How do I not miss out soft tissue work, mobility drills, cold water treatment and stretching either?
My answer is an example of an easy comparison that most people will understand. When you wake up in the morning, do you forget to brush your teeth? Hopefully everyone said no, of course I don't forget to do my teeth (fingers crossed 🤞🏻)! Well that's because you are in a habit of doing it. You don't need to be motivated to brush your teeth so if you can make training, nutrition and recovery from training a habit that's "Just something that you do", then you'll never miss a workout, recovery session or accidentally slip up on your diet again.
What qualifies me to even talk about this topic? Perhaps a little background on me may help you to understand.
I have trained consistently now for more than 30 years through injuries, coughs, colds, multiple bereavements, when I've suffered from poor mental health and when I've been at my happiest in life. Training is part of my identity, it makes me who I am and it's one of the primary things that people that are close to me would say that I'm not willing to compromise on but what does all of that have to do with motivation?
Well, I'm glad that you ask!
Motivation is something that people look for to get started on a certain trajectory whether its a business idea, perhaps it's a new relationship/friendship with someone that you're wanting to start, reconnecting with someone that you've lost touch with or in the case of this article, to get started on your journey of health and wellbeing.
To me health and wellbeing is a way of life. It's not a task or a chore to do. I choose to wake up even though I don't want to most days to have a cold shower in the morning (just for a few minutes) before I'll turn the hot water on because I know that it stops my joints from aching from years of wear and tear, it also makes me feel awake and ready to take on anything that the day is going to throw at me. I've learned that if you start the day with adversity (and let's face it, there's few things more adverse that getting in a freezing cold shower when you're half asleep). There is not many things that will be harder to deal with which puts you in a strong state of mind to tackle tasks ahead for the rest of the day.
I also schedule into my diary training times so that I know not to book in clients, meetings or events at those designated times. If you dont schedule it, you are likely to miss it or tell yourself that you'll do it later and when life inevitably crops up, later never comes!
With nutrition I have found that the best method for my family and I is to predominantly eat unprocessed foods 6½ days per week starting on a Monday so that way if we meet with friends or family on a Saturday evening or Sunday it then takes the pressure off of where we can go to eat or if we fancy an alcoholic drink then we allow ourselves the luxury of doing so.
This method works for us because it's rigid and we don't break the mould. Our friends and family know that this is our routine and therefore accept that if we socialise during the week that we don't go to restaurants that don't serve healthy options and we wouldn't have alcohol either. You can still have a great time without blowing your nutrition schedule or drinking alcohol so there are no excuses not to stay on task.
After you have made the decision to schedule your training, put a method of recovery into your schedule (mine is cold showers, mobility and soft tissue work during training sessions) and make a conscious decision to stick to your healthy eating method (of which there are many to choose from) you just have to start. You only need to start small and gradually build to the level that you are comfortable to maintain.
I'll give you an example below;
Person 'X' wants to improve their health and wellbeing and has time to exercise twice per week but some weeks because of their work patterns they have time for four sessions.
I would advise this person to do two sessions per week for the first six months of this new journey because this will guarantee them not to miss a training session therefore, building consistency and ingraining the habit of regular exercise.
Person 'X' also has never followed a planned nutrition program before either so I would simply ask them to not eat any food that has more than 1 ingredient (see my other articles for more information on this topic) for 4 days of the week and on the other days, they can relax a little by incorporating some of their 'normal foods'. I would again ask them to maintain this schedule for six months which will ingrain the habit and it allows the people which Person 'X' associates with to recognise that this new lifestyle choice can be worked around and allow Person 'X' to attend events and occasions as they would have before.
Unfortunately the biggest pressure to break your bad habits comes from our friends and family. You will hear the sayings, "oh, just let your hair down", "it's only one drink" and "you could be dead tomorrow, just live a little"!
These are normally all said with good intentions but you must stand firm against these comments. Another thing to keep in mind is that most people want you to do well but not better than them and if people start noticing your success because of the consistency that you have forged onto your lifestyle then the people that you would least expect can try to sabotage your new habits. This is a very important factor to remember and is key to your success.
So to wrap this article up, decide on an easily achievable number of days per week that you are able to exercise and schedule it in your diary, eat predominantly single ingredient foods for a minimum of four days per week and try to start your day with something adverse, whether it's a cold shower or you do your exercise session first thing it will make the rest of your day seemingly easier which will only produce a positive mindset.
Until the next article, start ingraining these habits and
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