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How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?
How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?
If you have got this far, I would imagine you haven’t considered whether you are inspired for your fitness journey.
Or that you even should be?
Because all we talk about in Fitness is: Motivation.
Seriously…its all anyone focusses on when it comes to starting their fitness or carrying on with their fitness. The number of people that tell me they are lacking motivation, or they have lost motivation…
So how does Jacquie, who is 46, and that person you always see at the gym, no matter how infrequently you attend, how does she always seem to be there…how does she keep going if we know motivation fails people and shouldn’t be relied upon?
Well, I believe that motivation fails you if you don’t add inspiration to what you do when working on yourself physically.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the great Russian composer said this:
“Inspiration is a guest that does not willingly visit the lazy.”
In this article I want to address the following so that you can go away from here lit up and ready to keep going for the amount of time you need to keep going for to be a success at what it is you want to achieve.
Table of Contents for: “How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?”
3. 6 Ways To Find Your Fitness Inspiration
4. Conclusion
If you want to watch my YouTube Video that accompanies this blog then please head here:
How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?
The Difference Between Motivation and Inspiration
The wonderful Humanitarian Leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar describes it thus:
It has also been described like this:
“Motivation is a push factor,” he explained. “It’s an outside force that is compelling you to take action, even if you don’t necessarily want to. Inspiration, on the other hand, is more of a pull or driving force. It’s something that comes from within that gets us to proactively give our best effort. When someone is inspired, they’re with you for the long haul.” — Sam Taggart
I find both quotes interesting.
In Fitness the topic of Motivation is a very prevalent one. It's the go-to word that people use when it comes to describing the state of their fitness.
You fall into two camps:
Motivated
Not Motivated
It is completely linear. The majority of people see that if they fall into Camp 1 (Motivated) they are then taking action and doing the things they need to do to get to their goals.
If you are in Camp 2 there is no point at all. And that's that.
The much-misunderstood truth is that there is a Third Camp:
3. Motivated and Un-Motivated
Which is what every single human being in the world is. No one ever has the perpetual motivation and no one ever has perpetual un-motivation (I’m sure that's a word…leave me alone!).
The human condition is a blend…like with everything else.
Now we know that the best way to find your Motivation is the following:
You follow this Loop.
Start with Action, then you get Results and then you find your Motivation.
Or a simpler way I like to put it is: Do, Track, Repeat
However…if you know Motivation will fail you…how do you bolster that part of the loop? How do you make sure that when you hit Motivation you then are able to restart the Loop with Action again?
As Sam Taggart says in the quote above:
“Motivation is a Push Factor”
“Inspiration is more of a Pull Factor”
Now if you have followed me for a long time you will be very aware that I am a proponent of Balance in your Fitness journey.
I am sure you have seen someone with a Kyphotic Posture in their life? A very over-pronounced upper spine tilting someone's head forward.
This Kyphosis occurs, presuming there are no other health issues at play, the Kyphosis will occur if someone has spent too much of their life “hunched over”. It could be someone has worked on a laptop for 20+ years, it could be they have hunched over a Games Console for too long, or they just stand that way as they lack strength.
My point is it comes from an imbalance.
To correct this in the Gym we would have to strengthen all of the back muscles using many Pulling Motions and stretch out the shortened chest muscles. We would have to work on counterbalancing the body.
So, if Motivation is a Push…
…and if all you do is Push you create an imbalance in yourself.
We need to create a Pull in your life.
Just like we would create balance in your workouts in the Gym.
And that Pull is your Inspiration.
You need to turn your Motivation Loop into a Success Loop:
You must do both: Repeat AND Learn.
You need to find your Pull and your Push in order to be able to stay in perpetual motion towards your Goals.
With my clients in The Fitness, Collective success is always attributed to those who work on their inspiration. Motivation and Inspiration are very close bedfellows and one thing they do have in common is they must both be worked upon.
Neither of them will just appear or turn up, they will require you to work on them in order to allow them to have the correct effect.
How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?
What Is Inspiration in Fitness?
Personally, I think I came a little late into the game when it came to Instagram Fitness Inspiration
Or should I say #fitspo
And I am eternally grateful because I had I have joined the industry maybe 4 years previous I might have fallen foul to the bandwagon, but instead I have found clarity and my message which is miles away from the selfie hell that #fitspo truly was and probably still is.
A quick search on the good old Instagram and 70.7million hits of Fitness Inspiration show up and they look like a pile of sick:
Please read this next bit really carefully: THIS IS NOT FITNESS INSPIRATION
This is Fitness Self Indulgence. This is a bunch of very fit people trying to make a bunch of unfit people feel very very shit about themselves.
It causes eating disorders, poorer self image and can really really harm those who look at it.
As I outline in these TikTok Videos which I created after the awful news of Nikki Grahame’s death from Anorexia Nervosa:
I’m not saying they are doing it intentionally, but that is the effect and the result of this horrible practice and anyone who utters the word “Fitspo”.
70.7million photos of unachievable physiques, highly edited photos, and extremely lucky genetics have caused a failure to you. It has caused many people to think that Inspiration is the perfect body, unachievable results and beauty that can only truly be achieved by Adobe Photoshop.
Looking through all of those photos…I personally do not find a single one of them inspirational.
They just make me feel rubbish about myself…and I wonder if you feel the same?
The good news is this: Fitness Inspiration doesn’t exist on Instagram.
Inspiration for Fitness comes from within, not an external source. It comes from your own desires, beliefs and wants from yourself.
Inspiration in Fitness is Learning. It’s the studying. It’s developing your “fitness brain” and figuring out how it interacts with your life. It's learning how you manage under heavyweights, it's feeling your Glutes fire, it's walking out of the Gym feeling strong.
It’s finding out about how much you are struggling with it and how much the professionals struggle with it. It’s the understanding of your humanity in the field of Fitness.
I know that sounds like a lot…I’m not saying just because you are trying to become fit you need to become a PT…believe me you really do not need to do that.
What I am saying is you need to be a little more immersive in the subject.
How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?
6 Ways To Find Your Fitness Inspiration
At Drama School, we had to keep inspired, and just like Motivation, I found the harder I worked the more inspired I became.
When we would get a new script…it was like learning a new language. A script doesn’t come alive until you have read it at least 8 or 9 times…and you need to do that before…well before Day 1 of Rehearsals.
The reason it reveals itself slowly to you is because of all the other research you do around it. You find out the History of the time the Play was set, you find out the stories of the people who lived during those times, you listen to Music and look at Art from the period to try and help make the world believable to you…make the world seem real to you.
Many people dislike Shakespeare because they quite simply “don’t understand it”. When I first pick up a play of his…I don’t either. But the more I work on it, and the more I read it, and view it from different angles…the more it reveals to me.
The difference is that I give Shakespeare an 8th and 9th chance. Most other people don’t give it a second chance.
And Fitness is the exact same. You have to delve deeper sometimes, you have to ask insightful questions and you have to allow it to reveal its work to you.
If you just go to it with a standoffish attitude, then you can expect standoffish results.
So here are six strategies to help you find your Fitness Inspiration…and spoiler alert…
…None of them are “Check Instagram”
They will all help you move towards the Learn aspect of the Success Loop. You don’t have to do all of them, but I do recommend you do as many as you can take on without feeling stressed out about them.
How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?
CONNECT TO A HIGHER PURPOSE
When you set your goals, I don’t want you to think too much on topics like:
I need to lose 2 stone
I need to look good in this top
I need to get into those jeans
I think they are quite materialistic goals, but I do know they will let you down eventually and will not fulfill you fully if at all.
What you should look more towards is:
I want to be a role model for my family
I want to prove to myself I can change
I want to feel more alive than I do right now
With the second set of goals, you are looking more “Intrinsically” than “Extrinsically”.
Edward Deci in his book Why We Do What We Do says this in relation to Intrinsic Goals:
“…strong aspirations for any of the intrinsic goals — meaningful relationships, personal growth, and community contributions — were positively associated with well-being. People who strongly desired to contribute to their community, for example, had more vitality and higher self-esteem. When people organize their behavior in terms of intrinsic strivings (relative to extrinsic strivings) they seem more content — they feel better about who they are and display more evidence of psychological health.” [1]
And this in relation to Extrisnisc Goals:
“The researchers found that if any of the three extrinsic aspirations — for money, fame, or beauty — was very high for an individual relative to the three intrinsic aspirations, the individual was also more likely to display poorer mental health. For example, having an unusually strong aspiration for material success was associated with narcissism, anxiety, depression, and poorer social functioning as rated by a trained clinical psychologist…[1]
Here we can see that you can literally inspire yourself…and as a by-product, it will make you happier as well.
Think how many times in the past you have used an Extrinsic Goal like “get into that pair of jeans” and you achieved it. Are you now…months or years later still able to get into that pair of jeans?
If they were your sole aspiration…I would give a fair bet that you have gone through cycles of yes and no with that.
If you wanted to get into those Jeans to feel a lot sexier, and it makes you feel more alive and healthy when you do….chances are you are wearing them right now…
Connecting to your intrinsic values will educate you on yourself, it will help you look at what is driving you forward and what and who you really value in your life.
How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?
2. FOLLOW INSPIRATIONAL PEOPLE
Don’t follow them on Instagram…i mean you can…but can you actually follow them on more meaningful platforms too?
Do they have a Podcast? Do they have a book? Do they have a blog? Do they have a website? Do they have a YouTube Channel?
All of these longer-form contents will inspire you a lot more than a quick flick and tap on the old IG.
A list of humanoids I find Inspiritational in terms of Fitness and the content I find of their’s most inspirational is the following:
Achieve Fitness Boston (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/achieving-fitness/id1294470614)
Jordan Syatt (https://www.syattfitness.com/blog/)
Mike Vacanti (http://www.mikesmacros.com/)
Tony Robbins (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Awaken-Giant-Within-Immediate-Emotional/dp/0743409388)
Richard Nicholls (https://www.richardnicholls.net/podcast/)
Dave Cottrell (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/master-the-mind-master-anything-with-dave-cottrell/id1287141836)
Mike Matthews (https://legionathletics.com/blog/)
Simon Sinek (https://www.ted.com/speakers/simon_sinek)
Mark Manson (https://markmanson.net/books)
Dan John (http://danjohn.net/)
Dr. Spencer Nadolsky (http://drspencer.com/)
Or there is you know…
Me and my new Instagram page: @the_gym_starter
I may have found some of these initially on Social Media, but without a doubt, their longer-form content is what has inspired me the most and actually that is what I will go back to most when I need that inspirational lift. Not their latest post on Twitter.
Some of them are uber famous, some of them aren’t, and that is the beauty of the list. I gravitate towards people who speak my language. Your list could be extremely different.
This is also just my inspiration in terms of my Fitness and part of that is running my business. Your list could have musicians on there, playwrights, artists…
And that brings me to my next point…
How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?
3. ENGAGE IN ART
I’m sorry. Coronation Street just doesn’t count. Eastenders is not Art.
In the same way, I think Long-Form content form inspirational people can help you more than their Social Media feeds can, I too think that Art can help you stay connected to your Intrinsic Goals.
Find the things that light a fire up inside you.
For me, it’s the Theatre. For you, it could be Robbie Williams’ “Swing When You’re Winning” or Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets.
Art has a wonderful way of making us understand the human condition. When someone can pluck a phrase or a lyric and sum up exactly how you are feeling at that moment, and finds just about the right words, and puts it in a way that speaks to you like you never knew something could…
That lights you up.
And to be inspired…being lit up is very important.
When I am feeling my lowest I would jump on a train and head to London to do two things.
I would walk past my Drama School and listen to Jackson Brown’s “These Days”
Head to Trafalgar Square to go and stare at paintings in the National Portrait Gallery.
Yup. I’m a rock star.
(I challenge you to find another Fitness Blog that uses Bob Ross this effectively)
These were two strategies that have always helped me feel alive. They have made me understand my condition as Adam, they have guided me and connected me with who I believe I truly am.
There’s a lyric in These Days that says:
“Don’t remind me of my failures, I have not forgotten them”
It drives me forward. It teaches me compassion and empathy. It allows me to reconnect to some of the most inspirational times in my life…and I just love it.
Find your song that does that. Watch Movies that aren’t about Superheros beating each other up but that are about real humanity.
Art can and will keep you inspired. Inspiration isn’t linear. If you can get inspired about life that will bleed into your Fitness. It will help you reconnect with your higher purpose.
I was always taught: “You must fall in love each day”
Do that…because it will reconnect you with your Intrinsic Goals and educate you on your own humanity — which is something none of us do enough of.
How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?
4. BECOME PART OF YOUR FITNESS COMMUNITY
Being part of a community can improve Mental Health. One very significant reason for that is that you begin to feel connected.
Connections in this day and age are getting more and more lost in the world of WhatsApp and Email. We don’t talk as much.
And when you have a community you communicate.
Communication is one of my big must do’s for a client. I won’t work with someone if they aren’t willing to communicate with me. They must also communicate with others.
Recently I overhauled my Private Facebook Group and I was really surprised that when I messaged people that I would have to revoke their access unless they joined The Fitness Collective for just £20/month how many of them said thank you to me for allowing them to be in the group for the period of time they were.
They said that although they hadn’t commented much they still got great value from it.
I was astonished.
The words Community, Communication have the same Latin Origin: “Communis” and this means: to share.
Ever heard the phrase: “Sharing is Caring”
If you find a Fitness Community, you will find a place where you can communicate, where you can share and where you can care for yourself and for others.
The Gym floor is this place for many people. Online Fitness Communities are that for others. When you see stories from people, whether you personally know them or not, but when you see their stories, and you spend time with them it’s amazing what kind of an effect they can have on you.
You can learn a lot from other people and especially if those people are just like you. They will share your struggles, your beliefs and your energy…and it will keep you inspired when you see them both succeed and learn.
How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?
5. LONG BOUTS OF LISS
This is a fancy way of saying “go for a walk”.
LISS means Low-Intensity Steady State Cardiovascular work.
This doesn’t just mean Walking though. It can be a light jog…but stay with me.
You can also do all kinds of things like:
Canoeing, Stand Up Paddle Boarding, Mountain Biking, Tandem Biking, Mountain Climbing, Hill Walking, Beach Surfing, Rock Climbing, Rafting, Kayaking.
The list can go on, and I appreciate that some of them aren’t that accessible to do regularly.
But they do all have one thing in common.
Nature.
And nature can be so moving it hurts and it can be so much fun!
Nature also teaches us insignificance which is a terribly humbling thing to go through. Have you ever been stood in a Mountain Range and felt like a speck of dust?
When we are humbled by nature it gives us perspective on our lives, and perspective is something that you very much require in Fitness.
Find out more about how Perspective influences your Fitness in this Article: Your Scale Strategy
How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?
6. ACTIVE VISUALIZATION
The first thing a Professional Golfer does before hitting aTee Shot is visualise the shot. Where is the ball going? How will it land? How will the swing feel?
Professional Athletes visualize everything they do. They see how their race will go, they see how that pass will look, they use their imagination in this way for two reasons:
To create a consistent outcome
To drive them forward for success
Have you ever wanted something so badly that you have sat there and imagined how it might feel if it would ever happen?
The imaginative version of try before you buy.
Well, when you visualize your ability to create something you also learn to sense what it will feel like. This will teach you control and understanding, this will train you how to react when things won’t go wrong, you are helping increase your hours of practice in what you are doing.
There are very few things that teach us better than practice.
Afterall; practice makes permanent.
Therefore when you spend time in your imagination, thinking about what it is you are working towards you begin to develop sensual and behavioral responses.
These are known as Manifestations.
When you want something, and you think about it, you visualize it, you sense it…you feel it in your body you then will find the behavior change you desire for that outcome a lot easier.
Because you have mentally practiced for it.
How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?
CONCLUSION
When you can get Motivation and Inspiration into your Fitness Journey everything will become easier.
Both require action, to be able to get there, but they have slightly different pathways.
Motivation is a Push Factor. Its what drives you to do something.
If all you do is Push in your life, whether that is in Fitness, Business or anything else you will become imbalanced.
To fix that balance you require a Pull.
This is Inspiration.
In order to find inspiration for your Fitness Journey, you need to allow yourself to learn. Learn about the subject of fitness by following inspirational people who will teach you, you need to form an opinion, you need to question why you are doing what you are doing.
It’s almost not enough to just “Do” fitness. You have to allow it to permeate your life…if you want to learn to be ruthlessly consistent and achieve your goals.
I wrote this a few months ago…and I think it sums up this article quite well…
How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?
What’s Next?
I have plenty more articles about Motivation in your Exercise and Weight Loss Journey right here on my website.
Here is a selection I think would make great further reading for you:
If you struggle with motivation for a Home Workout then read this:
How To Stay Consistent with your Fitness and why it’s important
How Long Will It Take To Lose Weight with Diet and Exercise?
You are also invited to get a bundle of Fat Loss Goodies from me including:
Get yourself a free month of workouts (Home and Gym-based options)
Get yourself a free copy of my e-book ”27 Ways To Faster Fast Loss”
Get yourself a free customized Calorie Calculator
And a Free Month of one to one Coaching…
Straight to your Inbox
All you have to do is put your email address in below:
6 Easy Steps To Stay Consistent With Diet and Exercise
The other day on Instagram I was asked this lovely question:
How Do I Maintain Consistency?
This is something I see so many of my clients struggling with time and time again, and as my clients are exactly the same as you, I figured this would be a helpful topic for everyone…not just my social media following.
Which if you do not follow me…then it would be awesome to connect with you - because I like making new friends.
In fact…send me a Friend Request right now. If you do, I must warn you: I will send you things. Things that are funny, things that are educational, things about my life, and probably things that are inappropriate…
But that’s what being friends is right…
To send me a friend request just put in your details below - and I’ll send you some freebies right away…
Thank you.
Now back to the topic:
6 Easy Steps To Stay Consistent With Diet and Exercise
The first quote I think I ever came across when it came to the topic of Consistency was this:
I think I read it in a book by Jamie Alderton…or a Podcast I was listening to once upon a time and it has always lived with me.
In my life, there are three huge achievements that I accredit to consistency and others accredit to luck and fortune.
How I keep my physique
Being in one of the most successful West End plays of all time
The Strong & Confident Program and my Personal Training Business.
What people always seem to miss when it comes to these three topics in my life is my diligent ability to understand what Bruce Lee said.
I have built all of these things with the principle of consistency being more important than intensity:
The fact I have never gone more than a month without a workout in my entire life as a minimum, and I stick to my caloric allowance at least 80% of the time and I hit my 10k steps at least 6 days a week.
No one saw the 3000 rejections it took in my acting career and showing up to the auditions day in and day out to get my dream job. No one saw the toll the rejections had on me and my relationships.
People don’t see the fact I post on Social Media at least 3 times a day and have done for 4 years, or the emails I send at 11pm just to make sure I check in with you, the person reading it, or the 9 hours it takes me to write, edit and upload an article like this. This is on top of all my actual Coaching hours too.
I’m not bragging. Not at all. I love and adore my job and seeing the positive effect it has on my clients is truly amazing.
But this is the difference between Intensity and Consistency.
This is the difference between what I actually do…and what people see me do.
And that is what consistency truly is.
Doing the stuff that no one sees over long periods of time. Doing the stuff that the only person that sees the benefit is you - whether that is from mental health benefits by feeling productive and creative - financial benefits - or health benefits.
Consistency is the single place where your results lie.
Table of Contents for 6 Easy Steps To Stay Consistent With Diet and Exercise:
Step 1: Have no time limit on your goals
Step 2: It’s got to be hella fun
Step 3: Make sure your goal is achievable
Step 4: Create Bright Lines
Step 5: Have Structured Accountability
Step 6: It’s got to be hella fun
Why is Consistency so important?
6 Easy Steps To Stay Consistent With Diet and Exercise
These 6 Steps have no real order…or rather they have no priority. They are all as important as the next and equally as important as the last.
You have to embrace all of them if you truly want to continue on your path for a period of time that will truly change your life.
They will also help you with consistency in weight loss, business, or anything else you are struggling with in terms of being able to do something you need to do to reach your goals on a more regular basis.
6 Easy Steps To Stay Consistent With Diet and Exercise
Step 1: Have No Time Limit On Your Goals
Time Limits suck. They suck so much that they will play havoc with your ability to be consistent.
Nothing in this world comes quickly.
Sorry…nothing that is associated with long term success comes quickly.
And if you set out on a Health and Fitness Journey with a time limit attached to when your goal must be achieved you have fallen foul to two things:
Even your most conservative estimate for what is achievable is still too quick.
Your results will never come quick enough to you.
This isn’t necessarily your fault. The Fitness Industry has sold you “quick results”, “fast progress” and 12 week transformations by the dozen load and it has skewed everyone’s belief in what is actually possible.
As you progress through the weeks on your new fitness program, with the goal of being done in 8-12 weeks, the realization that it's all taking a little bit longer than you had hoped will slowly play on your mind, and then it will only take a week of no movement towards said goals, or a plateau, whether in Fat Loss or trying to get heavier weights on your lifts and bang.
You will miss a Gym session.
You will skip your diet.
You will not be as adherent as you could have been in the first period.
This isn’t because you aren’t good enough, or don’t want it enough - this is just the course of life for most adults. Family, Work and all other kinds of stressors do and will get to you.
And that will mean missed moments - on a very very tight schedule.
And the significance of these missed moments will get larger and larger and larger the more the days tick past…and the more sessions you need to miss.
And then you will begin to realize that your goal is even further away now, but the deadline is the same…and you will grind to a halt.
I bet you are sat there…reading this going….my goodness…GET OUT OF MY BRAIN ADAM!!!!!
Especially if you have ever tried a 12-week Fat Loss Program!
I’m not in your brain. I say this to you because it's one of the most common traps people fall into.
Its because I see this every day - and I am truly blessed that the people I work with on my Strong & Confident Program seem to comprehende this really quickly, and convert themselves to adopting an active lifestyle as opposed to trying to “shred to get wed”.
Therefore by releasing yourself from the time pressure of your goals you will be more focussed on the journey, more focussed on the process and you may even have time to take stock and actually enjoy what you are doing, rather than think its waiting for you like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Whenever I am having this conversation with a client I always remember this quote:
“Becoming is better than being”
You will hear many many many Personal Trainers on the internet refer to “enjoying the process as opposed to focussing on the result”.
That is very very easy to say - and very hard to do.
But this is the first step to learning how to enjoy the process. Forgetting about the result.
When would perform Shakespeare I had to adopt the same process here. You have to learn the words of Hamlet, Othello or my personal favourite character: Benvolio and then when you are on stage you have to just forget that you know the words. When it comes to the performance - you have to just breathe and enjoy the ride. The second you start to think about the words you have to say - you forget them. When you hear actors talking about being in the moment - this is one very crucial aspect of that.
On stage we never think about the performance - the result - we just step on stage and let rip.
Its an incredibly freeing feeling - and you too must do the same with your fitness journey.
I actually have an episode of The Fitness Solution Podcast which is dedicated to this entire principle - with my dear friend Jodie Walker.
6 Easy Steps To Stay Consistent With Diet and Exercise
STEP 2: ITS GOT TO BE HELLA FUN
Adherence: “The attachment or commitment to a person, cause or belief”
Sorry to be “that” guy. You know…
“The Oxford Dictionary defines Adherence as….”
But here we are…anywhooooo….
One of the many reasons I managed to go through 3000 auditions as an actor and get rejected from them, one of the many reasons I have been able to write non stop content for four years on Personal Training, and one of the many reasons I am able to keep my calories in order is because all of those things bring me joy.
Let’s take my acting for example. You may well be thinking to yourself that I’m crazy.
Which is fair.
I am sitting here openly telling you that I enjoyed being rejected 3000 times.
I didn’t.
But I loved my days in London Auditioning. The result was inconsequential to me. Of course, I wanted to get the job. But that didn’t stop me enjoying the day I got going through the experience of trying.
For me, it was a day away from my office job. It was something new to talk about. It was exposing myself to an opportunity of improvement, of challenge, and of new experience.
It was a moment to grow.
It was also a moment to fail.
Not that I wanted to walk into the audtion knowing I would fail - believe me - every job i have ever been up for I have given everything I had for it.
But learning from that failure is a joyful experience. Its a badge of honour. I had the courage to risk failure, i felt that fear, did it anyway and opened myself up to vulnerability and strength.
Plus, who cares that I failed. I lost nothing except maybe a little bit of pride - and the opportunity of what I might gain one day form all of these experiences adding up is something that the micro fiaulures along the way are worth going through.
If you can attach this reframing of “failure” to your fitness journey you will be better off than the far majority of everyone else in the world.
80% of diets fail - this isn’t because diets are broken - its because dieting is really really hard - and one of the hardest aspects of them is being able to see the opportunity in the failures along the way.
I can honestly say that out of my 3000 auditions…I truly cared about getting the job maybe 3 or 4 times, and I know that now because I can remember those auditions:
Notes On A Scandal, Eastenders, BT Commercial, Hollyoaks and Kick-Ass.
That was it. Those Auditions were the ones that hurt when I didn’t get them…because I was extremely attached to the goal behind them. I really wanted that job. I truly believed those were the jobs that would change my life. They were the jobs that would have killed my ability to expose myself to it time and time again.
All the others…I can barely remember. But what I do remember is enjoying the process. Enjoying learning new plays, learning new speeches, and discovering new characters.
I didn’t enjoy it. I bloody loved it.
And if you aren’t having fun…there is no way you will be able to carry on doing it for long enough to get the results you want.
I call this the Adherence Loop:
Fun → Adherence → Consistency/Action → Results → Motivation
Make fun your priority in everything you do.
6 Easy Steps To Stay Consistent With Diet and Exercise
STEP 3: MAKE SURE YOU ARE TRYING TO STICK TO SOMETHING THAT IS TRULY ACHIEVABLE
By now you should be seeing a common theme with consistency: when you don’t see the results you re after that's what stops you from taking action.
And not setting yourself up for failure is critical to that.
As a personal trainer I see people setting the bar too high all the time:
Setting Calories too low.
Trying to exercise 4–5 times a week.
Lifting such heavyweight to the detriment of form.
Trying to do too much cardio ontop of lifting.
Spending too much money on quick fixes and shortcuts that they can’t keep it up.
Jumping constantly onto the “next big thing”
All of these will result in you not being able to remain consistent - and then ultimately giving up.
This is predominantly the fault of the internet and media - where in fitness we learnt that the quicker the fix - the more you will pay for that product.
And then when you don’t see the results - we aren’t accountable to you financially - you already paid - you already agreed to that “element of risk”. The most classic example of this you will see is something like:
“If you do exactly what we say, you will get the results you want or we will refund you”
And the trianer saying that knows exactly that no human ever will do exactly what they say - because no one can hit their calories each day perfectly. No one can track their food perfectly each day. No one can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they did “everything that was asked of them”.
Therefore, no one will ever be able to claim their money back.
The whole premise is a lie to make the trianer look good - and to coax you into the sale - because when you sign up you either believe you will do everything that is asked of you, or you are naieve to what is actually required.
You must make sure that what you are setting out to do is achievable but the problem is…how do you know if it is or isn’t without experiencing failure from time to time?
You might not be able to avoid that. Failure is always part of the process and every path to success is paved with it, my 3000 rejections for example.
One way of insuring yourself against this is to give yourself micro-goals.
So as opposed to wanting to lose 10 stone in 4 months try this:
Do everything you can to lose 1lb in 4 months…and repeat.
As opposed to trying to run a 5km in 20mins
Do everything you can to just complete the distance…and repeat.
“Practice makes progress”
Through the repetition of achieving such small goals over and over you will give yourself a feedback loop of success…and the big picture will take care of itself.
6 Easy Steps To Stay Consistent With Diet and Exercise
STEP 4: CREATE BRIGHT LINES — What is a Bright Line?
A bright-line rule (or bright-line test) is a clearly defined rule or standard, composed of objective factors, which leaves little or no room for varying interpretation. The purpose of a bright-line rule is to produce predictable and consistent results in its application [1]
Jokes aside - how wonderful is it that Britney Spears has managed to get out of the conservatorship.
Back to the topic at hand:
Now is the time for you to get strict. Not restrictive.
A lot of people when they set up a Bright Line in search of consistency they set it up overly restrictively.
A common Bright Line we see in fitness is something like this:
“I’m going to give up Carbs”
It’s a Bright Line: No Carbs for the rest of your life.
But it is also very very restrictive and will, therefore, cause lots of angst and potentially lead to higher intakes of Carbs…you know…“I can’t have it so I want it” syndrome. Whenever you take something completely off the table, you become more obsessed with it.
A better Bright Line in this instance would be:
“I will limit eating Chips to the weekends only”
Let us test it:
It has a clearly defined rule which aligns towards your bigger goal of wanting to lose weight: Limit eating chips.
It’s made up of an objective factor: You can only eat the chips at the weekend.
There is no varying interpretation: You either ate chips during the week or you didn’t.
Will it create a predictable and consistent result? Yes. Because you are eating chips only at the weekends.
A Bright Line doesn’t have to be about restriction though. It could be:
I will eat five different vegetables with every dinner I cook at home.
or
I will go to the Gym at least 2 times every single week
They aren’t pass/fail tests. If you miss a gym session in a week it doesn’t mean you failed completely, it means you just missed out on that one bright line.
This is why it will be wise each week to set three or four bright lines. If you miss one, you can then still find success in the other three, and you know what the priority for the upcoming week is.
I used to think brought lines were strict - but they aren’t - they are there to inspire discipline. I wish I could tell you that you can have total freedom and still achieve your goals - or rather - you don’t need to do any work and still achieve your goals.
But you can’t. There has to be discipline attached to your actions over time.
The key for you to being able to stick to your Bright Lines is making sure they don’t restrict you…but empower you.
One of my favourite phrases when it comes to weight loss is:
“Focus on production, not reduction”
Meaning:
Look at everything you can do to achieve your goal, not what you have to miss out on. Many many many people see weight loss as not having their favourite foods, not being able to enjoy alcohol, and not being social with their friends.
But the truth is, if you focus on production, if you focus on being more active, if you focus on eating as much as you can within your caloric window, if you focus on drinking more water, on going to the gym you live in a world of abundance towards your goals.
And that is more inspiring, than closing things off.
And it allows you to still do the things that might have originally been “off the table”.
6 Easy Steps To Stay Consistent With Diet and Exercise
STEP 5: HAVE STRUCTURED ACCOUNTABILITY
In my near 10 year career in this industry I have always worked online and in person.
Without a doubt - those who are more successful are my online clients - because they have to build their own structured accountability - and this empowers them.
You see - when people see me in person, they think that is being accountable enough. They put the ownness on me to create their result. Whereas online - the ownness is on them - and I find that empowers them to achieve so much more.
Tracking your consistency is one thing that is really going to help you keep consistent.
I know it sounds obvious…but you would be amazed at how many people think they are being consistent with their process…and then actually are not.
I almost promise you…that you are not as consistent as you think you are.
In the same way, you underestimate the number of calories you are truly eating [2] you’re also overestimating how consistent you are being.
And this is where structured accountability comes into the fold.
A huge part of what I provide to my clients is structured accountability. But this is far less effective for my clients than accountability they develop and maintain themselves.
Again - I want you to be empowered.
One of my go-to systems for clients is this:
Get a Big Wall Calendar
Stick it on your wall
Set up three-four Bright Lines you are going to do daily and weekly.
Track your consistency on these Bright Lines every day.
If you stuck to the Bright Lines put a big Red Circle on your day:
6. If you don’t stick to the Bright Lines put a Double Exclamation Mark on the day (different colour would be preferable)
Then over the months, you want to be hitting the 80/20 rule. Because remember consistency is more important than intensity and consistency doesn’t mean perfection either.
So for a month, you should have 25 Red Circles — meaning you are consistent - and will be hurtling towards your goals far quicker than if you took one of those “quick fixes”
Ironic isn’t it?
6 Easy Steps To Stay Consistent With Diet and Exercise
STEP 6: ITS GOT TO BE HELLA FUN
Yes. I know this was Step 2 as well.
But it's important. REALLY IMPORTANT.
What you do must be enjoyable. If you don’t enjoy it you will never stick to it.
And I’m not sure that point can’t be said enough.
6 Easy Steps To Stay Consistent With Diet and Exercise
Why is Consistency important?
Consistency is so important as it is your guiding light when it comes to balance. It is your buffer against you failing. If you can be consistent in the ways I have laid out in my 6 Steps then when a slip up occurs you will have so much other information that makes you feel proud of yourself.
Consistency reduces the significance of missed moments - and enhances your sense of overall achievement.
The other joyous thing about consistency is that it grows with you. The more consistent you are, the better it feels, and it just keeps going round and round and round. Then what took effort, soon becomes habit and that allows you to try and be consistent on something that is a level up to what you were dong before.
Understanding that you need to be consistent also allows you to understand that you must have flexibility and balance.
Consistency does not mean you need to be perfect.
Perfection is the enemy of consistency. It is the opposite.
I have many people tell me what their fitness wishes are, and very very often people will say to me:
“To be consistent with diet and exercise”
At which point I ask them: “What numbers are you attaching to that? How often do you need to do it in order to be consistent?”
“Every day” they respond with.
“Thats perfection” I remind them.
And you can see the weight from their shoulders lift immediately. Suddenly what seemed overwhelming is now achievable.
That is a big deal.
My friend on Instagram was talking about how she had an upcoming family holiday and wanted to pack all her stuff to go to the gym whilst she was on holiday. She was very worried about the voice in her head, her voice that was saying
“You are failing if you miss your sessions”
I explain to her that she has control over her thoughts and that she needs to start treating her “thoughts as things”. The only reason a thought becomes important is the weight we give it and whether or not we choose to focus on it.
So we had this chat:
If you take one thing away from this article please let it be this.
Perfection is not necessary and the quest for perfection will eventually lead to you giving up on yourself because it isn’t possible.
Consistency and Balance are possible, and that's what you must always strive for.
So if you are worried about whether or not you are not “being good enough” or whether a day off will wreck your progress ask yourself the same two questions I sent on Instagram:
Is this thought worth thinking?
Does this thought fit into my narrative of consistency over perfection?
And if the answer is no to both, then forget about it and move on with your day.
Consistency will be the ultimate answer for your quest for success in any field.
Business, Relationships, Fitness, Fat Loss.
It doesn’t matter what you want to succeed at you must be consistent and consistency isn’t sexy.
It creates regularity and helps form habits day in and day out. It is the foundation of habit formation. It takes conscious effort to being with, and then develops into something that is more automated.
You brush your teeth every day not because you know that by doing it one day you will stop your teeth from falling out, but because doing it every day will stop your teeth from falling out.
You save your money not because you know £50 one week will help you in the future, but doing that every week for 10 years will pay for your child's university fees.
Your child will never see the £50 a week. They will only know that you are paying for their tuition. There is nothing glamourous about £50 a week, but over a decade £26,000 is a lot of money to anyone.
I’m sure you have seen this in the past:
But its always worth reminding yourself of what success truly looks like.
There is also something wonderful about being consistent each and every day, and that is the concept of compound interest.
Once you begin to be consistent, once you turn those consistent behaviours into habits, and once they become just what you do…then the more room and space you will have to keep learning and trying to incorporate new things.
And that constant picking up of new ideas, habits and behaviours is what will change your life.
If you refuse to allow consistency to rule the roost in your journey you will always be stuck at phase one of your goals, and you can only focus on that for a certain amount of time until you get bored, frustrated and then eventually give up altogether.
What’s Next?
I really hope you found this article useful, and you feel a lot more comfortable about how to keep more consistent with your diet and exercise.
I also have some other articles you might find useful to help you navigate your Fitness Journey:
Added to all of that, if you would like a Free Calorie and Macro Calculator then just put your email in here:
Thank you so much for reading my article.
Speak Soon
Coach Adam