One of the biggest issues many women face when losing weight, getting fit or maintaining what they have, is staying consistent. I don’t know anyone that hasn’t yoyo-ed up and down a little bit, but if you’re swinging from on it full throttle, or not at all, you know it’s a problem.
Inconsistency is awful, and can make you feel so bad. It’s a clear sign that your good habits aren’t sticking, and you haven’t fully cracked the code. Inconsistency and big swings either way is so de-motivating and not great for your confidence.
Many women over the years who I’ve met at the consultation phase are completely and utterly fed up, and at a point where they think nothing is going to work for them. They’ve gained a lot, lost a lot, gained a lot. Or some may have been super fit, but then not doing anything in months.
It’s bad for the soul, bad for confidence building and certainly not a way to live.
I could write so much more on why some people are inconsistent, but I thought today I’d focus on simple tips to get consistent, and we’ll go back to the why at a later date.
Simple tips to help keep you consistent and on track:
Plan on a Friday your goals and action steps for the week ahead. This stops you from arriving at Monday tired, with no plan and not in the mood to create a plan, therefore often pushing out healthy habits to Tuesday. Be ready on Monday to follow a plan you’ve made for yourself the Friday before.
Always know what you want the outcome to be. Why am I doing this? Is it to lose weight? Get fit? If you don’t stay focused on your outcome, you’re going to lose momentum.
Always have very simple guidelines in your life. How much water do you drink per day? How many days a week do you workout? Do you walk often? If you don’t have guidelines that you believe in, you’re not going to stick at anything for too long.
Rather than over-think, and over-analyse every single thing, sometimes it’s best just to go and do the thing. Talking about working out, thinking about working out, putting it off for a few hours… Life is so much more simple if you take action on the thing and tell yourself to give it a rest!
Never miss a workout you said to yourself you were going to do. Whatever working out means to you, sessions, walking the dog. Don’t cancel your session because something else came up, always get your sessions in. Hungover, tired, you’ve eaten too much, there is always a point to a workout and never ever think ‘oh what’s the point’. If bad habits creep back in, continue to workout.
Continue to workout even with the bad habits. You’ve fallen off track with the food, you’ve started drinking too much, don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. When I go on holidays, I do want I want, and enjoy my holidays to the max, but the workouts never stop. It’s really terrific to engrain it into your life, you’re an exerciser! It’s just what you do, through the good and the bad. When you’re off track, keep working out!
If you want to stay consistent with healthy eating and workouts, give up measuring yourself frequently. Throw out the weighing scales, measure yourself by your clothes and leave it at that. Good results take time, so let yourself off the hook. If you workout and eat well, you will lose weight.
I repeat, never ever miss a workout! If you’re knackered, go slow. Start off just going through the motions, you’ll soon get into the swing of things.
Never ever diet. If you want to be inconsistent for the rest of your life, and if you always want to struggle with your weight, go high protein, high fat, keto, paleo, diet, shakes, meal replacement, count your sins, count your points.
You’ll never, ever be free if you do all that stuff. You’ll be trapped forever in a hamster wheel of yoyo-ing.
I hope this helps you,
Jessica Cooke
