Stop.
Yes, I'm talking to you.
Stop...
- Doubting yourself, backing down and turning away, saying it's too difficult
- Seeing yourself negatively, as inferior, unworthy or unable
- Telling yourself that you're not good enough and that you don't deserve it
- Second guessing yourself, your training methods and your nutrition setup
How can you expect to progress if you don't even believe in yourself and what you are doing?
How can you:
- Stay motivated and focused on the task at hand?
- Push yourself to accept the challenge and conquer it?
- Adhere to your training, trust your methods and train with intensity?
- Stick to your diet and enjoy yourself?
Think about it.
How many times have you started out with good intentions only to sabotage yourself by?
A. Straying from your nutrition plan only to become racked with guilt and negativity?
B. Talking yourself out of training, promising that you'll do it tomorrow, only for tomorrow to never come?
C. Telling yourself that it's just not working, that you're not making any or fast enough progress?
D. Giving up, only to start all over again with a different programme promising it'll be different this time?
It is time for shift in your thinking and your focus.
At this moment like everyone else you are probably laser focused on your end goal. You know, that thing you will achieve where suddenly everything will be different and better.
Sadly, this is not the case.
You see your end goal, regardless of its aim is not a magic fix, a miracle cure or the fast track to happiness.
Thinking like this is a fundamental mistake and you need to revolutionise the way you view fitness.
Instead of getting caught up in your end goal, reorder your priorities and readjust your mindset to ease your path to success.
How you ask?
Let's take a look.
Training
Photo credit: pexels.com
Have an overarching long-term goal, something to aim for, then structure medium-term goals to help you reach this point, then break it down even further with short-term goals.
These short-term goals will be your primary focus above anything else, they will be your indicators day to day and week to week that you are on the right track and progressing.
You should be focused on these day to day, week to week changes as a matter of priority, this allows you a real-time view of what's going on. For example, are increasing your reps, sets or load lifted in each workout?
How should you track progress?
Month to month you should be recording and comparing your body measurements.
The waist is a good indicator of weight gain or loss and recording measurements of the main muscle groups will indicate any increase in muscle size.
Take photos weekly and then compare them at the end of each month, are they tallying with what the rest of the data is saying?
For a great real-time snapshot of your progress track your weight by weighing yourself daily under the same conditions and take a weekly average.
Nutrition
Photo credit: pexels.com
Allow yourself the freedom and ability to include foods you like at times and in quantities that work for you. Don't restrict or limit yourself and your diet will become a breeze.
No longer will you feel guilty for eating something, no longer will you have to break out of the confines of your diet to eat foods you enjoy. You can and should eat with confidence, knowing that everything you are doing is contributing in a meaningful and positive way to your goal.
Realise that calories can be viewed in a weekly as well as a daily capacity. If you exceed your allowance one day, don't sweat it, these things naturally work themselves out over the week.
In reality you will probably find that some days you are 100 calories or so over or under your allowance. This is absolutely ok and in some ways encouraged as it gives you a bit more flexibility over the week.
Remember our bodies need time to sense a change in calorie intake, it's not a daily process. So, if you go a little over one day and a little under the next, come the end of the week things will even out.
This goes for macronutrients as well, if you overeat on carbohydrates on one day and then under eat another, it too will even out by the end of the week.
Good to know right!
Mindset
Photo credit: pexels.com
Think about the process of working out.
It's a collection of progressive behaviours and actions than bring about incremental changes that over a prolonged period result in huge differences.
Knowing this you should realise that true progress is measured and slow and that crafting the body you've always wanted is a commitment that can take months or possibly years depending on your start point.
Hopefully, you'll now begin to realise that most of your time will be spent in the 'journey' stage on the path to your end goal. Even then, when you reach your goal you will probably want to set another one and the process will begin again.
This is why it's SO important to accept where you are at this point in time, be happy with who you are and be safe in the knowledge that you are working towards a better, stronger, sexier you and a more positive future.
Summing up
Take it day by day, believe in yourself and what you are capable of now and will be capable of in the future.
Embrace these ideas you won't be able to do anything but succeed and that is freaking awesome!