With a fitness class, personal training and so many other options out there for folks to move, why is it that actually getting results with our health and fitness is just so damned tough?
Well you could point to our environment being one factor. We are more sedentary and nutrition deprived than ever before and things are not getting better.
1 in 4 of us will be obese in years to come. Our kids are getting fatter and our world population is growing to 9 billion by 2050 putting a serious strain on our food reserves. Quality is going to be hard to come by unless we do something about it.
If we look at the here and now there is little wonder that we are struggling to make inroads.
Information Overload
Information is all around us and prevalent on all levels. You could literally be in the best shape of your life and in the greatest health of your life by accumulating information and doing your homework.
But therein lies the problem.
Think about it this way. Think about if you want to do a fitness class. All the answers are there online. Magazines, blogs, articles and well meaning professionals offer you all the advice you need to do this. You can source one, do one yourself, buy a DVD. Yet we are still, by in large, fat.
You could pop down the book store and invest in a blueprint. You could ask a friend who has been there and got the t-shirt how they did it, join a community to help spur you on.
Everything is there for you now to act on.
We just aren’t acting on it. You see all the information in the world is great if there is action to back it up.
And there isn’t.
Instead we grow sicker and fatter with the information piling up to the extent whereby now celebs are quasi-nutritionists sticking their ‘chia-seed-holier-than-thou-advice’ into the mix. Dangerous – yes, confusing – even more so.
Your Fitness Class & The Big Disconnect
So why is here this disconnect.
Well – there is more than the usual fingers to point.
Laziness is one but it is not the over-riding one.
Lack of soul searching and finding ‘why’ you would bother in the first place is very important. But again not the most important.
Lack of accountability is growing hotter. Think how much harder it is when you literally have someone to report to and hold you accountable with your diet and exercise. That is where the magic lies. That éclair and packet of crisps seems less appealing when you have to show it to someone.
I would argue strongly that the overriding reason is that there is just too much information around.
We get bombarded with information to the extent that we start to complicate the life out of ‘eat more, do less’. What happened to that?
Oh wait – that’s right it got lost under the tonne of excuses.
No.
The Solution
You just over-complicated it.
That diet recommendation that you know is sound advice suddenly becomes a mountain to climb as it is just too complicate and simple to comprehend. That fitness class that just needs you to turn up and attend becomes a mental battle.
Drink more water becomes..
Still or sparkling? Plastic or glass? Volvic or Fijian goat?
How about just drink more water?
You see what is happening?
A path of resistance is coming up that is paved with excuses. It is in our nature to over complicate things. It also gives us the way out of the tough bit if we find it ‘too hard’.
That is just the way the mind works.
Exercise for 20 minutes every day.
Weights, run, walk? What about this bums and thighs fitness class one?
How about – just exercise, you know you should do it and you know how to do it so just do it.
Every habit at the end of the day that will contribute to your health and fitness will be answered in the question (etch this onto your eye lids)
Did you do it? Yes or no.
Did you drink enough water today? Yes or no.
And if you can answer this with many habits then you will reach your goal. I guarantee it. Just be careful with the stories you tell yourself.
