WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT? YOU NEED DISCIPLINE NOT MOTIVATION!

“I really want to work out and lose weight but I am just not feeling motivated enough” and with those infamous words you gave yourself another excuse as to why you still aren’t in shape and why you might never be!

It’s an annual ritual, people wake up every New Year’s Day with their resolutions made up (I hate that word!) one of the most common resolutions is “I will get in shape this year” and guess what? Six months later, nothing has changed, it was the same last year and the year before and the year before that!

The problem with motivation is that it comes and goes, some days you feel so invisible that you could beat up King Kong, some other days; you can’t even get out of bed.  The truth is nobody feels motivated all the time, so focus less on your motivation and concentrate on building discipline instead.

DON’T WAIT TO GET MOTIVATED

Let me be honest, sometimes I hate the thought of exercise, those days, I don’t want to go to the gym, I do not want to skip or run, I just want to eat and watch TV, but guess what? I get up and go anyway. I do my thing whether I am feeling motivated or not, because something stronger drives me, it’s called discipline. When you have discipline, the fact that you don’t feel like doing something, does not stop you from doing it. Motivation can come and go in a flash, but discipline is rooted in consistency and it becomes part of you and what you do.

Today I want to give you 3 tips that can help you be more disciplined and help you achieve your goals this year, be they in fitness, business or life in general. First of all I want you to throw away the notion that people are born with discipline and that  you either have it or not. Nothing could be further from the truth; discipline is like a muscle, if you don’t have it, you can build it. So if you want to break the jinx and finally drop those extra pounds around your thighs or that beer belly that is pissing you off, these tips can point you in the right direction to a leaner fitter and happier you.

Thanks, and do have a wonderful weekend!

1.       KEEP IT SIMPLE IN THE BEGINNING:

One of the problems with failed efforts and motivation is that most people try to radically change everything at once, only for them to quit exercising and go back to normal when that burst of motivation wears off. Let’s take some advice from Arnold Schwarzenegger, with 7 Mr. Olympia bodybuilding titles he could write the book on discipline!

“Start small with an easy program. Don’t go trying to do everything at once. Tease yourself. Even when you want to do more, don’t. Hold yourself back; build up an appetite, so that you want to do more.  Don’t be one of those people who do it all perfectly for 3 weeks then get burnt out and fed up, let yourself stay hungry for more.”

Let me illustrate, instead of overhauling your entire diet at once, change one meal. Eating one healthy meal a day is better than none, and will help you build momentum. Then you change another element in your nutrition, then another, get the picture? If working out for an hour in the gym, is daunting, then show up for 30 minutes and go home, no guilt, and no pressure, just make sure you show up the next day and the day after that. I know you might be thinking, that is so lame and weak, but guess what? We are trying to build lifetime habits here. Never despise small beginnings; you can gradually build on it once your behavior becomes consistent. One tip to help you exercise is to find a time of day that works for you, keep a reminder and show up, if you can enlist family and friend all the better, you are less likely to bail out from a group than when you work out alone.

The bottom line; habits are like muscles and they are built the same way, through repetition, the physical act of doing something, strengthens and reinforces the habit.

2.       HAVE MULTIPLE BACK UP PLANS:

There’s this old military saying, can’t remember by whom but it’s very apt “No battle plan ever survives first contact with the enemy”. This is also true for your fitness plans, you might think you have it all figured out, what to eat, when and how to train etc. let me tell you now, things will go wrong, it’s a must! Work can and will get in the way, you child falls sick, you have such a rotten day that you damn it all and drink that bottle of coke, beer or eat some junk food to feel better.

When the inevitable happens, you need to have a plan B waiting,  write down every conceivable obstacle you might encounter in a given week in your fitness journey and think of creative solutions to make up for missed workouts and extra calories consumed.

The more options you give yourself, the better. Remembering the bigger picture can help you stay focused during those inevitable low points, keeping your eye on the high level goal; weight loss and fitness instead of the low level tactics; when and how you workout, helps you maintain flexibility. Flexibility is essential, most plans aren’t totally successful from the start and do need tweaking, yours is not an exception.

3.       BUILD HABITS RATHER THAN SET GOALS:

This is how we usually approach our health and fitness issues; set a target, such as losing 20kg of fat or gaining 10kg of muscle, then give yourself a deadline to achieve it. As the thinking goes a plan does not take off without a flight plan and Estimated Time of Arrival, why should you? When it comes to your fitness, take that advice, tear it up and burn it! Unless you have been in shape before, trying to predict exactly how fast you will lose fat or gain muscle isn’t easy. People respond differently to the same program of diet and exercise. Your ability to hit a given target by a certain date is something that is often outside your control. Your behavior on the other hand is largely under your control. Rather than set fitness goals that might lead to disappointments, build the habits of discipline and consistency that will lead to the outcome you want. How do you do this?  You can do this by coming up with a system that supports the goals you have set and you will get to where you want to be. A goal provides direction and motivation, but committing to the process will keep you moving. How to build habits? Focus on doing the right things, a little bit, every day and the results will take care of themselves, I guarantee it!

Thanks for reading, and do have a wonderful weekend!