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There is a lot to learn when you decide to follow a training and nutrition plan.  Besides learning how to train and how to use nutrition to reach your goals,  I cannot stress to you how important it is to learn to be consistent.

When it comes to getting results from your training and nutrition, consistency is everything.

I can speak from experience here.  I’ve been a gym goer for about 20 years plus, and it’s only in the last 4 years that I have seen the results I want, and that’s because I realised I had to be consistent with both my training plan and my nutrition.

Just to prove consistency works, the photographs of me below show what I achieved by being consistent.  The photos are taken just 7 months apart.

In my early gym days I would give it all or nothing.  I would do different classes, do a bit in the gym, but basically I had no set plan.  I followed the latest diet fad in the hope that it would work.  I didn’t get the results I wanted, what I did get was unhealthily thin whilst my actual body shape remained unchanged. So I would get fed up and believe that nothing was ever going to work, and that I wasn’t capable of changing.

Does any of that sound familiar?

My problem wasn’t down to lack of effort, or not having a goal in mind, it was due to inconsistency in what I was doing.  I just didn’t stick at anything long enough for it to work.

With anything we do in life, we will not achieve success if we don’t work at it, and an exercise and nutrition plan is no different.  You can have the best trainer in the world and the best diet to follow, but it you don’t stick with it you’ll end up feeling like your just spinning your wheels and getting nowhere fast.

I’m not implying that you need to be perfect 100% of the time, that would just be setting up for a fall, but you need to follow a programme the best you can for most of the time.

Losing fat, building strength and muscle is a marathon not a sprint. Regular sessions of two or three times a week, consistently, will provide long term benefits in fitness, strength and health.  Of course, there will be days when you just don’t feel like it.  I have days like this, but I can guarantee I always feel better afterwards.

Effort and intensity are nothing without consistency.  Don’t miss a session and then have a mega session to make up for it.  It doesn’t work like that.  All you’ll do is make yourself feel so sore you can’t work out for a week.  Just train consistently and keep plugging away at it.

Here are a few tips to help with staying consistent;

  1. Know how many workouts you need per week to maintain your progress.  You can schedule ‘active’ rest days in between where you might go for a brisk walk, go for a run, swim or do a gym class you like.  If you don’t get these in at least you know you will have done your main workouts.
  2. Prioritise your workout schedule first, have them in your diary and fit other things around them, rather than the other way around.
  3. If you’re travelling, or on holiday, find out if there is a gym in your hotel or one nearby before you go.  If not, get a workout plan you can do without equipment.
  4. Something is always better than nothing  If you are short on time,  do what you can, or if you know you are not performing at your best, don’t bin the workout off altogether, work at the level you can.  It all adds up over time.
  5. When life does get in the way, plan for ‘maintenance’ and be alright with it.  There will be times when circumstances dictate you can’t train, accept you can’t train as often as you would like, but just keep plugging away a little bit at a time.
  6. Prep your food!  Make a little time each week to make some prepared meals for the times you know you will be on the go.  You are less likely to just grab something unsuitable then.
  7. Have your family and friends on board.  Make sure they know how important this is to you, and don’t be distracted.

Once you start making progress and see the results you are working hard for you will be motivated to strive for more.

The longer you stick with something the better you get!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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