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.
How Long Does It Take To Achieve Noticeable Health & Fitness Results?
One of life’s realities is that significant improvements take time, they do not happen overnight. Yet when it comes to health and fitness we have been convinced that great results can occur in only 8 weeks or 12 weeks! How often do you see marketing on social media, in magazines and on TV for fitness challenges to get you in your best shape in 12 weeks? 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 and try one of two options. They try to cut corners and try extreme methods to speed things up or they simply give up. And it is not just the people trying to lose weight or get fit, we also see this same mentality with people suffering injuries that require a great deal of rehabilitation and work on their behalf. Many see this work as being too hard and taking too long and search for something to provide instant relief or someone to “fix them” instead. This short term approach only serves to create a much bigger long term problem. In this article I explain why long lasting results with health and fitness take considerable time and as a society we must begin to change our mindset to the way we look at exercise, nutrition, and changing lifestyle habits.