It’s no secret that the rate of obesity in North America is continuing to rise and will likely continue to do so for the foreseeable future. It’s now been shown that in Canada, 1 in every 4 adults and 1 in every 9 children aged 6-17 are now obese. Even the obese are getting fatter, as more Canadians are becoming morbidly obese (BMI of 40+) every year. It’s estimated that about 3% of Canadians have fallen into this category of extreme obesity, an almost 3% increase in the last 30 years.

The question everyone wants to know is why? Why do so many people struggle with making healthy choices in their life? Why don’t alarm bells go off in a person’s mind when their weight gets out of control? And why don’t they do anything about it? These people just need to move more and eat less; pretty simple right? If you’ve ever struggled with your weight or have ever worked with weight loss clients, you know that the problem with obesity goes well beyond the old “calories in and calories out” philosophy. While it’s true that obese individuals are usually guilty of poor lifestyle choices, obesity is more complex than that.

I’m talking about all of the lifestyle factors that contribute to obesity. Excluding individuals with confirmed thyroid dysfunction, mental health issues or any other medical condition, the following factors are, in my opinion, by far the leading contributor the obesity epidemic.

Improper sleep patterns

Sleep deprivation can include both acute (infrequent) and chronic (frequent) states. Either way, you will experience daytime sluggishness, sleepiness and appetite irregularity. Many people who are routinely sleep deprived, complain of feeling hungry throughout the day, even when adequately fed. Sleep restriction may also interfere with the body’s ability to metabolize carbohydrates, leading to high blood glucose levels and ultimately more fat storage. Sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, are quite common in obese populations and are exacerbated by equally common reports of low back pain, which can make sleep difficult.

High levels of stress

Even with all our modern conveniences, we still can’t seem to find enough hours in the day to get our lives in balance, and the net result is stress. Is it really a case of too many things to do? Or is it just a lack of priorities? Whatever the reason, stress can contribute to weight gain in many ways. These include consistent bouts of emotional eating, resulting in binges on “comfort food” that are typically of the refined, processed and calorie dense variety. Increased fat storage in the abdominal area has also been linked to high stress and deposits  around the internal organs and pose the greatest health risk compared to other areas of the body. As with sleep deprivation, stress stimulates the release of the “fat storage” hormone cortisol making it more difficult to assimilate glucose and utilize body fat stores.

Lack of fitness

At any age or ability, everyone should have a basic level of physical fitness. Mobility, strength, muscular endurance, cardiovascular fitness, and flexibility are all important measures when quantifying your true level of physical fitness. An individual reaches obese proportions, it’s more likely that hese physical attributes will be negatively impacted. Conversely, improve these attributes and the body fat will reduce.

But how do you know if you’re really fit or not? Most people greatly overestimate their physical abilities, especially men. Wouldn’t it be nice if your doctor did a fitness assessment as part of your “routine physical examination”? Dream on. They aren’t qualified to do so and that service will likely never be covered by medical insurance. Only a competent personal trainer or kinesiologist can assess your fitness correctly, and most will offer this as a complimentary service. Everyone should have this done at least once to understand how your fitness compares to the fitness industry standards.

Poor nutritional habits

People who become obese don’t get that way by eating live, fresh, organic whole foods. They get that way in part from eating dead, sterile, processed junk loaded with damaging fats and refined sugars. As a result, many are chronically dehydrated (from insufficient water intake) and deficient in the nutrients necessary to sustain a healthy body. Of course, calories play a large part, but I believe if people just focus on eating wholesome food, and eating only what they needed, many weight issues would disappear.

In an effort to lose weight, many obese people follow diets that are too restricted and aren’t sustainable, leading to even more fat gain and eventual metabolic shutdown. The starving and binging merry-go-round becomes a permanent pattern for the rest of their lives.

Lack of social support and guidance

I truly believe that you become who spend your time with. If your friends and family are overweight, it can give you a sense of comfort, to the point where you actually justify being obese. A common exuse might be “everyone in my family is fat so I guess there’s nothing I can do about it”. Your friends will have a great influence over what you do and eat. If they engage in similar negative  lifestyle patterns as you, you don’t stand a chance of changing, at least as long as they are your friends. Birds of a feather certainly do flock together.

Many times peers will actually try to sabotage others’ efforts to lose weight in order to satisfy their  jealousy and other selfish motives. These people are like cancer and need to be removed before any weight loss program can begin. An example would be “you don’t need to lose weight, you’re beautiful just the way you are” or “all you ever eat is salads and meat, you’re no fun anymore since you’ve been losing weight”.  This kind of peer reinforcement can be very damaging and encourage further weight gain.

Unhealthy mindset

For an obese person to adopt a healthy lifestyle, they must first admit that a change is needed. Many don’t believe they have a problem or that they are even obese. Excess bodyfat (beyond 20% for men and 25%for women) is the hallmark of obesity, therefore, we cannot equate obesity or excess body fat with optimum health, ideal performance or self-respect.  If we have a very high degree of respect for ourselves, we will take action to prevent disease and protect our health.

My goal here was not to oversimplify a very real and complex problem that affects millions of Canadians. I just wanted to remind people that by focusing on a few key lifestyle factors, they can significantly impact this deadly trend of increasing obesity. According to a recent report, obesity costs the Canadian economy between 4.6 – 7.8 billion dollars annually. So this problem affects us all. Obesity increases a person’s risk of developing Type ll diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, stroke, cancer and many other degenerative and crippling diseases.

Many times these scenarios can be prevented. The science of wellness and positive emotion will be our driving force. What man or woman truly in love with themselves would knowingly allow themselves to deteriorate without opposition, especially when that same person understands the consequences of their own actions on their body and health?

Please share your comments below!

Have you ever stopped eating for several days because you didn’t have time to eat? Or stopped using the bathroom because you didn’t have time? I hope the answer is no. So why do most people struggle to find the time for something as critical as their health and fitness? There are many reasons why people put their health on such a low priority, and we’ll get to that, but I’m sure we can all agree that if something is important, you make time for it.

We all have 24 hours in the day. In the worst case scenario you have to sleep 8 hours a night and work 8 hours in the day. Add another 2 hours for transportation, eating, and miscellaneous activities. This leaves you with 6 hours per day in which you have a window to get in shape. This means that you have 42 hours free per week even if you work your “day-job” 7 days a week! But most people are “too busy” to become truly fit and healthy.

I has been shown that as little as 30 minutes of physical activity per day can significantly impact your wellness and productivity. Do most people get anywhere near this?  Not even close and the reality is much sadder. The average person in this country watches 24 hours of television per week! And the average person is on Facebook 40 minutes per day, or 4.6 hours per week! In fact, after the New Year hit, the 2010 data came out. American’s and Canadians alike now watch an average of 36 hours of television per week! That’s 40+ hours per week of time spent getting more unfit and unhealthy. Most of this time could be better spent building a foundation for long term health and fitness, working on productive activities, building relationships and nurturing the important ones you have. The really sad thing is, most people don’t make time for any of these things.

My objective here is not to lecture, as I’m sure you’re already aware of the problem, but rather to identify some of the reasons why people don’ t ( not can’t)  find time to exercise and eat properly. I’ll also offer some practical solutions to getting you back on track to setting clear priorities among the competing demands on your time.

Why are we so “Busy”?

As stated above, it isn’t that we are to busy, but rather we’ve developed bad habits that have us spending our time on low value and unproductive tasks. In fact, about 95% of everything we do is defined by habit. We aren’t born with a set of habits. We form our own habits based on our own choices but very soon our habits begin to form us. Most of us are in the habit of spending our time doing too many low value tasks and not enough of the high value ones. Fortunately habits are both learned and learnable, making it possible to change negative behaviors in favor of more healthy ones.

Of course this is often difficult, but you need to consider that something is always difficult before it can become easy, so sticking with it is key. You need to have the desire to change , the decision to take action and the discipline to persist until get the results you want. Good habits are hard to develop but are easy to live with in the long term. Conversley, bad habits are easy to develop but hard to live with. When we form good habits everything in our lives not only get a lot easier but we get that much closer to our goals.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Good Habits for Managing your Time To Get Fit

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Simplify your tasks

You first need to survey your relationships, events you attend, services you enjoy, expenditures or anything that demands significant time and attention in your life. Do more of the things that are of greater value to your life. You can also learn new skills and begin new activities that you’ve never done before that will bring more value to your life. Reduce or eliminate activities/behaviors that are in direct opposition to your goals. It sounds elementary, but can you honestly say that you reflect on these components of your life on a daily basis? If you did, you’d have taken the first step to really managing your health and your life.

Leverage your tasks

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           “Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I can move the world” – Archimedes

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Identify the knowledge and skills needed to maintain superb physical health. Always be on the lookout for new ideas and insights from other people, books or articles to help you reach your fitness goals faster. Delegating your low value tasks to other people can really help make this process easier. Study the successes enjoyed by others just like you. Conversely, learn from other peoples failures. Learn to walk the road that has been paved by others before you, and use this to leveage your efficiency.

Take responsibility

The most important personal choice you can make is accept complete responsibility for being in the physical shape you are in now and will be in the future. This single trait is what separates the people who enjoy a healthy lifestyle and those who don’t. Accepting responsibility empowers you and puts you in control of your life. I lays the foundation of high self esteem, self respect and personal pride. When you make excuses, blame others, complain or criticize, you give that power away. This ultimately leads to you giving up on your health altogether.

Learn to say NO!

Perhaps the very best habit you can develop is the habit of saying “no” to any demand on your time that is not consistent with your health and fitness goals. Identify the people in your life who only bring forth negativity, the “energy vampires”, or anyone else that drains precious time and energy from you. Commit to spending less time with these people and don’t be afraid to say no, to any demand that is not a high value use of your time. Sometimes it can be healthy to be a little more selfish.

Make your health and fitness priority# 1

Make the decision today that you’re going to live for eighty or ninety years. You want to be at your grandchildren’s wedding and maybe even spend some quality time with your great grandchildren. Decide that you are going to feel great from this moment onward. It has never been more possible to live longer and better than at any other point in human history. Unfortunetly, most of us don’t think about our health until we’ve lost it.  It’s often true that you become the very thing  you think about most of the time. Fit people are always thinking about their health, and so should you!

Hopefully you won’t be using the “I don’t have time to exercise and eat properly” excuse anymore. When you begin to manage your time and your life more carefully, you begin to place a higher value on yourself and your life as well. The more you use and practice these habits and time management principles, the better and more easily they will work for you. Please leave a comment if this helped you form better habits.

Some people who read my blog and see “Physique Transformation Strategies” might think I’m going to offer cool new fat loss or muscle building programs using the latest training techniques. While I do offer insight to such things, the point of my blog has always been to offer real information that you can apply to your health and wellness campaign. It’s about empowerment and enlightenment to the truth of what it really takes to transform your health and life.

Today I want to write about that little thing in your head called fear and show you how it  inhibits many of us from making positive changes in our health and fitness and offer some suggestions on how to overcome it. Fear is our basic alarm response to something we believe is threatening to ourselves or others. Although fear does in fact protect us from real danger, it is the same mechanism that causes us to resist change or advancement in our lives. Some people embrace it and are rewarded with a life rich in exploration, adventure and success. Where others prefer to dwell in the comfort of safety, and where risks are low, things will stay at the status quo. The real problem with the second group is that I don’t believe anything in this world stays the same. If it’s organic, it’s either growing or eroding. This applies to people as well. You can either get better (or at least slow the aging process) or you just sit back and get worse.

So why do so many people give in to the latter and accept living their lives as a shell of who they really could be?  The answer might be in how we confront fear. Fear manifests itself in many forms but is quite recognizible in people who are negative thinkers and talkers. These people only commit to their narrow vision of reality and often blame others for why things aren’t getting done. Instead of confronting their fears, the finger starts pointing and the excuses start flying. In the context of health and wellness, they say  “there’s no time”, “I’m too busy at work”, “my kids drain my energy”, “I don’t have a workout partner to rely on”, “everyone in my family is fat so I guess I should be too”, ”‘I’d exercise if someone would only show me how”, ” I’ve tried every diet on the market and nothing works so whats the point?” and the list goes on and on. The point is that fear of facing new challenges make some people view external forces as an obstacle for doing what you want to do.

The benefit (or detriment, depending upon your view point) of living in a  ”moan and groan society” is that we don’t have to create our own happiness when it’s easier to blame others for not giving it to us. But until you understand that you, and only, you create what goes on in your head you will never be in control of your life. When you allow outside forces to influence who you are, you give up power and create an environment of pain, paralysis and depression. Anything that takes away your power makes you a victim. Do you play the role of victim in your life? Don’t become a victim of yourself, take responsibility and move from a position of pain to power. Once you do this you’ll soon realize that the only one that can help you get healthier is you.

Learn to recognize the following symptoms of not taking responsibility in your life:

• anger
• pain
• vengeance
• self pity
• envy
• helplessness
• impatience
• joylessness
• fatigue
• addictions
• disappointment
• jealousy
   

and so on……

Have you ever felt any of these emotions? These are all negative emotions and can only bring you pain and paralysis. If so, ask yourself what you are not doing in your life that is causing you to feel this way. This can help identify where you are losing your power and understand why you’ve felt so powerless and fearful in facing the reality that you need to get healthier.

When we are afraid not only do we feel powerless but we give into that little voice in our head that only seems to point out the negative. There is a basic assumption in our society that negative views are realistic and positive ones are unrealistic. This is flawed logic. It is reported that 90% of the things we worry about never actually happen. One should then reason that being positive is much more realistic than being negative. It takes a lot of practice and time to become a positive thinker but once you “out-talk your negativity”  you’ll be amazed at the power you obtain.

“Ships in harbour are safe, but that is not where ships are supposed to be”

If the path you are currently on isn’t providing you joy, satisfaction, personal fulfillment, health and a positive way of life, get off that path because it isn’t working. Don’t think that simply changing external influences will correct your problems internally. It works the other way around. Change your mindset and all that is right will follow. 

I believe fear is the main obstacle that most people face in the pursuit of  becoming an athlete in the sport of life. Become your higher self. Say yes to things you are afraid of, take responsibility for your choices and exude positive energy inside and out. When you find your higher self you will truly find it easy to accomplish your fitness goals and anything else you aspire to as well.

It’s the summertime and I’m sure everyone is out hiking, running or climbing their way to new fitness levels right? Even if you’re not, I’m sure everyone has either experienced, or watched someone else experience, the dreaded “side stitch” that has crippled many an athlete or fitness enthusiast while exercising. It usually occurs in actions that involve repetitive rotation or hyper-extension of the torso, such as running or swimming. It manifests as an aching sensation in the side of the torso that usually forces the individual to stop in their tracks, flex the spine, tighten the abdominals, breathe through tightened lips and vigorously massage the affected area. These are in fact the best ways to alleviate the pain. But what causes this phenomenon and how do we prevent it?

I’m glad you asked. There is nothing more frustrating than getting in the zone for an intense cardiovascular challenge only to be plagued by this condition. When I started doing the Grouse Grind again this year I found myself disabled at the 1/2 mark but I wasn’t even out of breath. I noticed it was happening at the same time and on a regular basis. This encouraged me to look into this matter a little more deeply and here’s what I uncovered.

If you ask people what causes side stitching, most will respond that it’s a buildup of  lactic acid or waste product in the muscle. This completely unfounded. Why does lactic acid get blamed for everything? It even gets blamed for sore muscles. All untrue. Medical experts recognize this condition as ETAP or exercise-related transient abdominal pain , and have several theories as to its cause.

What Causes Side Stitches

The first theory suggests that the pain begins as the flow of blood to the respiratory organs is compromised as it is diverted to the working muscles or to aid in digestion. So what your mother always told you was sound advice. Don’t go swimming or playing right after dinner. I’m sure my mother had no clue about ETAP, rather she just knew what was right and wrong. Don’t all mothers have that uncanny instinct? Anyway, in this scenario it should be obvious that the quality, quantity and timing  of your pre-exercise meal should be considered

Possible Solutions: Wait 2-3 hours after a meal or consuming a large amount of fluid before engaging in vigorous physical activity. Just like Mom said. To reduce the amount of fluid in the stomach, drink small amounts frequently during the course of activity and avoid one large drink.

The second theory suggests that the stitch occurs from the stomach area  pulling on ligaments connecting to the diaphragm. It can occur when the stomach is sufficiently full of fluid adding to the pressure in the abdomen. It also appears that fluids containing dirrent forms of carbohydrate  can also have an impact on the incidence of the stitch. This is likely due to varying digestibility and absorption rates of different types of sugars used in the drinks. It has been found that sucrose and frutose are the biggest culprits, while plain old H2O and manufactured sweeteners such as maltodextrin result in the least incidence of side stitch.

Possible Solutions: It should be obvious that sports drinks containing glucose-polymers are a better choice than soft drinks and even sports drinks like Powerade that use a glucose-frutose blend, at least for preventing side stitches. Incidentally I eventually uncovered why I was getting stitches at the half way mark on the Grind; because that’s when I took a break and guzzled back half a bottle of Powerade. Within 10 minutes it hit me every time. Now I don’t drink anything. I just periodically bum some water from my girlfriend when the need arises. Aren’t I a nice guy?

Lastly, the third theory suggests that ETAP is related to inflammation of the parietal peritoneum when it becomes irritated. The peritoneum is the thin portion of connective tissue lining our abdominal region and encases most of the digestive organs and glands. It’s main job is  to protect and lubricate the entrails. Said irritation can elicit a sharp localized  pain.

I should also note that there are 2 types of side stitching that you can experience. The common “minor annoyance” kind that is related to food and beverage consumption. The other type is more severe and can be described as “extremely painful and debilitating”. This form is brought on by dehydration from insufficient fluid intake and or missed meals. Make sure you drink enough water to stay hydrated throughout the day.

In addition to adequate fluid consumption, you need to pay attention to pH levels, antioxidant intake and electrolyte balance . You must understand the quality and quantity of the fluids you require. At the very minimum, I recommend you get at least of 2-4 liters (depending on body weight and activity levels) of filtered water daily. Sadly, most people don’t even come close.

I hope this helps people understand this phenomenon a little better now. You don’t get them because you are out of shape but rather you failed to plan your food and liquid consumption properly.  And you know what they say ” If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. Until next time, Stay fit and have fun!

 Of the many factors that influence how long an individual will stick to a particular diet regimen, a lack of results may be the biggest. The fact is most diets simply don’t yield the results that people are looking for to warrant the sacrifice. In the initial stages a typical dieter will give it everything that they’ve got for a week, two weeks, three weeks or more. Maybe the first week goes well, second week is a little bit slower and by the third week they didn’t lose anything. The forth week they continue to diet and exercise and they still didn’t lose anything. What do you think is going to happen? That person’s going to say, “Screw this! I’ve only lost four pounds so far and I have to do this until I lose 30 pounds? It’s just completely unrealistic.” People will just end the diet because they’re not seeing a return on their investment.

Your return is the results that you’re seeing whether you’re looking in the mirror and you’re seeing positive change, is there change physically in your body? Is there change when you step on the scale? Is there a change when you wrap that measuring tape around your waist? If there’s not, it’s disheartening, it’s discouraging and people simply aren’t going to follow through with a program that is not getting them the results that they’ve after. Who can blame them for giving up the fight. If I was spending 12 hours a day on my business and I never made a dime, then I probably wouldn’t continue in that line of business or with whatever I was doing for very long. Dieting is no different. It’s not that you “just don’t have what it takes”, it’s that NO ONE is going to continue to work hard with no pay off.

For for 99% of dieters, the type of programs that they’re doing are the type of programs that will cause them to plateau after a very short period of time, where they end up not getting the results that they want to achieve. These include diets that exclusively restrict or recommend excess consumption of a particular nutrient ( carbohydrate, fats or protein). Although these approach can work well short term if done correctly ( and under expert supervision), most will receive little benefit and may likely damage their metabolism in the long run. In light of this, people still want the quick fix and unwittingly adopt the fad diet approach as the only way to eat. They lose some weight initially, quit the diet because it’s not sustainable, put the weight back on, go back on the diet and the merry-go-round continues. This is the plight of the modern dieter.

Like any pursuit in life, you need to prepare thoroughly for the challenges ahead if you are to reach your goals on schedule. This means establishing baselines, reasonable timelines, measurement tracking systems, identifying behavioral limitations, food preparation strategies and a host of other criteria to determine the right path for you. I have found that most of my client tend to struggle with the food preparation part. It is often difficult to build new habits but by having a plan from the beginning and making gradual changes at your own pace things will be much easier.

Don’t expect optimal results from a fat loss program unless you’ve completed the following preliminary checklist:

•  Have you clearly established a specific goal (the exact amount of weight you want to lose by the end of the program)? Did you write your goal down to review daily?
• Have you calculated your calorie and macronutrient needs for each day based on the specific recommendations from your trainer and activity levels?
• Did you decide how often you will prepare your meals (daily, biweekly, or weekly)? Twice weekly is recommended.
• Did you plan out the entire first weeks menu? It is best to do this meal by meal and then make any adjustments or substitutions as you see fit during the week. Having a plan in place is fundamental to success. Be prepared.
• Did you set-up an optimal meal-time schedule based on your daily availability? For example, 7am breakfast, 10am mid-morning snack, 12:30pm lunch, 3pm mid-afternoon snack, 6pm dinner. Meals should be spaced 2-3 hours apart.
• Did you go grocery shopping for all the food items needed to prepare your first week of meals?
• Do you have a method for logging and tracking your actual daily food intake for future reference?

Most people may not realize that this much thought and preparation is necessary and those that do, seldom fullfill the obligation. Most take a haphazard approach to attaining thier fitness goals, or worse perform completely random workouts and expect consistant and measurable results.

That leaves only the small minority of people that understand that if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail . . . . . Get things right from the start and set the bar high for yourself. Track and measure your progress every step of the way. Set realistic deadlines but be flexible enough to change them as your body changes. Inplement strategies for overcoming plateaus you face along the way and begin realizing the lean and toned body you had envisioned to keep you motivated for now and forever.

Please share your comments below

Well, it’s been a little while but I’m back to regular posting, with more strategies to improve your health and lifestyle. Nowadays everyone is at least aware that they NEED to exercise to stay healthy, but is knowing this enough? Usually not. There needs to be an underlying conscious, or subconscious incentive to reach a particular goal. Of course I’m talking about motivation.

How a person becomes motivated depends on their personality and can be enhanced with the promise of a desirable reward. But a strong motivation does not mean a long-lasting motivation. Millions of people each year are highly motivated to develop a fit body and to lose fat, only to realize a sense of failure, shame, and laziness; often upon discovering how much effort it takes to develop such a body. As an aside, did you know almost every commercial fitness centre relies on this trend to ensure they can meet new business quotas each month? If you pay and don’t show up, then business is good. But that’s another story for another post.

A person’s level of motivation will have the greatest impact on achieving their goals.  We need to dial into what we really want and fully understand what it takes to get there. I feel that there are 5 important motivational strategies you can use to keep on track . I will discuss them in detail but it’s up to you to implement them into your own fitness regimen.

Setting Up The Right Environment

Everyone responds differently to a particular environment. When choosing a gym or place to train, make sure that the atmosphere is such that you look forward to going. It’s amazing how many people join busy gyms and complain about the crowds and pushy salespeople. Or someone who tries to exercise at home and complains they don’t have anyone one to work out with and a lack of equipment options. No wonder so many people lose interest and quit. If they only took time to consider the environment they train in, these common scenarios could have been avoided.

Some environments may encourage competition, but not everyone is motivated by this.  Some people are very competitive, whereas others are noncompetitive. Some people enjoy competing with themselves, but they find it pointless to try and emulate someone else in terms of physical appearance, strength, or accomplishments. With so many different personalities it is clear that where you train, and with whom you train will greatly impact your motivation in the long run.

Your at home environment also needs to be considered, especially if you train there. Using visual aids like inspiring posters and progress reports of measurements or accomplishments that can be readily seen can be helpful as well. It may be important to get rid of tempting junk food and any distracting devices in the exercise area. The type of music in your workout area  may also be a factor for you, although most people are using ipod’s these days anyway.

Vary The Exercise Demands

The level of exercise demands must be flexible to maintain motivation. Although hard and intense activity is necessary to make the best progress, there must be times of easier exercise to allow minor socializing, to ease mental anxiety or to enhance joy of exercise. This is not to say that hard exercise cannot be enjoyable, but cycling demands, with periods of repose, can allow for greater long-term adherence and pleasure from an exercise program. This is true of any endeavor in life; we cannot commit ourselves fully to any one thing all the time.  Just as our biological functions work in a cyclic manner, so too must our motivation and how we apply ourselves to achieve our objectives.

Don’t Make Too Many Goals

I can really relate to this one. While it’s important to set goals, too many competing goals can derail all of them in no time.  It’s like trying to ride 5 horses with one ass. A person may want to exercise hard and lose weight, but  may have other goals that require serious commitment, such as becoming a professional musician or studying full time to achieve his Ph.d.

Competing goals can create a deep sense of psychological fatigue if a person focuses too much on too many things at one time. Doing so can affect exercise quality and intensity. There is nothing wrong witht a person who places greater importance on other activities or interests besides exercise, but goals need to be prioritized. It may not be realistic to want the best body possible if other goals have taken priority, since the mental and physical effort likely will not be available in order to achieve that goal.

Avoid Exercise And Diet Templates

I hate to say it but a lot of books and even fitness professionals are in the business of selling these “done for you” exercise and diet programs that are essentially produced with computer software. I’ve seen regular people given diets that most competitive bodybuilders couldn’t follow. Seriously though, could someone with poor discipline to eat well really be expected to eat chicken and broccoli 6 times a day for 3 months? Of course not. They will lose motivation and quickly fall off the program. For a person to be motivated on an exercise and diet plan they must be taught how to eat the foods they enjoy and to exercise with a system that is productive and that they enjoy. Just because a program works well doesn’t mean it will work for long if you’re miserable doing it.

Exercise For The Right Reasons

Some people exercise for the wrong reasons, such as building muscles so that they can threaten and intimidate  people more easily. Martial arts schools are inundated with this attitude. Also consider women who are obsessive about exercise because they hate their bodies and they feel fat, yet they may be thin and borderline anorexic. There are many positive reasons why a person should exercise, and those reasons include greater confidence and to promote good health. If the reasons to exercise are to enhance the ‘positive’ rather than the ‘negative’, there is less burden to succeed, exercise becomes more enjoyable, and the ability to reach and appreciate a state of peak condition will be easier.

At the end of the day there are many factors that can influence your level of motivation and you should now understand a few of them. The ability to become increasingly stronger, to build a better body and to reach peak conditioning requires hard work and knowledge of how your body responds to exercise and the reasons for your motivation. It also takes perseverance,  but taking stock of what motivates you to succeed may have the most profound impact on your success or failure.