What it Takes to See PHYSICAL Results

Let’s talk results. The benefits of physical exercise come in many forms: physical, physiological, mental, emotional, even social. But most of us start going to the gym for one reason: to see physical results. When you look in the mirror or try on your clothes, do you see physical results?

Believe me, I’m a HUGE proponent of focusing on all of the benefits you get from exercise.

• Improved health markers
• Decrease risk of diseases like obesity, diabetes and heart disease
• Healthier immune system
• Better mood and higher energy levels
• Decreased symptoms of depression

But I get it…when my clients come to me they, they understand that exercise is beneficial in a lot of ways but what they want is to see results.

Be Honest With Yourself

If you don’t exercise and you don’t pay attention to what you eat, being honest is easy: you aren’t doing what it takes to get healthy and see results.

But what if you do go to the gym?

What if you go on the occasional run?

What if you do know what foods are healthy and what foods you should eat less of?

Then the answers become hazier.

Be honest with yourself. On a scale from 1-10, with 1 being “not even close” and 10 being “I’m on track to being Serena Williams”, where do you land when you ask yourself the following questions:

Am I Challenging My Body Physically?

When you go to the gym, are you working up a sweat or are you going through the motions? How much do you sit in comparison to how much you move?

How Healthy is My Diet?

Think about the meals that you ate in the past week. How often did you cook a meal for yourself? Is what you eat minimally processed or nutrient rich? How much of it was green?

How Consistent am I (really)?

Do you restrict yourself to a low-calorie diet all week only to binge on the weekends? What about exercise? Can you say that you do some sort of physical activity at least 5 days a week?

What it Takes to See Physical Results

Let me be clear: you do NOT have to answer “I’m a 10!” to get results. Perfection is not the answer.

https://juliahalefitness.com/why-perfect-is-not-the-goal/

That being said, you DO need to put effort into it.

#realitycheck

If you always do what you’ve always done, you will get the same results.

And if those results are MEH at best, that’s a far cry from motivating and way far off from what you want.

Take a Look at Your Workouts

Is it better to go to the same class and pick up the same dumbbells over and over again than it is to sit at home and do nothing? Sure.

But you won’t see physical progress.

When you do the same exercises all of the time, your body gets very good at doing that exercise. If you never change up the weight you lift, or the pace at which you lift, or the number of reps that you do, your body becomes so efficient at the movement that it doesn’t have to work very hard anymore.

What that means: you won’t need to build more muscle, or get stronger, or burn more calories to get it done.

The solution: Challenge your body to do more.

That challenge comes in all shapes and sizes:

• If you always strength train, go for a run
• If you always run, try the rowing machine
• Instead of picking up the same 8 pound dumbbells and curling them for 15 reps, pick up the 10 pound dumbbells and curl them for 10 reps
• Always squat? Learn to dead lift.

Your Healthy Diet

Your diet does not have to be perfect.

Let me repeat that: YOUR DIET DOES NOT HAVE TO BE PERFECT.

You do not have to go keto, or paleo, or give up chocolate cake for the rest of your life.

Instead, you should be able to say that you pay attention and focus on choosing healthy, good-for-you, nutrient dense foods most of the time.

Most nights, you cook at home and fill your plate with real food and real flavor. And, just as importantly as what you eat is how you eat. Turn off the TV. Sit at a table and slow down enough to enjoy the company, enjoy the flavor, enjoy the quiet.

Consistency

Consistency: the Unsung Hero of all things health and fitness related.

Arguably more important than how much you lift or how often you run, consistency in both training and in your diet is the silent key to success.

Without consistency, it’s difficult to form good habits. It’s hard to know what is contributing to your results, and what is not. Without it, your workouts and food choices will be unorganized and inefficient. Surprisingly, being inconsistent is often what leads people to giving up and losing results all together.

Action Plan: Making it Work for You

Now that you are in the know, here’s what to do with the information to get yourself results.

Make a Long-Term Commitment

Start to look at your fitness and health as a long-term commitment, not a short term race to a closer finish line.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but if you ignore the short-term prize and strive instead for the pot at the end of the rainbow (the long term goal), the results will come anyways.

Committing to the long-term is a mindset shift that resonates positively in a number of ways:

• It makes healthy your new normal. Long-term goals require long-term commitment. No more 30-day diets. Instead, going to the gym 5 days a week becomes your new normal. Choosing to cook a healthy meal at home instead of picking it up on the way home from work becomes your new normal. Healthy starts to just BE in your life.
  
• It lends itself to consistency. When you start looking at your health on a larger scale, it widens the time line. Instead of fitting 7 workouts in every day of the week for 1 month, fit in 4 or 5, and give it 12 months. What do you think is going to last longer?
  
• No more yo-yo diet guilt trips. One of the most heart-breaking downfalls of the Lose Weight Fast Diet Plans is that most people gain back all (if not more), of the weight back as soon as the short-term diet is over. You dramatically cut calories (and sometimes entire food groups), to lose pounds fast. But that’s not sustainable long-term. And when you “go back to normal”, the pounds return. Long-term commitment helps you see the bigger picture. That slice of pizza? Doesn’t matter long term when most of the time, your choosing healthier options.

Commit to a Consistent, Built-For-You Training Plan

Find a training plan that is specifically designed to get you the goals that YOU want, schedule it, and stick to it!

Stop downloading workout plan after workout plan and hopping from one to the next.

Don’t rely on will-power, or motivation, or free time to get your butt to the gym.

Grab a calendar. MAKE time for your workouts. Prioritize like you do everything else that has significant meaning in your life. You are much more likely to follow through if your intentions are clearly in front of you every single day (which is exactly why I am obsessed with using my Passion Planner to track my programs, my workouts and my classes).

Keep Track

The more you know about what you did yesterday, the more informed your actions will be today. If you want to see physical results, taking informed action catapults you in the right direction.

Use a workout journal to track the exercises that you do, the weight you lift, the reps you complete…and make decisions today based on what you did yesterday.

• Notice that you’ve been squatting 60 pounds for 12 reps for months? Bump up the weight (challenge your muscles).
• If you do lunges every day, change it up and do step ups, or hip thrusts.
• Notice that you haven’t done any cardio in a while? Head to the treadmill cove and get your heart pumping a bit.

Use a food journal or portion control tracker to keep track of what and how much you typically eat. From that information, you can make decisions about where and when to make changes to your diet.

• Look for patterns in your eating habits. For example, do you seem to always be looking for something sweet around 3 pm when you’re working from home? Check that habit.
• Do you feel a lack of energy even though you are sleeping well? You might not be eating enough protein to support your activity level.

*Not sure what a portion control tracker is? No worries, I made one for you. Get it here <<

Remember, your fitness journey is a learning process. If you want to see physical results, you have to work for them. That means that you’ll end up having to make some hard changes. At first, it might feel like sacrifice. But if you’re committed, if you WANT health and fitness and confidence and you focus on the long-term, what once felt like a big sacrifice will some day just be a part of your past (your less healthy, less fit, less confident past).