How do you view your current struggles and distractions?
Everything we do in life will come with it's own set of challenges and distractions. Whether it's a personal goal, work related, something family orientated etc. Everything will come with it's own set of challenges and distractions.
Personally, I believe it's important to acknowledge these distractions and accept that they will occur along the way. That way we can be ready to tackle them head on. I'm not saying we need to know exactly what the challenges will be, but simply to acknowledge that things won't always be plain sailing and that's ok. We put such huge pressure on ourselves to always be perfect, that we sometimes forget that we're not robots and that making mistakes is a huge part of the process. In fact, they're essential for growth.
Take our fitness goals for example. We have traditionally had a huge problem within the industry of people yoyo dieting, jumping from one plan to the next, going "all in" only to quickly realise that they simply can't sustain it within their current lifestyle. We would see this as a failure and give up, ready to move onto the next thing instead of acknowledging what the roadblocks were and planning around them.
If we were to take a single mother working part time, a busy professional or someone working shift work as examples, and not factor or plan for the inevitable roadblocks that will occur, then we're really not giving those people the best chance of ever reaching their goals.
A single mother will have huge time commitments with her kids - dropping off and collecting, school runs, homework, soccer training etc.
A busy professional may have certain commitments or stress that affect their progress - travel, overtime, meetings, work deadlines, stress etc.
A shift worker might find motivation extrememly low due to an upset circadian rhythm (sleep-wake cycle). Their feeding times may be off due to long shifts, night shifts, increased cravings as a result, lack of time available etc.
These are 3 simple examples, but everyone will have their own set of challenges. It is so important for us to acknowledge that things will not be perfect as we plan our fitness journey. Remove that pressure. Plan for consistency instead of perfection.
Can't train 4 days per week? Cool, can we train 2 days per week but do it consistently along with a daily step goal?
Find you're overconsuming calories on the weekends after a busy week of work? Cool, let's aim for more lower calorie, nutritionally dense foods during the week while in our work routine and allow more flexibility at the weekend so it balances out.
There are ways around everything and solutions to every problem.
Be aware that your set of circumstances are vastly different from the next persons and stop with the comparisons. Most importantly REMOVE THE PRESSURE of trying to achieve overnight results. I can't emphasize this enough.
The second we start viewing our health & fitness as a progressive journey - one that helps us to feel good, strong, fit, healthy, and happy. We win. It's so cliché but we need to learn to love the journey and not focus on the end goal.
The second we remove those feelings of frustration, self destruction and guilt whenever we miss a workout, overeat on our calories, or god forbid when we enjoy a take away, we win.
A balance is there for everyone to achieve. A balance where you have a better relationship with food, with training and most importantly with yourself.
Believe it or not, we can achieve our goals and keep the progress long term. We just need to ditch the short term "all or nothing" mentality.