Seven things holding you back

It’s so easy to get frustrated at things in life, many different things in fact, but when you take a step back and break down the situation you can filter out the little things that have built up that frustration.

Fitness and progression being one of them.

As a coach we are no stranger to hearing people’s frustrations along their fitness journey. And it’s our job to try and steer those frustrations away with a solution.

I personally always try and break down what could be holding you back from progressing further into different categories. I don’t ask my clients to sit and sort their frustrations into these categories but when I break down their weekly check in or information they have given me then I can pin point them into a sub heading if you like and start working on the change needed.

So…

1. Effort 

How much effort are you actually putting into your fitness journey/programme/bootcamp/lifestyle?

If you aren’t willing to put the effort in that is needed then you have already stumbled at the first hurdle, efforts aren’t just required for the first few weeks, they are required the whole time. No stop start, just constant effort. And you need to be consistent with your efforts. Which brings me around to…

 

2. Consistency

Are you consistent with your nutrition and training?

Do you absolutely put all the effort and hard work in during the week and then let yourself have an ‘off’ weekend where you pretty much relax your diet by eating what you want with very little to no exercise? Because let me tell you…you will undo all the hard work you have put in throughout the week. It’s so easy done. Input vs output and all that.

Do you have a day where you eat really well and get all your workouts in, come home and have a shit sleep or feel tired and then take a less active day the following day to ‘rest’? Do you keep repeating this cycle? Because like I said up above…you need to be consistent with the effort you are putting in and that’s not consistent, it sometimes takes little and maybe larger sacrifices. Speaking of which…

 

3. Sacrifice

Sometimes we just have to do things we don’t want to do, wether that be sacrifice an extra hour of sleep to get a workout in.

Put our evening meal back an hour so we can get the training in that we couldn’t get in earlier in the day. Suck up tiredness and move our bodies instead. Prep food when we could order a takeaway for ease. We have to say no to meals out or evenings with friends because at that particular moment in time it’s not going to help you progress on your programme.

Sometimes we have to prep food for days out when the kids are eating doughnuts in front of you (I’m speaking from experience here). And it’s hard, yes it’s very very hard, and we don’t want to do all of the above. But my honest advice is…TOUGH, JUST SUCK IT UP. It’s not forever. It’s more often than not just a smaller period of time. And if that’s what it takes then that’s what it takes. It all comes down to how much it means to you. On that note…

 

4. Importance

How important is this progression to you? What does it mean to you to progress further? Why did you sign up to your programme in the first place? How do you feel about yourself when you took that first step?

These are the questions you should be asking yourself when you get frustrated. They are your reason, your why, your whole movement for furthering yourself in a positive way.

If something means that much for you, you absolutely won’t let anything stand in the way of it. You need a hella lot of willpower though trust me.

 

5. Willpower

Oh willpower, sometimes it easier said than done. I get it. However…like I said earlier, you just have to suck it up. If saying no to a chocolate bar is what it takes then you dig deep and find that willpower to do so. Over and over.

If dragging yourself to the gym seems like the last thing you want to do then you talk yourself into it by considering all of the above and you get yourself there. Over and over. Nobody has ever regretted having willpower. It’s the bread and butter of success. It’s the YES, I CAN AND I WILL.

 

6. Excuses

To be a ‘yes, I can and I will’ kind of person requires the excuses to be launched to the bottom of your garden. They can’t exist. And I don’t mean serious excuses like life or death, I mean petty excuses like ‘I was tired’, ‘I’ve had a hard day at work’, ‘There wasn’t really anything healthy to eat at work so I had a sandwich instead’. Just stop. Just stop with the excuses.

If you’ve had a hard day at work then guaranteed someone else will have had a hard day at work too…what makes you the exception?

If you are tired then tough…you’re tired. It doesn’t mean you can’t wack out a 20minute workout…you won’t be tired after let me tell ya! You’ll feel bloody grand! If work doesn’t have anything healthy to eat then where’s your prepped food? Because thats on you, not work.

There is always a solution before you try and make an excuse. And let me tell you something ‘coach to reader’…we know all the excuses in the book…even before you’ve tried to use them 😜. We know.

And lastly…

 

7. Patience

I say it all the time, as long as you are putting in the effort, staying consistent, making those little sacrifices and committing yourself to the goals that you have then you WILL get there. It just takes time.

Nothing happens overnight, you didn’t get to where you are now overnight so you hands down cannot expect to progress overnight either. Houses don’t get built in a day, they take months, it’s the same with your body. It’s a home, your home. And it will get there if you treat it well and put the effort in for it.

Over the last 5 weeks myself and Kev have been going through an online 8 week physique programme. We check in with our coaches weekly, we fill out food diary’s daily, we have macros set for each meal and we have a food list to follow. If it’s not in the list we aren’t eating it. We have training schedules to follow and cardio set everyday. We prep all meals fresh (Kev is the cook cuz I could possibly poison us 🤮) and we make sure that we are 100%. Not 98%, not even 99%. 100%. Because that’s what it is going to take to complete the process. It’s also because its important to us.

Personally this means more to me than anything has done in a very long time. It’s to change my body physically and it’s for my mental health. It’s to give me back me. And that’s my why. It’s my effort, my consistency, my willpower, it’s not making excuses, and it’s patience.

We have two children, we both work, we both have clients to work with, we don’t finish work when we get home our job carries on, we get tired, we get hungry, we sometimes don’t have the energy to train, we have busy lifestyles, I have an injury…and we are also in nationwide lockdown. Jesus Christ…we even see the boys eating crisps and sausage rolls and we want bloody them. But it’s no excuse! Does it stop us?! No. We haven’t faltered once. Not once. Because it would be on us….we would be holding ourselves back.

 

It will be SO WORTH IT in the end

Don’t get frustrated. Take a step back and evaluate what you can change. Listen to your coach and trust the process, if you don’t have a coach then invest in someone worth their weight in gold to put you on the right track. And then apply all of the above. It works, I promise.

You literally cannot go wrong.

Now grit your teeth…and go get it! 💪🏼💪🏼

Happy Sunday ❤️