I have been a Personal Trainer based in Melbourne for over 20 years now and I would say without a doubt the number one obstacle preventing people from achieving their goals is TOO MUCH STRESS! I don’t know anyone who does not want to get results with their health and fitness goals, yet that is exactly what it seems like when I see my clients sabotaging their own goals by eating junk food, drinking too much alcohol, working too many hours, not drinking enough water, and so on. I could keep going and going but I think you get the point. For many years I had spent endless hours studying and paying big bucks to learn the latest exercise methods and techniques to provide the best Personal Training experience ever! However I was very frustrated with the lack of results my clients would achieve as no matter how hard the PT sessions were the little habits they did outside of the training negated any positive outcome. I soon came to the conclusion that I had to help them change their mindset and make small positive changes to the destructive habits they were stuck with. It is easy to label someone lazy or blame poor results on a lack of motivation, desire, willpower and willingness to stick to a plan when nobody has ever shown them how to find these attributes in the first place. In this article I will share with you some of the important lessons and tricks I learned over the years to help you avoid the trap so many fall into.
Aim for Consistency and NOT Perfection with Your Health & Fitness Goals
People assume that because I live and breathe health and fitness I never make a mistake, or I never feel the urge to eat a hamburger with fries eat a piece of cheesecake and a have few glasses of red wine with friends or my family. And if someone happens to see me out at a function doing exactly this they will tend to give me a funny look as if to say you cannot eat that. The following question will usually be something like – “that’s okay because you will probably go for a 15km run after this to burn off all the calories.” While it is true I do not regularly eat junk food or over-eat sugary desserts, I do not avoid them altogether. And I definitely do not use exercise as a form of punishment to burn off the calories. The secret to staying in great shape and still being able to enjoy the finer things in life is CONSISTENCY! This means you must be consistent with your exercise, consistent with your nutrition, consistent with your sleep, and all the various other lifestyle factors that contribute to good health. The people who achieve great health and fitness results are not perfect all of the time and they do not try to be. They accept mistakes are a part of life and understand the secret to success is to aim for consistency.
Focus On the Process Of Getting Into Shape Instead of Your Desired Results
Getting in shape is never easy and in the early stages it may seem like you are getting nowhere. Today’s modern world is moving so fast and technology has allowed us to get things at the click of button that we have come to expect instant gratification in just about everything we do. And when it doesn’t happen people become discouraged very quickly. Most health and fitness experts will tell you the best way to overcome this is to set specific goals you can measure that keep you on track and accountable. For a long time I preached this method too, and while I had some wins with this approach I had many more losses. I came to realize that success has more to do with the process of getting in shape instead of what you wanted. Instead of focusing on the end goal of losing weight or getting fit, I found it was more important to focus on the system you used to get there. In this article I am going to share with you how this change in mind-set can be a complete game changer to the way you approach everything to do with health and fitness.