by It’s officially Halloween…
…which means a parade of holidays are about to follow suit, and everyone is about to look like this whenever they eat a lil’ “naughty” somethin’ somethin’:
I recently posted on my Instagram story a poll that said,
“If your current goal doesn’t require you to sacrifice, change, or do something uncomfortable, it might be time to rethink your goals. Is this you?”
While many people ignore Instagram polls, those that choose to answer a complete stranger, an acquaintance, or perhaps a good friend, that they realize they DO need to change things up, is a huge step!
HOWEVER
The reality with our society is that a ton of people give up on goals without even understanding how to properly put them into action. We’ve all seen the statistic where 80% of people fail their New Year’s Resolutions by February. This actually happens ALL year long.
If you’re one of those folks who has a goal, FANTASTIC! Before you go any further, let me tell you the top ten reasons why people aren’t succeeding in their health and fitness goals so that you can hopefully realign and crush yours! AND I’m going to tell you with gifs because I’m feeling playful on this spooky, spooky day. This list is based purely on my personal experiences as a trainer, but I think you’ll find that they’re pretty relevant across the board.
The reason you may not be crushing your goals is:
You don’t understand or aren’t aware of the 80/20 rule.
This one is super simple, so I’ll keep it brief. Getting fit is 80% nutrition and 20% exercise. Caloric deficit drives this whole wagon, friends. A lot of people hire trainers thinking they’ll just get pushed in the gym and will shred 100 lbs just like that. Sorry to say, it’s only 20% of the equation. This is why consistency is important. We don’t say, “lifestyle change, lifestyle change lifestyle change,” for no reason. It has merit! You can’t out train a bad diet. If you slip up, it’s best to keep moving forward and try again. Don’t “punish” yourself, because it won’t work anyway and you’ll develop a negative relationship with food and exercise. No buenoooooo 👎
You tend to go too hard, too fast.
Again, very common. Oftentimes when we get super inspired to get in shape and live healthier, we use ALL of that mojo juice right off the bat. We google the most popular trends and decide, “That’s it! I’m doing THAT!”
So you do it religiously for a week or two, maybe a month, and then drop it like a squat and peace out.
Why? Well, that’s the easy part.
When you’re not used to having a fitness routine, have never worked with a trainer or been an athlete, and/or perhaps just follow what you see online, odds are you don’t know how to judge your own fitness level yet. It’s very easy to aim way too high too fast and it’s totally not necessary to get to where you want to be. You probably spend all of your time thinking about getting in shape and working out that you have a very unbalanced lifestyle. This is how people get overwhelmed! It’s best to start off nice and easy and then work your way up based on your own goals, level, and needs. This is where the next mistake comes in…
You don’t make S.M.A.R.T. Goals.
Identifying S.M.A.R.T. goals and their sub action-oriented steps is essential when you have some serious goals to reach.
So you’ve got a new goal.
Take that goal, and break it down like 7 times. That’s your new goal.
Ok but actually, are your goals S.M.A.R.T. goals? If your goal isn’t specific enough, with deadlines, and achievable but motivating, there’s a good chance that goal is going to blow away like last season’s hot legging trend.
If you didn’t know, S.M.A.R.T. stands for
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Time-Bound
Establish a well rounded main goal that follows these guidelines. What do you want and measure it, when do you want it by, is this realistic to your level, and is it something you actually want? Once you’ve figured out that goal, now you can break it down into smaller, action-oriented goals that you can work on each week. An action-oriented goal can be something as small as drinking X oz. of water every day for a week, or cutting out soda, etc.
You don’t want to change your habits.
Tons of people just flat out don’t want to make sacrifices or change unnecessary habits that are deemed essential by them! This could be not wanting to give up alcohol, sweets, processed foods, etc. Lately, social media culture has been thriving on telling people that balance means you can eat whatever you want as long as it makes you feel good. (Newsflash: not necessarily a good thing to tell people who struggle with their weight/health/mental health/body image.)
The reality is, you are the way you are because of what you DO. If you want to change your body/mind, you have to change what you DO, too.
If you aren’t willing to TRY, you simply cannot expect the results you want. If your weekend pizza parties, holiday binges that last a week, daily Cheetos, afternoon sodas, morning bowls of cereal, drunken weekends with the gals etc. mean that much to you, then your goal probably isn’t to get healthier/lose weight.
And that’s completely fine. You just have to come to terms with that.
Real growth takes real sacrifice, and sacrifice looks different to everyone. Some will find small things very difficult, while others don’t bat an eye.
You are afraid of feeling bad.
We’ve all been there. This is one is see almost every day.
If you’re serious about losing unwanted weight, there are some things that are extremely helpful, such as weigh-ins, tracking food, and taking measurements.
Again, if your goal is to lose weight, and you’re feeling really, really stuck, you have to do things that make you feel uncomfortable. *See bold line in previous mistake* Tracking your calories is important to help you establish your baseline. Loads of people, especially women, are terrified of tracking food and weighing themselves because it might “trigger” them. Newsflash, if you’re not seeing a shrink, get with the times. They rock!
Of course this whole section is geared towards the average person, not necessarily someone who has a legitimate and serious issue with disordered eating.
The way information is presented to us these days, those who may not have ever even had disordered eating find refuge in the avoidance of measurements because they already know what those measurements will say and they want to avoid the guilt. Truth is, if basic steps to help you get healthy and understand where your body is at make you want to crawl under the covers and cry, there may be something else you need to work through.
I like to think of these measurements as purely scientific. Calories are a scientific measurement for energy needed to raise the temperature of water, blah blah… As mentioned with the 80/20 rule, caloric deficit is the main building block for weight loss. How can you know how much you’re eating to begin with if you never note it down? No one is saying counting calories is an end game, lifestyle, or forever thing, but it can be an extremely helpful tool to monitor your consistency, develop healthier eating habits, and track your progress.
*If you have a history of disordered eating or think you may have an eating disorder, please seek the guidance of a qualified professional that can help you on this journey.*
You think you have to constantly change your routine.
“I get bored, so I like to do different workouts every day.”
If your goal is just to live an active lifestyle, and you’re not all that interested in shaping your body, then by all means, keep things interesting!
If your goal is to build muscle, particularly specific muscles, then you should be doing the same routine for many weeks.
However, if you ever hear someone say those dreaded words, “I want to tone…” then they really want to build muscle. That’s how you “tone”, folks. In order to monitor specific strength and muscle gains, it’s best to stay on the same routine for at least 6-8 weeks. In order to build muscle and strength, progressive overload is required. This means an increase in volume, weight, reps, time under tension, etc…..so many things! Even when you’re sticking to the same workout routine, you should be increasing the resistance in these ways to ensure that your muscles are continuously tearing up and getting bigger!
You’ve been “good” so you can *fill in the blank.*
“I was good the last 3 days, so I deserve this.”
Cue binging.
Stop right there! What is happening.
Take a step back and think about this statement for a minute. If you can’t outrun a bad diet, you think this is a good idea? I see it time and time again. People at restaurants, ordering the highest calories meals because they were “good” that week. 3 drinks later, dessert, and a food baby, and there’s still a huge question mark as to why you’re not losing the weight.
If you’re early in your health & fitness journey, odds are you aren’t being as “good” as you think your are, especially if you’ve never tracked and are just going on your perception of “healthy.” My advice: save the treat days for when you are actually in a comfortable place with your health. If you just reward yourself with unhealthy things every time you feel good, how do you think you’re going to feel afterwards?
This lead us to…
You self-deprecate for all your minor slip ups.
Self-deprecation for minor slip ups ruins all self efficacy.
Definition: Self–efficacy is one’s confidence in being able to control personal motivation & behavior in order to achieve a goal/task or to solve a problem.
Ok so! With self-deprecation, you’re probably going to establish a relationship with exercise as punishment for eating poorly. You could also be at risk to develop dangerous/disordered eating habits to compensate. Guess what happens then? Loss of motivation and failure to reach one’s goals, as well as a whole other slew of problems.
Consistency is the most important thing! What’s more important to you: 20 minutes of happiness or a lifetime of happinesses? (Happiness not the right word for you? Place your own in that question. I’m sure you’ll find the same answer.)
If you’re consistent more often than not, eating some yummy treats every now and then should not give you major anxiety. You didn’t gain 20 pounds after one treat meal, it happened over time. Remember that the next time you shove that Halloween candy in your mouth. (Me currently, btw.)
Relax. Try to be as consistent as you can. That’s all you can do. No one is perfect. Weight gain comes from habits, not 1 unhealthy meal.
Peer Pressure, ‘Nuff Said.
This portion goes back to us changing out habits. Peer pressure can happen whether you’re aware of it or not.
Going to hang out with friends this weekend? Are you going to drink? Why?
Going out to dinner with your fam on Friday? Ordering that bangin’ burger with all the dressings and onion rings on the side? Why?
We’ve already covered the “deserve this” phenomenon, and you’ve been doing SO WELL, so what’s on your mind?
It can be so easy to just do what everyone else is doing in these scenarios because if everyone is happy, having a good time, endorphins are flowing, food smells amazing, looks beautiful, we see nothing wrong here. We don’t see the outcome, only the present.
So…Why not?
Because you have goals and can still have a great time, be happy, eat something beautifully delicious, and it not be 3000 calories. All of that stuff above is still an excuse.
I used to be this way every time I went out to eat. Going to restaurants was always a special occasion only type of thing for me growing up. So, in my mind, “When is the next time I’m going to be able to eat this? Welp, better get it!”
I see LOADS of people with this mentality all the time; however, this mentality can easily get off track and typically does. We begin to think this way more and more frequently, and new habits emerge.
You still hold out hope for trendy ads.
Hopping on the next trendy ad (waist trimmer, sweat enhancer, water substitutes, shakes) without educating yourself on basic nutritional info is such a waste of your own time and money. You don’t need that stuff. It doesn’t work. Spend it on real food and a reusable water bottle. You’ll thank me later.
So where does that leave us?
The hard part about all of this is the stigma that you can have everything and it looks like this beautiful perfect picture.
“Don’t restrict yourself”
“You can eat donuts and not feel bad.”
“Don’t feel motivated? That’s ok.”
Truth is, none of these statements are incorrect, but I think that someone who struggles with their weight and desperately wants to get healthy should take a different approach first.
Remember, none of this has anything to do with loving yourself. You can love yourself, inside and out, and still want to get healthy.
Telling an overweight person or just someone who isn’t necessarily “fit” but wants to be that you don’t have to make any real sacrifices in order to change their lifestyle isn’t fair. It’s confusing.
There’s such a polarization in the social media fitness world right now. It’s either “go hard or go home and cry about it” or “everything is going to be ok just eat your feelings, it’s fine.” Lately we’ve been sugar coating things to the max, and while I understand it to an extent, especially as someone who places such high priority on mental health, it’s time to evaluate what it is that’s actually standing in our way.
Usually, it’s ourselves.
The science is there. Don’t over complicate it. ❤
I’d love to know what are some of the things you notice in your own day-to-day that appear to hold people back! Leave a comment below, let’s chat!
Link to gifs:
https://giphy.com/gifs/nervous-the-office-michael-scott-snEeOh54kCFxe
https://tenor.com/search/scratching-head-gifs
https://gfycat.com/recentagreeablehochstettersfrog
https://tenor.com/view/facepalm-stephen-colbert-multiple-face-palms-gif-11360373
https://giphy.com/gifs/laughoutloudnetwork-strong-muscles-kevin-hart-1xnQcctsp7GRLc96k5
https://giphy.com/explore/food-baby
https://tenor.com/view/shopping-clueless-happy-excited-gif-11895031
https://giphy.com/gifs/supernatural-halloween-candy-fo2RXNIU0N3RC
FIT ASCENT 
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