Independence Day! 5 easy steps to finally reach your fitness goals!

Independence Day! 5 easy steps to reach your fitness goals once and for all!

We’ve all had trouble at one point or another with our fitness goals. That’s right, even us Personal Trainers – Although most of us won’t admit that… From eating right to doing extra cardio workouts or showing up for planned workouts, we all have things we struggle with when it comes to living a healthy lifestyle. Today, I want to tell you that everyone has an occasional disconnect between what they say they want and their actions. I also want to share some information on behavior change over time. Hopefully it will help you better address your needs and get better results over time…

1. We all go through phases. Change occurs in phases…

According to the Transtheoretical model of behavioral change, we go from precontemplative (not thinking about it) to contemplative (thinking about it) to preparation (getting ready to do it), action (doing it), and finally maintenance (still doing it).

And, unfortunately, with most types of behavior change the final possible phase is relapse where we can fall back to any of the previous phases. In fact, at any point we can technically revert back to an earlier stage which explains why you have bought a gym membership or PT sessions(preparation stage) and then not showed up(precontemplative/contemplative stage).

2. Your Changing stages are not representative of your personality

If you take nothing else away from this brief article, please know this: Your changing stages are not the same as your traits. What I mean to say is this. If you find yourself constantly in the prep phase and then the action phase but then back to the contemplation phase.

A.) Its perfectly normal

B.) We ALL do this

C.) Understand it for what it is, and learn how to set yourself up to get (and stay) in the phase you aspire to be in (Hopefully you know by now that’s the maintenance phase)

Let me give you an example. Let’s say you are most often stuck in the preparation phase (I’m going to start exercising when…) This doesn’t mean that you will never progress to the next stage. More importantly it doesn’t mean that you don’t want to change or that you are lazy. Most often with this plateau I see that it is simply an issue of “how do I start?” or “What do I do next?”. I tell my clients every day. Perhaps they are bankers, lawyers, retail employees, or small business owners – I could never just walk into your office and inherently know how to do your job. But that’s exactly what we expect of you in the fitness industry. We sell you that gym membership one day and leave you to fend for yourself the next. It sets you up for failure.

Also know that your stages will vary in duration, but they are not unchangeable. For example, if you are in the action phase with exercise bu the contemplation phase with nutrition. Build your confidence by succeeding or mastering the exercise goal first. Often that can push you into the action phase with eating better.

3. Plan for the setbacks…

Also remember that a major change in your work or family life can throw you right back into the precontemplative stage. You’ll recognize these as thoughts that crop up such as “need to take some time off to sort some things out”, but you know you’ll never come back. Be ready for these times in your life by having the right attitude. If you plan for 4-5 days a week of exercising, but your work schedule changes only allowing for 1-2 sessions this week. Don’t give up and quit. Just reassess and adjust for next week. Always remember “Something is better than nothing” when it comes to fitness

4. Moving through stages is not just about education…

Sure it is great to know as much as possible about what you are doing, but don’t get inundated with the information overflow we live in these days. Moving through the stages is more about educating yourself about the behavioral stages themselves, how you can revert and pass on the next phase, and less about knowing everything about fitness and eating healthy.

I believe in order to successfully master the five stages of behavioral change, you have to find your “Big Why”. Your Big Why is your root reason for change. Be it stopping smoking, eating healthy, or exercising – You must truly find out WHY you want to do this. I don’t mean the typical responses that I hear hundreds of times per month (I want to lose 10 lbs, I want to get fit, I want to live longer) These are shallow, and they’ll never get you to the maintenance stage. You will probably never get past the contemplative stage with these…

Here’s how to find your “Big Why”:

Client: “I want to lose 40 lbs”

Why?

Client: “Because I want to get down to the weight I was before my first child”

Why?

Client: “Because I want to look and feel better in my clothes”

Why?

(see where this is going?)

Client: “Because I don’t feel attractive right now”

BOOM!!! There it is!

She has found her “Big Why”!

Was it probably painful to have that internal conversation? YES

Did she have to be 100% honest with herself? YES

Did she find a reason to work for the next 6-8 months to reach her goal? YES!

5. Belief is a major driver of change.

Self efficacy is defined as the belief that one is capable of performing in a certain manner to attain a certain set of goals. In other words, if you have high self efficacy then you are very confident that you have the ability to follow through on the plan. On the other hand, if you have low self efficacy it means that you do not have a lot of confidence that you’ll be able to execute your plan to get where you want to be.

Note that this doesn’t mean that you don’t think your plan works. It also doesn’t mean that you don’t want to achieve the goal you’ve have laid out. What it does mean is that you’re not confident that you’ll be able to stick to the plan so you are unable to commit to the action stage. I see this all the time…

The key here is to continue to encourage yourself that you are, in fact, capable of following through on the plan you’ve created. Trying to change your whole life all at once can lead to low self efficacy and you will most likely fail to adopt any changes at all.

On the other hand, by setting yourself up for small successes and delivering the plan one change at a time you can applaud yourself as you achieve each success. Your confidence will grow. As a result you’ll be more willing to invest yourself into your plan and results will follow.

Wrapping Up

Behavior change is a dynamic process that can move forward and backwards as a result of a number of different influences. Being aware of the process and things that influence change is a huge step towards becoming the person you’d like to be. Be patient, learn to motivate yourself, and include small stepwise changes and you’ll be surprised at how little time you spend stopping and restarting your goals. You’ll be too busy setting NEW GOALS!

FROM THE AUTHOR:

I hope that you find the information in my articles informative

and helpful!

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Check the site- http://www.Carolina-Personal-Trainer.com

for free workouts and healthy recipes!

Jess Williams BS NASM CPT CES PES

President CPT Fitness

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