The ONE Thing Sabotaging Your Fitness Goals

"The ONE thing..." Yeah right. Sorry, that was click bait, but I won't beat around the barbell; the answer is inconsistency. Consistency is what fitness is built on. You have to stick with it. 

So many of us always start strong and with all the best intentions. This time, you say, THIS time for real. You hit the ground running on January One. You joined the gym, stocked the fridge full of overpriced farmers' market greens, and bought a fancy infomercial blender sold on high promise. 

But fast forward to January THIRTY-one, and if you're like the average person, you used that gym membership about six times, had a couple salads before switching back to cold pop-tart dinners, and that fancy blender is going to see the bulk of its lifetime-use as a frozen margarita machine during next Sunday's Super Bowl party.

I see this all the time. One of the most common tiers in the order of rank and file gym goers, is a group I call The Quarterlies. They show up for a new attempt about every three months, full of intensity and intent, and struggle their way through a couple weeks of sporadic workouts on the elliptical or ab-benches, only to quickly lose momentum, annoyed they haven't seen an instant transformation, and then they disappear from the gym altogether. They show up again three months later, a little older, a little fatter, and a little less enthused, to repeat the cycle. If they'd just stuck with it, they'd probably already be fit, rather than moving in the wrong direction. 

“If you’re tired of starting over, stop giving up.”

Here's the solution: stick with it. "Great! Thanks for the pep talk, Jeremy, I'll get right on that." I know, I know. It's easier for me to say than it is for you to do. But you CAN do it. There are all sorts of things you can and should do to help yourself out. I'll share them with you because that's my job:

• Have a plan. Lay out your program for the first three months and stick with it. Everyday.
• Have goals. SMART ones: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Constrained.
• Have a support system. Enlist a partner. Ask friends and family to be on your side.
• Have patience! Change happens day by day. It will take time but it will be worth it. 
• Have faith in the process. Diet and exercise work for everybody if you stick with it. Leave excuses to others.

I'll have more soon on how exactly to set those SMART goals, so check back here frequently. 

Keep sweating! You can do it!