Hitting your goals in
health and fitness is not all about doing as much as your can; it is more so
about doing the RIGHT AMOUNT.
The problem is that most
people that come to me asking for help I have to CONVINCE them to trust me. The only thing they believe is that they
have to do a shit ton of cardio and stop eating to lose weight.
In the short term yes, I
could have you lose some weight if you do 2 hours of cardio everyday and eat
1,200 calories. But let’s be honest, who wants to do that and that will not
last long before flipping back the other way.
The question I get asked
all the time: “What’s the fastest way to lose this weight?”
My answer: Either stop
eating or cut off a limb. That is the fastest way, but we are not going the fastest route we are going on the correct
route.
REASON #1: You Are Doing Too
Much
The first thing many
people do is to take everything they think they need to do and throw it at
themselves all at once.
Cardio, Boot-Camp class,
some fad diet, zumba class, and running- all at once. This is not the best
option for anyone.
You are doing so much
work and yes it may shed a few pounds in the first 3 weeks but after that then
what, you can’t eat any less or you’ll die and there is no more time in the day
to do more activity- so now what?
You have to choose
things that first match your goals.
So find your goal; maybe
you want to lose body fat, maybe you want to just feel better, or maybe you
want to get stronger.
Whatever it may be you
have to take an approach that matches your goals and work towards that not
against it.
REASON #2: You Are Not Listening
To Your Body
Being able to listen to
your body is a skill that everyone has to a degree, some more than others.
Your body will try to
give you as many warning signs as possible before things go wrong.
So if we take the
approach above where the person is doing everything they possibly can to lose
weight they may begin to experience some joint pains, fatigue throughout the
day, trouble sleeping, and brain fogs. This is all a result of overworking your
body and it is trying to tell you to back off and rest.
If you are starving
throughout the day then that’s a sign to maybe re-evaluate your current food
structure because your body is telling you that your need more fuel.
Although your workout
program may call for 4 workouts a week and to eat “x” amount of calories each
day, if you are struggling to finish a workout because you are so sore and you
are hungry all day then you need to re-evaluate these aspects. There is a
breaking point and your body will rebel to try to fill the gap you are not
filling.
Never ignore a signal
from your body; they are there for a reason!
REASON #3: STUCK IN THE SAME
ROUTINE
Many people get trapped
in the same training modality year in year out. They may have seen some great
results at first but now that’s a thing of the past.
What we need to realize
is that our body’s are adaptation machines and are meant to get accustomed to
things we do on a regular basis. That means if you are doing the same routines,
the same rep ranges, the same rest periods then you will not see the same
results.
There are so many different variables to
change, I listed a few above but there you could change the actual exercises,
tempo, unilateral vs. bilateral movements, etc.
If you have been stuck
in the same workouts for months or years the best thing you could do is the
exact opposite. If you have been training high reps for the past few months
then start strength programs or vice versa.
A good way to look at
this moving forward is to train a new modality for around 4-6 weeks. The first
2 weeks will be getting good at the new style or the new exercises. The last
2-4 weeks will be training for progress to see how good you can get at these
new things.
REASON #4: Look At Your Diet
Many times goals can be
thrown off due to what we are eating. With diet a good approach is to find the
things that are going to work for your body. This is sometimes a product of
reason #2 and listening to your body and making sure things are working
correctly.
For example if you are
eating 1,200 calories and want to start a strength program, I would re-evaluate
this decision.
There is not and never
will be a one size fits all diet for everyone. People are too different from
one another for this to be the case.
So track your food and
look to see where things may be going off track.
Too much sugar, not
enough protein, low quality foods are all things that can be changed and
improve your diet.
Change one thing at a
time when it comes to diet and see how it works.
REASON #5: Make Short Term Goals
I do encourage people to have their long-term
goals set up because ultimately that is where people want to aim. The problem
with this is that is seems so far away and can become discouraging.
A way to make sure you
stick to the path toward your long-term goal is to make short-term goals for
yourself.
This can be in the gym
like getting good at a single movement like Barbell Squats.
Or it can be outside of
the gym like eating more vegetables, drinking more water, or going on a 30-minute
walk every day.
Whatever you choose for
these goals work hard towards them and the track to your long-term goal will be
in grasp soon enough!
JNHealthandFitness@aol.com
