When it comes to your personal fitness goals and your health, moderation always wins.
I just got home from a four day long vacation where I ate and drank everything I wanted and I don’t feel well. I am bloated, tired and stuffed up. Do you know how tempting it is to do extra workout routines.. Restrict my eating.. All in the name of getting rid of this bloat?
I will tell you.. IT’S VERY TEMPTING. But I know better. I know from years and years of experience that restriction leads to burnout and stress and usually to a rebound.
So let’s say you wake up one day and your frustration from not being able to fit into half of your closet, at least not comfortably. It becomes too much. You are sick of getting in your own way. You are tired of not feeling hot, not having energy and sick of not putting yourself first. It becomes too much. So much that you decide you are going to put your foot down and make a change.
So you eat less and you start a workout program. Well a few days of this and you feel good. You announce to Facebook this is finally THE time you change. More days go by.. maybe even a few weeks and then something comes up.
You go out for dinner and those chips and queso are just so tempting and you think to yourself “I’ve been good lately, I deserve this.” The next day you wake up and you are puffy and you feel bad about yourself so you eat a little less and do a double session at the gym.
You get back on track but then a few days later you are tired, worn out and mentally beat and you decide you deserve that wine. Inevitably, you indulge and next thing you know, you have busted into the crackers and take down about half the box.
The next day you wake up bloated, puffy and feeling frustrated with yourself. You’ve been so good the last month. You are down a few pounds and your pants are fitting better, so why did you do this to yourself?
A few more days go by and that mental and emotional fatigue is so real. Life doesn’t stop and you feel like you barely have the energy to handle other people’s problems, much less your own. You decide to get take out and definitely do not feel like prepping food for the next day so you eat out again the next day.
Every weekend meal prep is less and less appealing. Every day showing up for an hour long workout is less and less appealing and your performance at the gym dwindles. You are getting take out more days than you are weighing and measuring and eating clean. Your mid-section is expanding again and you find yourself back where you started. Ultimately, you decide “I just can’t do this right now.” You start deleting the motivational emails you get everyday and bury your head in the sand to avoid feeling guilty for not being on track anymore.
The questions at this point are: why did this happen and what can you do about it?
In my 11+ years experience as a personal trainer, this started because you went in head first and did a complete 180 on your lifestyle. And in my experience, when someone does a 180, that leads to a 360.
When you go from a lifestyle of eating whatever and not doing any formal workouts to weighing/ measuring, tracking every morsel, and following a daily workout program, it is not sustainable. There needs to be a build up. There need to be baby steps.
Doing a mass overhaul on a lifestyle is typically not sustainable. But that’s not to say you can’t do it over time, in moderation (because moderation always wins.)
When I suggest for all of my clients is to take baby steps and ultimately choose moderation.
If I have a new client who literally eats fast food, drinks soda and eating food from boxes and bags, I triage. I ask her to shop the perimeter of the market and drink one soda a day or every 3 days, depending on her frequency. Or perhaps ask her to switch from soda to seltzer.
If I have a new client that has not done a formal workout in years, I ask that she begin by walking 3-4 days a week for 20-30 minutes and maybe do one leg day at home.
If I have a new client who makes an effort to eat clean, but isn’t super consistent I may have her choose protein and produce at every meal. By eating more of the good stuff, it pushes out the processed stuff.
If I have a new client who makes an effort to workout but isn’t consistent, I may have her begin by doing 2-3 of my daily workouts a week. We can build to 3-4 and perhaps even 5-6 daily workouts each week, but over the course of 12 weeks.
If I have a new client who eats clean, does her daily workouts but isn’t quite where she wants to be, we may have her weigh, measure and track her food. We may have her track her sleep. We may have her try some new supplements. But all of this is temporary asI do not believe we should have to do all of these things every single day for the rest of our lives. It is cumbersome and exhausting.
Trying to be perfect is exhausting. Moderation is not which is why, moderation always wins.
I may ask a client for additional effort in temporary waves. I never ask a client to do something that is too much for her because honestly, life can be really hard and exhausting. And since my clients aren’t professional athletes, the health and fitness journey should not be hard.
Your health and fitness journey should fit into your lifestyle. Yes, you will need to make an effort to learn ways to make veggies taste good. You will need to make effort to get in a few formal daily workouts. You’ll need to make the effort to meal prep each week, get enough sleep, work through your emotional issues. But it should never be so much of an undertaking you cannot sustain the efforts. That does you no good long term.
Moderation is the key to long term success. Moderation always wins.
If you are looking for a coach who will help you create long term success through moderation in clean eating and a workout program that suits you, hire me!
Learn more and sign up for online training at KyraWilliamsFitness.com/signup
Your Coach,
Kyra