Do you look the same if not worse every year? Do you train, workout, do physical activities, sports, cardio? Have you looked the same if not worse over the past 5 years? Do you get fit, get fat, get fit, get fat? If so, your plan is NOT working for you, it is working against you!!!
Here is what I want you to do. Everyone takes selfies or has had someone take a photo of you. Find 1 photo from each of your last 5 years. Seriously, look back at pictures over your past 5 years, do you see physique improvements? Pick some improvements out that you like. Now pick some out that you need to work on. Now analyze each of your yearly pictures by telling a story for each picture that is a paragraph in length. Made up Example: Year 1 Picture = totally out of shape. Got a coach, had a workout & nutrition plan, made habit changes, lost 40 inches and lost 25lbs. Went on my first planned holiday happy. Going to try a new gym when I get back and new challenges. Year 2 Picture = tried a new gym, I was hit and miss, not doing activities or cardio. Nutrition has gone out the window, but always tried to eat right at the start of the day, yet fell apart at night and the weekends. Pissed that this happened after all the hard work. Year 3 Picture = the same as year 2, if not worse. Just could not get any momentum and pushed myself hard every week, the scale did not budge. I Did 4 class workouts per week. I also did cardio classes at numerous gyms all over the city 4-5 x per week. Nutrition was hit and miss; I start my day really well, then again it falls apart at night or when the weekend hits and go out with my friends. Year 4 Picture = worse than year 3. Tried 3 new bootcamp gyms, nothing seems to work. I workout hard every session to the point exhaustion. I was tired all the time, could not sleep at all. I drank coffee all day. I tried this new diet with my friends, I lasted two weeks and lied to them saying I did it 100% because I did not want to look like a failure after seeing great results a few years ago. I took up running and ran my first 5k. I then got bad shin splits and plantar fasciitis. Year 5 Picture = the same as year 4. Totally lost. My doctor said my blood work was atrocious. Bought a regular gym pass, maybe did one weight training workout per week, always felt lost. I just did cardio on the fancy cardio machines and some abs 3-4 times per week. My nutrition was all over the map. I tried cutting all carbs out, that lasted 2 days, binge eating followed every time. I could not focus on the smallest tasks. My goal was to run my first 10k, but my feet and shins hurt so bad every run, that did not happen.
Sound familiar? Everyone will have their own fitness journey and story to tell, but did you learn from those adventures! People want the quick fix! They want to be minimalists in effort, yet want maximal results! Everyone must be individualized to their nutrition and workout plan to see success! Think about that! If you hate your meals, are you going to stick to them? If you hate your workouts, are you going to keep progressing or are you going to make excuses to not try hard or just blame something or someone else for your lack of effort?
What went wrong? To sum it up without this being a huge post, let’s do a small breakdown.
Year 1 = they started great by getting help from a qualified coach with workouts and nutrition. Made some positive and supportive habit changes. Had accountability, guidance, and was super focused on attaining their goal. But was their intent on sticking with this long term? We find out they had a goal of a holiday, but was there a long term plan? No, not that we can see, just the thought of trying another gym or harder workouts. Year 2-5 = Tried the new gyms, tried running, tried cardio and bootcamp classes but no progress, tried to workout out super hard. *Listen, let’s just get to the point: anyone can workout hard, get their heart rate up, sweat a little bit, get their breathing labored, but the focus on nutrition and creating supportive habits to their training and lifestyle were totally missing! You cannot out train poor nutrition and lifestyle habits! Read that again!
I have seen this over and over again with people. They will hit workouts and do those training sessions like they are their last workouts of their lives! They will even do extra after their training and more on top of that!!! WHY? Because they know, they ate like garbage and drank a bunch of booze, but yet want to get ripped in one workout session to fix there poor lifestyle habits! That is an illness IMO!
Do you think they would ever change their lifestyle habits, their nutrition, increase their recovery and sleep regeneration? We rarely see that happen! Everyone knows their nutrition needs work and they need less stress, but to most of us we make this The Mount Everest of efforts in our heads so we never want to climb that mountain! Look back at your photos the last 5 years and tell a story about how you did! The info is right there! The secret is, YOU can change all of that if you put in as much effort as you put into your workouts into nutrition and upgrading lifestyle habits / recovery!!!
Ask yourself these: Looking back at your years….. Where did you see success? Why did that success occur? Did you fall off the wagon? Why did you fall off the wagon? How can you improve to not fall off again? What did you like about your success? What did you not like about your success? How can we turn those dislikes into more successes?
Here are some helpful tips to get you started: - Stick to the same workout program for minimum 4 weeks. Track results. Once results start to slow, time to change the program! Program hoping is one of the worst ways to see progress! - Track your nutrition! This will give you an exact spreadsheet and intel on where you are, showing you what you eat and how much you eat via macros. - DO NOT go 100%, Create a plan to BE 100% If you have not worked out successfully for years, choose a 4 week goal that you can be successful at! This could be 1 total body workout and 6 x 10min walks per day! Be proud of yourself after you have attained this and then create a small bump up in progression for your new 4 week goal!
***The above goes for nutrition as well. Altering your meals to just clean them up by 10-15% can help see results. WHAT does NOT work! Going from eating poorly to eating Chicken and Broccoli every day and thinking you will stick to this!!!!!! So, if you started your day with 3 sugars and imitation hazelnut cream in your coffee. Start by having 8oz water, then have your new coffee by lowering the sugars to 1-2 and slowly change out the hazelnut for real cream. The goal here is to improve slowly and still have you enjoy your coffee while making improvements every 4 weeks.
Remember! You must enjoy your meals & food or your will not look forward to them! You must always continue to Improve every 4 weeks! Anyone can workout hard! Be the person who recovers and fuels their life for results & longevity! DO NOT go 100%. Create a plan to BE 100%!
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