Back to Basics 

What are you trying to achieve or change? Is there something stopping you from achieving what you would like to achieve?

Are you struggling to lose weight or keep if off? 

Have you found yourself stuck in a bad habit routine ?

Or is it that you cant get motivated.. Something you have to figure out! 

Acknowledge

Body Shape 

We all have different body shapes.

Some of us are skinny and want to be skinnier. Others are skinny and want to be more curvy. Maybe you are curvy and want to be leaner. Or you feel chunky and would like to slim down. 

Whatever body shape you are, you wont be a brand new body shape in the morning. 

Be realistic, set goals and enjoy the process. 

Keeping it simple! 

Sleep 

Eat 

Exercise

Try not to overcomplicate things. Keep it simple and make sure that you are making an effort at least some of the time with minding your sleep hygiene, practicing a healthy diet and improving your fitness. We can all get caught up in latest trends, needing the latest gear, and attending the latest classes and getting flustered by what the latest influencer is doing.

Back to Body Shape 

Be realistic, set goals and enjoy the process. 

Don’t allow yourself to be constantly stressed out about clothes that don’t fit, utilise your strengths! Show off those curves, or show off those skinny arms!

Muscle

The importance of building/using/ minding your muscle at every age cannot be understated.

Use your muscle for weight loss, to protect your bones, in improving heart health, amongst other benefits. Read the blog on that here or Check out the Youtube video below! 

(Not so)Secret Calories 

Why are these important? Well, a lot of the time, we can put in huge efforts. We will exercise frequently and curtail our diet and find we are not making progress. This can sometimes be down to  ‘hidden calories’.  This can be very frustrating and lead to a sense of defeat/ ‘whats the point’ attitude’.

Check food labels until you have an idea of what you are eating! 

For e.g-  a bottle of Wine = 600-700 calories !!

Fun? Challenge? Competition?

Don’t torture yourself. 

What do you enjoy ?

Do you prefer to go to the gym and listen to a murder podcast and jog on the machine for 30 mins? Then do that! 

Torturing yourself with exercises you don’t like doesn’t lead to sustainable habits, unless you grow to enjoy it. 

Spinning, for e.g, is something I used to torture myself by doing. You burn loads of calories, and, if you enjoy, it is a super exercise. But its not my jam. And forcing myself to do results in me actually avoiding the gym! 

Personally, I love water-sports. I’m not great at surfing, but I love it. I’m pretty good at waterskiing, but don’t get it do it that often. 

Regardless, whatever water-sports I do, I enjoy it, and its very easy choice to make!

Falling off the fitness wagon!

I could have written this blog in one sentence…

“If you have figured this out.. get back to me”!!

I decided to reverse engineer the path to fitness, and look at times where I have failed.

When I did this,  a pattern emerged, and if theres a pattern for me, there is a pattern for you!

Generally, I get injured, I dont adapt to the injury and sort of continue with the ‘I’m injured badge for an extra few weeks’.

Look back over the times you ‘fell off the fitness wagon’ over the last few years.. Is there a pattern? What tipped you off the wagon? Work/stress/ alcohol/ lack of progress?

Injuries 

As someone who is accident prone, this is an issue that over the years I have learnt to address and manage. The injuries have happened for a variety of reasons, sometimes not listening to my body, sometimes doing exercises I knew will lead to injury. 

In the past I would have ignored it, stopped exercising for prolonged periods as my knee was at me.. or my I was afraid of my knee being at me again! This results in de-conditioning and falling out of the fitness habit.

If I get an injury now I attend a physio/physical therapist, do my rehab and get going again. 

Busy-ness

It can be difficult after a long days work to make time for exercise, or even rest. 

Over time, it becomes a self perpetuating habit such that the less exercise, the less energy you have, the more tired you feel, the less inclined you are to do exercise. 

Finale 

So when you have figured out what is causing you to break your routine, your options are to avoid said trigger. Or be prepared to adjust when said trigger occurs.

Knowing your body shape, and acknowledging your strengths allows you become confident in your own style, and your own fitness routine. 

Falling off the wagon, doesn’t mean to have to find a new wagon(new online class, new diet etc) unless that wagon was not suiting you to begin with. Sometimes its just a matter of accepting you fell off, and getting back up on the wagon.