Becoming lean and fit is something a lot of people in this day and age aspire to be. They either see someone on tv or better yet on social media or have some sort of realization themselves and want to become leaner or just look a certain way. But this can be easier said than done as there is a process for this to work. Generally, people will start off well and be all energetic and excited about losing weight and getting lean and the body they want. They have an idea in their mind and finally move forward to achieving the body they desire. They either get a membership to a gym or watch some YouTube videos that give some exercises and proceed to research nutrition themselves. And for the first few weeks or so it goes well. Then procrastination starts to set in. Life starts to start punching you in the gut with work, kids, unexpected problems arise, and you start to put off the gym for tomorrow. Tomorrow becomes the tomorrow after and then soon before you know it, you’re not holding down a consistent schedule anymore. You also start to get upset because you aren’t making progress anymore and feel as though you are going backward. But you then start to get some momentum back and begin to work out again and are on the verge of feeling good. Then almost right after that, you hit a wall. Without even knowing it you begin to feel the effects of being in a state of a plateau. The workouts you did before aren’t having the same effect and you aren’t losing any more weight. You don’t feel as energetic as before and you begin to want to quit again. And before you know it life throws more circumstances your way you didn’t expect. Sound familiar? This is generally what happens to people. Not everyone, but from my experience more often than not, people will move down this road. There are core things you need to do in order to stay committed and be successful and I always break this down into three pillars which are the physical, emotional, and nutritional side of things. 1 – Emotional and mindset Everyone is fighting their own battle in their life and truth be told; you never know what someone is going through. They could have the best poker face of all time but inside their dealing with something that you don’t know about. But even though you are dealing with these issues you have to keep pressing through. You might not want to work out or not have the motivation to workout because of your current issues. But by you choosing not to do anything because of who you feel will just cause you to stay stuck where you are. So that why it’s important to keep attacking your goals every day no matter what you feel because that or those feelings you are having are not going to allow you to reach your goals. They will keep you from them. No one said it is going to be easy and you might have all the legitimate excuses in the world not to want to continue to workout. But the bottom line is if you choose not to then you’ll always be stuck where you are. 2 – the physical aspect What are your desired goals when it comes to your body? Do you want to lose a numbered number of pounds to get back to an old weight you felt good at? Do you just want to build muscle? Do you want to gain more flexibility? Do you want to learn how to do Olympic lifting? Are you on the verge of becoming a diabetic and need to lose body fat? Do you want to increase your strength? Maybe you need to do all these things? Whatever the case may be, you need to be clear and focus on the end goal for you. Don’t worry about the time and how long it will take as that can differ from person to person. Too many people get caught up in the fact of setting an expectation for themselves when they feel as though they should hit a certain goal. As long as you are making progressive progress every month then it's fine. Don’t worry about getting the fastest results all the time and expect things to happen for you when you want them. It’s ok to have goals but when your setting expectations in an atmosphere you are new at then prepare too possibly be disappointed. Just focus on the end goals of your physical aspect and keep working at it every week. Before you know it, you will start to grow and become stronger in your field. 3 – Nutrition This is the most important of the pillars because if your nutrition is not in order then your goals will be hindered or not realized. You can argue that if your mindset isn’t there then you won’t want to even look at nutrition which is true. But I have had clients and come across numerous people who had been going through certain issues and despised working out and eating nutritionally healthy but still did it because they knew the consequences were greater than their current predicament. So, one could argue about it back and forth, but the fact still remains that nutrition is the life force to your goals. You need to be eating optimally for you to see results. And this is a very broad and wide discussion that is open for another time. But without getting into it too much and trying to get the point and make it stick, you need to eat healthy in order for you to see the results you want. I don’t care if it's about losing weight, building muscle, gaining strength, helping with flexibility, reducing stress, whatever it is, you need to have a better diet and eating habits. You need to structure your eating. Whether you eat twice a day or five times a day, your body responds and also works better when you eat around the same time. Can you still have certain foods you enjoy eating? Yes for sure. But you also need to realize your habits of eating need to change and most likely, you won’t be able to eat what you enjoyed eating before, as much as you did before. Even while knowing all of this, you can still derail from your objective. It happens and it’s normal. We slip up and circumstances come into our life that we can’t control. So, it's more about you getting back up and being determined to continue versus being upset that you fell off again. The more you keep at it the more you will be accustomed to not taking days off and being lazy about going to the gym. Just remember you won’t always feel like staying committed and doing what needs to be done. But the real answer lies in knowing that and doing it anyway. There really is no other secret to it. It is just about doing it day in and day out even when you are fully against sticking to your routine. Because as I have said before, you might get a quick or temporary relief because you decided not to go to the gym and workout or stick to your nutrition. But a month or more from now you might look back and just wished you stuck to your routine because of the bad rhythm of habits you fell back into. Find a love for it so you can mentally at least respect the process of this lifestyle. Determine what your goals are for your physical aspect of training. This may change along the way, which is normal but decide on something. Get better at understanding nutrition and what you need to eat. Experiment with different foods. There is no excuse anymore for not eating healthy and saying it’s boring. There are so many recipes out there and food combinations you can have to make any meal interesting and taste good. And understand this will take time. Don’t be intimidated by trying new things and know to let go of expectations. So when it comes to your fitness lifestyle what are the goals that you want to achieve? Disclaimer: Adam is not a doctor nor a nutritionist. This is all from the experience Adam has gained through himself and through schooling. Through his videos, Adam shares his personal and educational experience that he has acquired over the past years of training individuals through fitness and nutrition. Adam would strongly recommend you see your physician before starting or completing any exercise program. You should be in good physical condition to participate in the exercises which are why consulting your physician would be recommended. As always, I strive to help as much as I can by bringing you fitness education through means of all my social media platforms. My passion for fitness guides me to give people the help they need in whatever way I can. If you have been able to find the information I release helpful then I’m happy I was able to serve you. Don’t forget to check me out on my other social media handles for the latest and best advice for fitness. - YouTube: AtoZbodyfitness - Instagram: AtoZbodyfitness - Twitter: AtoZbodyfitness - Facebook: AtoZbodyfitness - Tumblr: AtoZbodyfitness - Tik Tok: AtoZbodyfitness Action – Consistency - Growth
