I’ve come to the realization success in fitness and nutrition for most people has little to do with the specific strategy they’re using.
For example, you can be given the “perfect” workout or “perfect” nutrition plan and still fail.
You can have the best intentions, but still come up short in your goals to lose fat, get healthier, build muscle or change your life.
And while strategy is definitely important, it’s not often the real reason why a person fails to attain a goal.
The reason for failure almost always has to do with a lack of one of the following three principles of success:
1. Prioritizing
You have competing demands in your life.
You’ve got obligations at work, with your health, with your family, socially and other places.
You’ve got the same 24 hours in a day as others.
So using the excuse of being “too busy” doesn’t fly.
Instead, you’ve got to decide what you want to prioritize.
If making a change in your health and fitness is a big deal to you, you’ve better put in the appropriate amount of work.
If right now you’re spending two percent of your week doing things like prepping meals, going grocery shopping and working out, you’re probably going to get results that reflect the little amount of effort you’re putting into your training and nutrition.
So if you know you need to bring up the amount of time you spend in one area of your life (nutrition and training), you need to reduce the amount of time you spend on another area of your life.
In order to spend more time on your health and fitness, you need to reduce time spent somewhere else.
Perhaps you’re spending lots of time each week perusing social media and watching TV.
In this case, you’ve got to cut back and define what “cutting back” means to you specifically.
Do you need to limit your social media consumption to 20 minutes per day instead of two hours?
Do you need to limit your TV watching to three times per week for 30 minutes instead of every night for 90 minutes?
If you’re going out to different social places five or six days per week, you’re probably leaving little time for the important things that will move you closer to your fitness goals.
Are you working for 13 hours a day and not “finding” the time to workout? If fitness and health are a priority, you may need to cut back at work or work more efficiently.
In a study of nearly 2,000 office workers conducted by vouchercloud.com, it was found the workers were productive just 2 hours and 53 minutes in a work day.
Yet according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American works nearly nine hours each day.
So what’s happening?
According to the study, workers were wasting lots of time doing things like reading news websites (1 hour, 5 minutes), checking social media (44 minutes), discussing non-work-related things with co-workers (40 minutes) and much more.
Imagine if even half of that time was spent working on your fitness and nutrition?
So you’re probably wasting more time at work than you think.
And if you’re not willing to increase the amount of time you spend on your fitness and health, that’s totally OK.
But then you can’t expect to get significantly better results than you’re currently seeing.
Actions must match your ambitions.
If you want big-time results, you’ve got to take big-time action.
2. Priming (environment)
In this article, I talk about how things like discipline, motivation and willpower are over-rated when it comes to changing habits.
Yes, discipline and motivation play a role in setting yourself up for success, but they’ll get you only so far.
You can desire to eat better, but all the motivation and willpower in the world likely won’t save you if you’re constantly hanging around places with temptations and people who eat poorly.
You’re a product of your environment.
Make sure you’re spending time with people who have similar goals as you, and limit your exposure to people who will bring you down.
As humans, we conform to what the majority of people are doing.
And if the majority the people we hang around make positive, healthy choices, we’re more likely to make those same choices.
On the contrary, if the majority of people we hang around make negative choices, we’re more likely to make negative choices.
Your surroundings are important too.
Make it easy and obvious to make good choices with your nutrition and fitness.
For example, if you’re constantly eating things junk food, get that junk food out of your house.
If it’s not there in the first place, you’re not going to have the option to eat it.
Make sure your home includes plenty of healthy options like lean meats, fish, eggs, vegetables and fruit scattered throughout your kitchen and living area.
Again, make it easy to make good choices.
If you go to a gym with people who just want to sit around and talk, you’re more likely to sit around and talk instead of work hard.
If you go to a gym with people who work hard and are motivated, you’re more likely to work hard when you’re at the gym.
The fastest way to change your life is to change the people and places you hang around.
3. Planning
Failing to plan is planning to fail.
If you need to workout five hours per week and hit certain habits with your nutrition, you’re not going to accomplish these things by just hoping you have time for them.
Instead, you need to intentionally place these activities in your calendar.
Just like you carve out time for your work and family, you must make time for your fitness and nutrition.
Schedule the exact times of your workouts like appointments you’re not going to break.
Don’t just say you’re going to workout on Monday. Specifically what time are you going to workout?
When it comes to your nutrition, you should plan out four things each week:
1. What you’re going to eat
2. When you’re going grocery shopping or from where you’re getting your food
3. When you’re meal prepping
4. When you’re eating your meals each day
Planning when you’re eating your meals is often missed. Don’t just hope you’re going to have time for breakfast or lunch.
Instead, schedule the times you’re going to eat (including on the weekends) like an appointment.
And it may sound corny, but schedule the exact time you’re going grocery shopping and planning out what you’re going to get from the grocery store.
If you have a meal-delivery service, plan out the exact time you order your meals.
If you travel a lot, plan out where you’re getting your food when you travel, whether it be at restaurants or grocery stores.
Then, plan time each week and day to prep the food you have.
For example, you can spend 10 minutes the night before planning what you’re going to have the next day.
If you’re following a macronutrient plan, pre-log what you’re going to eat the next day on a spreadsheet or in MyFitnessPal.
If you want to succeed, planning isn’t an option. It’s a must.
