There are a lot of people out there who truly believe that once they reach their goal weight, goal fat percentage, or preferred physical aesthetic, they can finally stop exercising and eating right. They don’t have to workout anymore. They can break-up with healthy nutrition and fitness.
Let me be the 1000th person to tell you that fitness and nutritional goals have to be maintained in order to be sustained. FOREVER. Whatever you did each and every day to get to where you are today, must continue to be done in order to maintain what you have. If you go back to eating the way you used to and not exercising, you’ll just go back to looking and feeling the way you did before.
Your body looks and feels the way it does because of the actions you have been taking. If you stop taking those actions and resume the less healthy actions you used to take, you will end up back where you started in no time.
As a fitness professional, I stress the need to find sustainable forms of exercise and ways of eating to my clients. If you can’t count on yourself to do what you’ve been doing each and every day for the rest of your life, then it’s time for you to find something new to do in order to reach your goals and maintain them. This is difficult for most people because… Well, you can’t know what you like or don’t like until you’ve tried it. A lot of people are not trained to know what they should or shouldn’t try. When they do things they shouldn’t try, this contributes to a negative relationship with health and fitness. There are a plethora of both different and effective physical fitness activities and nutritional behaviors one can do and adopt, but it’s extremely difficult to know what works for you if you don’t have the background education.
Here are a few recommendations I have to help you ensure your fitness and nutritional regimens are sustainable and can last forever.
Take Tiny Steps
When you attempt to change your body in any type of way, it will resist you. It has been acting and living the way it has for so long that it’s adapted to these thoughts, feelings, behaviors. Changing fitness and nutritional habits can be difficult. Especially if you expect them to change overnight. That’s not going to happen. It’s important to make gradual and small changes that your body and mind can accept without rebellion. This might take you anywhere between one week to one year, but that’s ok because you’re doing this for the rest of your life. You might as well ease into it all.
NEVER Force yourself to do Something you HATE
People just don’t like to suffer. If you have to spend a considerable amount of time in pain in order to reach your fitness and health goals, then whatever you’re doing… Isn’t right for you and it’s time to make a change to something else. It’s possible to ease into things you don’t initially like and begin to like them, but at some point your body and mind may rebel. LISTEN TO THEM. They are your most honest impulses. Believe them and accept them when they say something just isn’t for you. Trust me, there are plenty of other ways to reach your goal. You DO NOT have to grind it out under any circumstances.
Accept and Learn to Love your Limitations
Hey, some things just aren’t for you and that’s OK because there are plenty of other things that ARE for you. As I stated earlier, you do not have to grind it out and force yourself to do anything even if you believe you NEED this thing in order to achieve your goal at all costs. A huge part of this journey to better health is learning how to love and accept yourself. This is more of a battle with your mind, than your body. We take actions and make mistakes in order to learn more about ourselves so we can make better decisions in the future. Never put a goal before feeling good about yourself TODAY.
DO What you Love, Passionately and Fully
Once you find something that makes you happy and keeps you happy, hold onto that. That’s your ticket to good health. You don’t have to do all kinds of crazy things in order to maintain your good health. You only have to find what works for you and stick to it. Sometimes things can get old and you can get tired of them. With an open-mind you should be able to find new things to love and adapt them to your lifestyle, but in the meantime ENJOY what you love doing.
Know When to Get Help
For personal trainers and health coaches, our jobs are to help you find ways to feel good while being active. We want to use our expertise to help you find and have positive experiences with exercise and nutrition in a sustainable manner. Our focus is literally to help YOU help yourself find your joy in whatever form it takes. We build and create the plans that you love in order to help you achieve and maintain your goals. Basically, we take the guesswork and overwhelm off of your shoulders.
If you’re having trouble finding out what exercises and nutritional practices to adopt in order to reach and maintain your good health, it’s definitely a good idea for you to look into some personal and nutritional training and coaching. Don’t spend another second not knowing what to do and feeling bad about it. We can help you.
This blog is not intended to substitute for informed medical advice. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat a health problem or condition. Always check with your doctor before changing your diet, altering your sleep habits, taking supplements, or starting a new fitness routine.
Robyn J. Fitness 