Have you quit?
January is over, and the “New Year, new you” feeling has most likely washed away along with your clean eating, crazy gym routine and detox magic powder supplement taking. If this is you, read on. If it’s not, keep doing what you’re doing – and hopefully you may be able to grab something helpful from the information below.
If this is you, read on. If it’s not, keep doing what you’re doing – and hopefully you may be able to grab something helpful from the information below.
If this is you, read on. If it’s not, keep doing what you’re doing – and hopefully you may be able to grab something helpful from the information below.
So first, let me hit you with some statistics. 70% of people who start an exercise programme quit. Only 10% of people keep to their New Year’s resolutions, less than 10% of people achieve what they set out to achieve. Sounds familiar right? If you haven’t achieved what you wanted to achieve or have fallen off the wagon a little, don’t beat yourself up! You can start again, you are allowed to reflect, learn and begin again. Stop, start, stop, start, stop, start is still moving forward.
If you haven’t achieved what you wanted to achieve or have fallen off the wagon a little, don’t beat yourself up! You can start again, you are allowed to reflect, learn and begin again. Stop, start, stop, start, stop, start is still moving forward.
If you haven’t achieved what you wanted to achieve or have fallen off the wagon a little, don’t beat yourself up! You can start again, you are allowed to reflect, learn and begin again. Stop, start, stop, start, stop, start is still moving forward.
If you haven’t achieved what you wanted to achieve or have fallen off the wagon a little, don’t beat yourself up! You can start again, you are allowed to reflect, learn and begin again. Stop, start, stop, start, stop, start is still moving forward.
Before setting out to achieve whatever your New Year’s resolution is/was, ask yourself this. Why haven’t you already achieved it? Write a list of the reasons why you haven’t already achieved it, this will be what you have to tackle first in order to achieve your New Year’s resolution; I like to call this ‘the game changer’.
We all know that person who knows everything and anything about burning fat and losing weight and is always on a diet but has never lost any weight. You’ll see them and they will tell you that if you have three shots of apple cider vinegar every day you’ll wake up one day and somebody will have stolen your fat, or that if you replace all your meals with baby food then one day you will look like Zac Efron. If you only take one thing out of this blog, let it be to never take advice from this person! Just smile and wave, smile and wave.
If you only take one thing out of this blog, let it be to never take advice from this person! Just smile and wave, smile and wave.
Firstly, no s**t, you will lose weight if you replace your meals with baby food! Babies are very, very small, so how many calories do babies require per day? And how many calories do you require per day? If you don’t know the answer, I can tell you that you require a lot, lot more. Now all the nutrition ninjas out there are going to shoot me down for this one, but who in their right mind will actually sustain taking three shots of apple cider vinegar a day? I don’t care what magical powers it has or how it stops you from overeating (because it’s disgusting and destroys any taste buds you have) it’s not part of a sustainable healthy lifestyle! You may lose weight but what happens when you start eating normally again? Yes you guessed right, the weight you lost magically reappears.
Now all the nutrition ninjas out there are going to shoot me down for this one, but who the f**k in their right mind will actually sustain taking three shots of apple cider vinegar a day? I don’t care what magical powers it has or how it stops you from overeating (because it’s disgusting and destroys any taste buds you have) it’s not part of a sustainable healthy lifestyle! You may lose weight but what happens when you start eating normally again?
I don’t care what magical powers it has or how it stops you from overeating (because it’s disgusting and destroys any taste buds you have) it’s not part of a sustainable healthy lifestyle! You may lose weight but what happens when you start eating normally again? Yes you guessed right, the weight you lost magically reappears.
Rant over. The moral of the story: conventional wisdom is always usually wrong. What is conventional wisdom? That person at the party telling you to eat baby food.
Now I’ve got that off my chest I’ll give you some tips on how you can remain on track and actually go out and achieve what you want to achieve.
Tip #1 – Don’t go it alone!
Whether your goal is to lose weight, quit smoking/drinking or to become a better athlete, etc., you will benefit from surrounding yourself with a supportive community! Something we are very proud of at PPT is our community and how everyone is supportive and feeds off the motivation of everyone else, and how sometimes people come to sessions feeling down or stressed but leave feeling like they could take on the world (or Trump, that would be good).
I personally find surrounding myself with people who are better than me is the best thing to do in order to reach my goal. For example, at the moment I’m trying to improve my bodyweight training and skills so I train with some insane gymnasts/calisthenics athletes every week. Yes I look stupid, and yes I’m rubbish in comparison to them, (in all honesty I look like Bambi/a baby hippo attempting some of the stuff they’re doing), BUT it’s got better! And that was the goal. Which brings me to tip #2.
Tip #2 – Progress is progress
“Ah, I had a heavy weekend on the beers.” “I was on the go yesterday and had to have a McDonald’s for lunch.” “All I did Sunday was lay in bed and eat pizza.” “DOOOOONUTS, DONUTS, DONUTS, DONUTSSSSSSSSSS!!!”
These are all common reasons why and when people ‘fall off the wagon’ (ok, maybe the last one’s just me). You can’t let one bad event or meal stop you from getting what you want! The road to losing weight, burning fat, gaining muscle or becoming more athletic, etc. is a long one. It’s like if you were on a long drive to a really, really nice holiday destination and you got a flat tyre on the way, you wouldn’t say, “Oh well, that’s that” and turn back, would you? No, you’d change the tyre and carry on driving!
NO MATTER HOW SMALL, PROGRESS IS PROGRESS!
Tip #3 – Where there is change, congratulate!
That’s right, give yourself a pat on the back! If your goal was to lose 10cms from your waist but you only lost 5cms, rather than beat yourself up, give yourself a pat on the back and that should give you enough motivation to make a game plan and smash the last 5cms!
Tip #4 – The goal is to keep the goal the goal!
For this one I’ve got a story, bear with me…
When I was a freelance trainer I had a client who wanted to fit in a dress for her daughter’s wedding. She was a Scottish lady in her 50’s who told it how it was. The problem was she got held up on how much weight she could lose. She actually put a little weight on but was slimming down nicely, which only I could see. She decided the best thing to do was shout at me for a little about how she knew more than me and I’d ruined the wedding day for her blah, blah, blah. So I gave her money back and got quite a sh***y review on my website.
The problem was she got held up on how much weight she could lose. She actually put a little weight on but was slimming down nicely, which only I could see. She decided the best thing to do was shout at me for a little about how she knew more than me and I’d ruined the wedding day for her blah, blah, blah. So I gave her money back and got quite a sh***y review on my website.
One day her car pulled up outside my house, instantly I thought, “Great, I’m in for another grilling”. She knocked on the door and I prepared myself for a nice ass kicking. I opened the door and she was in tears, holding a pair of jeans and started apologising profusely and hugged me like she was trying to squeeze my eyeballs out.
I opened the door and she was in tears, holding a pair of jeans and started apologising profusely and hugged me like she was trying to squeeze my eyeballs out.
Turned out she was clearing out clothes and decided to try on a pair of jeans she hadn’t worn since she was 23 because the spare tyre around her waist didn’t let her. So she tried these jeans on and they were too loose! Yep, you guessed right, my response to her apology was, “I told you so, when shall I book you in for your next session?” She carried on training, enjoyed the wedding and has now moved back to Scotland and still regularly goes to the gym.
Moral of the story: THE GOAL IS TO KEEP THE GOAL THE GOAL! Don’t get sidetracked, if your goal is to get into a wedding dress you measure that by your waist in cms, your dress size, and before and after photos.
If your New Year’s resolution is to quit boozing, don’t start focusing on other things, quitting the booze is your goal so focus on that – if you have six bottles of wine a week, next week have five and that is a win. Keep winning!
Tip #5 – Have fun and enjoy the process!
Another thing that we pride ourselves on at PPT is having some fun!! This is very important, if you want to be able to sustain something for a long time it has to be enjoyable. Don’t starve yourself and do a training programme that makes you throw up every session; this is not an enjoyable process. If you actually try to enjoy the process of what you need to do in order for you to reach your goal, you will reach it.
Tip #6 – Now what?
Now what……?
