Consistency
By far the main reason why most people don’t succeed in meeting their goals is simply being consistent. The people who I have seen succeed in meeting their goals all have one thing in common and many things not in common. Among the uncommon things, they all performed different workouts, worked out at different times of the day, some worked out 1/2 hr/day, some 1 1/2 hrs/day, some used heavy weights and basic exercises, some bodyweight exercises, some ran on the treadmill, some used a bike. So you can see all of the things they did differently. The one thing they all did the same was consistently workout w/intensity. Regardless of how much weight they wanted to lose, how fast they wanted to lose it, what kind of workout they were doing, etc., they all were consistent and went the distance, and they are still going.
The million dollar questions I continue to ask myself are; Why do a majority of people fail to meet their goals? “Why do people have such an incredibly difficult time with being consistent? How come people are not concerned, passionate, or even interested in being in charge of their health? Do they believe they have no control over it? We know if you eat at McDonalds every meal you will become unhealthy, I don’t think anyone would argue that. If that’s true, then why is it so hard to believe that if you did the opposite (eat healthy) you could become healthier and avoid or decrease your chances of illness or disease?
I was having this conversation with a client and I was asking her some of these questions. She comes to the gym often, and works very hard and she is consistent in the gym. Unfortunatley it’s outside of the gym where her problems lie. We were talking about it and trying to figure out what it is that causes people to just give in and succumb to the bad food choices, alchohol, etc.
Why aren’t we more proactive in our health? Honestly, do you even know? Is it laziness, fear, intimidation, lack of knowledge, lack of confidence? Do you think your health is fine and it’s something you don’t need to be concerned with until you start becoming sick? Are you addicted to bad food, alcohol, sugar?
There are a total of 168 hours in a week. 4 hours per week of exercise is 2.4% of the week. Too much. Ok, how about 4 intense 1/2 workouts a week? That’s 1.2% of your week. In 2007, the average time men spent watching TV per day was over 4 hours, women over 5 hours, and children over 3 hours. With the advancements in gaming, I can only imagine the children averages have gone up significantly. I know, you worked all day, your tired, but guess what? So is everyone else. That’s life. I have never heard anyone in 15 years after finishing a workout say “oh, I wish I didn’t come to the gym” or “I wish I hadn’t just worked out”.
Having 2 kids, I do understand being tired and choosing the easier option. I’ve fallen victim myself, and still occassionally do, I get it. I also understand being tired after work, but is that it? Are people just too tired? I may have a day or two where I’m not motivated and I make bad choices but after a while it just gets really boring, I feel like shit, I’m irritable, etc. I start to eat better, get some exercise and my mood and general feeling is 100x better. Do you realize that if you ate healthier food you would have more energy? That’s how simple it is. Do you realize if you eat healthier food, you wouldn’t feel hungry all the time therefore you would eat less. Craving are most often a sign of a couple things..addiction and/or lack of nutrition. Addiction to sugar, addiction to alcohol being the two most common that throw a wrench into your eating plan. Lack of nutrition comes from eating processed “fake” foods. You can stuff yourself with processed carbs, chemicals, fast foods, etc., but you will still feel hungry in no time because even though you just ingested a huge amount of calories, those calories were nutritionally deficient. Your body is craving proper nutrition so it sends the signal “i’m still hungry, you haven’t given me what I really need”. So you have all these nutritionally deficient calories, your body wants more and you’re not exercising these calories away because you have no energy. It’s a vicious cycle.
Over 30 % of americans are considered obese, not just overweight, but obese. I’m willing to bet that more than 1/2 the US population is overweight. I’m also willing to bet that a majority of the 50% of remaining population who aren’t considered overweight are overfat, or “skinny fat”. Just because the number on the scale is low doesn’t mean you don’t have fat. Most likely it means you have little muscles and declining bone density. All of which are fixable through natural methods that you are fully capable of applying, but the key is applying them consistently.