It’s February already and most people had set their new year resolution and probably started working towards their fitness goals for 2009. For people who had started their exercise regime, 50% of them will fall out within the next 6 months according to some statistic in a Exercise Psychology textbook. So you got a 50/50 chance of falling out and I reckon people who stop exercise fail to achieve their “goals”. Okay if you have not even started anything, I can’t imagine what will happen to you by the end of the year. It will be another year gone!

Yes yes you’re going to start exercising  next week, next month or after you get more time. Trust me if you don’t start today you are never going to start because you have trunkload of excuses. 

Well, if you have started already good on ya! But that’s only half a battle won. Read on and I will tell ya why.

I have been doing personal training since 2001 and spent years finding the best and most effective ways to help my people lose weight. It took me quite a few years to fine tune my training and nutritional system to help my clients to lose those unnecessary body fat and that’s why I am able to offer a MONEY BACK Guarantee personal training services in Perth. Today I am going to share with you something powerful and more important than the world’s best fat loss workout.

Let me ask you this: “What is the secret to a person’s success in achieving his new year resolution?” If your answer is the training and nutritional system, I dare tell you it is not. Yes customised training and good eating habits helps but they’re useless if you’re not ready to follow and stick to it. It appears to me that it is the lack of motivation or to be exact it would be not knowing why you would want to achieve a certain new year resolution such as fat loss or muscle gain. And I’m going to walk through with you today on how I do my consults and set goals with my clients before they start training with me. This process is of great importance to any fat loss goals or any goals that I required any clients who wants to start training with us to go through this process.

Before I get into the nitty gritty part of this goal setting, I would like to make this clear. Goal setting can sound very cheesy to a lot of  people and seems useless to them. And this is probably the reason why most people fail miserably with their new year resolution. These people just don’t get it and often looking for the next solution to their problems. Real Goal setting is not  arbitrarily saying:” Oh I want to lose some weight and get some fitness.” And BAM! You’re slim now.  The secret behind successful goal setting is been honest with yourself and razor sharp with what you want to achieve in life. Many successful people, not just weight loss success, in business and sports are shamelessly goal-driven, know exactly what they want and plan and prepare for any potential challenges they will face in their path to success. 

Shall we begin now? Let’s begin the 3 steps approach to your goal setting

Step 1: The Whys

When I meet my clients for the first time, I always ask them why did they come to see me. You know it’s always the usual answer: ” I want to lose some weight and feel healthier” . But to me that’s not the real answer they came to me. Don’t get me wrong! We all do want to look better and feel healthier. Let’s be honest for most people wanting to be “healthier” isn’t going to be enough to get us up early in the morning to do exercise.  So why are we getting up early, get out of office during lunch or after work to do out exercise? It’s simple we all want to look great naked. Yes it’s true and it’s instintual because we evolved to procreate and it can be much more possible if we look better. Wouldn’t you agreed?

I remember asking a friend why did he decided to train with me and you know  it’s the usual stuffs I mentioned before. And I did not buy it and I kept digging in why. I found out that he was tired of seeing people showing off their abs in the mirror in the gym and he couldn’t stand the feeling of his tummy fats spilling over touching his thighs when he sits on a spin bike. He even mentioned he wants to meet up with someone special. Hope you got it now! These are the real reasons why people wants to look better. It could be looking better for the other half so to inject some passion into the relationship or even putting your best self at work. And my personal favourite is to get into better shape just this summer to see my mum in Singapore. She kept telling me that I look so much more tougher.  

OKay go figure out your personal WHYs and everything is going to be easy from here.

Let’s move on to step 2.

Step2: Define your goals and set a dateline to achieve them

We already know you want to look better. Now there is three things you need to do in the order of least to most importance. They are ways of looking and tracking your progress. And you got to have some ways of measure to keep you on track. It’s like going to school having all the test and exam so you have a point of reference to know how you have been doing.

1. Use a weighing scale: It’s worth tracking the weight but is the least important here. It’s still important though in the long run but wouldn’t use this as the only determinants to gauge your progress. It’s becasue you can experience a little weight gain initially from exercise  because of the increased muscle mass and bone density. Although there are some scales that come with the bodyfat measure but they’re largely inaccurate due to the 4% error which in the short term is not very useful. But it’s still good to keep track of your body weight and bodyfat percentage in the long run with this method. However, you can forget about the scale if you’re feeling absolutely crap about putting yourself on it. But you got to use do the next 2 things if you really want to look better this year.
2. Dress/Pant Size – Very simple and easy way to track your progress. It’s unrated and I have personallty seen the joy in my clients’ face when they could fit in to something they could never wear before. It’s so powerful that it can really motivates you to achieve more. Wouldn’t you agree that you look better if you’re fitting into your dress or pants nicely that couldn’t fit into a month ago?
3. Photos – Photos don’t lie. I have been doing this for awhile for my personal training clients in Perth. By doing this, you’re telling yourself that you’re ready to change your body and commited to it. Take the photos in front, side and back views with good lightings and wear something revealing enough to show your figure.  I had a personal traininig client back in Singapore who went from 109kg to 69kg in 6 months and I regret not taking her before and after pictures. 

Okay your final step now!

Step 3: Forecasting, planning and preparing for potential challenges ahead 

It’s not a bed of roses when it comes to realising your new year resolution. There is going to be tough work and requires high level of discipline. Sounds pretty daunting but it will be no problem if you had strongly establish your WHYS. 

Number one challenge: MISSING WORKOUTS

The most common reason for people to miss workout is lack of time and feeling tired. And not preparing their food. It’s really a matter of prority here and you got to question yourself why did you start exercise in the first place. Are you important? There is always hidden time in the day you can find and you just got to make an appointment with your food preparation and workouts. If you really having problem with this, you got re-examine your desire to change. According to a report titled “The 2007 Australian Internet and Technology Report, 10th Ed” by Nielsen Online, Australian spent an average of 13.7 hours per week surfing the internet and 13.3 hours per week watching television. NO TIME? I rest my case.

Number 2 Challenge: ALCOHOL

Unfortunately, people here in Perth like to drink and alcohol consumption can ruin your plans. Although there are some research that say alcohol don’t give you the pot belly but it indirectly does so. How? Alcohol is always going to be metabolised first in the body as energy fuel for the body followed by other nutrients. Therefore your body will end up with excess calories from your food which leads to a potbelly. So what’s more important to you? Your mug of beer or your long-term happiness (I meant your body)? So minimal alcohol please.

Number 3 Challenges: BORDOM AND EMOTIONAL EATING

Bordom eating is basically filling up your dead  time with eating. Talking about no time for exercise this is the best time to do something physical such as fitting in mini workout sessions or pursue an active hobby such as golf or tennis. Emotional eating is about coping stress with food or so called “comfort” food and it is very addictive. No magic bullet here. You got to identify trigger events such as bars and parties and trigger food such as chocolates, sugars and fast food. Avoid them in the short term to break the habits.

At the end of the day, challenges are very individual and the key to your success of achieving your new year resolution is 100% honesty with yourself and plan and prepare for any potential obstacles. And people who tend to have the most success have a supportive friends and family who cheer them on and wants the best for them. Especially on the weekend when we meet our friend for social where drinks and poor food are free flowing, your allies will be very important in helping you through these tough time. When your friends are commited with you and your goals, you will be so much to likely to succeed in your new year resolution. The last thing your need is sobotage from your love ones so get them onboard in achieving a better body.

Alrite it’s been a long blog and I hope I have been able to help here. :-) 

Get Off to a Flying start

TC

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