Reviewing resolutions
We are three months into 2014 and I am guessing many of you had set yourself some health and fitness targets for the year; now is a great time to review your progress on these. Generally and in my experience, a large percentage of people who started the year on a health kick have fallen back into their old habits around this time and are no longer on course for reaching their health and fitness goals.
If these resolutions are still important to you (and they should be if you considered them in the first place) take some time to ask and answer the following questions;
·
Am I on target for reaching my 2014 goals?
· What have been my biggest successes so far in 2014?
· What am I proud of achieving?
· What have the main challenges been?
Don’t panic or be too hard on yourself if this review highlights the fact that you’re not on course or that you have failed in implementing to a healthier lifestyle. Creating and sticking to a health and fitness plan can be very challenging and many people start off with the best intentions but quickly fall by the way side. There can be many reasons for people not fulfilling their fitness plans, but today I want to discuss what I believe are the three major ones:
1: Lack of a plan
For many people the lack of a clear plan can be a major stumbling block. They know they need to eat healthier and start to exercise but that’s about as deep as they go into planning.
You should look at your fitness goals like a being on a journey and every journey has a start and finish point. It’s also vital that you have a map to guide you on that journey. Your map will clearly lay out the direction you must go in and the steps you must take along the way. When creating your fitness road map the more detail you can include, the better the chance you will have of not getting lost or going off track. When making your map I would recommend that you create a weekly plan which considers food shopping, meal planning, scheduling in exercise programs, how much sleep you plan to get, any hurdles that you may encounter and how you will overcome these, and any lifestyle changes that you must introduce.
If you have some difficulty staying on track and often find that eating well and exercising slips down on your list of priorities, then a clear, well laid out journey plan is just the tool to keep you on track.
2: Lack of knowledge
Many people who have tried to lose weight in the long term, have failed on several occasions. You may have your own experience of trying a certain diet, of losing weight only to quickly gain it back, to then try a different diet and unfortunately, getting similar outcomes. There is undoubtedly a lack of knowledge on how to make weight loss a long term result. Three things you must master to ensure long term success are how to balance your blood sugar levels; how to boost your metabolism whilst you lose weight; and to have an exercise program that causes your body to continually adapt and change. Doing it any other way is only setting you up for (at best) short term results.
So if you are finding that your weight loss efforts don’t see the results they deserve or if it is always a short term thing, now is the time to arm yourself with the knowledge to make the simple changes that will create huge long term results.
3: Lack of Support
Going it alone can be very difficult, there are many temptations to knock you off track and sadly, certain people will attempt to sabotage your efforts. It is absolutely vital to get appropriate levels of support around you. Family and friends that you know you can trust and that have your best interests at heart can help remind you of why it is important to you to achieve your goals or they may provide some words of motivation when you are losing focus.
Getting an expert coach can also be a huge game changer. When you invest money into something you are much more likely to do whatever it takes to make your investment worthwhile. Also by having regular sessions with a trainer you are making yourself accountable to someone each week – this can be a great way to help keep your focus up between sessions!
I hope everyone takes the time to answer the questions above. Taking action now can mean that you stop making the same mistakes you have always made and break free of the viscous cycle of setting goals, making a little progress, falling off the health and weight loss wagon and never truly achieving your goals.
