How To Massively Enhance Your Physique and Energy

On the road from obese to fit one of the things that I had to master was getting myself to exercise consistently. It took me at least 10 years to discover the 7 secretes to becoming a consistent exercising, AND being someone who exercises regularly with joy.

It has been one of the most important transformations in my life and I would like to share the lessons I've learned on my journey from sporadic to consistent to fit.

1. Take the long view:

It is what you do, or don't do, today that determines how you and your life will be tomorrow and many, many tomorrow's later. You have the body that you have right now because of what you have or have not done over the past few weeks, months and years. Be honest about where not working out will lead you - poor health, low energy, muffin top, man-boobs, and eventually a trip to the hospital.

2. Set a new standard:

We all have internal laws - "I wear clothes in public," "I don't cheat on my wife," and "For God's sake, I do NOT listen to Britney Spears or read about her in the tabloids," etc. Here's a new one: "I DO NOT EVER MISS WORKOUTS UNLESS I AM SICK OR INJURED AND EXERCISING WILL INTERFERE WITH MY RECOVERY." You can stop reading the article right now. That law, that attitude, is all there is to it, everything else in the article is just how to make it easier to follow.

3. Drop the BS excuses:

Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State flies 24,000 miles per MONTH, yet she works out between 6 and 9 times per week and almost never misses a workout. This is despite the fact that she is almost constantly in a new time-zone, and the "normal order" of her life simply does not exist. What's your excuse?

Rationalization: rational-sounding-lies about why you are not doing what you are supposed to be doing, that let you off the hook. It's like taking the top off of a pressure cooker. Excuses make it OK - in YOUR head and your head only - not to exercise. That conflicts with your new standard. This is an instance where it is good to be upset - not to beat yourself up, but to be dissatisfied with your behavior. If you make it OK, then you will not change. You will continue to NOT exercise. Let that pressure build up inside of you and drive you to follow through - it is a great source of energy.

4. Make more time for THE most important person in your life:

Could you tell your boss that you were too busy to come to work? Not if you want your job. Can you tell your body that you're too busy to exercise? Not if you want your health, or don't want your gut.

While you can tell yourself that you don't have the time to exercise for three hours per week, the truth of the matter is somewhat different. A week has 168hrs in it. So, for everyone who flunked math, three is less than 168. Three is LESS than 2% of the time available to you in the week. The problem is not that you do not have the time, the problem is that you do not reserve the time.

5. Have a REAL plan:

This is, I think, where the magic happens. Frequently people get all excited about getting fit and healthy, and decide that they are going to "workout." They get a gym membership, and then go in to do some random stuff. Then come back a day or two later and do some more random stuff... This lasts for a week, two weeks, maybe even a month or two and then they just stop working out.

Some combination of three things happened: A) frustration from lack of results, B) exercising started to stress them out and made them feel bad about themselves, or C) they just got side-tracked by life.

A) You know the old saying, "If you choose to act as your own attorney, then you have an idiot for a client." You are a teacher, a rocket scientist, a doctor, a CPA, or something other than a fitness expert. You should not be surprised when the workouts you design (or make up off the top of your head) don't bear any fruit in terms of results. (By the way the ones that so-called personal trainers make up off the top of their heads aren't effective either.) You are an expert at something, just not this.

There is nothing more frustrating than making an honest effort to do something, and getting absolutely (or almost) nowhere. Get a real plan, and real coaching from a real expert, that really measures your progress objectively so that your time and effort are not wasted. Getting results is very motivating. Lack of results is demoralizing. If you are currently a gym member, I'm sure you have noticed that almost everyone looks the same month-in and month-out, year-in and year-out - especially those working with the people in the "trainer" shirts.

B) Being vague about what constitutes "success" or compliance is the quickest way to feel terrible about yourself no matter how hard you are working. "I'm going to start working out," or "I'm going to get in shape" don't mean anything specific? What do they mean specifically?

You need goals that you can quantify and that you can objectively measure your progress towards (with numbers!). You also need a plan that spells out exactly what you are supposed to be doing to get to your goal.

C) A real plan comes in handy here too. If you have a specific plan that says do X, Y and Z on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 45 or 60 min., it is soooooooo much easier to schedule that into your life in advance. Whereas the vague, "I should exercise this week," or "today" means nothing specific and is impossible to schedule. And if you aren't setting aside the time in your calendar to exercise, then the only time you'll exercise is when you have "free time." Which is something that just doesn't exist for most people. Everything else becomes more important by default, all your good intentions go out the window and you feel terrible about yourself for not exercising when you know you should. Get a real plan, from a real expert and schedule it.

6. Get more sleep:

Want to put your self discipline on turbo drive? Get 7-9hours of sleep every day. Fatigue is the death rattle of motivation and self-discipline. When you are exhausted your subconscious, and often conscious mind are obsessed with, for lack of a better term, being lazy. They are looking for any excuse to NOT expend energy, to be distracted, to watch TV, to eat some extra food to relax (I don't think that many people understand how HUGE the link between stress eating and lack of sleep and play time are), anything to try and compensate - poorly - for not getting enough rest.

7. Be realistic:

On the road to success you almost always must pass through failure. Despite what you learned in school, doing something wrong is part of learning how to do it right. You are not a machine, you are a human, so you can probably count on stumbling on your road to becoming a consistent exerciser. If you don't get it the first, second, third, etc. then keep on trying and adjust your approach a little each time. Stick with it and you will figure it out. Provided you don't just keep repeating what did not work in the past.

This is all very simple stuff - simple does not mean unimportant: attitude rules, all the strategies to make it easier are great, but they are worthless without the right attitude - "I make all of my workouts, unless I am sick." Either you do or you don't, you did or you didn't, you will or you won't. No excuses, no rational-lies-ation. You want health? You want to look good? Then you exercise, and you do so consistently. You don't? Then you don't, end of story.