I used to play sport because I wanted to be the best. I wanted to win. And when I won, I felt great! And when I lost… I felt not so great.
I was playing sport to win, not to get fit. So my strategy was not so great for my future. When I was competing, I was fit and had a healthy lifestyle, but during the off-season, I was very, very unhealthy.
I wonder if you’ve ever experienced this? A strong desire to see instant wins can yield great results…but only for a short time .
Where I was going wrong was that I was focusing on the immediate impact of my training, rather than the long-term impact. And I see people make the same mistake with their gym routines all the time.
But it’s not their fault. The fitness industry sets people up for this yo-yo approach to fitness, recognise any of these…?
– Intensive 6-8-week transformation programs
– Fad diets
– Overseas health retreats
– Lose 10kgs in 10week programs
– etc…
The frustrating problem is that all of these short term approaches are setting you up to fail because they promote the wrong mindset. They encourage you to think of health and fitness as a short, intensive burst of effort…then what? You’re expecting to maintain the results right. But how??
Going hard in short bursts is not only damaging to the body (trust me, I’ve had so many injuries from this old approach!), it is also extremely damaging to our mindset for health. If we put all of our energy into getting fit as quickly as possible, we don’t leave space to focus on anything else. This quickly becomes unsustainable (because life outside of the gym doesn’t stop for anyone!) and you will eventually be forced to turn your focus to something else, or someone else.
This next part you know as well as I do- as soon as you turn your focus to something else, your health and fitness suffer.
It sucks, doesn’t it.
And it takes a long time to get the motivation to start back again.
You can’t expect a Monk to practice Buddhism for 6 weeks and be a Monk for life.
He (or she!) has daily rituals and practises to deepen his connection with Buddhism and to maintain his desired lifestyle.
Like Buddhism, being fit and healthy is more about the ‘being’ than anything else. It is a practice. A way of life. And it can only be developed through sustainable, lifelong habits.
Which is why one of our favourite philosophies at Strong Women Can is this;
If you want to create long-lasting sustainable change, then you need to be able to commit to your new habits for 5 years.
And if that feels impossible, start with something smaller. Try 2 workouts a week, rather than 6. Try cutting out one desert a week, rather than eliminating all sugar.
Every day we see our clients adopt one small healthy lifestyle habit at a time, and the results are phenomenal.
In fact, I was just talking to Kate, one of our members, the other day, and Kate shared her strategy
“I change something regularly that then just becomes part of my day-to-day, and as a result of that losing weight is just sort of happening now”
If you’d like losing weight to ‘just sort of happen now’, do what Kate did and learn how to BE healthy long term rather than ACT healthy in the short term. I guarantee you will achieve all your health goals!
If you’d like to find out how to take your health and fitness to the next level, contact us today to arrange your free consult. In the consult, we’ll discuss your goals, challenges and help you form an action plan for long-term, sustainable results.
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