3 reality checks to achieve your fitness goals
There are 3 realities you must face to succeed with your fitness goals. If you’re not willing to accept these 3 fundamental truths, it’ll be a long, hard slog and you’ll most likely be unsuccessful.
1. IT TAKES TIME
If you spent 3 years putting on weight you want to lose. It won’t disappear within 3 months.
The most liberating thing you can do is accept it’ll take time and patience.
Whether it’s running faster, decreasing weight, or anything in between, goal achievement takes time. I’m not saying you need to take 10 years to lose weight that took 10 years to gain. Just be aware it’ll not be reversed in a short period of time.
By accepting your results will take time, you take the pressure off yourself. You can then focus on, and dare I say, enjoying the process.
2. IT TAKES COMMITMENT (NOT PERFECTION)
We currently live in an instant gratification society. We want to experience fulfilment without delay.
I’m sure you’ve seen people who just ‘look fit’. They move well, they’re in great shape, and they seem to approach exercise effortlessly.
Don’t assume this is something natural or something they’re simply born with. They work at it. They make sacrifices to get to where they are.
So, as you embark on your fitness journey, ask yourself what are you willing to sacrifice to achieve your goal?
It’s not about putting yourself through horrific trauma in the hope you’ll achieve progress once it’s over. The key is to commit to a process and follow through with it.
Part of committing to a process is to decide what you’re willing to trade to achieve the result you want. You don’t need to sacrifice everything. Just accept that to achieve goals, you’ll need to sacrifice something.
Whether it’s time, fast food, or the occasional night out, make your list of what you’re willing to trade for a better version of yourself. This will set you on the road to lasting progress.
When I say committed, I don’t mean ‘perfect’. Being committed means accepting you’ll have days that don’t go exactly to plan. When this happens, being committed means getting back on track the following day. If you can follow a suitable fitness programme 80% of the time, you’ll be successful!
Good days and bad days have one thing in common. They both last just 24 hours!
3. IT TAKES RESILIENCE
So you’ve accepted your results will take time. You’ve committed to the process. You’ve decided what you’re willing to sacrifice to achieve the goals you want.
You’ll also need to accept that the path to success will not be a straight line. You’ll experience bumps in the road, setbacks and frustrations.
Your body is a very well-tuned device that’s very sensitive to outside stimulus. How you sleep, what you eat, and your daily stress levels can hugely impact your results.
You can control how you sleep and what you eat to a certain extent. However, your stress levels can be more difficult to manage.
By accepting life events may temporarily impact your results, you’ll be mentally prepared and more focused on the big picture.
By accepting progress will not always be a linear progression, you’ll keep a realistic view on achieving your goals.
ABOUT JAMES STARING
James Staring is a personal trainer based in Clapham, London. His methods have featured in publications such as Your Fitness, Hello, Healthy, Daily Mail, Closer, and many more. After giving up smoking and entering the fitness industry in 2009, James has focused on his passion to help others transform their health and fitness. However, James is convinced that most people struggle so much more than they need to in an effort to improve their fitness. Through his company, Fit to Last, James has helped hundreds of men and women make small, adjustments in their daily habits to transform their fitness and to love how they look and feel.