Consistency: The Road to Results

You know what your goals are. You’ve started exercising or eating healthy. But, you’ve been here before. How do you make this time different?

Consistency, plain and simple. Without consistency, not only will you not get the results you’re aiming for, you’re more likely to fail to build habits in the first place. 

We all start things we don’t stick with, and one of the main reasons is that we get impatient about results.

Consistency: The Road to Results

If you struggle with sleep, practicing good sleep hygiene will help you overcome your insomnia. That is, as long as you stick with it. 

You’re probably going to have a bad sleep the day you decide to stop using your laptop in bed, drinking coffee in the evening, and leaving your room a mess. Does that mean it’s not working? Absolutely not.

Check in with yourself in a few weeks and see where you’re at then. 

To build consistency, be realistic and don’t overdo it. Take a balanced approach and make incremental changes to achieve incremental gains. 

Starting to cook healthy meals and exercise every morning is great for your health. But, if you are currently doing neither of those things, start with one. Build habits around it and when you are confident in your consistency, tackle the second one. 

Similarly, when you do reach the point of consistency in your physical activity and nutrition, maintaining both will help you be where you want to be or at least stay where you are at.

There are no quick fixes. That’s why diets and get-fit-quick schemes are largely ineffective: they don’t allow you to build the consistency that you need to make lasting changes. Establishing consistency is a key milestone in your journey to building self-efficacy.

Once you have a routine implemented, reassess it to make sure it’s appropriate. Five workouts per week that are tailored to your needs and abilities is better than six workouts per week that exceed what you are capable of and leave you tired and unmotivated. 

The same goes for overcommitting. Trying to allocate more time to physical activity than you can realistically schedule in is a recipe for failure. This is why GoGet.Fit encourages you to determine the duration and type of physical activity for yourself - you know you best. 

Scheduling for Consistency

Scheduling keeps the ball in your court. Everyone’s day is different, but many people find that planning their activities for first thing in the morning makes them more likely to do them. 

This is because something is less likely to sidetrack you at that time. In other words, get it out of the way, before something else gets in the way.

Focus more on adding new positive habits over trying to eliminate bad habits. When you remove something, you often look for something else to fill that void.

Instead, start healthy habits. As you build consistency, they’ll eventually replace the bad ones.

An added bonus of maintaining regular exercise is that it has a tremendous effect on mental wellbeing. Exercise releases endorphins, boosting your mood and reducing stress. Over time, this helps you become more resilient as well.

Lastly, just make sure you are ready for a change in your life. Wanting something and being motivated aren’t the same thing - you need motivation to succeed, particularly when the going gets tough. 

That’s why the first step in joining GoGet.Fit is making a commitment contract. This is a pact with yourself that states “why” you are here and “why” you are motivated to become active.

This creates an element of accountability that might just be the little push you need to stick with it!