EXPECTATIONS

We all expect things to happen and often times those expectations can be vastly more positive than reality. When it comes to fitness and nutrition, it is important to recognize that your expectations should directly relate to your behavior and effort. Many people expect that when they string a few days of “healthy” eating together, they will start to look and feel better. That mindset also goes into their exercise routine. I’ve worked out for three straight days so I expect to be getting more fit. The reality is, no physiological changes can occur in the short term. Obviously, spending a whole day eating nothing but salads will arguably make you feel better than spending a whole day eating fast food, but in order for those changes to occur, those good behaviors need to be consistent.

Often times I have new clients come in and tell me that they would like to work with a trainer which is a good step in the right direction and I always immediately ask them why. On the surface, questioning why they would like to work with a trainer can seem snobby or dismissive but in fact, it is a way for me to gauge their expectations. I ask them to discuss their goals, their current eating habits, their current exercise regiment, their quality of sleep, their stress level, so on and so forth. All of these are important in understanding a person’s commitment level. Your success when it comes to almost anything in life is a function of effort, commitment and consistency. It is my job as a quality practitioner to gauge their expectations and manage them accordingly. If a person can only commit to working out one day a week with me and do very little to nothing else outside of our time together, I make sure to explain to them that their results will be few to non existent.

People in this industry make money on our human need for instant gratification. We’ve all seen the claims of losing ten pounds in two weeks, or doing this in home booty workout to build the perfect butt, or drink this juice to rid your body of harmful toxins. Repeat exposure to these claims have shifted our societal expectations to an unhealthy expectation of immediate success. If it has taken you almost a decade to achieve multiple promotions and get a few increases in pay at your job, wouldn’t it be silly to think that you can just walk into a job and be promoted and make more money in a month? As always, I’m sure there are exceptions to the rule, but by and large, the effort you put in, the hard work you do, and the initiative you express will eventually yield higher pay and more responsibility at work.

You can not expect to achieve max results by exhibiting sub-max effort. As soon as you can accept the reality that your body will only change if you change your mind, then you can start really working towards some level of achievement. From experience, this road is long, tedious and difficult. It has many ups and downs and even more roadblocks. For all of you busy working parents out there, I’m sure you’ve used your kids or your job as a reason to not get a work out in or to eat those leftover slices of pizza. That certainly will occur but it is up to you to hold yourself accountable and understand that those behaviors have a consequence and when they become the norm, your likely-hood of achieving or even maintaining the body you want is very low.

Slow and steady wins the race has never rang more true than it does when it comes to your body. Of course some immediate results do occur when you do certain things such as cut sugar out of your diet for a few days or you hit the spin bike for a few sessions a week. Unfortunately, those results are seldom sustained nor are they really measurable. My advice to anyone starting a new training or nutrition plan is to set very small, specific goals such as I want to add 20 more grams of protein to my diet per day or I’d like to be able to walk on the stairmaster for 10 minutes, three times per week.

When those goals are small, measurable, and sustainable, you will be able to see whether or not your plan is working, be able to increase your efforts thus increasing your expectations, or re-calibrate your goals if they are not working and try something different. The key is to give it some window of time. Typically I advise most of my clients to stick to a plan and check off their goals daily for at least 30 days. That means anywhere from 70-100% adherence to their goals for that time period and then an evaluation of what occurred after those 30 days. It is difficult enough for most people to adhere to lifestyle changes even 50% of the time so if they can achieve 70% adherence, they can expect their success to increase substantially.

A key point to make is that training and following a nutrition plan that you’re not used to or comfortable with will be difficult for a while. The length of time depends on the person, but again, don’t expect the changes you make to yield results in a few weeks. It may very well take months before real noticeable physiological changes occur. Its important to stay the course and not get discouraged. Treat your journey as a step by step day by day activity that is just as important as caring for your child or performing at work. It will become easier to adhere to over time and once you feel like it has gotten to that point, you can readjust your goals, increase your efforts, and keep striving for a little more.

The wonderful thing about your body is that it is extremely resilient if you treat it with respect. Unfortunately, your body can only achieve and perform based on your behavior and decision of inputs. Don’t expect for it to perform well if you don’t treat it that way. I’ll leave you with this, I mentally collapse and go into self-doubt mode probably once every few months. That frequency was much greater when I first started, but after adhering to my goals, my mind has become much stronger and more able to handle the roadblocks that life sets up. Its ok to doubt yourself and feel lost every once in a while. Make sure that your doubt doesn’t consume your thoughts or dictate your behaviors. Shake off every bad thought of yourself with a positive one and realize that you are in total control of what you can achieve if your expectations match your efforts.

Keep up the good work and if you have any questions, please feel free to email me at aram@4weeks2thebeach.com