Consistency: The secret sauce
Consistency: The Secret Sauce
Let me paint a picture for you.
THE SPARK
Today you had to give the leggings a break, because you needed to put on the "real" pants. You took out your favorite jeans, started to pull them up, but they can't get past your thighs. You are shocked, mortified, and although you kind of knew you gained a few pounds, you had no idea you gained THAT much weight. You hang those jeans back up, defeated, and slip on a loose-fitting dress. You go about your day, but you keep thinking about those jeans. But it’s not only the jeans, you realize that you have totally let yourself go. You eat crap all day, you are tired all the time, you are grouchy with your kids, and you don’t like your husband touching you or even looking at you. You aren’t comfortable in your skin and you avoid looking at yourself in mirrors. You feel lost, depleted, and a big fat shell of yourself. You are sick and tired of being sick and tired. You aren’t happy and you know you have to take control of your health to get back to “YOU”.
THE PLAN
You are motivated, you are pumped, and you are fixated on the end goal and, of course, the results. This is the year, this time IS THE TIME! Your goal is to get healthy, drop 20 lbs., zip up those damn jeans. Nothing is going to stop you!
You sign up for a gym and drop some big dollars on a full-year membership because you are fully committed and want to financially invest in this goal. You tell yourself that you are going to do cardio seven days a week and sign up for a class at the gym five days a week. You bought some cute workout outfits because…motivation! You decide to streamline this process by going on a diet. The plan...cut out all carbohydrates, quit sugar cold turkey, oh and you’re only going to eat salads dry-no dressing.
THE SPIRAL
Day 1 is here and you are dedicated. The excitement is next level. You tell everyone your plan- that you are on this new health and fitness journey. Your husband rolls his eyes and doubts your commitment. That infuriates you. Your co-workers taunt you with snacks and tell you that you don’t need to go on a diet. Regardless, you work hard towards your goal, despite the lack of support. But after week one, you get your period and your body is sore! You keep getting these bad sugar cravings and headaches that just won’t quit. You failed to take into account your niece's first birthday this weekend and you decide , “It’s a cheat day!”.
You managed to power through the first five days without a single slip-up. It was rough and you questioned all your life choices. You decided to do an hour of cardio every day and didn’t realize how long an hour is on the treadmill. The classes are way out of your comfort zone and leave you completely out of breath. You hate every minute you are there, however, this is what needs to be done to reach your goals. The positive… you do notice that your midsection is noticeably less bloated, and by Friday you notice you didn’t get a sugar withdrawal headache, you wake up refreshed, and actually have a lot of energy. You weigh yourself daily and you haven’t dropped a single pound. You decide the scale is a liar and step off feeling defeated.
Saturday comes, and it’s your niece's first birthday. You were supposed to do cardio in the morning, but your body was too sore and it’s your cheat day, so you talk yourself into not doing it. And since it’s your cheat day, you decide to treat yourself to a Caramel Frappuccino with Thai walls at Starbucks, venti, of course, because you deserve it. You get all your kids in the car to make this a special occasion, and once you get to the Starbucks drive-thru, you decide to get a double chocolate brownie too. You leave the drive though with a $60 hole in your wallet but that “first sip feeling” and sugar rush hits so good, it leaves you feeling euphoric. You decide it was worth it. You make the decision to starve yourself for the rest of the day so that you can eat everything at the party.
The party was so fun! They have a popcorn machine, a shave ice truck, a donut truck, and even a sushi man making rolls right in front of you. You’ve missed rice so much that you eat a dozen rolls. You eat EVERYTHING! Before you even realize it, you are completely stuffed. Disgustingly full…but you need to eat the squid luau, the rice, the poi, and the lomi salmon, because you know it's bomb and you don’t know when you are going to eat like that again. So you man up, unbutton the pants, and eat it all because it's cheat day and you're going to do it right.
THE REALITY CHECK
You wake up the next morning feeling like crap. Not only physically, but mentally you are struggling with the guilt of eating so much and not doing your cardio yesterday. You decide that you will do double cardio today to make up for yesterday’s cheat day. Like clockwork, you step on that scale and the devil contraption says you gained 6 lbs. In disbelief you step off, reset it and step back on. The number didn’t change. You decide the scale must be uneven so you step off and move it around a little, and step back on. It says 6 lbs heavier! You can’t help it, but an overwhelming feeling of defeat fills you. You dieted so hard all week and worked out 5 days straight and it feels it was all for nothing.
You decide to skip the gym and cardio because it doesn’t work and spiral out of control and eat anything you want because dieting didn’t work. Your cheat day now carries over into a cheat week. You rationalize that working out at the gym made you gain weight, so you decide not to go altogether.
You don’t bother getting back to your diet or getting to the gym because you feel like it’s all for nothing anyway.
THE TRUTH
Does this sound familiar to you?
Yes, I know, this was an extreme example, BUT it does illustrate real life. There is always a spark, or catalyst, to get you started. A well-intentioned plan…followed by reality, or life, which always seems to hit back even harder. Within these pillars lie the breeding ground for INCONSISTENCY. It’s a vicious cycle and it’s a painful way to live your life.
I’m here to let you know that there is a way out of the cycle of inconsistency. But first, you have to know why you experience it in the first place. From there, I’m going to show you how you can take control and create a plan you can stick to.
1. Setting Unrealistic Goals
Although setting a goal to drop 20 lbs. and zipper your pants is not unrealistic. The problem is you don’t break that goal down into smaller more manageable goals. Having one big end result goal will get you motivated however, It won’t keep you motivated. Dropping 20 lbs requires a lot of time and hard work. Small wins will be overlooked because you aren’t at the end result, instead, after declaring your end-game long-term goal. I would then break down that goal into smaller shorter-term goals that can be attained and celebrated along the way. Have a goal to drop 5 lbs first and a non-scale goal that you can constantly hit daily to keep you encouraged and motivated while on the path to the first goal. A non-scale goal could be showing up to work out when you say you will, drinking more water daily, getting to bed earlier anything really. When you hit these daily non-scale goals that are easily attainable you create wins for yourself. These will keep you motivated and encouraged daily.
2. Extreme Diet and Restriction
Everyone wants to go all out when starting a diet and decide to cut out everything that they love. It's no wonder you end up miserable and quit before seeing any real change. Even if you manage to grit through it you will most likely not sustain the results and will gain all the weight back once you open your diet back up. Instead of heavy restriction, I believe the mindset to add to your diet rather than take away is so much better for your mind and body. So instead of saying “I am cutting out all carbohydrates” I suggest “I will eat more fruit and complex carbohydrates” This will naturally limit the processed carbohydrates and highly palatable processed food that lead to endless snacking and high-calorie consumption.
Instead of saying “I am on a diet” say “I am going to eat more whole food and focus on eating more protein at each meal” This way you don't label food good or bad and feel like a failure when you eat outside of the parameters. Eating a meal made of whole food and filling up on protein will get you and keep you full and satiated, so when you have a treat you aren't deprived and won't binge on it. It's not bad and you aren't starving so you can enjoy the treat without guilt and can stop when you are full.
3. Crazy Exercise Regime
It's the all-or-nothing mentality that is the biggest red flag for consistency. Creating an exercise schedule that doesn't allow for rest and has no consideration for your life and family schedule will have you missing workouts and the only thing you are consistently doing is not showing up. We ride the wave of motivation and sometimes that gets us through a week or two. Sometimes, I've personally seen people not show up for their day ONE! When creating a workout program for the Fit Fam…I guide them to pick as many days that they can commit to without fail. If that's two days, it's better than zero and I will create a program for two days. What this does is it allows you to ease into exercise and fit it into your schedule. You keep showing up when you say you will and you create wins that give you a sense of accomplishment. Starting with two days may not seem like much. Over time, you will show up two days every week because it's doable and before you know it. You have been consistent for 6 months! Versus saying you want to work out 5 days, barely make it to 3 days then slowly just stop going because you have created a pattern of losses, and not keeping commitments to yourself. Next thing you know 6 months have passed and you are still not active and not happy with your health.
4. Not Planning Ahead
Birthdays, holidays, special occasions, and vacations are all a part of your life. I find people use them as excuses to give up or not start. Listen to me…these are days in a year. I would love for you to enjoy every single holiday, every single birthday, every single wedding, and every single day of vacation. I encourage you to do so eating and celebrating with food is part of the culture and creating amazing memories. The honest truth is we have 365 days in a year and even if we generously allow for 60 days of pure shenanigans that still leaves you with 305 days to eat and train with your health in mind.
5. Comparison
The thief of all joy….comparison. Just stop. Your journey to health and fitness is never the same as someone who you follow online. When you stop paying attention to everyone else around you and celebrate your wins and you're accomplishments big and small you will find joy in the journey. We are inundated with images of perfect bodies that someone else deemed to be perfect. You begin to wonder why your body doesn't look like that and begin this cycle of body dysmorphia and shame. I am telling you that if they are walking around with six-pack abs and no cellulite. 1. They are dieting extremely hard and following a rigorous training schedule that their life revolves around. I've done it and I can tell you that it's not fun. 2. They cannot maintain that level of lean body mass with any sort of balanced enjoyment of life. In short they are unhappy.
Consistency is the secret sauce that everyone over complicates and confuses with perfection. Perfection is prison and if attained will lead you to hate every single moment that journey. Instead find what you can do and believe that’s what matters most. Stick to that and eventually those small commitments made to yourself overtime will create lasting health benefits that have positive impact on your physical appearance.
