Are you having trouble accomplishing your health and fitness goals? I have been a personal trainer and nutrition professional for 13 years – and below are the five of the most common reasons why people don’t reach their full potential.
1) Taking the Wrong Approach
The best advice I could give anyone who wants to change and improve their lifestyle is to become educated on nutrition and fitness. Spend some time doing research or speaking to knowledgeable individuals in order to develop your health and fitness IQ. I like to look at exercise as an investment in ‘you’. Positive change in your diet and fitness is an investment you are making in your health and wellbeing. Keep in mind that your approach to accomplishing your health goals should always be sustainable for the long-term. If you feel like you couldn’t do it for the rest of your life it’s time to rebalance and find a new plan.
2) Workout Consistency
I would say that the biggest reason that most people fail to meet their health and fitness goals is that they lack consistency. The people who are the most consistent will always get the best results over the term of their efforts. Are you hitting your workout frequency goals on a regular basis? Unfortunately, there isn’t always instant gratification when it comes to working out– but there is guaranteed and tangible success that will permeate throughout all aspects of your life. If you can commit and stay consistent you will achieve more than you ever imagined was possible. Just remember that nothing worthwhile ever comes easy, and great results come from being consistent, consistently.
3) Lack of Documentation(applies to online program design clients)
If you are not keeping track of your workouts, measurements, and nutrition – how do you know if you are improving? By keeping a journal with accurate records you are able to track your exact progress and figure out if your current methods are working. This is like a running a business without doing accounting. There is no way to track what is really going on. Just the simple act of keeping a journal and being consistent makes a huge difference for most people. If you are a personal training client, I keep track of all of these numbers for you and monitor your progress.
4) Lack of Progression
Many people lack the ability to make week-to-week, month-to-month progress on their workouts. In order for your body to change you must impose new demands on it that will force adaptation. Every workout should be an attempt to hit a new best, or challenge your body in a new way. If you structure your workouts this way then you should see stable and progressive improvement. This is my number one goal when designing your personalized programs.
