Andre Gregoire
04-05-2011, 09:41 AM
We all have different reasons for wanting to improve our bodies and our health. For some it might be to strengthen bones, to lower the risk of heart disease or diabetes, to decrease stress or even just to look good naked.
The most common reason I believe people fail at achieving their goals is that they have unrealistic expectations. It may have taken them a decade to become overweight but they want it all off in a month and when that doesn't happen they get discouraged and quit.
Often when people start a body transformation they decide to make several drastic changes to their lifestyle. In my experience this hardly ever works out. If you change too many things at the same time usually a few weeks later people feel like they have sacrificed too much and that it's not worth it so they go back to the way they were. I call this the "All or Nothing" principle.
When I am working with a client that is new to a healthy lifestyle I introduce only one principle per week. After a few months I have introduced a dozen new habits and my clients rarely feel like they had to make any big sacrifices.
If I would have taken that same person and given them a list of 12 things to do on day one I can guarantee that 80% of people would quit before the first month is up. It's overwhelming and unnecessary.
When starting this journey, I recommend establishing concrete goals and deadlines, this will help keep you focused and on track.
A medium term goal is losing about 10% of your bodyweight. This number is often cited in medical articles as the amount of weight loss required to significantly improve your health.
From my experience it's possible to consistently lose 0.5-0.75% bodyweight per week without losing a significant amount of muscle mass. At this rate it would take approximately 14-20 weeks to lose 10% of your bodyweight.
For someone that weighs 200lbs, that means a weight loss of 1.0-1.5lbs per week. Someone that is heavier can lose quicker and someone that is lighter will need to drop slower. The first week or two weight loss might be quicker because of loss of body water and glycogen but after the initial 2 weeks I think it's best to keep things moving at the rate stated above.
In order to stay on course I recommend keeping track of progress on a regular basis. I do this with weekly weigh-in's, monthly pictures and also measuring circumference of key body parts. Sometimes the scale doesn't move a lot but you might still be losing inches on your waist, hips or thighs.
Another metric that I like to use with my clients is the food log, I don't have them log their food all the time but when progress starts to slow it's time for them to log their food intake. Just doing that seems to get things progressing again.
I mentioned the "All or Nothing principle" earlier in the article and I think it needs to be repeated. People need to stop expecting perfection, if you are aiming for perfection you are bound to fail eventually and then what?
If "All or Nothing” people miss a workout or they have a cheat meal they often start rationalizing that it's not worth continuing since they failed to do everything perfectly and then they purposely sabotage themselves. One missed workout becomes a week of missed workouts; the cookie they ate now becomes a whole bag.
It doesn't have to be like this!!!
If you fail to follow your plan, it's not a big deal just get back on the program as quickly as possible and don't make things worse by sabotaging yourself.
Don't compare yourself to others. I hear this one all the time, why do I have to be so strict with my diet when that person just stopped drinking soda and is losing 10lbs per month. Yeah, it sucks, some people have to work harder and sacrifice more in order to obtain results, life isn't always fair but if you want results you have to look at yourself and do what is needed for YOU to progress. If you just keep looking at others it will only make you feel depressed and won’t do anything to help your progress.
Some people need that little extra help with motivation and for them I recommend pairing up with someone like a training partner, there is nothing better than going through this with someone else that can relate to you. If you don't have a training partner or spouse to encourage you another option is hiring a personal trainer or an online coach, like me.
When getting started it’s important to set an outcome goal with a fixed objective and a date to attain it by. It's also important to share that goal with others so that you become accountable.
Once that’s done it’s essential to focus on short-term goals while only keeping the long term goals in the back of your mind. Losing 30 pounds is done one pound at a time. And the way to lose one pound at a time is to have a good plan in place and to follow it, meal by meal and workout by workout.
Most of my clients will tell you one of the main reasons they like having a coach is being accountable to someone. It's easy to lie to yourself but much harder to lie to someone else. My clients know they need to weigh in every week and email me the results. This gives them extra motivation to stick to their workout plans and diets in order to get results that they want.
Another benefit of having a coach is that once you have established an outcome goal with your coach, the coach creates the plan and you should only focus on behavioral goals. For example an outcome goal might be losing 10lbs in 12 weeks and a behavioral goal might be to work out 3 times per week. You can't control how much weight you lose every week and if you focus only on that you are bound to be disappointed, you can however control how many times you workout in a week. If you focus on your behavioral goals the outcome goals take care of themselves assuming your coach as created a solid plan.
Finally, when you attain a goal, it's important to tap yourself on the back and reward yourself. You can treat yourself to a piece of clothing, a movie or even a short trip if you attain one of your long term goals.
The most common reason I believe people fail at achieving their goals is that they have unrealistic expectations. It may have taken them a decade to become overweight but they want it all off in a month and when that doesn't happen they get discouraged and quit.
Often when people start a body transformation they decide to make several drastic changes to their lifestyle. In my experience this hardly ever works out. If you change too many things at the same time usually a few weeks later people feel like they have sacrificed too much and that it's not worth it so they go back to the way they were. I call this the "All or Nothing" principle.
When I am working with a client that is new to a healthy lifestyle I introduce only one principle per week. After a few months I have introduced a dozen new habits and my clients rarely feel like they had to make any big sacrifices.
If I would have taken that same person and given them a list of 12 things to do on day one I can guarantee that 80% of people would quit before the first month is up. It's overwhelming and unnecessary.
When starting this journey, I recommend establishing concrete goals and deadlines, this will help keep you focused and on track.
A medium term goal is losing about 10% of your bodyweight. This number is often cited in medical articles as the amount of weight loss required to significantly improve your health.
From my experience it's possible to consistently lose 0.5-0.75% bodyweight per week without losing a significant amount of muscle mass. At this rate it would take approximately 14-20 weeks to lose 10% of your bodyweight.
For someone that weighs 200lbs, that means a weight loss of 1.0-1.5lbs per week. Someone that is heavier can lose quicker and someone that is lighter will need to drop slower. The first week or two weight loss might be quicker because of loss of body water and glycogen but after the initial 2 weeks I think it's best to keep things moving at the rate stated above.
In order to stay on course I recommend keeping track of progress on a regular basis. I do this with weekly weigh-in's, monthly pictures and also measuring circumference of key body parts. Sometimes the scale doesn't move a lot but you might still be losing inches on your waist, hips or thighs.
Another metric that I like to use with my clients is the food log, I don't have them log their food all the time but when progress starts to slow it's time for them to log their food intake. Just doing that seems to get things progressing again.
I mentioned the "All or Nothing principle" earlier in the article and I think it needs to be repeated. People need to stop expecting perfection, if you are aiming for perfection you are bound to fail eventually and then what?
If "All or Nothing” people miss a workout or they have a cheat meal they often start rationalizing that it's not worth continuing since they failed to do everything perfectly and then they purposely sabotage themselves. One missed workout becomes a week of missed workouts; the cookie they ate now becomes a whole bag.
It doesn't have to be like this!!!
If you fail to follow your plan, it's not a big deal just get back on the program as quickly as possible and don't make things worse by sabotaging yourself.
Don't compare yourself to others. I hear this one all the time, why do I have to be so strict with my diet when that person just stopped drinking soda and is losing 10lbs per month. Yeah, it sucks, some people have to work harder and sacrifice more in order to obtain results, life isn't always fair but if you want results you have to look at yourself and do what is needed for YOU to progress. If you just keep looking at others it will only make you feel depressed and won’t do anything to help your progress.
Some people need that little extra help with motivation and for them I recommend pairing up with someone like a training partner, there is nothing better than going through this with someone else that can relate to you. If you don't have a training partner or spouse to encourage you another option is hiring a personal trainer or an online coach, like me.
When getting started it’s important to set an outcome goal with a fixed objective and a date to attain it by. It's also important to share that goal with others so that you become accountable.
Once that’s done it’s essential to focus on short-term goals while only keeping the long term goals in the back of your mind. Losing 30 pounds is done one pound at a time. And the way to lose one pound at a time is to have a good plan in place and to follow it, meal by meal and workout by workout.
Most of my clients will tell you one of the main reasons they like having a coach is being accountable to someone. It's easy to lie to yourself but much harder to lie to someone else. My clients know they need to weigh in every week and email me the results. This gives them extra motivation to stick to their workout plans and diets in order to get results that they want.
Another benefit of having a coach is that once you have established an outcome goal with your coach, the coach creates the plan and you should only focus on behavioral goals. For example an outcome goal might be losing 10lbs in 12 weeks and a behavioral goal might be to work out 3 times per week. You can't control how much weight you lose every week and if you focus only on that you are bound to be disappointed, you can however control how many times you workout in a week. If you focus on your behavioral goals the outcome goals take care of themselves assuming your coach as created a solid plan.
Finally, when you attain a goal, it's important to tap yourself on the back and reward yourself. You can treat yourself to a piece of clothing, a movie or even a short trip if you attain one of your long term goals.