No point in trying to deny it, this time of year we all get a bit more comfortable. The evenings are colder and darker and sometimes we’d rather go home after work, kick the feet up and have a little treat instead of going and smashing it at the gym. Today, I’m going to throw you some of my tips for getting over the slump. Throw the kettle on, here we go.
After the amazing response to last week’s blog, I wanted to follow up with something good, something that you guys reading could really use and gain from. I was sitting in CoffeeWorks in Lucan village (If I’m not at work or at home you can probably find me there) on Wednesday morning, absolutely pouring rain, chilly and overall a bit miserable. I sat there sipping my coffee, staring out the window doing a bit of people watching, trying to come up with this week’s topic. I just got thinking about how much the weather can impact on our daily mood and motivation. On a gloomy day, the energy in the gym is so different to when it’s nice out! Think about it, if you’re coming home from work in the lashing rain how motivated are you to train hard and eat nourishing food? My guess is you’d sooner jump into your onesie and order a take away. Now, I’m not saying the tips I’m going to give you will automatically turn you into a goal smashing, motivated ball of energy but they can definitely help keep us focused on the days that we’re least motivated.
S.M.A.R.T Goals
I’m sure most people reading this have set goals at some stage in your life. That’s great, goals keep us focused and give us a direction. Without goals, we’re moving through life not really knowing where we’re going. As the Cheshire Cat says in Alice and Wonderland,
“If you don’t know where you’re headed, then it really doesn’t matter which way you go”.
SMART goals help you figure out where you’re heading and how to get there.
· S- Specific. I don’t just want to hear ohh Rory I want to lose weight or I want to increase my bench press. I want specific targets. How much weight do you want to lose? The more specific you can make your goals the better chance you have of staying focused.
· M – Measurable. Is it truly quantifiable? If not you’re setting yourself up for failure.
· A – Achievable. Be honest with yourself and ask can you really hit this target in the certain time frame? If you’ve just given birth to a baby, chances are you’re not going to have a six pack in 6 weeks’ time.
· R – Relevant. Focus on yourself and what’s right for you. Don’t set a goal to do 5 chin ups because your training partner can do 5 chin ups. It’s important to remember why you started your fitness journey in the first place and keep the focus on yourself and what these goals mean to you.
· T – Time. Put a specific end date on your goal. If there is no end point you’re a lot less likely to achieve it.
So why does goal setting help you when all you want to do is turn on Making a Murderer on Netflix? Let’s imagine you have no goal set. You’re just training for the sake of training. Well in that case there’s not really anything pushing you on, so what does it matter if you miss a session? However, if you have goals set and you skip a session you’re missing out an opportunity to get closer to achieving that goal.
Tracking Calories
Tracking calories isn’t for everyone. It’s a great tool for helping you lose weight (Or gain weight if that’s what you need to do) and get a better understanding for overall nutrition. However, there can be some negative side effects to tracking that a lot of people don’t talk about. Becoming obsessed with tracking can have some pretty lasting impacts and alter someone’s relationship with food.
I’m not here to discuss that today but it could be a topic for a later date. No, the reason I bring this up is because this time of year is often referred to as ‘silly season’. In this case, I suggest tracking so people can still go out and enjoy the festive period. If you’re a regular reader you’ll remember the blog on fat loss where I discuss how you need to look at calories over a week, not a day. If you know you’re going out on Saturday, you can make adjustments to the 3-4 days of eating before that and still enjoy yourself Saturday and be within your weekly calorie target.
While the other two topics in this week’s blog are based around your internal motivation I feel tracking calories is slightly different for a couple of reasons. We all know how easy it is to over-indulge at this time of year, Christmas is such a food centered holiday. If you’re able to keep your weekly calories in check you’re not going to end up getting frustrated about your lack of success in the gym. Some of you who don’t track could be going way over your weekly calorie goal without knowing it, killing yourself in the gym and still be putting on weight. I’ve seen it before and I know how much it can impact your attitude towards training.
Now, I don’t mean you have to be that person at Christmas dinner weighing out your turkey so you can log it on MyFitnessPal, but, if you can get into the habit of being more conscious about your food choices and use just a little more planning and foresight you can still make great improvements at this time of year. Remember, for some people, improvements around this time of year might be staying the exact same. If you’ve put on a bit of unwanted weight over the last few Christmas periods than staying the same is a huge improvement this year.
The Right Exercise
Do you know what I just can’t get my head around? People who continue to choose a certain exercise modality but absolutely hate it. Hearing people talk about how much they dread going to the gym or doing this or that is astonishing. Obviously you’re going to choose the couch over something you don’t like? There’s more to exercising than just going to the gym.
My advice here is simple, find something you really enjoy and do it. That might mean to need to cancel your membership to your current facility but if you don’t enjoy it there you’re really not helping anyone. Unknowingly to you, you’re probably not adding to the atmosphere in your current gym and as a coach I can tell you that a situation like that makes a big difference to our session and our day. We can tell you don’t enjoy it and it can be frustrating for us.
However, if you find something you actually get excited about you’re going to be rushing home to get to that new thing. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box. If you’re around the Dublin area, there is some really interesting alternative exercises and fitness based activities. JumpZone do a trampoline fit session. You could go indoor rock climbing at Awesome Walls. It might be as simple as switching gyms to a different style of training. Maye you need to change from a big commercial gym to a smaller, personal training or semi-private model, or from group based bootcamps to CrossFit.
The importance of enjoying your training cannot be underestimated, especially at this time of year.
There’s nothing particularly new or ground breaking about the points in this week’s blog. Give yourself a SMART goal, be an adult when it comes to your food choices and do something you get some enjoyment out of. They’re not incredibly hard things to implement into your daily life either. Don’t be afraid to talk to your trainer about some of this stuff if you are struggling with some motivation, part of their job is to help you when you’re struggling. Maybe they can switch up your programme or help you identify a goal to work towards.
Hopefully you’ve gotten something out of this week’s blog, I enjoyed writing about it. Please reach out if there’s anything I can help you with regarding the above topics, or if there’s something you want me to discuss in future blogs.
Have a great week guys, as always, thanks for logging on and checking out this week’s blog.
Rory.