As a Personal Trainer, often people ask me "why am I feeling like I'm not seeing results" or "I trained perfectly the last month and nothing has changed on the scales".
These are the biggest tips I give people...
Furthermore, I've also made these mistakes & I was annoyed at myself for not achieving my results fast enough.
These simple changes made huge differences for me and I'm sure they will for you too...
1. Setting Unrealistic Goals and Feeling Defeated
Ever set a crazy big goal, that you secretly knew you could never achieve, but you wished you could do it? So you set the huge goal anyway, only to fail, and then internally beat yourself up about it? Me too.
These are goals like, “lose 10kgs before my sister’s wedding that’s 4 weeks away” or “Be perfect on my meal plan, train perfectly 6 days a week, while perfectly performing in my career, perfectly being a parent and starting a side hobby or business, all at the same time”.
We put too much unrealistic pressure on ourselves, that sets us up to fail, and when we fail we're really frustrated at ourselves, and sometimes even loathe ourselves! We try to use that ‘loathing’ to be more ‘perfect’ the following week. It will never work.
Instead, set realistic goals you can actually achieve within your lifestyle and timeframes. This will build self confidence, instead of ruining it. It’ll make you feel empowered and set you up for more consistency with your training and eating habits.
2. Not Training Consistently
Ever trained 6 times one week, and felt like you smashed it? To then only train once or twice the next week?
An ’All or nothing’ or ‘Yo-yo’ mentality with training and nutrition doesn’t serve us long term, or serve us to achieve bigger results. It would be far better to successfully and consistently complete only 4 workouts a week, rather than 6 one week and 1 session the next week.
Find consistent times of your week that you can train. Set aside that specific time and don’t make excuses when it comes to those weekly set times.
Commit to yourself and your goals to build habits. Then your training becomes apart of your lifestyle and you won’t need to think about it as much. Automate your results!
3. Not Planning or Prepping Meals
Do you weekly plan and prep your meals? Meal prepping comes in various forms.
Some people like to prep a week in advance or a few days at a time. Some people cook extra dinner, for lunch the next day. Some people buy pre-prepared meals like My Muscle Chef meals. Other people chop the veggies up in the fridge, have it ready, and just cook as they go. It’s up to you however you do it, but you must be planning and prepping in one form or another form to stay consistent with your nutrition, to achieve the results you want to physically see.
If you leave eating up to chance, life will get busy and you’ll be back eating the easiest option (which probably isn’t the healthiest option).
4. Not Eating Enough!
How many meals and snacks are you eating per day? Most people think the easiest way to lose weight is to eat less, when in fact, some people are actually eating too little and their metabolism (the rate your body burns fat) is slowing down.
If your goal is to gain muscle, then you especially will be needing to eat more.
Training alone isn’t the answer to seeing results. The exact amount you need to be eating is worked out on an individual basis with our Dietitian.
5. Not Increasing Your Weights in Sessions
Are you actively trying to increase how heavy you’re lifting in the group sessions or on the gym floor? When was the last time you picked up heavier dumbbells?
Increasing our strength and muscle mass increases our metabolism too and lifting weights burns a lot of calories!
Women, you won’t start to look bulky if you lift heavier, we literally don’t have enough testosterone, instead you will begin to look more toned and lean!
6. Being Too Strict, Resulting in Over Eating
Do you ever find yourself overeating at night time or on the weekend? This could be because you haven’t eaten enough during the day, or you’ve been too strict during the week that you’re feeling depleted which results in overeating on the weekends.
Instead, try a more balanced approach to your eating and maybe check in with our Dietitian regarding how much you should be eating. It’s ok to have a treat during the week, especially if it’s going to prevent over eating on high sugar foods or alcohol on the weekend. One treat here and there will not ruin your overall results.
7. Not Sleeping Enough
How many hours of sleep are you getting each night? 7-9 hours is the ideal, with consistent bed time and wake up times.
When we don’t get enough sleep we crave more sugary foods, we don’t have the energy to train and our hormones aren’t as optimal for our bodies to recover and grow (whether your goal is fat loss or muscle gaining, our hormones and recovery is so important).
Make sleep as important as training.
8. Not Drinking Enough Water
How many litres of water are you drinking per day? No, this doesn’t include the water in a coffee. There are certain calculations regarding how much water you specifically need to be drinking per day, however, generally it will need to be more than 2L/day.
Water helps with our recovery, transportation of nutrients around the body and moving waste out of the body. Without enough water in your body, you will not see the results you’re hoping to see.
9. Stressing Too Much
How much stress are you experiencing? If you are in a high stress environment or if you naturally stress a lot, your cortisol levels will be higher and your body is in a ‘flight or fight’ state. This results in our energy being put into other areas, like staying alive, rather than our body losing fat or gaining muscle.
Cortisol also slows down the metabolism, slowing the rate your body is burning fat.
How can you reduce your stress or stop worrying about the things you don’t need to worry about?
10. Not Enjoying Your Training Schedule
Are you loving the type of training and workouts you’re currently doing? If you’re not, how can you make it more fun so you look forward to training?
Maybe try group training, training with a friend, training with a Personal Trainer, training at a different gym or getting a new training program written.
There’s so many ways to re-spark your interest for exercise.
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