As a personal trainer I have seen over the years alot of mistakes that folks make when they first decide to change their lifestyle, fitness and eating habits.
- Number 1 Mistake – Starting off too fast
I suppose it is indicative of our age of living that we want everything now. As a newcomer, it is your god given right to have it now. After all that is they way the world works right?
Wrong.
You can’t rush this. It will take time with peaks and troughs, highs and lows both emotionally and physically. You will often hear me talk about trying to chase 14 rabbits and catching none. For beginners to this regime this will be the making and breaking of you. After a week I often get a multitude of questions relating to diet and lifestyle – is this ok? Or is this ok? What about this? It is normally an indication that your emotional side of the your brain has kicked into gear and taken over your rational thinking.
You are trying to change too much. We can only focus on one thing at a time! Chase one rabbit and catch it. Move onto the next. Over the course of 8-12 weeks your body would have changed dramatically as a result of this snow balling of health and fitness.
Relying on Pure Motivation
Your motivation levels will carry you for 4 weeks. Relying purely on motivation will not last. After that it will fade. Unless you are carrying the motivation levels of an Olympic athlete or on the other extreme a cancer patient who has weeks to live. In both cases the focus is extreme.
After 4 weeks it is time to get practicing those habits, nurturing good behaviors and unpacking a lifetime of poor habits. Then it will stick. It will stick enough that it becomes the last stop on the diet train for you.
Having the Patience of a Toddler Not Being Realistic
I don’t know what bullshit you have been fed but realise that if your idea of eating a good meal is how many Happy Meals you don’t eat in a week or how many pints you didn’t drink at the weekend then think again as to the rate of your progress. Or, more importantly, is realistic.
Some of us are starting out closer to optimum nutrition than others. Accept that. But take steps every day to ensure that you are getting better and better. Some of us can dial in our nutrition and get great results in 28 days. Others, it will take longer. Not because you have any less motivation but because you are starting from further down the road.
If you want extreme results then your habits and behaviours better match that intensity for 12 weeks or more. There is no secret. Can you stick to what you are asked for 12 weeks or more with laser focus? Great – you WILL get in awesome shape. If not, that is ok. Enjoy the journey which you will as you get healthier and healthier.
Finding Your Key Stone Habits
Your key stone habits are something that Charles Duhig eludes to in his book The Power of Habits. As a beginner one of the biggest mistakes is arguing over the merits of things like organic granola vs. oats or coffee vs. wild muchu pichu tea or spelt bread vs. organic gluten free cornflower-hand- milled toast.
More often than not a beginner will focus on these changes rather than focus on the lack of sleep that is driving them to have low energy the following day which in turn is forcing them to crave sugar and have the motivation to exercise of someone with man flu.
Best thing you can do is to identify your key stone habits. Take daily exercise is a good one. This has a knock on effect in the sense that you will start eating better, drinking more water and sleeping better.
Avoid the minor details and look at what will create the biggest ripple in your habits.
Sweating the Small Stuff
This continues on from point 4. Beginners sweat the small stuff. I couldn’t care less how many grams of protein you ate or number of carbs you ate if your idea of good nutrition is a breakfast roll EVERY MORNING.
Beginners may also worry about their tea intake when they are constantly dehydrated and would be better served by simply drinking more water.
Or, hitting the inner thigh with this exercise when every time they come to the gym it is off the back of a crap night’s sleep and in a stressed hurry because they couldn’t manage their time better.
Or how may miles you ran this week when you insist on drinking at the weekend and smoking just ‘one or two’.
All beginners have an elephant in the room. Slap it in the face and show him the door.
Hiding – Do or Do Not There is No Try
Some of us hide. Some of us make the mistake of this early on by not making ourselves accountable to anyone. Burying their heads in the sand and avoiding help and advice.
Those folks who get results set dates and times to hold themselves accountable with assessments. They don’t wait for disaster or for the guilt levels to rise to a point that they need a kick up the backside.
They are good at doing that themselves!
Get help. Throw yourself out there. Tell your friends what you are up to. Blog about it. Set up a facebook page. Keeping it to yourself is when you begin to slip up and that element of hiding is what will hurt you.
We have tools in place to help you. The Habit Tracking Tool, Food Diaries , Body Checks and Attendance Records. But more than that is your deep burning desire to succeed. There is enough!
Working Smarter not Harder
There is an old mantra that most of the most successful athletes live by “Don’t train if you can’t gain”.
There is a hard core mentality in Sphere that can’t be avoided. But that doesn’t just apply to beating the shit out of yourself every time you train. That is easy to do. Could you do it if you weren’t at the gym? Where is your strength of character then?
It means having the strength to take a day off when you need to.
It is having the strength to say no to processed food.
It is having the strength to turn off the lap top and hit the pillow at 10.30pm and not 2am.
It is having the strength to admit that you need help and then go and do something about it.
It is having the strength to admit your mistakes, front up and change.
It is having the strength to do what feels right for you.
It is having the strength to trust 100% in your coach.
It is having the strength to manage your time better so that you can train and get the most out of it.
There is more to Sphere than just a good training ethic. Train to gain. But work smarter not just harder.
Listening to Shit Talk
Everyone will have an opinion when you start out. Who cares? Listneing to shit talk is the fastest way to knock you off your stride and lose track of where you are heading. Get people in your network who will support your efforts not shit talk behind your back.
Trying to Please Everyone
I read in Phil Learney’s excellent blog piece about an intrinsic and extrinsic mind set and how change is more suited to those of us who are a little selfish and inward looking.
Trying to please everyone is a classic behavioural trait of those who are extrinsically motivated but one that carries the most difficulties when it comes to getting long term results.
When you are at your Aunt’s and the plate of biccies comes round. You can’t resist because you are trying to please her.
The lads head out for a smoke. You join them because you want to enjoy their company and the only way in is with a cigarette at the expense of your health.
You finish your match and everyone heads for a pint. You can’t drink water because you are trying to please everyone and ‘fit in’.
You meet your friend for a coffee and share a scone too. You can’t say no because you don’t want to upset her (or so you think). You drink the coffee and end up nibbling away on the whole scone because she didn’t want it anyway.
At lunch you have what everyone else is eating including processed foods. You can’t say no because you don’t want to feel uncomfortable and out of place.
The kids dinner has been cooked but your husband’s hasn’t. You miss your class because you don’t want him hassled after this long day at work.
So what do you do? Change your make-up? No, embrace it! Practice the other extreme of being more inward looking and reflective.
It is easier to stick to a plan when you are little bit more inward looking, ‘selfish’ and focused on your own path. It is not hurtful but a steely determination. You will need that.
Not willing to pay the price
This is something I have written about before here. At the start we don’t spend long enough figuring out exactly what it will take to get to where we want to go.
List it off. How much? Time? Resources? People? Then when it gets to the difficult decisions to make you know exactly where you are going!
Being an Ask Hole
This stems from having a lack of trust in the system that is trying to help you and a lack of ‘buy in’. Maybe you have tried things i the past and ‘it is destined to failure’. At Sphere we have invested THOUSANDS in ensuring that we can provide you with measurable and predictable results with sensible, cutting-edge and fast acting methods. Trust in it.
Unfortunately we have also seen how other methods fail the majority of people. Don’t be an askhole. Believe in it, buy into it and give it all you got.
John Lark is owner of Sphere Fitness check out the Your Health Camp a brand new style of bootcamp that offers Maynooth, Celbridge, Kilcock and Leixlip the chance to revolutionise your health and fitness.
References
http://phillearneyblog.com/2012/06/22/sacrifice-for-success/ (Date Visited 22nd June 2012)
