While we are still near the beginning of the year, you may well be thinking of (or have started) some goals to work towards over the coming year. That is brilliant. It is great to have a goal to work towards. And some of those goals may well be health and fitness related. Which is where all the ads for “A New You!” come at you thick and fast across whichever media channel you happen to be perusing. But remember this: health and fitness is a journey and not a sprint.

Of course you’d love to be fitter, or leaner, or stronger. I’m sure most of us would. But beware the quick fixes being sold out there: the hacks; the “thirty days to a better you”; the “visible abs in four weeks”; and all the rest.

It is great to have a goal or an end point to work towards, but having that vision of where you’d like to get to won’t actually get you there (sorry you manifestors out there). And while the quick fixes may get you there, it is highly unlikely that they will keep you there. It is the small actions taken day in and day out that will make the changes possible and in the end permanent. 

I have had clients who, of their own volition, have completed a multiple month, very low calorie diet plan, and lost a lot of weight doing so… only for that weight to come back quickly once they finished the plan. 

There have been other clients who wanted to hit a target body shape size (certain chest, arm, leg measurements), and then having hit those metrics stopped working out and walked away satisfied… until they shrank back to how they looked before.

The body adapts to what it is asked to do, and does so very well. 

However, when it is no longer asked to do something the body will revert back to its original state. In short, use it or lose it.

In the words of Yoda, you can either “Do. Or do not.” It is in the doing that the magic occurs and changes happen. Not only physical, but mental too, as you become more in tune with your body and what it can achieve. And that usually perpetuates a virtuous cycle of further positive change.

The quote at the top of this page by one of the favourite authors of my youth, Ursula Le Guin, sums up my feelings on this. Keep the end goal in mind for sure, but it is the constant work you put into reaching that goal that will reap the rewards you are seeking.

If you’d like some advice on how to get fitter, be leaner, become stronger or just get healthier in general, please get in touch. I’d love to hear from you and help you on that journey.