One of the reasons people will fail with their diet and training is that they rely on will power and motivation rather than having a strategy.
Yes, will power and motivation is good short term but you need to use this to build good habits rather than rely on it to ensure success.
For example, no matter how motivated or how much will power you think you have, if you come home from work and have nothing healthy in the house you will struggle to resist the temptations of some convenient ‘junk’ food that may be readily available.
This is where it’s important to have a strategy – plan and prepare meals and snacks so it is always available to you meaning you won’t end up in this predicament.
Pencil your workouts into your schedule and make them a priority. Don’t just try and ‘wing’ it from week to week.
When you have a strategy in place you will be more likely to stick to it long enough for it to become a habit instead of relying on short term motivation and will power.
Good coaching can play an important role in putting a strategy in place. This is where we help our clients. We help them put strategies in place to ensure that they have no reason to fail.
We all know that to get in shape training and exercise helps, especially if you have a specific training goal. Motivation comes and goes when it comes to getting to the gym, we’ve all been there. However if you have put together a solid strategy then you will be less likely to miss your sessions.
Schedule your workouts in with a reliable training partner or personal trainer – it’s human nature not to let others down, we find those that train in small groups or with a PT very rarely miss a session.
Even when you don’t feel like getting to the gym you will normally get yourself along when you have a session booked with others.
Stick to a plan – when you are just free-styling your training you will have less need to get to the gym, whereas, if you have a structured routine you will be more inclined to make sure you get the required sessions in. There’s lots of free training plans available online or get a coach to put together a specific programme for you. Again, once the plan is in place you now have a clear strategy of what it takes to reach the goal.
When it comes to food and diet most people know what they should be eating – less junk, more nutrient dense foods. You know this, everyone knows this. The problem people have is finding a way to stick to this.
Normally people fail when they haven’t planned or prepared – this is when they grab convenient fast foods and take aways and the diet goes out the window.
Again, having a clear strategy can help with this. We encourage people to plan their food for the week ahead – plan what they are eating, buy the foods and spend a couple of hours a week preparing your foods and snacks for the week ahead.
If you have your foods ready, prepared and on hand you will be less inclined to reach for the junk food when you are tired and hungry (hangry).
There’s always going to be times where you “can’t be bothered” going to the gym or times where all you want to do is eat junk but when you have a strategy in place this will help massively.
You will go through phases of being motivated and this will get you so far but it’s important to build on this motivation and create habits and strategies to ensure you keep progressing even when you feel the motivation has gone.
Strategy > Motivation
Coach Milligan 