Are you training your butt off day after day, week after week, trying your best to eat right – yet you always seem to end up getting distracted finishing up so off base that you wonder why you even bother with your fat loss routine?
Then here’s something that may just ring a bell of familiarity with you. Read through the following points and see if any of these sound like you.
a. Do you mess up with your diet then gorge yourself with every bit of junk food you could get your hands on for the rest of the week? Thinking “to hell with my fat loss routine!”
b. Do you punish yourself because you slept in and didn’t get time to train using your new fat loss routine?
c. Do you weigh yourself every day, then on discovering you’ve put on 1.25 pounds freak out?
d. Are you the type of person who throws in the towel because you didn’t get into perfect shape within one month – then you’ve got it in your head that you are a total no-hoper?
Guess what?
This “person” represents many folk attempting to get into shape.
It’s called “being way too hard on yourself”!
Sure, being focused on your goal is essential to succeeding with your program – but hey – no one, except for you, is expecting you to perform some miraculous transformation within an unrealistic time span.
We all have our ups and downs there’s nothing new about that – so why do we torture ourselves at the expense of our fat loss routine?
1. To please others and not ourselves.
We are so focused on trying to ensure that we want to look a certain way to impress our friends, family, work mates, partners etc that we feel like we have let everyone else down when we don’t keep on track.
“Will they think I am useless?” “They are probably expecting me to fail anyway” etc etc. This plays on our minds convincing us that we have become the person we perceive they think we are.
2. The yearning to look perfect all of the time
For the most part – this isn’t possible.
I know most folk want to look like someone from the latest fitness magazines 365 days per year.
You know what I mean……
Chiseled abs
No cellulite
Veins and muscles sticking out everywhere
Looking so defined that your body fat percentage is at a point where your skin is like tissue paper.
This cruel obsession will more than likely cause you to fail.
I remember a few years back recieving an email from a subscriber containing a scanned picture of a well known IFBB competitor (on the night of the competition) with the subscriber stating that she wanted to look like this competitor asap and wanted to maintain it all year round.
I am not sure if any of you read health and fitness magazines that include pro body builders or physique and fitness competitors but you can bet these hard training athletes do not look like they do at the time of the competitions all year around.
To achieve this look is difficult and even the competitors find it hard to diet and train so strictly previous to the “big night”. During the off season many of them have time off, or need to train to build muscle, size, strength and endurance which means putting on some extra body fat – so their muscle doesn’t deplete.
Let me explain…
Protein (muscle) is burnt off as a source of fuel for energy. If we have very small percentages of body fat all year around along with a super strict eating plan then something has to give – being your muscle.
Don’t forget you are always going to get the mags who use airbrush effects, brilliant work with makeup – using different colored shades of body makeup to add light and definition to muscles so they appear more “cut”.
Do you really want to sacrifice your sanity for perfection?
I am not saying you can’t look great – you can – but don’t be so hard on yourself because you aren’t able to look perfect all of the time.
So what can you do about this issue of wanting to be perfect?
Give yourself some flexibility and encouragement to help nip those weight loss problems in the bud and to help turn your fat loss routine around for the better!
Some trainers recommend having one day off per week from your fat loss workout to allow yourself a cheat meal and day from your normal eating plan. This doesn’t mean going all out and attending an “all you can eat” restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It just means that you can be a little lenient. Relax it’s the weekend.
I admit I am not into convincing people to use food strictly as a reward when it’s already a huge issue in their lives – but it’s nice to know that after planning and organizing your food for the week that you can be a little more carefree once per week and kick back with family and friends. Even if you do go out during the week for dinner – just make healthier choices when ordering your food and don’t overdo the servings.
You also need to change your perception of the whole fat loss routine issues and obstacles that you’re facing.
Re-assess why you are doing this in the first place. Getting into shape is about improving quality of life and your health – not stressing you out! Get real about your program and set goals that are so easy to reach that you know you will achieve them within the allotted amount of time. This ensures you don’t let yourself down and it will encourage you to be enthusiastic about your new goals.
Make the effort to change your behaviour.
Think about it — what’s the worse that could happen — you could actually start to enjoy the experience of feeling healthy and getting into shape.
Give yourself a break. The wrong attitude towards your health and fitness plan can and will, in most cases, ruin your chances of reaching the results you want. It’s your choice to make your fat loss routine fun or a chore and whether you’re going to succeed at your goals or not. Be honest with yourself and stop unintentionally ruining your chances of fat loss.
Happy training folks,
Yours in fun, health and fitness
© Mandy Gibbons
Virtual Fitness Trainer
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