I shared my before pic recently, the one that was taken 15 years ago and when I was pretty much at my most sedentary and it got me to thinking. Over that 15 years I have tried all manner of things to get in shape, I never did try the shake weight though.
Anyway, my thoughts went to all those programs and I looked back on them to see what I did and how it could have ended up better.
So in the years between 2003 and 2011 I tried somewhere around eight different methods of getting in shape. Looking back at it one of my biggest problems was the overabundance of information out there about what was best and a whole bunch of well meaning friends and family that had some suggestions of what I should do, when in reality going from one thing to the next was not the greatest thing for me.

Day in day out in the fitness industry we are inundated with all sorts of new ideas, methods, gadgets and diets. Most of them work, some are ridiculous and others I really wish would finally die the death they so rightfully deserve (think all those ab machines on late night infomercials or the latest MLM craze). And from that I have learnt that it wasn’t just the overabundance of info, but the info combined with whatever I tried worked, mostly, and so I kept trying new things. Add to that the regimes, the programs, the diets I was trying, the heart rate monitors, I never really enjoyed any of them wholeheartedly.
I was doing them to lose weight, because other people had had success with them, because it was only a 12 week challenge, because it looked cool, or was new and just might be fun.

The main thing I was missing was consistency. Everything I tried seemed to have an end point. The end of the diet book, the end of a 12 week challenge, the end of a training cycle, with no real clear path after each of those.

I would get to ‘the end’ only to discover that life doesn’t stop, ie work, social commitments, seasons, my health. It wasn’t until I discovered CrossFit that I found 1. A training program I loved 2. Something I could be consistent with.
Now in 2011 when I started CrossFit it wasn’t the popular program worldwide it is now. Within the fitness world it was maligned to a degree, it wasn’t popular and plenty of people I looked up to held it in disregard. For me it worked though, and it was because I could see no end point, there was so much to learn, it promised to never become boring or stagnant, there was infinite growth available in this program.

And that was it, the bright shiny objects of shake diets, challenges with prizes and being the ‘rockstar’ trainer, all faded away for this gritty, sweaty, hidden away training regime. It wasn’t sexy, it wasn’t talked about well in the circles I was in, but I knew it would be what I did for the rest of my life. And here I am, seven years later, still on this program, with a sustainably low body fat percentage, with a program that has continued to adapt as I have improved over time. That has been the most amazing thing I have experienced in CrossFit, the continual improvement, not just by me, but by the members at CrossFit Armidale. People now doing warmups that were a few years ago an actual workout. The improvement is just incredible.

So that was it, with no end point, no fancy machines or radical equipment I saw the future of health, fitness and wellbeing, and it had come from the past. CrossFit was nothing new, the principles, the movements had all been around for a long time. But it was brought together in such a way that it was truly beautiful.

So stop chasing the bright shiny objects, the glitz and glamour, the newest gadget or app, and find your dirty workout regime, the one that you not only have to, but want to, come back for everyday, the one that never ends and the one that pushes you to get better, always seeking to make you better than yesterday. Deadlines, constant weigh ins, stringent diet plans and insane amounts of work in the gym only lead to burnout and other health issues. You need a program that can adapt with you, allow you to have your freedoms, feel free of judgement and feel like you are truly at ease with it.

For the last just over 10 years I have been employed in the fitness industry in one way or another. A fair bit has changed in that time, new ideas, new fads, new programs, rehashing of old ideas, fads and programs, and some things have stayed the same. The big thing to me that has stayed the same are the claims by all the various different trainers, gyms and programs that profess to be the best program. The one. Your best chance at getting a body to die for. Your only option for getting what you have always desired.

Now normally you might read that first paragraph and think that the author is about to go to town on all the ideas out there that are different to their own. This is not one of those times.

I have seen many different programs come and go, have tried them myself, have helped others with them, have witnessed others succeed, and fail, with them. And every single one of them worked. The two biggest flaws with any of them is; a deadline, and a profession that it will be easy.

How many times have you seen or heard about a program delivering life changing results in 6, 8 or 12 weeks?
How many times have you heard, it will be easier than anything you’ve ever done?

The thing that will make ANY, and I mean ANY program a success is, CONSISTENCY.

Not that a massive crowd of people are doing it, not that it is delivered by someone with every possible exercise credential that is available, not that it was the subject of a study involving 18 Norwegian university students that were intermediate level trainees, not that it is constantly varied, not that it is done on machines or with free weights, not that the sessions are short or long.

It is that you turn up, for the long run, each and everyday and you strive to be 1% better than you were the day before. That is it.

You show me an exercise and nutrition program that has been around for at least 12 months and I will show you it works, it just comes down to sticking with it. To doing the work, to persevering. For too long in the fitness industry we have tried to convince you that it will be easy, that you will be fit and awesome in a short time, we have been lying to you for too long.

A fitness program won’t always be easy, sure, there will be times when the session is easier than others and there is no doubt that some will be much harder. The biggest problem with the statement that it will be easy will be that life will occur. Kids will get sick, business trips will happen, weddings will be attended, car accidents occur, the list goes on. And all of these at times will battle for your time in getting in your training. Sometimes it will become unavoidable that you don’t make it to an exercise session, and this is where it gets hard. It can then become a habit to not go and do it again because that is the more comfortable option. So if you have life events in the way you can try a quick 10 min workout in your hotel room when on that business trip, go for an early morning walk before the wedding you are attending, do some push ups and squats in the lounge room if the kids are in bed sick, there are options. And no, theses type of session aren’t ‘optimal’ or the ‘best for an adonis/goddess like physique’ but you are holding onto your health and fitness habit, and each time you manage to steal a workout from all of the other distractions life throws at you you are on the winning side.

And that is also a point, your workouts, your nutrition, it does not have to be perfect. You can have some party foods, you can miss a day at the gym and still do an easier workout at home, and it is OK, all of your efforts aren’t for nothing. I always come back to the phone analogy, you drop your phone and it has a bit of a dent and a slight crack in the screen, it is repairable. You don’t then throw it on the ground and smash it to bits because of the little blemish. So you don’t need to do that with nutrition and exercise. You missed a session today, it doesn’t mean you miss the whole remainder of the week, you had a burger at lunch, that doesn’t mean you have to have pizza for dinner. You simply come back to being consistent again straight after.

It isn’t about meal to meal, hour to hour, it is about turning days into weeks, and weeks into months and then those months into years. Once you can maintain that consistency you will really see the amazing results.
You will sleep better, you will wake up better, your clothes won’t be as snug, you won’t be out of breath climbing stairs, you won’t have ‘musical knees’, you will feel better when you look in the mirror, confidence will soar, you will find you lose your temper less, days won’t feel as long to you. These are all the benefits to staying with a program for the long run.

Every program works, every style. It is up to you how well it works, the plans are there, you will just need to follow them. The work has been laid out, you will just need to do the work in front of you. And that is where the magic in every program lies, with you. You doing it, following it and committing to it to achieve your goals. But you needn’t do it alone, you can get a coach to guide you, a friend to buddy up with and keep you accountable, a group exercise session to keep it fun. Any one of these can be your guide, your mentor or your director. One of these will keep it simple for you, easy? Maybe not, but by all means they can keep it simple. Just that little bit more each and every day and before you know it, you will be experiencing life just as you want to.

Aim for 1%

Generally this time of year there are a few people thinking resolutions. Now there is nothing wrong with a resolution, while they can be tricky to stick with they are most certainly not impossible.

For a resolution to stick it really needs to be coming from a place of your values and something that you really desire.

Think back to a bit over a year ago. What were you doing before Christmas 2016? Are you where you thought you would be right now after Christmas just gone? Are you completely satisfied with your efforts over the last year towards your goals?

Now when you answer those questions ask yourself these ones. If you haven’t changed much, whose responsibility is that? Does Christmas 2016 feel like not that long ago? Now if you had started a change last year at this time, how much closer would you be to achieving it if you stuck with a 1% improvement everyday?

The reason I am writing this at this time is that every year, just before Christmas I have people come up and talk with me when shopping or out for parties or just out and about. And I get a fair few saying that they must come see me in the New Year. The number that actually do, is very small, and then the next year I see some of the same people, and we have a similar conversation. It is hard to convey tone in text, and I am in no way right now judging or trying to shame anyone, I am about to point out that maybe those aspirations to get in shape or lose those kilos are a bit lofty or don’t align with your values yet. Notice I said yet?

For far too long working out has been viewed as an exercise in vanity, ie people going to the gym are doing so to look good. And this is where I feel a fair amount of people fail with their resolutions or determinations to change. I have seen time and again the goal of wanting to look better be a very weak one, or unattainable or once ‘attained’ easy to go back to old destructive habits. For exercise to become the life enhancing habit we need it to be it must come from a place that you value.

If you can’t see that your health is the most important thing for you, your job, your family and well everything in your life, then you won’t start to prioritise it until it might be too late. If you want to look great and have 6 pack abs or the cover model body, then a strict nutrition regime along with a worthy exercise program must be adhered to.

If you want to function better as a person, sleep better, climb stairs without being puffed, play a quick game of touch footy, work in the garden on the weekend and then not be incredibly sore Monday then you need to consistently exercise to maintain that function and eat well enough to support that function. And this is done by small incremental changes each and every day, not by making a sweeping lifestyle change and altering your whole life tomorrow.
With the all or nothing mentality you can find it very easy to fall back into nothing very quickly.

So that is where a 1% change everyday comes in. I have seen plenty of people fall of the wagon that have gone for the total change all at once, and I can understand, it is hard to keep up a huge change in your life when the alternative was an old habit that was easier than the alternative.

However if you aim for a little each day and each week you will find the benefits in a years time so massive.

These little changes can be things as simple as for this week you will endeavour to drink at least two litres of water everyday. Don’t attempt to take something away, nor say that “I will not eat any sugar at all this year!” That sort of all or nothing mentality can quickly come undone, one misplaced Tim Tam at a friends house and you may just pack it all in.

What I have seen work time and again is adding something in. Due to necessity the things that aren’t as great for you fall by the wayside. So like above, add in water to drink if you know you drink too much soft drink. Or if you know you snack on energy dense foods and this is an issue vow to have two extra serves of vegetables with two of either breakfast, lunch or dinner.

If you are wanting to get into an exercise program you can start off small, committing from 1 to 3 hours a week is as small of a commitment as you need to make initially. The nutrition changes can come later if you like. From my experiences you need to make small, sustainable changes for any health and fitness goal to succeed.

So add those little bits in, 1% better than yesterday, whatever they are, and see how much difference you can make over the next few months then you can look back at this time next year and really see how much you have accomplished in the last 12 months.

If you know me you know that I am pretty big on goal setting to achieve with your health and fitness. Well I am going to take that a little further and let you know that while goals are great, you need to go further to have truly lasting health and fitness.

To me, you need to have a health and fitness mission statement. Sorry to sound like a bit of a tool, I know it is a bit cringy, but bear with me.

I have been in the health and fitness industry for bang on 10 years, and in that time I have seen all manner of goals set by participants in programs. And on top of that I have seen all manner of goals achieved. Sometimes, that is where the problem is.

Once the goal is achieved then what? People will set goals based on a future point in time, like a wedding, high school reunion, competition, etc. And once they get to that date, health and fitness is forgotten, goal accomplished! Don’t need to get back to the gym now, I did that! Then in a few weeks the pants start getting tighter, the flight of stairs taller, the bags of chips on the lounge in front of a movie bigger and life goes back to being unfit, and unhealthy.

So what is it about that person you know that hits the gym regularly, goes for a run, never seems to have much fat on their frame, is super motivated, not only in the gym but all aspects of their life??

Chances are they probably have something resembling a mission statement that keeps them going. You see a mission statement can never fully be accomplished, you can strive for it, work towards it, tick goals off along the way, but never completely attain it.

With a goal in mind some people can get discouraged when they go off course and so pack it in. The people with the mission statement know that there will be times that you are off course, but that you can bring it back around again. Think about an aeroplane, it is off course up to 99% of the time it is in the air, it continues to make small alterations to the flight path time and again to bring it back into line and then in the end achieve its goal of landing at its destination.

Health and fitness is like this, you have a goal of losing 5 kilos, running 5Kms in a certain time, but there is a birthday party this weekend. For some the goal is destroyed, others just see a small deviation in their course in getting them where they want to be. Now if you had that goal of lose 5KG by a certain date as your only driving motivator it is easy to drop it when off course, or once you hit it.

If your motivator is something along the lines of, I want to be the fittest healthiest person I can today, then it might stick a lot better. The 5KG loss goal then becomes part of trying to never fully achieving that statement, it is one step in the process of living your mission.

It can be referred to as your why, your purpose or your mission, but if it isn’t strong enough you won’t stick to it.It has to align with who you are and where you want to be in life. Agian, if it doesn’t, it won’t happen.

Health and fitness isn’t a short burst, a sprint with a time cap, it is a lifelong pursuit of being better than yesterday. We can’t take a break from life, everyday we get up and move about. We can’t just pop it on hold when we feel like it, and your fitness and health is part of that. It is the foundation it is all built upon. Set short term goals and stop every three or four months for a couple of weeks break and soon enough you will stop for a month, and then that will turn into a year and well, you get the picture.

So have a look, see what your goals are, align them with your values and set your mission statement. Make sure you can never fully attain it, but can strive towards it, remember, better than yesterday.