Bryan Smith- All Canadian Fitness Certified Personal Trainer
Everyone has fitness goals for summer. As soon as the warm weather comes along – people start to take a closer look at themselves in the mirror and wonder how they will look without the “winter clothes bundle.”
Well, it’s not as hard as you think to get to where you want to be. It takes some planning and dedication, but it’s definitely do-able. Here, I’m going to explain the steps that I use with my clients to help them realize their summer dream body potential.
Set a Date – It sounds ridiculous, but it works. Recently a client of mine, that I have had for almost 2 years, decided to plan a trip to Florida with her family. Now, in the year and a half I had trained her, she had lost a few pounds, gained a few, and lost a couple more. I think in total in a year and a half she had lost about 15 pounds. She worked very hard while she was here, but there was no concrete goal. But 12 weeks out from her trip we got very serious.
I wrote out every workout that she would do and showed her how to eat to maximize her losses. It was nothing I hadn’t said before, but she actually “listened” because there was now a reason. In those 12 weeks, she lost close to 20 pounds, and she actually lost 5 more on her trip!
(Madeline lost 20lbs before her trip to Florida… and wore a bikini!)
Even if you don’t have a trip planned for the beginning of the summer, make one.
Take yourself shopping on July 1st. Not just buying a shirt or two. Save up your pennies and plan a spree, with smaller sizes. Or think about a friend’s wedding you may be attending. Goal setting is the key. In my experience, it’s the determining factor in whether or not people will succeed.
Plan – Now, this has to do with nutrition (which foods you eat and the timing at which you eat them) and also planning the times at which you can exercise. People who don’t plan, don’t succeed. I hear the same thing all the time. “It’s so easy during the day at work; it’s when I get home that the nutrition falls apart…” Of course it is. That’s because you have scheduled breaks at work. You have a ‘lunch hour’ in which you are scheduled to eat. When you get home, you get comfortable, get comfy on the couch to watch your recorded reality shows, and the nutrition goes down the drain. Why should your nutrition at home be any different than at work? If you are too tired to cook, take one night out of the week and cook for three evenings. Take a day on the weekend and cook enough supportive food so that you can freeze it and eat it when you are in a hurry.
I’ve trained a doctor to have a body like a fitness model when he was working 70 hours a week and studying for his sub-specialty. There is always time…. If you are selfish enough.
(Dr. Ivan Cacic got THIS body while working up to 70 hours per week at the hospital! … with a plan)
Believe – I heard a quote years ago that stuck with me. It was, “psychology beats physiology every time.” And I have seen it year after year. If a client doesn’t ‘believe’ the system that they are using is going to work, it doesn’t. . The modality doesn’t matter. It could be Zumba, it could be a Bowflex, it could be a Shake Weight. You’ve undervalued it from the beginning, and sabotaged yourself. If you watch the infomercials of these people that have succeeded with these different ideas, no matter how different they are, they all have the same thing in common… They BELIEVED. They bought the product, believed in it, and succeeded. Now, sometimes, that’s a hard pill to swallow. I, myself, am a big skeptic when it comes to being sold something. Now, this is where OUR job as trainers comes in. It’s our job to help you believe that what you are doing, and all of your hard work you are putting in, is worth it and will pay off.
Execute – This is the biggest step of all. You’ve written down attainable goals and goal dates, you’ve cooked your food and planned your exercise routine, and you believe that it’s going to work. It’s time to put this plan into action. Sure, July 1st seems like a long way away, but if you just go day by day and think, “In the grand scheme of things, from now to July is just a blip on the radar”. Tough it out and work hard.
It WILL pay off. Trust me. I’m a trainer. J
All Canadian Fitness 