We live In an age of instant gratification. Where everything must happen right now. We have fast food restaurants on every corner, we all have smart phones, every home has a microwave and my personal favorite (sarcasm) self check out in all the stores. Patience is a lost art in today's society.
Think about this for a minute, how many times do you see a fitness infomercial promising you this and that? Twenty minutes once a week, and you can look exactly like you want. My favorite part is the super ripped lean guy and skinny little woman they have on these commercials.
Now, you all do realize that these are paid models who do this year round. So basically their job is to stay in phenomenal shape to trick you into buying the quick fix fitness gadget.
I'm sorry to tell you this, but there isn't a quick fix or a magic pill, if there was I certainly hope I discover it because I will be filthy rich. With all that being said here's what I have found that actually works.
Mental attitude / getting your head right
This is the toughest one. Trying to change your habits of not working out and eating whatever and however you have wanted. It's like anything you do in life, YOU have to want to do it. Being mentally prepared to spend time in the gym and working out is only going to be part of it.
What most people don't realize is about 85% of what you will look like is based on your diet. So getting your mental focus and will power on your nutrition is very important, especially if your goal is fat loss.
Consistency
If you missed work about once or twice a week every week for several months, how long would you have a job? I'm guessing not long. It's the same with your fitness goals.
Staying strict on your nutrition plan each and every day is very important to your overall goal. Yes you will have a lapse here and there but staying 95% on your plan is way better than 0%. If you slip up just get right back on the plan.
Do not miss workouts, even when you have every excuse and opportunity to miss, you must get it in. Every workout builds off the other one.
The consistent grind of eating right and working out is what will get you the results you desire.
Patience
You take all day messing up your body / lack of water / sitting at desk being inactive / not eating enough good stuff and to much bad stuff. Years of this same pattern starts to take its toll on you.
So a few days or even a couple of months of eating better and exercise will not fix years of damage. The results will come if your doing things right. They will not come fast enough for you, but that's where you have to be patient.
You won't see the results of today's eating and workout until about two weeks from now. So you have to think long-term success.
Staying the course, grinding out day after day! Brett Underwood use to tell me the slow and steady turtle always wins the race.
Hard work
It's not enough to just show up for a workout. You have to show up ready to work hard. Push yourself, doing more than last time, adding more weight, doing your workout faster or longer, these are things that will yield you quicker results.
You will have days that you are not on your game, and you don't get after it like you wanted to, that's ok. Just like life, some days are good, some days are bad. The more good we have the better life is.
Honesty
I have some buddies that were selling some weight loss supplements. They swore by them, oh I have lost x amount and I'm down three pant sizes. Funny how they still looked fat and soft as warm Jello. Being honest with yourself is tough sometimes, but if we're not, that's how we get fat and out of shape.
If you keep hiding how out of shape you have gotten and then turn to acceptance, you fool yourself. Getting bigger clothes, avoid mirrors like I did and closed my eyes as I got out of shower. You are just lying to yourself so you don't feel like such a failure.
Be your worst critic but don't be to negative. We need a motivating factor but not a depressed beaten down spirit. Find your balance in this and attack your weak points and be proud of your strong ones .
Be honest with yourself ! Because know one else will.
Planning
This goes for a lot of things in your life but especially with nutritional planning.
Plan ahead , have your meals prepped for at least 3 days. Be prepared , it's that simple. Plan out your meals and the make them up. Also have back up, I keep two or more quest bars with me at all times. Sundays I usually plan out my week of food. I mass cook so that I don't have to cook much during the week. Makes life much easier for me and keeps me from being even more fat than I am now.
Same goes for your workouts , you should have some idea of what your doing each workout. This will keep you mentally prepared and focused on the task.
Excuses
This one is easy ....DONT USE THEM !!!!
Oh I had to eat out so I had the extra carb burger with extra carbs.
Well we had pizza on Thursday at work so I gave in to peer pressure and decided to just take the rest of the week off and start fresh Monday.
Well the one guy was using my leg press so I decided to do 5 more minutes on the bike.
If your a parent and your child comes home with a bad grade, you ask why? The child then goes on to tell you it's the teachers fault, it's the kid sitting next to me , it's his fault , the child gives you 5 reasons why it's not their fault!! You see the problem here ? I hope so because if you don't please stop reading anything I ever put out again. The lesson is this.
You are responsible for yourself. Take responsibility for your own life and actions do not blame everyone else and everything around you.
My advice is to refer to excuses!
Variety
It amazes me that women can find every sale and every cute pair of shoes on the internet but will sit and complain about eating the same old foods and doing the same workout routine.
While your spending hours on pinterest look up meals or fat loss workouts instead of the usual things you look up. There is a ton of recipes out there to keep your meals from being boring. Same goes for workout routines.
Guys are just as bad , Monday , Wed and Friday is arms and chest day !! Hey bird legs get in the squat rack and this time don't use it it for curls. Squatting will burn triple the calories curls will. The other cool thing , the leaner you get the bigger and better your chest and arms look. Win win guys !
Join a class or a group to train with. My Darkside group is a prime example. I have women who do my class on mon and wed then will take Zumba or step class two other nights. They are different variations of exercise but it's keeping freshness and variety in your routine. In my routine I keep the basic lifts I need for me but I will switch it up every week cause I have exercise ADD.
Switch up your routine every 2 to 3 weeks to keep it fresh. It's hard work trying to lose fat but it doesn't have to be stale and mundane.
Gratification
We need to know that all this hard work , patience , variety and consistency is paying off. People have to eventually see the light at end of the tunnel.
Monitor your progress so you know all this hard work is leading the right way. Several ways to do this, body fat testing, body measurements and the mirror. The worst is the scale !! Yes ladies the scale , your best friend , your worst enemy , the one thing that can make you feel sexy or make feel like a fat cow. Without going into a ton of detail here , the scale only measures weight! Does not measure fat lost or muscle gained or if your holding water that day ( close to that time of the month ).
There are other ways also that are less vain. You are using more weight on the bar than you did 3 weeks ago, your doing ten non stop push ups instead of six , your doing three pullups unassisted instead of all assisted. You ran a mile quicker than ever. Your holding a plank for one minute instead of 45 seconds. . All of these are indicators your getting stronger and better.
Please don't limit your total success to a number on a scale.
There's worth and value when you put the time and work into something. It means more to you if you know you had to sacrifice for it.
Instant gratification doesn't give you a sense of value for anything you have done.
