So you enrolled for a ‘Fitness class’ or joined a gym to train. Fabulous. You are just about to embrace a whole new you with a whole new style of living.
But only if you let yourself.
In today's post I will share with you
A. The 3 broad Categories of Clients I have come across in my experience as a 'Health & Fitness Coach'. You will most likely fall into one of the 3.
B. How to transition from Category 1 to 3, if you are truly desiring change. And finally,
C. The challenges you will face on the path even if you are in Category 3 & how to tackle them
So let's get started.
The 3 kinds of Clients:
Category 1:
These Clients have a lot of intention to improve their health and fitness. But for some reason or another are not able to follow through on their intentions. Life seems to take over for them. They are unable to stay consistent.
And as a result do not experience the change that they so desperately seek.
Category 2:
These Clients pin all their hopes on exercise to change their life. They lack the awareness of how other aspects of their lifestyle contribute in equal measure towards making their health & fitness goals a reality.
So when they don't get the results they seek, they tend to blame the exercise program and start looking for other exercise formats that they think will give them results. And eventually find it difficult to stick to any one program for too long.
Category 3:
These Clients are able to follow through on their intentions. With consistency they begin to see results. They also become aware of how other aspects of their lifestyle play a role in moving them forward on their health and fitness journey. And begin to make changes in other areas as well.
These are the Clients that stick around the longest & make progress.
As a Coach, there is no greater joy for me than to see Clients transition from Category 1 and 2 to 3. I will now share some ideas with you that you can use to enable this transition for yourself.
If you think you belong to Category 1, then try the following:
1. First & foremost call yourself out:
You might find yourself making myriad excuses as to why you are not able to take time out to exercise - work, family obligations, being tired, meetings, calls, blah blah blah. And you will continue to come up with them if you don't consciously put a stop to it. First acknowledge that you are only making excuses. Acknowledgement paves way to taking responsibility and showing up for yourself.
One of my clients Nisha did just that when she realized she wasn't seeing results from my Program. She called herself out as being lazy and missing classes. Once she brought this tendency to light, she determined to make a change. If you missed my conversation with her on achieving her weight loss goals, then I recommend you give it a listen. Even if your health goal isn't weight loss, you will still get to learn something about what the path to better health entails. Listen to it here : Client Stories : Sustainable methods for weight loss
2. Find an accountability partner:
Having someone count on you to show up is a great way to get that initial push.
My spouse has been using this method. He goes for his morning walks with a friend. I am sure if it hadn't been for his friend, he wouldn't make the effort as it’s more tempting to sleep in a little extra than to get oneself up & moving.
3. Use the chain method:
Read about it here : One small step a day
I use this method of getting a few days of consistency to drive more consistency with many of my personal goals. I will share one with you. This month my emotional wellness goal has been to work with affirmations. I have a bunch of them that I work with. Every single day I write them down in my journal with the day's date on top. Yesterday when I opened the journal to write and saw my consistency in writing from Dec 1 - Dec 18, I felt so good about myself and now I feel all charged to finish the month strong and not miss a single day of work.
So give this method a try. It works for me & might just work for you.
If you belong to Category 2, then I don't have much in the name of ideas & suggestions to give you. You will need to realize in your own time that there are other aspects of your lifestyle such as Nutrition, Rest & Recovery, Stress Management etc. that need to be taken care of so as to experience progress on your health & fitness goals.
If you are in Category 3, then most likely you have already started to experience changes. More energy, strength, ability to do all that you thought was not possible for you.
This is a great place to be. But not devoid of pitfalls. So let's move on from here to the challenges on the path & how to tackle them :
A. Your environment:
I had mentioned about this in my post “do you need a wake up call". We don't live in a very congenial environment that supports well being.
And even though you now have a taste of what regular exercise & healthy lifestyle habits can do for you, there are chances of slipping.
To meet this challenge, cultivate mindfulness of your environment & how it distracts you from your path. Dysfunctional behavior patterns that we unconsciously indulge in (be it late night snacking, compromising rest & sleep, social media scrolling etc.) can be brought to light with mindfulness, interrupted with a pause & alternative course of action chosen.
There are several ways in which this kind of mindfulness in daily life can be cultivated. More of that in another post.
B. Being scared of change:
You are changing by way of making better choices. And sometimes this change can make you feel uncomfortable even though it's a positive change.
Letting go of our old patterns that are not serving us but feel comfortable is never easy. Growth & transformation are tough but we have got to honor our precious lives and opt for change nevertheless.
“All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy, for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter into another.” - Antole France
To meet this challenge, seek individuals on your path. Their journey and consistency will keep you motivated to stay and continue making progress.
C. Comparison, Competitiveness & a feeling of superiority over others:
This can happen if you are not grounded. Never lose sight of why you do what you do. Taking time to exercise and follow a healthy lifestyle is something we do to feel better in our bodies (the only place we have to live), to function effectively and thereby be of more value to our society & the world at large.
It isn't about trying to prove anything to anybody. We can go about our healthy lifestyle and make phenomenal progress in fitness without making a big deal out of it. Remind yourself that you are much more than your body.
Allow your good health & improved fitness to enable you to be a better human & not a superior human.
D. Confusion about way forward:
As you get stronger and more fit, you can choose to gain mastery over your chosen movement practice, or explore other fitness formats, or take up a sport, etc. There is no dearth of what you can explore and the limit that you can reach. Just make sure the choices you make come from a place of understanding your hearts true longing & not from a place of trying to prove something to the world or from fear / comparisons. Do what feels right for you.
With that I will conclude this post & I sincerely hope it inspires you to move forward on your health and fitness journey. Do write back if you have anything to say / share.
Your points are crystal clear!!