusted and set the plan.
Find Realistic Resources
If you don’t know how to lift a weight properly you will likely not set a squat PR (safely). If you don’t know how to eat for your goals you will most likely not achieve your goals. Do your research to find who can best support you on the path to achieving your goals and be open to learning about their methods, which leads me to the final and most important point about increasing consistency and self-accountability. Once you have set your realistic goal, made your realistic plan, and found your resources….have a plan for when you meet self-resistance, vulnerability, and doubt because these are the biggest obstacles in achieving weight loss and fitness goals.
Self-Resistance
Weight loss is not physical, it is mental. Most people will meet self-resistance in their journey at some point in trying to achieve their fitness goals for a multitude of reasons (past with an eating disorder, poor self-image, inexperience, stress, etc). What this means is you need to have a plan in place for when you meet that self-resistance so you can push past it and move closer to achieving your goals. Sit with yourself and determine what it is that’s holding you back, is it something you can tackle yourself (i.e. stop keeping candy in the house) or is it something that needs professional attention (i.e. unresolved eating disorder or emotional issues). Whatever it is take it upon yourself to work on resolving those issues and stop waiting for them to resolve themselves because that is not realistic. If you are your own biggest obstacle, find out why, meet that resistance and tackle it. It is important to be realistic with yourself about what is REALLY keeping you from your health and fitness goals which is why self-accountability and consistency are rooted in reality.
Now go out and smash some fears and achieve some goals!
