Is Your Mindset Impacting Your Fitness Goal Progress?

Do you find yourself ready to give up on your training goals after a few months when you haven't "seen" the results in the mirror? You're not alone, what if I told you that statistically 90% of people who set out to lose weight, get stronger and look better quit within the first three months due to not visibly seeing the results they had in their head. This is something that as a personal trainer and health coach, I see every January or any time of year for that matter.

Everyone has their "new year new me" mindset, they're engaged, motivated and ready to dive in, go balls to the wall and lose the weight within a few weeks to a few months. Then what happens? Within 3-4 months 90% of those people have given up. Why? Well the first reason is unrealistic expectations. Whenever I onboard a new client with this mindset, they'll ask me in the first session "do you think I can look the way I want in 6 weeks?"

I know that this person's mindset may not have realistic expectations and they're likely conditioned for instant gratification. I typically have to be the bearer of bad news and reset their expectations letting them know that they will likely not see visible changes until AT LEAST month 3 or more and the scale may not change by then, but they will start to feel stronger, have more energy and have improved mood. This is usually followed by a look of bewilderment by the client. This is normal for the average individual to think because we live in a world of instant gratification, we are bombarded by social media influencers who are flaunting their workouts with perfect bodies leading us to believe that if we just do what they do, we'll get the same result. I'll let you in on a little secret, most of the influencers that you see with perfect bodies and lives are either athletes that are paid to live this life day in and day out and that is why they look the way they look, or they are athletes that are living unsustainable lives maybe for competitions or a sport they are participating in. They eat, sleep and breathe working out, hitting their nutrition targets by the gram and are sacrificing other things in life to maintain this for their sport. Or they just have really great genetics, which is the exception to the rule. The reality is that the average individual works, has kids, a social life, life stresses, and struggles to get to the gym regularly and eat well. This is the reason that they seek our a trainer or coach. To keep them on track and accountable and consistent.

The clients who I've mentioned above, whether they start in January or any time of the year who have the mindset of wanting to see change right away are usually the ones that give up after 3-4 months. When I have discussions with these clients at this timeline, they usually tell me that they are not seeing any change in the mirror or on the scale so what's the point of continuing. I usually turn it around on them and ask "do you feel stronger?" They say yes. I ask "do you have more energy?" They say yes. Since we track their progress, I remind them with proof of their strength gains. "Jane, when you first started you were doing 8lb dumbbell curls, you are now curling 15lbs. That is proof of strength and muscle gain. All of a sudden they say "you're right, and I do have better energy and sleep better and last week I picked up something I never could have before we started training". That is when I tell them, this is your reason to keep going!

Here's the thing about working towards your health goals. Your mindset is going to make or break your progress and it's up to you to constantly remind yourself to not give up. Your coach will of course also do this and remind you of this when they see you slipping into the mindset abyss. So what are the key things to remember as you embark on your fitness and health journey? Well, first thing is first, you have to remind yourself that when you start you are building a foundation, not just burning calories for fat loss. In the firsts few months a few things are happening including neuromuscular adaptations, which is your brain and muscles learning to work together. You're building stronger connective tissues, tendons and ligaments. You are learning better lifting techniques and form and increasing energy and stamina. These are not always going to be visible changes right away, so give yourself grace.

Next, we need to realize that our body is going through recomposition even if the scale isn't moving. Gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time is not going to move the scale at first. Focus on how your clothes fit, because how muscle is more dense than fat and how your clothes fit will be an indicator of this change. This is where I find doing measurements is better than focusing on the scale, because it is measurable and usually begins to occur first so it's a good small win to focus on to keep momentum going. So remembering that fat loss and muscle gain will compound within 6-12 months making visible changes happen faster at that point.

I've already mentioned this above, but remembering that strength gains are proof of progress is a great reminder to tell yourself when you feel like giving up. Maybe you couldn't do ANY push ups on your own, and now you can do 10, that is proof of strength. Maybe you can squat 30 more pounds than you did the first time you got under a bar. That's proof of strength gains. Don't dismiss those wins!

Another silent win is understanding that metabolic adaptations are happening behind the scenes when you stick with it. Most times when I start working with a client, primarily women who struggle with what we're talking about today, they come to me way under eating calories because they are of the mindset that they need to eat less to avoid gaining weight, when in reality their restriction of calories is actually causing their body to hold on to body fat, so we have to slowly reverse diet them to bring up their calories, which they never like to hear. I educate them that if they are training with me 2-3 days a week, we need to calculate their macros and work towards those goals, so we can improve their metabolism. When you restrict so much, you are turning down or off your metabolism, and we need to crank it back up so you can burn more calories at a resting state. When we increase calories, and aim to hit macro targets in combination with strength training, something starts to happen. Usually within 1-2 months, my clients start telling me that they are so hungry all the time! Guess what that is? That is their metabolism ramping up! This is a good thing. This means that they need to fuel the body more with good things to achieve results. Who doesn't want to be able to eat more and look better?! When we improve our metabolism, we improve insulin sensitivity, utilize nutrients better for bodily functions, burn more calories at a resting state and balance our hormones.

One of the very first sings that your program is working is going to be energy and mood improvements. Never have I had a client tell me that they feel worse at the end of a training session than they did when they first arrived. In fact, most times clients show up for their sessions telling me they really struggled to get to the session, and by the end of the session they tell me how good they feel. No joke, every time! The reason we get improved energy and moods from consistently training is because we are regulating our blood sugars, releasing endorphins, reducing inflammation, and regulating our nervous system better to deal with stress and anxieties of life. Right here this is making the body stronger and resilient and healthier even if the scale is not moving.

Something we need to also realize is that the results and mirror and scale will lag behind the results happening in the body, but will catch up. This is usually what happens right about the time when people want to give up. This is when I always step in and try to convince my clients to keep going. Here's what we need to remember, that month 1-4 is where neuro, metabolic, and strength changes occur. Months 4-8 we start to see noticeable muslce shape changes (more definition in specific muscle groups). Months 8-12 is when visible definition and fat loss start to accelerate. The visible payoff will always be delayed but those who stick it out will see exponential results.

I want to end this blog post off using an analogy I used in a recent social media post about this very topic of the compound effect of fitness. Think of every rep you push (or pull), every good meal you eat to fuel your body, every good quality night sleep like depositing money into a savings account. The interest is going to start compounding, but most times people cash out before the big pay out happens. Stay the course, let the interest compound and then wait for the big pay out. Every bit of effort you put in consistently will multiply over time. This is the "hard" stuff that we need to stick to to set ourselves apart and become the long term success stories. Be the part of the 10% not the 90%.