I once had a client I trained for several months. Let’s call him George. After a few months of training George, I noticed the workouts weren’t resulting in him reaching his initial goal of losing weight. As his personal trainer, I knew weight loss wasn’t the only factor when determining success of a workout plan. For two months, I hadn’t noticed significant measurable progress. At the end of the 2nd month, I decided to schedule a session where we would discuss effectiveness of plan and future direction. During the session, I had suggested to George that another trainer would probably work better as he and I hadn’t been successful. He responded and said that he mentioned weight loss as a goal initially due to thinking it would please me as a personal trainer. George also mentioned his diet was poor daily, he worked a lot of hours at his job, and dealing with his wife at home was like working additional overtime. Lastly, he mentioned his “real goal” was to ensure he maintained his current weight and not continue to gain weight as he had been the past several years. While it wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear, it was refreshing to get honest feedback on his eating habits and other factors contributing to the lack of progress. More importantly, it opened my eyes as a trainer in understanding not everyone wants to lose weight or has the time to commit to an improved fitness plan. Some may simply want to maintain current weight or current fitness level.
One-month goal
Let’s lose 5lbs in a month. Forget aiming to lose the more than 50lbs for the year. This is especially important for those who have a hard time committing beyond the first few weeks or first month. Why the 5lbs? Why one month? 50lbs is a bigger accomplishment for those who want to lose weight. The reason to go for the smaller goal? It’s an easier win and can help set you up for future bigger wins.
For those of you who have stayed strong and consistent with the New Year resolution to lose weight, have you noticed a big dropoff at the gym from the first couple weeks to now? Are you also close to quitting? Hopefully your answer is “no”. For many, it is a “yes”. Why is this? For some, it is a challenge to suddenly and consistently stop the poor eating habits or to start and maintain an exercise program. If making it past the first week of your working out is a struggle, don’t worry. You are not the only one. Many are overweight due to some poor eating choices and/or little to no exercise. Let’s try setting another more realistic goal. Just one month. Aim for 5lbs. Or try to exercise consistently for an entire month. Three days per week. Four days per week. Only one month. If you can last a month, if you can be consistent for 4 weeks, if you can be a little uncomfortable for about 30 days, you might be able to last two months. Each month is quite an accomplishment that can help lead to your 12-month goal.