Let me tell you a little story about two guys, one who got all the tools, the toys and gear, but still didn’t reach his goals, and the other, a guy who stuck to the plan, did what he was supposed to and got what he wanted out of not only the plan, but his life!
Guy number one, we’ll call him Kevy. Kevy wanted to lose some weight, and was forever on the journey to “get fit”. Kevy was on top of his game in terms of knowing the newest things to come out. Followed all the newest workout trends, made sure he had his best running shoes, could tell you if carbs were in or out right now, and always had an idea on how to make the workout “better”. After meeting with his coach multiple times over the years, though, he still didn’t do a few of the simple things the coach was asking of him. Did he track his food? No, that’s too time consuming AND he pretty much knows what he eats every day. Did he make getting in to training sessions part of his schedule? Well, “when he could” was the best he could do. Kevy showed up when he could, sometimes five days in a week, sometimes two, and sometimes he couldn’t make it in that week. His nutrition was much like his training schedule. Some days of the week, he did great and others, he hit the drive thru ONLY. Kevy had been working out for years and still struggled to feel like he did back in the day when he had tons of energy and sometimes hit training twice a day! He goes in phases of losing weight and then putting it back on, and sometimes gets weird back or knee pain out of the blue, but it goes away eventually.
Guy number two, we’ll call him Kyrell. Kyrell didn’t have a ton of time on his hands, but he wanted to make the most of his fitness pursuit. He didn’t have all the knowledge at hand, because he was just too busy to look into all that was being said on the Internet and social media, and when he did, it just made him more confused. Kyrell asked his coach what he could do to help him “speed along” the process. When his coach told him it’s all about consistency and that that may not be the speediest route but it is the most long lasting, Kyrell was a bit disappointed, but was accepted that idea, and asked what he could do to enact consistency. With the help of his coach, he decided part of his consistency was logging his food and training sessions regardless of the monotony or redundancy of it. He also put in his schedule a 5 day a week plan, two of which were at 6am because if not then, he might not get all five days in. Kyrell said that at first, he didn’t understand the need for all this structure, but after a year of maintaining these things, he’s in better shape than he was when he was in college, has way more energy to get more things done, gets to actually PLAY with his kids, and has BETTER sleep and more of it. He said his injuries of the past are pretty much forgotten about and can’t figure out if it was the change in nutrition or the training, but he’s ok with either!
Now here’s where most of US fit in- We’re either a Kevy or a Kyrell. The difference between them is worth slowing down and looking into.
A lot of people HIDE from what they truly want out of fitness/health, because they aren’t there yet and they KNOW it’s going to take being a different person than they currently are, so they just say something like “I’d like to lose a little weight” or “I need to start eating better” without anything concrete. That way, they can still miss workouts, go out to eat every weekend and use external rationale for “not getting it done”.
But you don’t want to be like that anymore.
Ultimately, it is about what you want to accomplish, and how willing you are to accomplish that. If it’s something you don’t have a timeline for or “wish” you had, more than likely, not gonna work out for you. If it’s something that really eats at you, and you acknowledge you’ll have to change fundamentally your behaviors and what you choose to do, now we’re in the running. But acknowledging you have to change is not changing in itself. The people who work with us that are LASTING success, change what they do, they don’t try to do this or that for a certain amount of time, they become different from who they are right now.
They don’t “try to get in three to five workouts a week”. They train Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. They don’t “hide” from seeing the reality of where they are at, they assess their nutrition based on their food logging, and compare it to the trends in their body composition in the last few readings. They don’t “see this article online”, they listen to their coach and apply what they have taken in from the conversation.
Your and I both know that the only difference between Kevy and Kyrell is that Kyrell CHOSE to be different through his behaviors and actions. I guarantee he didn’t think it was easy, he just thought HIS LIFE was worth putting the effort into.
Now ask yourself, are you a Kevy, still hiding behind trends and half truths about your own life? Or Kyrell, who decided his life was worth putting effort into, so he can live it WITH intention and fulfillment solo AND with is family? The choice is yours.