Ever wonder why losing weight is called the Battle of the bulge?
Because it’s just that…a battle.
And like in any good fight, you need strategies to help you proclaim a victory.
As a personal trainer for over 12 years, I have a LOT of strategies, but today I’m going to tell you my absolute #1 strategy. The one that if I had no other fat loss “weapons” I’d like to have in my back pocket.
Consistency.
I’m going to tell you a story today from when I did a lot of one-on-one training.
But first let me ask you, do you remember the story of the tortoise and the Hare? The excited little Hare ran his heart out from one place to another, but in the end, he lost to the slow methodical tortoise. You see while the Hare had flash, fire and enthusiasm, he wasn’t consistent. And although slow, that tortoise kept plodding along inch after inch until he met his goal; the finish line.
I can’t tell you how much this relates to us in the weight loss game.
I’ve had clients that would come and go, work out with me 5 days a week for a month then I wouldn’t see them again for 6 weeks. I knew they’d be back, and they alwasy came back, often right back at square one or worse just to do it all over again.
Then I had another client, her name was Candice, she NEVER missed a workout. She was faithful three days a week, did her cardio and kept a tight reign on her diet with only the occasional treat. When I would train her, she would alwasy comment on how hard core the other ladies in the gym were. She’d say “wow, if my knees weren’t so bad, I’d do that.” or “If I had more will power I could do that crazy diet too. I really wish I could.”
But here’s the thing, Candace was 57 and super ripped! I gotta tell you, Candace worked out really hard. She liked to be challenged and pushed to her max in each and every workout. What she didn’t know, was that every time I would train those other ladies, they would comment on how they wanted to have arms or a back like Candace! They’d ask how she was so fit when they only saw her in the gym 3 days a week? Every time I would tell them the same thing: Candace may not have a lot of flash, but she never misses a workout. Week after week she commits to her fitness plan. She never does a crash diet, but she knows when maybe she’s indulged a little too much and she immediately tightens up her diet. Her weight never fluctuated more than 2 or 3 pounds.
It was simple, Candace was a tortoise. And week in and week out, workout after workout, she was able to build upon what she had already accomplished and move on to bigger goals. Not start all over every 2 months. When we saw one training style wasn’t producing the desired results, she didn’t quit for weeks at a time in search of the new and next thing, she kept at it so we could tweak and refine our approach to get her what she wanted.
In 3 years of training her, I actually trained her for 3 years. In 3 years I often trained my other clients off and on equaling about 1 year maybe. Just by looking at them for 1 minute, you could see the difference.
Some of you may say “I never take that much time off.” But really don’t you? When you skip 2 workouts this week and then do 5 next week. When you have a “bad” month of working out in February so you go hard core in March. No matter how you do it, it’s still being inconsistent and a bit of a Hare.
If you really want to win this battle of the bulge once and for all, your main focus needs to be on doing what you need to do day-in and day out. Set a realistic workout schedule and stick to it. Don’t fall into the trap of “making up” missed workouts. That’s basically another form of procrastination and sure way to stay on the weight loss roller coaster.
If I had to choose my 2nd top strategy, it would be accountability. We all need to be held accountable to our goals. Having a trainer or a program can help you do just that. Booty Boot Camp