Success Takes Time
You know the story.
You’re scrolling the gram on a Friday night, feeling a little down as you hit that tub of ice cream or fourth beer.
You stumble upon a post that seems almost made for you
It’s a stunningly ridiculous, amazing, story of transformation, from fat to the cover of XXXX Health (there’s no mention yet of how long or what sacrifices have been made – that stuff doesn’t sell transformation programmes!).
You listen to an attractive presenter extolling the benefits of their super simple, super effective, super quick, programme.
All you have to do is enter those 16 magical digits and your success is guaranteed!
The best thing is, you know deep down that it’s bullsh*t.
If you’re as old as me, you’ll have been burned by multiple, false promise programmes
Programmes that told you:
– the one exercise will solve all your problems
– that food is bad
– don’t eat after 7pm
– detox is for you
– skinny tea will set you free
– HIIT 6 days a week is just what you need
The list is endless, but why?
Our health and fitness decisions are driven by our emotions.
And you know that when your emotions make decisions for you, rational thought takes a well-earned vacation.
We’re like magpies, attracted to anything shiny.
The snake-oil social media promises are as attractive to you as a glint of something shiny is to the magpie.
We want to believe this time it’s true, that this time will be our big success.
So we pay our money and we download the ebook, the training app or whatever hook was used to entice us in.
We have great success for the first day or two, we’re up early, we stay off the food we really like and employ a radical calorie-cutting plan destined to help us achieve our goals.
We get into the HIIT session, and funnily enough, 35 other people have had the same idea as you, but that’s cool, avoiding them while you jump over the bench or onto that Bosu ball is just another way that you’re going to burn extra calories.
You get plenty of encouragement, the exercises look easy on the tv, so you must be doing them right.
You’ve got it nailed.
Success and happiness are just over the horizon. You knew you’d made the right decision all along.
Then a couple of weeks pass, and you’re starting to feel sore, and it’s increasingly difficult to get out of bed in the am.
Heck, it’s a challenge just to put your clothes on and make it to the bus/car/train.
Your attention levels at work are slipping, you’re grumpier than usual with your partner/kids/friends and just the thought of another meal replacement shake makes you feel sick.
You notice you’re not the only one who doesn’t make it to every class, and even then, there’s no extra coaching, in fact, there’s no real coaching at all.
Just a lot of shouting and cheerleading.
As your energy levels crash due to insufficient caloric intake coupled with overly aggressive training, your motivation tanks.
Getting fit and healthy isn’t for me after all!
It doesn’t have to be that way.
The first step to success is doing things differently from the way you previously failed.
That means looking for a different way of achieving your goals
If you treated your health and fitness goals like you treat your professional development, like your education, or like the way you parent, you’d rarely have a problem.
You’d research your options, and then go and find out more about your potential provider.
If the programme you’re considering doesn’t have the option to:
– sit down for a chat first, it’s probably not going to be the place for you.
– take Small Group Personal Training to identify where you need to focus first
– have adjustable workouts to match your current fitness/strength levels
– take a programme you don’t have to plan yourself
– take long term, meaningful nutritional coaching
and doesn’t have coaches who care and check in on you if you miss a few days, it’s not the programme that’s going to help you become successful where it matters most, the long term.
Success takes time
You’re not going to achieve your goals in 6 weeks.
If you’re anything like me, you’ll have only just started understanding what’s going on at the 6-week mark.
You’re probably not going to achieve your goals in 6 months.
You didn’t get your degree in 6 months, so why do you think you’re going to be able to fundamentally change your life in that period of time?
The fitness industry preys on your short-termism. It wants you to think that’s true so it can get cash off of you quickly.
How then…
Two supplements we prescribe to every client we work with:
Patience
Consistency
You don’t need to do everything at 100 mph, you don’t need to change everything in one day.
You need to earmark 8-16 months, accept that you need guidance and mentorship more than you need cheerleading and calorie-cutting
We have three main ways of helping people do exactly that:
1 – The optimum option for goal achievement
Personal training 2-3 times per week. A personalised programme to work on exactly what you need.
Nutrition coaching with monthly check-ins, programme adjustments and nutritional education
Mindset and sleep tracking and management
2 – The middle ground
Small Group Personal Training + Nutrition Coaching
The next best option, focusing on getting you moving and feeling more optimistic about being successful.
3 – The easy start
Small Group Personal Training
Easy to get started with, especially if you enjoy the team/social setting for your training environment.
But it all starts with your first contact.
A chance to sit down with a coach who’ll talk to you and you.
If it doesn’t…..well, you know the story as well as I do.
To find out what your personal prescription should be, click here for your free 1-1 with me
Cheers
Coach Paul
Owner/Head coach
Ignite Fitness and Nutrition