Day 1: (Monday, of course) You have spent the weekend on a solo eating mission clearing out the fridge and pantry to ensure there are no ‘bad’ foods left and to ensure all temptation has been removed. Your gym gear is ready to go and you feel energised, excited and ready to go.
Week 1: Good start, only a few ‘slip ups’ hit the gym every day, body feels like an old rusty car struggling to move, but you’re on a roll, can’t stop now. Week 2: Pretty good week, ok in fact. Training was on track, only a handful of mishaps with food Week 3/4: Step on the scales (just to check), not the 10kg that you expected, decide to have a ‘treat’ because it’s not worth it, it’s not working. (Meanwhile you’re weight is more of a reflection of stress/sleep or the fact that you may be due for your cycle any day now causing fluid retention and a fluctuation in weight). One meal turns into a block of caramilk and half a bottle of Pinot.
Week 4/5: after a week of hanging out in pity town, you’ve come to the realisation that it’s just a motivation issue, you just don’t feel motivated and find it hard to stay consistent... and also because you have children and you need wine. Been there before? Or somewhere similar?
There’s so much to unpack with this scenario and something that I discuss with members and friends all the time.
Firstly, let’s make it clear that there’s no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ foods or ‘treats’ everything has its place. Sure some things may be more optimal than others for your health and goals, however context is king, the poison is in the dosage. You can still achieve realistic body composition goals whilst drinking wine or having chocolate.
The moment you label foods/drinks like this we then attach a judgment or create a story around every time we eat or drink that food. Which then creates an ongoing restrict > binge > guilt> punish cycle. Stop it! Calorie balance is what matters. Think of it like a petrol tank. You have a certain amount of fuel (calories) that you can fill that tank with before it overflows (converts to body fat), if you drive (exercise) you will burn some of it, (or you can just under fill it slightly and you’ll burn body fat)
So long as you fill it mostly with premium fuel, it’s not going to matter if you choose the cheaper option to top it up.
Now that we’ve clarified the food part of this article, let’s now talk about motivation and consistency.
The fact is motivation is good for one thing~ to get you started. If you’re still needing motivation to keep you going to the gym 4+ weeks down the track, you have a short term mindset around your goals and your body.
Consistency (sticking to the daily habits/rituals) occurs when you move away from motivation and into commitment.
Achieving anything (health, business or life) requires a 100% - ‘all chips In’ (not actual chips 🍟) approach to your habits, even in the absence of motivation.
Michael Jordan didn’t ‘feel like’ training every day, but he was committed to the habit of training.
J-lo probably didn’t feel like singing or performing every day, but she did the work to succeed regardless.
If you want to progress, break your goals down into weekly/daily habits (or smaller goals). Commit to achieving these no matter what happens.
Tip 💡 - make these habits achievable. You will build momentum the more you achieve. Often we set the goals way to big, and set ourselves up for failure, further perpetuating the ‘im not good enough’ story.
Set the game up to win. Build on it, challenge yourself more.
It’s time to move way from ‘this month, that wedding, Monday/Jan 1st’ and start moving toward: ‘what can I do, what choices can I make TODAY, to move myself forward’
