10 things you need to guarantee health and fitness success

What are the 10 things you need to guarantee health and fitness success? We’ll tell you!

Is this you? You want to lose weight and get fit. But you’ve tried before and failed. Your confidence is low that you can ever achieve your weight and fitness goals.

How can you achieve the vision that you so desperately seek?

Just follow the advice below. Get all 10 of these things in place and you’re guaranteed success.

1. SMART goals

In the past you may have embarked on a New Year’s resolution with only a vague sense of what you want to achieve.

Let’s say you want to get fit and be less fat. How will you know when you have got there?

Try to create goals that you can measure.

Lose 2 stones in weight by the end of July. This goal is SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound. You can track your progress. You can work out what you need to lose each week and use that to keep you motivated.

Or you might say, fit into a size 12 by June; be able to see my abs by September. Whatever your goals, make them SMART.

With all our clients we set goals together at the start of the programme. We track your weight on a weekly basis and photos, measurements and body composition on a monthly basis. In other words, we have a number of measures that we track and which tell us how you are getting on. We use this information to make informed decisions about any adjustments to the programme. Good progress with these measures is also very motivational for you.

2. A Vision

How will you look when you reach your goals? What will it feel like? How will your life change? What will it mean to you?

This is your vision.

It comes from you. We can help you think about this and create a vision that is realistic, but it has to come from you.

Create a vision and write it down. Remind yourself of it often. Frequently remind yourself why you are on this journey to better health.

3. Driving motivation

If you have a deeply felt driving motivation then it will make a huge difference. For me, the death of my mother from heart disease ignited a passion for healthy living which drives me to this day. Other events since then have just added impetus to that drive.

What’s your driving force? Getting ready for a wedding or a holiday? Wanting to be around for the kids as they grow up? Ridding yourself of a sense of embarrassment? Wanting to be proud of how you look?

Whatever it is, if you have it, it’ll motivate you to get off the couch, to do your gym session, to make good food choices, to go for that walk, to be better.

We can motivate you in a gym session, and we can provide other ways to motivate you, but the underlying driving force, that deeply felt reason, needs to come from you.

Commitment comes from driving motivation. If you have and maintain the motivation, then the commitment follows.

At the start of a programme, we’ll ask you about your levels of commitment. If you’re not scoring it an 8 or above, then we’ll have a further discussion about it. If you can’t commit, then you may not have strong enough motivation and you’re more likely to fail.

4. Realistic expectations

Do you tend to give up if you don’t see results quickly?

If you think you’re going to lose 2 stones in 2 months and look and feel great on it, think again. You can crash diet but you’ll lose a lot of muscle weight, you won’t get the look you want and you’ll feel rubbish. Then you’ll put all the weight back on as fat.

We can help set your expectations correctly. A realistic goal will depend on your current weight, your gender, your fitness levels, your postural issues, your relationship with food, your lifestyle.

We’ve observed the progress of many clients. All these variables play a part. We can help set your expectations – specific to you – so you are not disappointed by your progress.

5. Accountability

Who is going to stop you from skipping your run or your gym session? Just you? Will you have the motivation to go out in the cold and rain to train when your home is warm and smells of delicious food? Are you letting anyone down if you skip it?

Yes, yourself!

But letting yourself down often isn’t such a bad thing. Or at least that’s what you’ll tell yourself. You’ll tell yourself it’s ok or that one missed session won’t make a difference.

Yes, it will make a difference because it’s the start of the change in mindset. It’ll become a habit.

Get yourself a training buddy or, better still, a personal trainer. Pay for your sessions upfront. You’ll have a specific appointment which you won’t want to miss. You are accountable to that trainer or buddy for turning up.

As a client, you’ll have set appointment times that you choose. We’ll remind you of your sessions. We keep you accountable for turning up.

In addition, we also keep you accountable for sticking to the programme plan. You’ll receive weekly progress reports and have a monthly check-in where we can discuss any challenges, re-invigorate you and, above all, keep you accountable.

6. Support

Are your friends and family supportive? If they’re not then you’ll be constantly battling to convince them of your priorities. There will be friction, arguments. It may make it impossible to see it through. So, get their support before you start.

The more support the better. That’s why our relationship with you doesn’t end when you leave the studio. You can email us and text us any time you like. If the going gets tough, or your willpower is exhausted, we’re here to listen and help.  We’ll give you tips, coaching, reassurance, motivation, advice. We’re here to keep you on track and make it as easy as possible.

7. The right priorities

You’re all signed up, you’re raring to go and…. things keep getting in the way. You’re so busy all the time. You don’t have time to go to your sessions, or prepare healthy food, or do your cardio.

But what are you busy doing? Is it really more important than your health? Remember your goal – do you want it enough?

If you’re committed, if you really want to succeed, then you’ll prioritise your health and fitness goals right near the top. Make changes in your schedule to accommodate your health and fitness commitments. Make those changes permanent, make them a habit. That’s an essential element of your new lifestyle.

8. Good habits

If you read our recent blog on habits you’ll know that your lifestyle is, to a large extent, a collection of your habits. Bad habits, unhealthy lifestyle. Good habits, good health.

If you have bad habits then consider the anatomy of a habit: trigger, action, reward. Don’t try and remove the habit, just replace the current action with one that is healthier. Rewire those bad habits.

In addition to changing the bad ones, create new good ones.

For more detail about habits and to get more ideas, take another look at our recent blog on habits.

When you sign up for one of our programmes, we’ll make suggestions, give you ideas and help you to create good new habits.

9. A good work ethic

Do you work hard in the gym and push yourself? Or do you just go through the motions?

Most people over-estimate how many calories they burn and underestimate how many calories they consume.

You have to work hard to burn calories. You have to get out of your comfort zone. And, if you want to see results, you have to do it consistently, time and time again over the course of weeks and months.

Be prepared to work for your goals.

If you train with us, we’ll always get the most out of you in your sessions. We’ll push you, safely, within your capabilities. And we are good at judging your limits, so we’ll never ask you to do anything you are not capable of. But we will push you and help you to work hard.

10. Know-how

Do you know the sorts of foods you should eat to reach your goals? Do you know how many calories you should have? And what about exercises, do you know which are best? Are you able to lift weights safely?

These things constitute know-how.

Of course, we have the know-how. We know the answers to all these things and more.

As a member of one of our programmes, you’d receive two hours of food coaching. You’d get your own calorie target. You would receive a tailored exercise programme for both in and out of the studio. And we’ll coach you through every session.

If you don’t have the know-how, don’t worry. We do.

The next step

If you’re not sure you can do it on your own then we can help. We can help you get these 10 things in place to guarantee success. That’s what we do and that’s why we get great results.

Give us a call on 01604 289 190 or email us at hello@lifeforce-fitness.co.uk.