If the initial excitement of starting your 2022 fitness resolution is already wearing off, you're not alone. When we come back from vacation and feel overwhelmed with work and family commitments, the workouts and the will to avoid junk food get harder and harder towards the end of January. Personal trainers often say that the hardest part of starting your fitness journey is just starting it, but maintaining a consistent approach to physical activity and healthy eating year-round also has its own challenges.
In addition to how we feel physically on any given day, there are also mental processes that threaten to throw us off course. That's why M&F spoke to Dr. Nate Zinsser, author of The Confident Mind: A BattleTested Guide to Unshakeable Performance. to find out how we can really bridge the distance.
Zinsser is the director of West Point's Influential Psychology Program and has coached world-class athletes like two-time Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning. He also prepares the US military for leadership and mentally focused action. To find out how to apply his teachings and strive toward your goals all year long, follow these essential tips to keep your fitness resolution.
Temporary receipts are fine
Skipping workouts is one of the first signs that your New Year's fitness resolution is going haywire. First you skip one session and then another, and pretty soon you quit because you feel like you haven't accomplished anything, but you haven't. "Years ago, when I was young, I was a very ambitious mountaineer," says Zinsser. “I would start a climb and then finish it because of the weather or other factors like my own lack of nerve. At first I thought these retreats were all utter 'failures' and wanted to quit, but I soon learned, as one experienced climber put it: 'A thing well begun is never lost.'”
Whatever the excuse for canceling a workout, climb, or other activity, that temporary slip won't get you back to square one. "For anyone who slips up a little during their workouts, that slip doesn't mean you're back to where you started, and you can be justifiably proud of your progress to date," says Zinsser. “You now know something about what it takes to start and make progress, so use that knowledge to pick up where you left off and keep going. What you start well is never lost!”
Rawpixel.com / Shutterstock
Conquer your self-sabotage
Positive change can often lead to self-sabotage. "The mechanism that compromises the maintenance of any new behavior is a force called homeostasis," says Zinsser. "The word itself means 'stable equality,' and just as it applies to temperature, pressure, and other physical systems, it also applies to psychophysical systems like humans. Our brains, bodies, and behaviors all have a built-in tendency to stay within certain narrow boundaries and snap back when those boundaries are challenged. The bad news about homeostasis is that it works to keep things the way they are, even when those things are not good for us and contrary to our stated intentions.”
Luckily, self-sabotage can be defeated with a little mental effort. "The good news about homeostasis is that you can use it to change yourself, looking at your homeostatic response as an indicator that you're getting off center and making progress," says Zinsser. "It means that you start any new endeavor, like that new training program you've taken on, expecting some kind of mental backlash as a result. You should predict and anticipate this all-too-human resistance, and when you feel it coming and you feel like you have to cheat, then you should smile and say, "Hey, I'm changing, that's what I want ! ' It means waking up in the morning feeling slow and stiff and sore from doing a strenuous physical workout the day before, but still moving on to the next workout because you appreciate that your body is just reacting and adapting, to get you in shape !”
Plateaus are inevitable
Droughts and plateaus are inevitable in any long-term human progress. one improves continuously over long periods of time. Unfortunately, after a while, this reality sends many of us home discouraged, feeling like we just don't have what it takes to succeed. But that's just not true.
"Every minute of quality practice, every repetition, exercise, and session done correctly results in positive changes in your nervous system that ultimately lead to significant improvements over time," says Zinsser. "Each of these changes is small, but they add up, and once they reach a certain critical mass, they lead to that palpable 'Aha!' moment where you suddenly burst through to another personal best. We don't notice these improvements as we practice and learn, but the important fact, the important reality, is that they happen all the time and while we seem to be on the plateau, we are standing still and feeling like we are it doesn't do anywhere, that's not true. The building, the growing, the health development that we strive for happens while we are on the plateau itself, not during the rapid bursts of improvement. Having faith in this process, while training after training may not pay off immediately, is vital for anyone serious about continuing their development.”
Motortion Films
It's okay to feel safe with the new you
Avoiding self-sabotage and training through plateaus will transform how you look and feel in a vastly positive way, which is exactly why you started your fitness resolution in the first place, but a lack of confidence can make many of us feel like we do don't fit in, especially with friends and family who sense a whiff of the green-eyed monster that makes us feel too full of our fitter selves.
"As I wrote in The Confident Mind, our society has a problematic, ambivalent relationship with confident and confident people," says Zinsser. "We all know that confidence is important, but we also know that if you appear more than cautiously confident, you will most likely be labeled as arrogant or conceited or both. As a result, many people choose not to think too highly of themselves and focus solely on their setbacks, imperfections, and limitations rather than their improvements, advances, and small victories. ”
The truth is that you can still be very confident on the inside, which is important for any type of accomplishment, and remain humble on the outside. Rest assured that building your inner trust doesn't make you any less polite, respectful, or personable. But never allow yourself to feel bad and lose pride in your achievements because others want to project their insecurities onto you.
Focus on the things you can control
We all waste precious energy focusing on and complaining about the things we can't change. "I call these uncontrollable factors in our lives 'gravity forces'," says Zinsser. "Because like the physical gravity that keeps us on the Earth's surface, there's nothing we can do about it. one wakes up in the morning, engages their core and leg muscles to stand up or lift a weight, and then goes, "Wow, that gravity sucks, I wish I didn't have to deal with it!" Everyone just accepts that the Gravity exists and doesn't expend energy complaining about it. Contrast that simple acceptance with the way you complain about your genetics and how you're too big, too small, not enough fast-twitch fibers, too much of this, too little of that, etc. All of this is just wasting energy, just like complaining about heaviness. So why not instead focus on what you can control, such as: B. how wisely you can use your precious time in the gym?”
The Confident Mind: A Battletested Guide to Unwavering Performance is available now.
