There is a lot of regurgitated and recycled information thrown out by the fitness industry each year to help get you motivated and inspired to make a positive change in your Health & Fitness.
If you are persistent, you will get it. If you are consistent, you will keep it.
In my opinion, some of this information is beneficial but the majority will never have a significant impact on peoples lives and will never entice them to take the first step.
Why is this and why do people find it so difficult to make a permanent and positive change?
Here are my top tips to help you achieve your fitness goals:
1. Figure out the real reason you want to get in shape
This might sound silly but it is so important. I have spoken about this topic before but I felt it important to mention it again at this time of year.
Here is how you know if your reason why is ACTUALLY your reason why.
Over the years I have heard hundreds of reasons why people wanted to get in shape. Here are just some of those reasons;
- Lose weight and tone up
- Wedding coming up
- Holidays coming up
- A concerning health issue
Some of these are good reasons and some not so good. Before I explain why I just wanted to share something with you, which is, in my opinion the biggest determining factor in either your success or failure:
Your ability to be self-motivated on your journey to a healthier you is a direct reflection of your reason ‘WHY’.
What I mean by this is – if you find it easy to live a healthy lifestyle then you can be pretty sure that your reason ‘WHY’ is the correct one and is in direct alignment with your goals. This is generally reflected in how you choose to eat, how you choose to workout by continuously pushing yourself and stepping outside your comfort zone and by your lack of excuses.
On the other hand, an insufficient reason generally leads to excuses, lack of consistency with eating healthy and the need for cheat days and going through the motions with an exercise regime.
2. Have Realistic Expectations
Let’s cut out all the crap for a minute that is fed to you by the fitness industry. You are probably familiar with most if not all of these claims:
- A UNIQUE and SCIENTIFICALLY proven fitness regime that will help you Lose 10 lbs in a week
- Herbal remedies/green tea’s that simply SHRED fat
- Ab machines that will have you looking like the models demonstrating them in no time
And so it goes on…
Ask yourself the question – why do you think these products and services are marketed like this??
Answer: because they play on your insecurities and know that these ridiculous claims will draw you in.
The real path to achieving your Health and Fitness goals is long (preferably for the rest of your life) will not include any of the above but it will have good days and bad days, it will have times when you will feel unmotivated and certainly days when you are frustrated…
It’s not an easy journey and that is why having a strong enough reason for doing it and also having realistic expectations is vital to pull you though those tough times.
OK, so you are probably wondering at the point why I have only given two tips.
It’s simple really – these are the two most important determining factors to achieving your Health & Fitness goals.
All other tips including – staying positive, keeping a food and exercise journal, looking for support etc… are all just by products of what I have already discussed.
In my experience, problems generally arise when the latter are put before the former. It is the equivalent of trying to build a house without a foundation – failure is inevitable.
So I urge you to take the time to really explore why you want to get in shape or begin living a healthy lifestyle. Once you have figured this out you can create a plan to get you from where you are now to finally achieving your goals.
If you feel you are FINALLY ready to make the right changes in your health and fitness, please get in touch to book your free consultation.
To your health and fitness,
Ciarán
