5 Reasons You are Not Hitting Your Fat Loss Goals (That Have Nothing to do with Food)

Continuing my Series on Why you are not hitting your fat loss Goals that have nothing to with food.

3. You have no program or plan

THIS is one of my pet peeves.  Throwing together random things you've heard from people at the gym, stuff you've seen on social media, and the latest marketing gimmicks are NOT a program or plan.

If you do not have a roadmap, then you will be lost.  How will you evaluate data points and know what is working and what's not working?  How do you know what works best for your body?  You don't because you have no program or plan!

When I first work with clients, I have them fill out a roadmap.  I ask them for their 3 biggest fitness goals for the year.  THen we begin to break it down into monthly goals.  Each month we refer to the roadmap and formulate goals.  Each week we set goals that build on our monthly goals.  Brick by brick. Piece by piece.  That's how progress is made.  Little by little.  

Then we look back at each month and see how we are doing in comparison to now.  I have a client who set a goal to exercise 3x per week back in January.  She's doing that now and now wants to expand upon that.

I believe that if you are SERIOUS about making a lifestyle change you need a plan. People need structure. Otherwise it's too easy to give in to distractions and go off track.  If you're just starting out, You need an actual plan to follow.  Once you get your footing, then you don't need to be so structured but i believe that having a plan saves you time and money as well.  There is none of that wandering around the gym following the hot guy around or buying pointless supplements and diet foods that don't work.

For my competition training, having a plan has been INVALUABLE otherwise I would have been tempted to phone in a workout when I didn't FEEL like doing that much cardio or that many sets. I also probably would have convinced myself that Quest Bars and Turkey Bacon belonged on the plan.  Having a plan has taken all the guess work out of the equation and I just follow it and get results.

4) You aren't ready to accept help and you know it all already

It never ever fails.  The know it all clients.  Clients who know everything about nutrition and fitness but sign up for training anyway.  These people complain and nitpick about what the trainer is telling them.

I once had a client who couldn't do a squat at all and then wanted to know why we weren't doing plyometrics.  So I had this client do 20 squat jumps to prove a point.  "oh my knees hurt".  Of course they hurt, you aren't properly conditioned and you shouldn't be doing any plyometrics if you can't even do a proper squat.

Then you have the people who question and complain about the exercises that you have them do.  I do think if something is painful or you're uncomfortable performing it (within reason) then I have no problems modifying the exercise.  But there are people who just complain because an exercise is uncomfortable or they may start to activate muscles that they haven't been working so of course their arms and legs are going to fall off.

You also have the clients that know EVERYTHING and are going to tell YOU WHY. Thankfully these people weed themselves out of training because they don't need a training and they know everything right?

Well in all my years of doing this, whenever I have run into the know it all clients later on down the road NONE of them are in any better shape.  As a matter of fact, most of them are in EVEN WORSE shape than they were before.  

Well what happened?

They aren't humble enough to admit they need help and their way doesn't work.  If it did, then why are they in the shape that they are in.

Disclaimer:  I am not saying that you should not ask questions or give feedback.   You absolutely have the right to speak up and let the trainer know your questions and concerns, but if you're eliciting someone's help, then listen.  Maybe they know more than you...besides if your way worked then you would be where you want to be by now.

5) You give into every distraction, temptation, and urge

I get this one.  Believe me I do.  Since I've been training for this competition I have noticed how many food triggers and food cues surround us on a daily basis.  Over Memorial Day Weekend, I was outlet shopping and there were vending machines with Snickers, M&M's, and Ice Cream everywhere!  There were pictures of burgers and fries and we're trying to get our shop on!

Now had I not had such a specific goal in mind, I may have been triggered to go and get a snickers.  It was a holiday for Pete's sakes and everybody knows that calories only count 50% on holidays.  

There are food cues EVERYWHERE but if you are committed to the goal, then it is bigger than the temptation of the burgers and fries, chocolate bars, and ice creams.  You can have these things occasionally but you do not need to give in every single time.

Just because you have an urge does not mean you have to give in.  You will not die if you do not have that

Snickers bar.  It will be there the next time.  In this society we have been trained to give into our urges.  It's okay Y.O.L.O. (You Only Live Once) and Do whatever you want and think about the consequences later.

i will tell you now that giving into all of your urges will never lead to success.  Yes there is a certain amount of discipline that you will need to employ in order to get to where you need to be.  You cannot eat whatever you want and expect to hit your goals.  It just doesn't work that way.

What works for me is: self talk.  I tell myself that I can have it later and it will be there.  I do not have to give in right now.

So much of this fat loss game is about your mentality and headspace. You have to get your mind right and the body will follow!

Happy Training!