Is this you? Have you ever felt this way…?
I’m leaving for Italy this afternoon. Some of my clients are having an anxiety attack because I’ll be away for 3 weeks. I’m assuring them not to fret – because I will be in CLOSE contact watching their every move…hahaha đ Seriously though, I thought this would be a great post to share with you during my 3 week hiatus.
My coach, Ray, owner of Fit Body Bootcamp Markham and Vaughan, shared this from Nate Green at Precision Nutrition. I wanted to share it with you because I know that many of you will resonate with it when it comes to struggling with our fitness goals. It’s often like pulling teeth. We feel the frustration on both sides, as the trainer and the client. It’s a vicious cycle that even I experience from time to time.
I agree with every word he says. From my decade plus of experience in the fitness industry, I have found that people are usually willing to exercise and for the most part, people know what is ‘good and bad’ food.
What people struggle with most is consistency and motivation, not acquiring the knowledge.
This article will help you with some of those struggles. But, it’s a bit long and will take you about 5-7 minutes to read.
But if you make it to the end, I’ll have something special for you! đ
Happy bathroom reading!
If youâre active and knowledgeable about health and fitness, but still arenât quite in shape like you think you could be, youâre probably just missing one or two crucial pieces. In this post Iâll tell you what those are â and share two key strategies for getting on track.
You try to eat well and exercise. Youâre pretty smart and knowledgable about fitness. You know what you need to do. But you still donât lookâor feelâthe way you want to.
Hereâs the good news: this is nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, youâre probably a lot closer than you think. And, in this post, Iâll share two key strategies for getting on track.
âI work out a lot, but I still have this layer of fat around my stomach. Can you look at my photos? What do you think I should do?â
That was the last paragraph in a Facebook message I got recently, sent by a gentleman I met at a fitness seminar.
Now, being asked to look at physique photos and give exercise or nutrition advice may seem weird, but it actually happens a lot. And not just to me, but to all of our coaches.
These kinds of requests generally come from people who are knowledgeable about fitness. Some of them are fitness pros. Some have a little experience, some have a lot. Regardless, they are facing one or two uncomfortable things:
- Theyâre not being as consistent with exercise and eating as theyâd like and are having a hard time sticking to things.
- Theyâre not getting the results they should based on how much they know about working out and eating healthy.
As I read his note, I realized he shared a lot of similarities with the men and women we help here at Precision Nutrition.
- He admitted that when things get busy, itâs hard for him to be consistent.He frequently gets off track with his eating and he skips his workouts.
- He told me he had tried a bunch of different workout programs and diets and knew what to do. But he was missing something important, something that could help make a difference.
- He was a bit frustrated and embarrassed. He felt like he should have a better body to show for his knowledge and hard work. He was reaching out to me for a solution that could turn everything around.
And as it turned out, I knew exactly what he needed.
Why I knew what he needed
Now before I tell you what I told him, let me share why I had the solution to his problem.
Most people who visit Precision Nutrition donât know this, but a good number of our clients arenât complete beginners. Indeed, we have plenty of âintermediateâ or âadvancedâ folks who come to us for help.
Of course, we still loveâand take great care ofâour beginner clients. However, many of our clients:
Already read articles on working out and nutrition. They exercise. They eat healthy, or at least try to. Most are the go-to âfitness expertâ for their family and friends. Some are even personal trainers.
Are people who should be in great shape. And maybe at one point, they were in great shape, but now theyâre having a tough time. Men and women whoâve become frustrated with a body thatâs not as lean, strong, fit or healthy as they know it could be.
And because weâve worked with thousands of experienced clients just like themâhelping them get healthier and into the best shape of their livesâI knew exactly what he was missing.
The âmissing linkâ to having your best body
Once you reach a certain level of knowledge and experience, the missing link is no longer a new exercise program, the perfect nutrition plan, or a new supplement to try.
The one thing youâre missing is this: being accountableâto someone or somethingâfor your workouts and nutrition.
âAccountability is the acknowledgment of responsibility for your actions with the obligation to report, explain, and be responsible for the resulting consequences.â
In other words, accountability keeps you consistent because you have to report back what youâre doingâor not doingâin the gym and in the kitchen to someone else.
In fact, accountability is more important than personal motivation for this simple reason:
No one always feels motivated to go to the gym or eat healthy.
But if we have someone whoâs checking up on us to see how things are going, weâll get our butt in gear. Even if we donât feel motivated in the moment.
We actually do the exerciseâand eat the foodâneeded to look and feel great. And we do it over and over again, even when the going gets tough.
Thatâs why you can know exactly what to do. And you can even do itâexercise, eat good food, get eight hours of sleepâfor short bursts. But you can still end up struggling.
Simply put: if you canât be consistent, you canât make progress.
And thatâs why accountabilityânot the perfect exercise or eating programâis the thing that turns everything around. (Heck, maybe it can turn things around for you.)
So, the big question? How do you get accountability?
Here are two strategies you can use immediately.
Accountability strategy #1:
Commit to more⌠and/or less.
To be consistent, you need to commit to more, and/or less. Let me explain what I mean.
We all make half-hearted promises to ourselves, only to get frustrated and break them soon after. And thatâs fine (and understandable). But for a different result, we need a different sort of commitment.
Option 1: Commit to more.
The idea is to commit to something bigger than yourself. Bonus points if you can make it fun.
One of the easiest ways is to set up a contest with friends. Who can go the longest without skipping an exercise day? Who can cook the most meals at home instead of eating out?
Notice that itâs not about achievement (who lost the most weight, etc.). Itâs about doing.
Focus on and reward yourself for what you do (going to the gym, cooking a meal), not what you achieve, at least at first. Because thatâs what you have immediate control over.
What do you think you can accomplish with just one month of consistent workouts and healthy eating? What about one year?
Option 2: Commit to less.
This is the tough one. Our natural tendency is to overpromise and underdeliver, especially to ourselves. One of the easiest (and most counter-intuitive) ways to stay consistent is to do the opposite.
Underpromise and overdeliver. Consider every promise youâre about to make to yourself a rough, first draft.
Before truly committing, ask yourself, âOn a scale of 1-10, how confident am I that I could do this every day for the next 30 days?â
If your gut reaction is anything other than â9â or â10â, find a way to make that promise smaller or easier.
E.g., turn âIâll cut out sugar every dayâ into:
- âIâll stop eating each meal when Iâm 80% full.â
Eat what youâre already eating, just slightly less. - âIâll eat one (more) home-made meal a day.â
Focus on mindfully creating a single meal. - âIâll eat one big salad a day.â
Focus on eating one more well-chosen meal, even if you have to buy it. Even fast food chains have salads with chicken these days.
And turn âIâll go to the gym every morning at 6AMâ into:
- âIâll do 40 air squats at home, right after waking up.â
Do something with no travel or equipment required. - âIâll get two solid workouts in per week, scheduled in my calendar, and go from there.â
Reduce the commitment to something you can always stick to; do more only if you can, making it entirely optional. - âIâll park further away from work / school and walk the rest of the way.â
Even easier.
Those are just examples, of course. Youâll find one that works for you.
Keep reducing the commitment until it feels too easy for you. Until you can answer â9â or â10â without even thinking about it. Those are the things that you can actually do consistently.
If you can do more on any particular day, then great, go for it. But donât commit to it. Your daily accomplishments can be big, but keep your commitments relatively small. This way, you turn predictable disappointment into daily, pleasant surprise.
Your daily accomplishments can be big, but keep your commitments small.
Often this is both a humbling and liberating experience for people, especially people who are well educated about health and fitness.
Humbling, because we often kid ourselves into thinking we can do much more than we actually can. (And thatâs both normal and entirely okay.)
Liberating, because when we realize that the only way to make a big change is to make a series of small ones like these, âconsistencyâ and all that it brings finally become possible.
The question most people have is here, though, is: will that actually work? Will such small changes actually do anything?
The answer is yes, when done in sequence. Once the first one is done, the second one is even easier, and so on. Itâs amazing how powerful âmaking things easierâ actually is.
In fact, itâs exactly how we coach our own clients. Which leads us to the third option.
Option 3: Commit to both more and less.
Commit to something big and external (like the friendly bet with your friends or co-workers).
And while doing so, commit to tackling only one part of that larger commitment at a time. Reduce the size of each mini-commitment until you feel almost 100% confident you can actually do it for 30 days.
In our coaching, we combine both methods: the big, group commitment and the smaller, personal, daily commitment.
For the big commitment, we give away thousands of dollars each year to our best clients. Not just the ones who had the best results, mind youâalso the ones who best stuck with the small, daily commitments.
Thatâs right, we break down the process of getting in the best shape of your life into small commitments. Small enough for each client to do them.
Then we string those together for 12 months. You can view the results here on our site; suffice it to say, theyâre compelling.
So change the way you commit. Go big, and go small. The results will pleasantly surprise you.
The only way to kick-start your progress is to change the way you commit. Donât go halfway. Go bigger or go smaller, or both.
Accountability Strategy #2:
Get some help from at least one other person.
Let me tell you a quick personal story.
There was a time, a few months ago, when I started skipping one or two workouts each week. Why? Because I was âbusy.â
The exercise didnât matter much in the context of one weekâitâs not like I was getting out of shape every time I skipped one. But they added up. Within a month Iâd missed nearly half of my gym time. Not good.
And it was showing in the mirror. I looked a little less âin-shapeâ than I would have liked. Plus I just felt crappy and a little guilty.
Obviously my problem wasnât a program one. No special workout routine, new diet plan, or magical supplement could help.
What I had was an accountability problem. No one was checking to see if I was doing my workouts. And because of that, I was slacking.
So the next day I called a personal trainer friend and asked if he had any openings.
Even though I know how to work out and eat healthy, I asked if he would write my workouts and train me at his gym a couple times per week.
I made myself accountable to him.
Of course I could still skip my workouts if I wanted to. But that would involve actually calling and canceling an appointment with him.
Not surprisingly, ever since I became accountable to my friend, I havenât missed a single workout. And I feel incredible.
What can you learn from this?
First, know that we all sometimes struggle with staying in shape. (Yes, even fitness professionals like me.) Itâs no big deal and doesnât mean youâre deficient in any way. It just means youâre human.
Second, know that if youâre struggling to get in shape the best thing you can do is hire someone to keep you accountable. It could be a coach you pay money to or a friend who will meet you at the gym.
Itâs a lot easier to stay consistent when youâve got a coach checking up on you.
Do 2 things:
Commit differently, become accountable.
In the end, the message I wanted to communicate to the guy on Facebook was this:
âItâs completely possible to know exactly what youâre doing⌠but still struggle to improve your body. And thatâs totally OK. In fact, it happens to a lot of people and itâs nothing to be ashamed of.
But thereâs a simple fix, and it has nothing to do with a new workout or diet plan. All you have to do is commit a little differently and make yourself accountable to at least one other person.â
So if youâre reading this and youâve struggled with fitness in the past, or are struggling with it right now, I encourage you to do the same: change the way you commit and become accountable to someone else.
Want us to help keep you accountable and consistent?
The first step is to reach out to me and ask for help. Let’s see how I can help and if we can work together!
If you’ve already got step 1 down, thank you for trusting me! Let’s continue to set small, realistic goals and change your life for the better, over time!
Thanks for reading…so as promised, here’s a copy of a new 7 day menu guide (key word is GUIDE. Follow it to a T or use it for reference and meal ideas. You get what you put in ) I’ve created and a library of recipes! If are any discrepancies or issues with these files, please let me know…nothing’s ever perfect! đ
You can download them here, but act fast because the link will be removed in the next 2 weeks. START TODAY!
Recipe:Â https://files.secureserver.net/0sYjBxa78eqldd
Menu:Â https://files.secureserver.net/0sHSFGFLVToCZ2