If you are looking for a shortcut to achieve your goal, you are wasting your time.
Shortcuts don’t work most of the time. Especially if you are trying to achieve something worth while, something that’s somehow hard to achieve. This applies to to your health, loosing weight, becoming stronger, faster or fitter more than anything else.
Stamina is utterly important. And stamina is only possible if it’s managed well.
People think all they need to do is endure 3 or 5 more intense exercise sessions and their fitness dreams will come true.
They are stupidly wrong.
Being good at anything, getting in great shape or achieving anything is like windsurfing – the definition of being good at it is being able to make it look easy. But it never is easy. It takes lot’s of practice, lot’s of hours in always changing environment and dealing with it. That’s what people conveniently forget.
If I were just starting my quest for better shape, health, fitness, weight loss or anything, I wouldn’t try to do a lot in the gym for long time. I would try to do something far simpler.
I would find that extra half hour or 45 minutes every day, that belongs to nobody else but me, and I would make it exercise productive. Put the hours in, do it for long enough and magical, life transforming things happen eventually.
Sure, that means less surfing Internet, going out and hanging out in coffee shops, less time watching TV, saying no to other people more often or whatever.
Waves in the ocean never stop pounding against shore. Sometimes they are big, and sometimes they are small. But they always keep coming and they are changing the shore over time with their consistency.
If you can apply the consistency of waves in ocean, you can achieve anything you want. You can change and achieve anything by consistently pounding against your shore – your goal. You can change the world with it.
If you promised yourself, that you will exercise 30 minutes everyday consistently to achieve a better health, fitness and shape and after couple of weeks you stopped, you are not alone.
About 99% of people do the same think. They set their goal, they are excited to keep going and somewhere along the way they stop. They stop pounding against their shore – loosing weight, getting strong, achieving great health and fitness, win Olympic gold, make 10 million bucks.
To become consistent at things you set for yourself and keep showing up when going gets very tough and motivation is temporarily lost is very, very, very hard.
Yet, some people can do it. They set their goal and they stay the course. They don’t quit. They want to. They want to quit many times. But somehow they numb their inner comfortable voice and do the opposite. They fallow through.
I think it is in all of us. We can all be consistent. But we have to find our own way to do it. An when we do, we become exceptional. It will be hard, but it will be exceptional. And being exceptional can be fun too.
Consistency is one of the most important things you can apply to achieve your fitness goals. Consistency is crucial in loosing weight, getting fit and staying healthy.You have to be consistent with your prescribed diet and exercise.
If you can be consistent like waves in the ocean and fallow up even when it seems impossible to keep going, you will certainly succeed in anything.
My friend Andrea recently asked me why she is feeling tired and out of energy most of the time. She is 27 and she doesn’t sleep well. And she is gaining weight too. Andrea has an office job where she sits on her butt in the front of computer all day.
Here is Andrea’s day:
Breakfast:
Andrea gets up from bed at 7:00 AM and she has almost always the same breakfast. She gets coffee and danish on her way to work every day.
Mid-morning snack:
She said, that she likes snickers candy bar and she usually gets one as a mid-morning snack from office kitchen vending machine.
Lunch:
She is having her lunch with her coworkers in some nearby restaurant where she usually gets sandwich, burrito or some Thai or Indian food.
Afternoon snack:
At around 2 PM Andrea usually feels sleepy, so she has another coffee and eats energy bar like Luna bar or Cliff bar.
Dinner:
When she comes home from work, she is tired to cook so she heats up some prepackaged meal and eats it while watching TV. She has couple glasses of vine after and scoop of ice cream.
Andrea exercises only occasionally when she feels like it. And that’s almost never. She goes to sleep at around 12:30 – 1 AM after her 2 hour facebook ventures.
Advice for Andrea and everybody who wants to have more energy:
1. Don’t eat sugar. The only sweet things you can eat are fruits and vegetables.
2. Don’t eat flour productsand processed grain products like breads, pasta, white rice. Eat only whole grain variations in moderation.
4. Don’t drink coffee and other caffeinated beverages after 11 : 30 AM. It takes about 22 hours for your body to get rid off caffeine from your system.
5. Everything you drink should be 0-zero on sugar. You are left with only water, teas, mineral water and coffee.
6. Sleep at least 7 hours everyday. Some people need more than that.
7. Don’t eat red meat and processed meats. Red meat is heavy on saturated fat and processed meat products are full of sodium and conservatives.
