Hey ladies!! My name is BreeAnna Cox, and I’m a Personal Trainer, Fitness Nutrition Specialist, and I specialize in pre and post natal fitness. I’m here to talk today about setting realistic expectations for your fitness goals.
When most people start out on their fitness journey, they start with these extreme goals. They either cut out all carbs, or want to work out 2 hours a day, or vow to never eat sugar again, or jump on the Keto Bandwagon cause “joe” lost 20lbs in 2 weeks! I have seen it time and time again and i’m here to tell you that it doesn’t work. Setting these extreme goals will only set you up for failure… here’s why.
Reasons to Avoid Extreme Fitness Goals
#1
You cannot keep it up! Lets say you set your calories so low that you have no energy, and you are hungry and grumpy. How long do you think that will last? Not very long. Eventually you will binge and say “screw it” this is too hard. You will go back to your old habits and you cannot stay consistent. So before you decide to go on that juice cleanse or cut out all carbs I want you to ask yourself if you can do it long term.
#2
You lose trust with yourself every time you quit. This is a very important one. Everytime you make a promise to yourself and you don’t follow through, you lost trust with yourself. If you lost trust with yourself you will never believe you can actually achieve what you want. You have to make small sustainable goals that you can keep and then slowly build trust with yourself. Once you have mastered that skill or that habit then you can add more. It’s important to follow through with what you say you are going to do.
#3
You can create a yo-yo diet mentality. If you are constantly living in a restriction mentality then eventually you will binge. This will become a vicious cycle that is hard to break. It will wreak havoc on your metabolism and yours self confidence. You want to avoid feeling like you need to “punish” yourself for a weekend of binging. It’s much better to have everything in moderation and balance.
Have I convinced you yet? Before you hop on the bandwagon for the next fad diet think about what is going to help you in the long run and if you can be consistent, build trust with yourself, and have balance.
What have been the biggest obstacles to successfully meeting your fitness goals? What have been the best most helpful?