Failing to Succeed

Over the last few years while helping people attain their fitness goals, I noticed a trend. Just after the holidays, after a vacation, or even after an extended long weekend, my clients and even my workout partners started to disappear without a trace. I couldn’tunderstand what was going on.

Why were they disappearing? Had the people with whomI had worked so closely for months and even years fallen victim to something awful?

One morning I woke up and realized what happened to my clients. They succumbed to every trainer’s worst enemy: laziness.

Months later, I would see a few of them with an empty look in their eyes, like zombieswho had endured the same fate, the same losing battle. They had fallen off the cleaneating/workout wagon. They all had the same explanations: they got sick, they got lazy, they weren’t seeing results. Some had a bad weekend of eating and a three-day binge turned into six months of junk food. And those were only the ones I saw again. So many more were simply unaccounted for - missing in action.

I have the same discussion with all of them: falling off the wagon is part of the process.You will fail quite a few times before you succeed. That’s the way it is. If you exerciser regularly and you remain aware of what you are putting in your body, your body will change - but it doesn’t happen overnight. After all, no one becomes overweight or develops injuries and muscle imbalances overnight either. These are mostly chronic problems.

Attaining your fitness goals will generally be a long process, but there are things youcan do to reprogram your brain and wean yourself off the bad foods and slowly replace them with healthy foods. Hang in there. It’s only a matter of time before lean muscle starts working in your favour and you won’t have to be as aggressive as when you firstbegan your training regimen.

The human body adapts to change rather quickly, so for all you beginners, please continue to believe. And all you veterans, continue to achieve.You are much closer to your goals than you think!