Outside of January and New Years Resolutions, September is not only a common time to get back on your fitness goals– it’s an optimal one. With patio season coming to a close, kids back in school, and with a few pounds extra pounds of fat to shed from bbq season (not to mention the weight gained and still remaining from Covid lockdowns…) it’s the perfect time to get back on our healthy routines. Here are 5 fitness tips so that you may start– and continue on successfully with your workouts and healthier lifestyle
Start with true intent
Whenever I’m talking to people about their fitness goals, generally within the first few minutes, I can tell which are going to succeed in staying consistent with their newly adopted fitness routines– no matter what– and which ones will struggle without extra accountability to stay on track. This usually comes down to what they say when it comes to answering questions about their fitness goals that gives them away early.
As a coach, one of the most important parts of my job is early on, to help those that start out with the goal of “being more fit” to finding and adopting one with deeper meaning. “I want to workout because I want to be more fit”– if that is your self talk, it’s not very motivating.
“I’m going to workout, because shedding inches off my waist, strengthening and toning up my body, and getting back to feeling more energetic will affect not only my physical health, but it will make me feel more confident and I’ll feel better about myself”
A more motivating message to thyself
If your self talk is similar to the quote above, you are much more likely to show up on days you are less motivated. Show up for the first 15 minutes of the workout and chance are that you’ll keep going (and be happier you did so).
Here is a visualization/anchoring exercise for those open minded enough to give it a go:
Write a message out to yourself of your fitness goals with deep, specific meaning and read it out loud 5 times. Take a moment to picture yourself and feel how you would feel if you were to achieve these goals. Capture that feeling, have a picture in your mind or link this moment to a song and place it as your ringtone (anchoring), and resort to that anytime you’ve forgotten why you’re doing it and be ready to tell yourself the message or play your song whenever you don’t feel like working out. If saying your goal aloud doesn’t motivate you to act– dig deeper.
Start slow, regardless of motivation
Motivation is at times a blessing– and a curse. It’s a blessing because if you strike while the iron is hot, while you’re in a more motivated mindset, good things can happen. The curse of motivation, is that for one, the iron stays hot for a very short period of time without action, and when we do act, sometime we go from zero to hero.
Going hard right off the bat to “make up for time off” can bea recipe for discouragement (or injury) early on in your journey. Remember, you’re doing this for a healthier lifestyle– not for a month of being 3 pounds lighter. If you haven’t worked out in over 3 months, the first 3-6 weeks are meant to get your body back used to exercising so that you can maintain frequency and progress forward.
Frequency is key, above all else, so build the habit by stretching, using light weights, getting a sweat on, and prioritizing feeling good after each workout are the right targets to aim for.
Coach
Start by planning
We’ve all heard the saying, “Failing to plan is planning to fail”, never was something more true then when being said about our fitness goals.
“Failing to plan is planning to fail”
Benjamin Franklin
We don’t miss workouts, because we are lazy, we miss workouts, because we haven’t set a worthwhile goal, or we didn’t plan properly. We didn’t eat, we don’t have our gym clothes ready, or we say we will go workout 3 times a week– but we leave it up to fate to decide when. Similarly, poor nutrition and frequent fast food stops are also often the offspring of poor planning and lack of preparation.
The answer?
Get out your your calendar (or start using one) and plan your workouts in advance at times that work with your ongoing commitments, while letting others such as your partner know that these are your times for exercise. P.S if you struggle to wakeup early, 5am, five times a week right away is likely not the right strategy…
Start with a Coach
Whenever I ask people about their past workout routine, if they fell off or didn’t see the results they were looking for, it generally generally came down to lacking the right program/strategy to follow, or lacking accountability to stay consistent for long enough for them to succeed with their fitness goals.
Coaching is too expensive
Coaching can be expensive, but compared to what? Not investing in yourself and learning how to take care of your health– that also costs us– our time, our effort, our happiness…
Invest in yourself long enough to understand how to exercise efficiently towards your goals, and to make sure that you stick to your routines long enough to see and feel motivating results. This will go a long way towards building a healthier lifestyle and becoming the more energetic, happier, sexier version of yourself.
Start by Taking Action
You can read all the articles available on the net and gain all the workout wisdom to achieve your goals– and see zero progress if you do not act. Whether you are a self proclaimed health guru or whether you don’t know what the difference between a dumbbell and a smartbell is (just kidding, smartbell is not a thing), action breeds motivation, action breeds success, action is what really counts. If you made it to the end of this article and have no gym membership, fitness goals, or know-how, that’s okay. Strike while the iron is hot– make the call and sign up for a membership, go for a run right now, or make the call and hire a coach for accountability and customized programming towards your goals. As a close friend and mentor of mine, World Record Holder Evan Ungar says, make the decision. Commit to your goals, commit to following through, commit to becoming the healthier, happier version of yourself, and don’t wait, take action today
