How do you eat an elephant?
…….One bite at a time. One of Mike’s favourite sayings. The notion is one that applies heavily when it comes to achieving your health and fitness related goals. You can be the most committed person on the planet but regardless of how hard you train or try, the outcome of that one training session or healthy meal is only a very small part of a larger picture.
When you begin on your exercise and nutrition journey it can all be quite overwhelming, I mean how many times has that diet started tomorrow? Tomorrow will be the day I eat perfectly, go to the gym, get my 8 hours of sleep, take my fish oils, go food shopping, prepare all my meals for the next 3 days, oh and I have to go to work, drop off and pick up the kids from school, take them to gymnastics then help them with home work. Easy. As crazy as a day like that might sound, how many of us have actually done exactly that and said tomorrow I will be all or nothing. The problem with this approach is all to often ‘all’ very quickly becomes ‘nothing’.
We are all creatures of habit and habit’s don’t happen in one day. Slowly introducing things into you’re existing regime is the key to success. The most successful way to succeed is working out which habits would result in you reaching your goal and then introduce them one by one until your are consistently doing all of them.
Regardless of your goal great habits to introduce would include;
Taking fish oils everyday
eating every 3-4 hours
Eating protein at every meal. Use your palm as a gauge. 1 serving per meal for women and 2 for men
Consuming no calories through drinks
This system is easy to follow and flexible. Introduce fish oils into your daily routine. When that becomes easy, you focus on eating every 3-4 hours. Keep going and before you realise it you’ll be smashing your goals. Introduce a step and fall off the band wagon? simple take a step back and re focus on the habits you were already successfully following until you’re ready to add a new one.
This is not the quickest way to achieve your goals but it DOES WORK and ultimately if you reach your goal 6 weeks later, who cares! Nowadays with everything so ‘instant’ we are drawn towards gimmicks that promise overnight results and quick fixes. We are too quick to brush aside anything that seems like it will require effort over a longer term. The truth is how many of you reading this are exactly where you were this time last year? If you are at where you want to be, good for you, well done. If you still have the same goals without a tick next to them then regardless of whether you want to get stronger, faster, leaner or thinner, maybe you should think about eating an elephant.