My Fitness Journey (Wifey’s Story)

It is with great pleasure that I am now actively taking part in the writing of this blog. As you already know, my husband and I are both really passionate about weight lifting and take this very seriously (even though fitness needs to be fun, otherwise why do it, right?). But before elaborating on the idea of what fitness/weight lifting is about, let me give you a better idea of who I am and where I come from.

My name is Nathacha (pronounced “Natasha”), I am from France and have been living in the USA for about 7 years. My husband and I have also spent time in France together in the early years of our relationship. During our time in France, my idea of what beauty was, was very different from now, at least my standards were, and so were those I had about health. Him and I had plenty of time to walk around town, which we did almost daily during our breaks. However, we ate whatever pleased us, without worrying about gaining weight, looking different or even yet, not being as healthy as we could be with a better sense of nutrition. We carried a very similar lifestyle once we moved to the USA, where I started my Masters and he started his PhD. We still took daily walks, but this time, around campus and we sill ate whatever pleased us. This lasted two years, just enough time for me to finish my Masters.

I started my fitness journey at the end of 2013 which was also the end of that Master’s Degree. Why, you ask? Because the summer preceding my debuts in my current career (that is, my full-time career) made me open my eyes on my eating habits. I had spent a whole summer feeling very sick, from a sinus infection that seemed to not want to go away. Besides that, I had injured myself while on a hike with hubby where I decided to be stubborn and finish the hike as fast as possible, leading to very harmful impact on my left knee. Therefore, I had spent a summer not only treating my sinus infection for a time that seemed infinite to me, but also started a chiropractic treatment which took much of my time and money! As a result of this, I became very depressed and turned to… food. My husband, as loving as he is, made sure that I would be happy and fulfilled my every wish. When cake I wanted, cake I received! And that, on a very regular basis (several times a week). I had found shelter in food. By the end of the summer and the beginning of my new career, I decided to finally check my weight out of curiosity, more than anything else. The outcome was devastating to me… I had gained 12 pounds over the summer. Never before had I reached that weight. That was enough for me to want to make a REAL change.

 

Back the fall of 2013

Back in the summer of 2013 and uncomfortable with my body…

Back in the summer of 2013

So, in the fall of 2013, I started my fitness journey. Little did I know about what exactly it involved. I had read a few articles here and there about how to quickly shed pounds. Many were talking about “cutting carbs”, and as naive as I was at that time, it seemed logical to me. So, (completely) cutting carbs I did, and that, for months. I also decided to pair this with daily cardio training, running on the treadmill or biking for about an hour every day, setting my calorie loss at 1,000 per training session. Since my body was deprived in carbohydrates and that I was losing so many calories by training cardio on a daily basis, it didn’t take but a few months (about 3 months, if I remember well), for me to get back to my previous “ideal” weight. That being done, I was not entirely satisfied with the outcome since I was lighter but my body did not show any physical signs of strength. Very logically, I decided to turn to weight training. At that point, I knew my husband had taken a few weight lifting classes during his undergrad and knew that that knowledge would come in handy to me. So both he and I started going to our school’s gym 3 times a week. While he had a much better idea of what he was doing and was making physical progress very quickly, I quickly became frustrated, because it was not the case for me. While I had a vague idea of some of the most basic exercises one can do for each muscle group, my knowledge and grasp of the equipment that was accessible to me was very limited. Since our facility had everything you could possibly think of but for personal trainers, I decided buy myself a book. It was entitled “Fitness 101 for Women”. This book was the very first step I took to knowing my way around the gym and more than anything else, feeling more confident in it. Although, if you could imagine me and my book around that gym, you would easily see how embarrassed I felt to have to rely on it so heavily before any given exercise! This phase lasted about a year and a half. I slowly let go of the book and became more daring in the gym but still didn’t know much about proper weight lifting.

Back in 2014, hubby and I no longer had access to our gym, since he had graduated. We knew we wanted to move further from our former campus and closer to both our work places and therefore, had to find another facility to train at. One day, while I was at work, he texted me to let me know he had found a gym that had given us a good deal for a 2 year membership. I wasn’t too sure what to expect at that point, especially considering how he described the facility in comparison to our former one (which was very very large). That being said, we went to our first session together. Training remained something we did at the same time, with our respective workouts routines, but as a couple. Almost immediately after joining our gym, I decided to finally get myself a personal trainer. We could now afford it and it was available. It turns out my personal trainer was a former student of mine that I had taught during my Masters Degree (as a teaching assistant). This time, HE was going to teach me something.

We spent a year and a half together. He was a great source of knowledge but also a great source of motivation. Looking back, I never would have learned half of the things I now know if it wasn’t for him training me. Unfortunately, he was no longer able to train me after that time and I had to find another trainer. So, I ended up having two different ones for the next 6 months. At that point, I had been trained by a professional for two years. I felt like I was ready to do this on my own.

I decided to cancel my personal training plan but to continue being a recurrent member of the gym. I have been training there since 2014 every week (except for very exceptional occurrences that prevented me to do so) from 5 to 6 times a week. I am currently training 5 times a week. My workout routine is the following:

• Monday: back day
• Tuesday: biceps & triceps
• Wednesday: rest day
• Thursday: leg day #1 (emphasis on quadriceps)
• Friday: rest day
• Saturday: shoulder day
• Sunday: leg day #2 (emphasis on hamstrings)

Generally speaking my workouts last between an hour and a half (including cardio, which I do at the end of each upper body workout) and two hours when I train legs. I do spend more time working on that muscle group considering this is where I feel I need to make the most progress.

Anyway!

Back in May 2017, I decided to start studying for the NASM Certification. I had been contemplating making a career out of weight lifting for a while and decided that it needed to start somewhere. I studied from June 2017 to November. I took the test at the beginning of that month, very hesitantly, but passed it on the first attempt! It was a very complex test which included every aspect of personal training you can think of (business, the different types of facilities you can work at and their specifics, biomechanics, nutrition, workout stages and techniques etc…). After that, our gym hired me and allowed me to shadow our manager, as well as other experienced personal trainers for a few weeks. I have now started training my own clients and am getting more and more experience in sales as well as in training people.

Going back to my fitness journey on a more personal level, I am now at a point where I have no other particular goal but to improve my strength level and develop a bit of mass. I pay attention to my diet and eat very clean. I do not allow myself cheat meals and have been doing this for a while, which has now become my new normal. I have also eliminated refined sugar from my diet. All of my energy comes from very clean foods. My meals are always balanced, including fibers, a controlled amount of carbohydrates and of course, protein. While my first goal is not to bulk, developing a bit of muscle mass is definitely something I am in favor of but I will not go out of my way for and follow a strict bulking diet like my husband has done in the past. I am not currently training with the goal to compete.

For a while, I was in constant search of myself, always looking for improvement and inspiration from other female athletes. I came to a point where I made myself feel bad for not making progress as fast as some of them were or in the same areas of some of them. Comparison became my enemy. I am now focused on my own performances as well as my own nutrition. I do not want to emulate anybody nor surpass anybody. I realized that doing what I wanted while focusing on myself only, was a much healthier approach than the opposite. I have made considerable progress which I think some of these pictures can show. No matter how much time it will take me to make progress, I am remaining steady and keep my passion for this sport alive. Training others also allows me to share it with others on a different level and validate myself. Although I may not be the best looking nor the strongest of all female athletes out there, weight lifting is my life and has encompassed every aspect of it since I now am at my gym 7 days a week, either working out or training others.

For the curious ones, I am 5 ft. 5 and will not disclose my weight, since everybody has a different morphotype (something I will go over in an upcoming article), metabolism, training routine, nutrition style… all of these making the numbers on your scale a very unimportant number. I can though, tell you that the last time I checked,  my body fat percentage was 19%. This number is a far better piece of information than your weight, since this can indicate much more about your health than your weight (which does not provide you with any data about your body composition as opposed to your body fat percentage), but again, we will get to that later! 🙂

 

Progress from 2014 to 2017

In the spring of 2017

In the winter of 2017

 

What do I want you to get out of this? Well, knowing me better and seeing where I come from but also understanding that everybody has different goals and different strengths. Comparing yourself to others on a regular basis will not help you. However, making the old you your primary source of motivation IS what is going to push you to go further and faster.

For more content from me, follow me on Instagram at: Nat_Fit_Frenchie . You will find daily videos and pictures, as well as workout tips.  I hope my article allowed you to develop more trust in yourself and your ability to reach your goals! I was able to do it and I know you are too!

Nat_Fit_Frenchie

 

4 Thoughts on Bulking

The purpose of this post is to talk about how my last bulk went, and what I want to do differently with the bulk that I’m starting this week.

The main difference between these two bulks is that I’ll be more intelligent and patient this time around. For my first bulk I ate everything and anything. I’m not talking about fast food restaurants, I bought quality whole foods. I ate very healthy, but I ate a lot more than I needed. Despite eating a surplus of calories, I still “clean bulked.” This brings me to my first point…

1.  Dirty Bulk vs. Clean Bulk.

A dirty bulk is when you gain an excess of calories by eating whatever you want. This, I believe, is what most people imagine when they hear “bulking.” They imagine a bodybuilder sitting at a table full of food, mostly fried food or junk food. An example of a dirty bulk would be someone who sits down to eat a whole pizza, and drinks a coke with it. Afterwards they have a piece of cheese cake and ice cream. They’re eating a lot of calories, but these calories really aren’t super healthy calories. In general, a dirty bulk is eating a lot of greasy junk food. They’ll help the bodybuilder to gain weight, but it won’t be the right type of weight. A dirty bulk won’t help you build lean muscle mass, though you will gain mass, believe me! And as a result, you’ll still be able to make progressive increases in the weight you lift.

A clean bulk is gaining an excess of calories by controlling what you eat and keeping a tab on the calories and other nutritional values of the food you consume. An example of a clean bulk would be someone who meal preps their food for the coming week. When someone clean bulk’s they put a lot of thought and organization into their menu and everything they put in their mouth. There’s a lot more discipline as their goal for bulking is to gain lean muscle mass.

Which bulk is better?

It really depends on your fitness goal. Some people would prefer to indiscriminately eat whatever they want so long as the scale shows an increase in weight. The issue with a dirty bulk is that you gain a lot more fat than you do muscle. Granted, you’ll still be able to lift heavier weights, but you’ll have to enter a longer cut period in order to see the results you’re looking for. The scale will probably increase at a fast rate (4+ pounds a month).

With a clean bulk, you’re gaining lean muscle mass. The scale is still increasing, but it’s a more conservative increase each week/month (2-3 pounds a month). The advantage here is that when you decide to cut, you won’t have to cut for as long a period because you’ll have gained little fat in the process.

2. Workout program to gain muscle mass

The most important thing about bulking is that you really need to change your workout in order to capitalize on the muscle mass gains. I’d suggest working out each body group twice a week. One day is a heavy day where you keep your rep range from 3-5 reps per set, and the second day you work the body group you do a light day where you keep your rep range around 8-12 reps per set.

For example on a heavy chest day I press 240 3×3. Then you have the option to either increase the weight, the set or the reps. So you could do 245 3×3 or 240 4×3 or 24 3×4. The idea is that you are always looking to increase your lifts.

There are plenty of programs out there, but you just want to make sure that you put forth your maximum effort everyday. You can’t go into the gym and half-ass it. Otherwise, why are you bulking? You’re eating a lot of calories and you should then lift a lot of weight!

My program looks like this:

Day 1: Light Legs

Day 2: Heavy Chest & Upper Back

Day 3: Light arms & shoulders

Rest

Day 4: Heavy Legs

Day 5: Light chest & Upper Back

Day 6: Heavy Arms & Shoulders

Rest

3. How long should the bulk last

When I started my bulk I only had a weight goal in mind. I wanted to reach 165. I bulked from January 2017 to November 2017. I went from 134 – 160 in that time. So, my bulk wasn’t a seasonal thing, which a lot of people do. Not many people enter a cutting period in the winter, but I was heading to the Dominican Republic, so I didn’t want to show up to the beach with a bunch of extra weight.

I weight approximately 146 lbs. December 22, 2017 when we landed in Punta Cana.

 

Most people suggest to bulk from Fall to Spring and then Cut during the Summer. I think this is a pretty good idea.

Having bulked for almost a full 10 months, here’s what I would do differently the next time I bulk, i.e. starting this week (1/29/18). Since I’m planning a lean bulk, I will have less work to do to get to a “presentable” weight. That’s one advantage of a clean bulk vs. a dirty bulk.

I currently weigh 141. I plan to bulk to 151 from February to Mid-June. I’m hoping to reach 151. That’s a five month bulk in which I estimate to gain approximately 2 pounds of lean muscle mass per month. Then I will cut to about 146 and maintain that till about the end of July in which I’ll enter another 5 month bulking phase.

So my bulk/cut cycle will roughly look like this:

5 months bulk, 1 month cut, 1 month maintenance.

4. Pace your bulk

I remember January 6, 2017. It was the first day of my bulk. I was so excited about gaining muscle and weight that I ate so much that day and continued to do the same thing for about 16 weeks. I had no idea about planning a good and hearty meal. I knew that bodybuilders ate chicken breast, rice and sweet potatoes, but I had no idea about how to start a bulk. I didn’t even really think about my thinking on bulking till the end of my bulk in November 2017. Metacognition is essential for improving yourself in any area of your life. Metacognition is thinking about your thinking. So essentially, I wasn’t thinking about my thinking about how I was bulking.

A slow bulk with moderate increases in weight is more healthy and more sustainable than quick jumps in weight. Bulking like a tortoise leads to gains in lean muscle mass whereas a bulk like a hare could lead to more fat gain than lean muscle mass.

Anyways, now that I’m thinking about my thinking on bulking, I now know that you don’t just jump into the deep end when you start your bulk. You don’t go from 0 – 60mph in a day. You need to pace it out.

The proper way to bulk is simply to calculate your calories you need for maintenance and then increase your calories each week by roughly 200 calories. More than likely that’ll come in the form of carbohydrates.

Here’s my game plan for the bulk that I’m entering now:

Week 0: Calories for maintenance 2450

Week 1: Calories for a surplus 2650 (+200g in carbs)

Week 2: Calories for a surplus 2850 (+200g in carbs)

Week 3: Calories for a surplus 3050 (+200g in carbs)

The idea is to increase your calories by 200 cal/day when your body begins to adjust its maintenance level, i.e. the metabolism. Your metabolism will adjust once your body figures out that there is a surplus. That’s why you need to stay a step ahead of your body. You can obviously eat way more than 200 cal/day, but on a lean bulk you still need to show some discipline. We want a calorie increase, but we don’t need to go overboard. To sum it up simply, your maintenance calories increase overtime as you bulk because your metabolism increases. My calorie consumption on week 10 will be higher than it is on Week 0 because my metabolism will be higher.

You need to keep an eye on your weight and make sure that you have a weight increase on the week. Some days you may be low, some days you may be high, but the idea is that, on a weekly basis, you have a net gain in weight.

The reason why I want to conservatively bulk this time is because I was self-conscious about my stomach. I know it sounds stupid and that this is what you should “expect” to lose when you bulk. But, believe it or not I really lost some confidence because I didn’t see my abs. So, I’m going to try this bulk, and I’ll write up some updates here an there. But, it may be easier for you to chart that progress on my IG @ the_fit_philosopher_82

Best thing about cutting/maintenance… seeing your abs again!! Jan 29, 2017 weighing in at 141.4

Bonus Stuff

Okay, so here’s the real talk about bulking. Some things that nobody told you or things you hadn’t considered.

1. Get ready to buy more clothes. I had to spend some money on a wardrobe that accommodated my frame at 160 pounds. Don’t give/throw away your lean frame clothes as you will more than likely be able to wear them again when you cut. Though certain things won’t fit, namely stuff that’s tight around your chest and shoulders.
2. You will start to snore. I never had any issues where I snored, but when I put on the 25 pounds in 10 months, I started to snore. It annoyed my wife, but she dealt with it like a champ.
3. You’ll more than likely feel bloated for a period of time, but you’ll eventually get out of that phase as your body adapts to the increase in calories.
4. You don’t need to buy protein powder. You’re probably eating enough protein on your bulk as it is. Scientifically you don’t need more than 0.8g to 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight. Instead, put the $30-50 per month that you spend on Protein Powder into a good BCAA and Glutamine. Those two supplements will help you 10x more than a protein powder, and they’ll be cheaper if you buy them as separate ingredients rather than in a pre-workout like BCAA Energy. The reason being is that you’ll get a lot more servings of pure BCAA and it’ll more than likely be cheaper.

Thanks for your time. Please leave a comment and a like, I’d love to hear from you!!

**Later this week I’ll post about affordable meal replacement shakes.

 

5 ways you’re sabotaging your workout

You’ve been working out for a few weeks yet you aren’t seeing the results you were hoping for. Don’t freak out, there are probably some things that you are doing that are actually sabotaging your gains. Don’t worry, I got your back. In this article, I’ll share 5 things you might be doing that are sabotaging your workout and what you can do to change them.

5. You have a Negative Growth Mind-Set

There’s been a lot of talk about positive growth mind-set in public education. What they say is that students who don’t think that they can accomplish a task, or students who say, “I’m terrible at math,” set themselves up for failure before they even try. A negative growth-mindset (or fixed mind-set) focuses on can’t, and therefore it is more likely that they won’t succeed not because of their natural talent or because they weren’t listening to their teacher explain the problem. They fail because they’re closed off to the idea of success. On the flip side, studies showed that students who had a positive growth mind-set were more open to trying things out, discovering that failure leads to success and on the whole, they ended up being more successful than their peers with a negative growth mind-set. The kicker is that if you take two equally intelligent students, equally capable at solving the math problem, the student with the positive growth mind-set will more than likely succeed only because they didn’t set themselves up for failure.

The same holds true for you if you go to the gym. If you’re scared of the free-weight room because you don’t think you can do what others are doing, or lift what others are lifting, then you will never make progress towards your goal. Here’s the secret, you can do it, but you aren’t letting yourself succeed. And because you’re not letting yourself succeed you won’t see how far you can go, or how much you can lift. Don’t be the one to tell yourself “no.” What do you have to lose? Nothing. But you have everything to gain. You need to experience small amounts of success and when you do that you’ll begin to understand what you are capable of and how you can reach that goal you set for yourself.

Set yourself up for success, not for failure. Have a positive growth mind-set and see what your limits are. My tip for starting out this way is to start with a weight that is comfortable. Don’t expect to curl 3 sets of 6 reps with 25 pounds right away. Instead, try doing 3 sets of 5 reps with 10 pounds. See how that feels. If you feel good, next time you do arms, increase to 5 sets of 5 at 10 pounds. Then next time increase the weight to 15 pounds and do 3 sets of 5. You’re muscles will grow as will your confidence.

4. You aren’t logging your workout

You may be experience setbacks or entering a plateau because you aren’t keeping a log of your workout. Keeping a log for your work out is important for a few reasons.

 

This is an example of my workout log. I have 6 days that I workout in a week, the first three days are “light” days, and the last three days are “heavy” days.

First, keeping a log allows you to look back and see what you did in order to have an appreciation for what you are lifting now. It’s kind of like when you take a selfie and then look at that selfie a few months later. You will see differences between then and now, and it’ll give you a better appreciation for how far you’ve come.

Second, it’ll help you keep track of what weights you’re lifting and you’ll have a better idea of where you can go next. This is really important especially when you begin to reach a plateau. A bodybuilding plateau is basically when you can’t seem to lift heavier than the current weight, or when you can’t seem to do more reps at a certain weight. When this occurs, there are some tricks to break through the plateau, but if you didn’t log your workouts you may not be able to see what you can do to change things up.

Third, you can keep track of where you are and what you need to lift today. This may seem silly, but eventually you won’t remember what you lifted last time you did an exercise. Keeping a log will help you to know exactly what you need to lift and how many times you need to lift it. Without this, you could be wasting valuable time in the gym.

3. You do the same thing every time

Variation is the key. If you’re not seeing any vertical progress with the weights, or you aren’t seeing any difference in the mirror, then you may need to change up your program. If you maintain the same workout for too long, you’ll eventually plateau.

I’m not saying don’t do the same workouts or programs, but you should think about changing your routine every few months or earlier if you aren’t seeing increases in your lifts.

Our body quickly adapts to the exercises that we do. On chest day, if you always follow the same routine (bench press, decline press, incline press, pec flys) then you body will adapt to the stimulus to be ready for it. Your body knows that you will do the bench press then the decline press, and eventually you won’t stimulate your body in the same way that you did when you first started the program. Keep in mind, that when you begin to vary your routine, you may not be able to lift as much with a certain weight only because you’re fatigued from doing previous exercises. For example, I can regular bench press 235 3×5 if I start my chest day on a regular bench press. But if I decide to do an incline bench press first at 225 3×5, then more than likely I should adjust my regular bench press weight to account for the fatigue.

What you need to do is change things up, keep your body guessing. When you do this, your body won’t know what’s happening and more than likely you’ll begin to make progress towards your goal.

2. You’re hitting the weights cold

If you’re the person who steps into the gym and automatically loads up the bar with your target weight, you need to stop doing this immediately. Lifting weights without doing warm-up sets first is terrible and will lead to injury. Maybe not right away, but believe me, you will get injured. And then all the progress you thought you had will be for naught. Have you ever noticed that if you work out cold, the first couple sets are difficult, but the last set was easier? That’s because on the last set you were finally warmed-up!!

Just how it’s easier for an icicle to break, you’re more likely to injure yourself if you don’t do enough warm-up reps.

Instead, since you’re keeping a log of what you lift, plan out your exercises prior to going to the gym. When you get to the gym, warm up doing some dynamic exercises with low weight. By that I mean, do the actual exercise you  are going to do but with less weight. Do 3 sets of an exercise, gradually increasing the weight till you reach the desired weight for your target. For example, if my goal is to barbell row 155 pounds, I’ll warm up with three sets of the following weights: 95, 125, 145. On my fourth set I’ll start my desired weight and do the routine for that weight. You will definitely notice a difference lifting when you are warmed-up as opposed to cold.

Give it a whirl next time, I’m sure you’ll feel better!

1. You aren’t recovering properly from your workout

Delayed Onset Muscle Fatigue is a common thing. It’s what you experience the days after you work your muscles out. This is a pretty normal thing, certainly when it comes to leg day.

Image Courteous of Muscle & Strength

 

Here are some things you should be doing post-workout to help reduce DOMF as well as other things to help your body recover.

You need to stretch. When you exercise your muscles accumulate tension, and this will lead to muscle soreness. If you stretch and cool down immediately after your workouts, you actually relieve muscular tension, and this will help you enormously the next day with soreness. I’m sure you’ll feel a difference.

Along the lines with relieving muscular tension through stretching, you should be sure to keep yourself hydrated. I’m not talking about chugging bottles of Gatorade, but rather you should drink try to drink an 8oz. bottle of water every other hour. The more water you drink, the better your body will recover from previous workouts. The only downside is that you will use the bathroom… a lot.

Of all the things that will help you recover from your workout, sleeping is perhaps the best thing of all. There’s plenty of articles on why sleep is important, so I’ll just give a brief list of the benefits. Sleep helps your body recover from intense workouts by repairing muscles, it recharges the brain and encourages muscle growth among other positive benefits. It’s suggested that we aim for 8-10 hours of sleep per day. I know this is a lot, and I, myself, do not get as much, but when I get close to 8 hours I can certainly tell the difference in my workout.

 

 

 

3 Simple Questions to find your Fitness “Why”

How many of you know someone who has made as their New Year’s resolution to lose weight/gain muscle mass, etc. Maybe you’ve made that resolution yourself.

How’s that going? Did you lose weight/gain muscle mass, etc? How long did you go to the gym before you just stopped?

One reason for which I think a lot of people stop going to the gym, or even for that matter not keeping their New Year’s Resolution is because they lose sight of why they even made that resolution in the first place. The “why” is important because it’s the very impetus for undertaking the resolution. It’s the thing that you lean on when the going gets tough, and in the world of fitness, things are anything but easy.

What is your why for hitting the gym? If you know your purpose, you’ll succeed! You’ll persevere through the trials and tribulations, through the pain, through the hunger and you’ll eventually look back and see all the steps you took to get the results you wanted.

Here are three simple questions that you can ask yourself to find your “why” for your fitness goals. All you need is honest thinking.

Step 1.

What is your end goal?

Having the end in mind means you have something to visualize. Think about it this way, when you’re going somewhere for the first time, and you don’t know the directions there, you plug the address in your gps and you receive the directions.

In other words, if you have a concrete idea of where you want to go, you’ll be more likely to know the direction you need to head and all the twists and turns along the way.

More to the point, if your goal is to lose 6 pounds, then you have a concrete number to work towards. Losing 6 pounds is easier than losing weight. One is definite, the other is indefinite. Which is easier to stick to?

Step 2.

How do you do it?

How do you go about getting from point A to point B after you plug in the address in your GPS? Well, you get in your car and follow the directions. You follow the road signs and the map to get to point B.

 

If you’re goal is to lose 6 pounds, then there’s two road signs you can follow everyday to get there. Road sign 1, calculate your total daily energy expenditure. This gives you a concrete number to determine the amount of calories you need to maintain your weight, from there you’ll also get the number for how many calories you need to lose weight (a deficit). Road sign 2, find a program that fits your goal. Not all programs are equal, some are for gaining muscle mass whereas some are for losing weight.

Step 3

Why do you want it?

For what purpose do you want to lose 6 pounds? This is a difficult question only because often we have external reasons and purposes for wanting something. I want to look good for x, y or z. That’s all well and good, but for a lasting purpose, for a lasting why, you need to have an internal reason, an internal purpose.

When you understand your real why, then you’ll have something to fall back on when things are tough and when you want to quit.

Fitness goals are difficult because they require time and energy. You can’t fake results when it comes to fitness. Nobody can eat for you and nobody can lift the weights. Understanding your why will help you get the results you’re looking for!

So, what’s your why? Leave a comment to let us know!