5 Guaranteed Ways to Fail on Your Fitness Goals
Halloween Weekend.
The start of the downfall for most people with great intentions of improving their health and fitness. Everyone knows eating a bunch of candy is not the best approach.
Hell, Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming up....Might as well pack it in and "start" on the New Year with all the holidays in the rear view mirror.
Maybe start a 6 Week "Challenge" or a 3 day "Detox".
Or how about you be honest and realize that all the holidays are really just 4 days in a 2 month span. How about doing what ever you want those 4 days (guilt-free) and being healthy, and committed to your goals on the other days.
No need to sabatoge a whole 2 months.
It is not all your fault, though.
The fitness industry is much too blame. The extremes are what sell and most gyms and training programs know this. They love telling you how you can get in amazing shape in 6 weeks or lose 10 pounds in 3 days.
Who wouldn't want it to work like that?
The reality is that true FAT loss that trends toward not gaining it back is losing at a BEST CASE scenario of 2 pounds a week. In my experience 1.5 pounds a week ends up being the average with people who have about 40-80 pounds of fat to lose. 20 or less will be even slower.
Stop worrying so much about the extremes and all the headlines. Prevent the pitfalls and think of this as your "to don't list"
Coastal Strength & Fitness' 5 Guaranteed Ways to Fail on Your Fitness Goals
1. Focus only on the scale
If you are changing your habits and staying focused 80% of the time you will see results over the weeks and months. Weighing yourself daily is only going to cause more stress in addition to work, school, family, etc.
Check in one day a week at the most and do not judge your weight, just observe it. No need to get super up or down with your emotions, just make note of it and make any adjustments with your diet as needed when you notice a trend over a couple weeks.
2. Worry about what other people think.
A lot of people get in a good routine only to be derailed by co-workers bringing in doughnuts or making fun of their grilled chicken salad for lunch everyday.
Who cares. I make fun of the guy who is tearing up the dance floor at weddings.
Why?
Because I wish I could dance like that.
You co-workers just wish they had the dedication and commitment to stick to their goals and just want to bring you down. At the end of the day their should only be a small handful of people who's opinions matter to you. I promise those people want you to be healthy & happy.
3. Attempt to do everything too soon.
Alright my trainer gave me this transformation plan! Tomorrow is Day 1....
I am going to workout 5 days a week, plus double sessions on 3 of those days, then I am going to eat 5 meals a day and this exact amount of food each meal, each day, each week as prescribed!
Look familiar?
Yeah, we all know how that ends.
Go slowly, build habits. Start working on making it to the gym 3 days a week and eating more protein.
Worry about nothing else until you do those without batting an eye.
4. Un-Mastered
Try everything, master nothing.
Does your workout program have you doing a million different exercises and ALWAYS changing so you have "muscle confusion"?
Do you have a fancy cookbook with dozens of different recipes that have a dozen different ingredients?
This is another common route to failure. Everything will always feel difficult and impossible to grasp.
Stick to the proven basics and master them in the gym and in the kitchen. Everyone should be able to do proper pushups, rows, squats, and hinges..... yet I see people who have been training for YEARS and can not do them and/or do them wrong.
FInd 5 simple recipes that you enjoy and master them to make your meal planning for the week stress and worry free.
5. Listen to people who don't walk the walk
Always trying something different or does your gym or trainer have some fresh new way of doing things all the time?
Do the people at your gym leave a little to be desired in the inspiration category or maybe lead a lifestyle you know is impossible to duplicate?
This is all too common and unfortunate. Most trainers live by the "do as I say, not as I do" motto.
Luckily, this is easy to figure out and if you feel it is a bit smoke & mirrors.... run the other direction!
Be careful who you surround yourself with, Real recognize real.
Now that you know exactly how to fail, you can avoid these common mistakes of the healthy & fitness game.
If you are looking for a gym that is real, and dedicated to providing a sustainable, fun, results producing environment then schedule your strategy session today and try us out for a month.