Consistency is King

I recently had a conversation via email with one of my clients regarding consistency.  Posting the entire email wouldn’t be appropriate or really all that useful, so I decided to edit one of my responses and toss it up here as a short article.

One of the biggest concerns many people have with a new exercise program is their ability to stick with it.  They know they’ll start out all gung-ho, but what happens when things get uncomfortable or boring?  If you have large buckets of cash, you can hand them over to me and I’ll hang out with you 24/7 and keep you on track.  If you have to ask how large the bucket of cash needs to be, well, you get the picture.  No, even with a trainer, you will have to jump the consistency hurdle all on your own.

The thing to keep in mind is the power of habit.  To varying degrees, people tend to resist change.  This is a major factor for people who need to lose a significant amount of weight.  They have spent many years getting to the place they’re at and it takes a huge lifestyle change to drop the weight and keep it off.

POP QUIZ!

Q: What percentage of people who have lost over 100 pounds keep it off?

A: Less than 20 percent!

Don’t you love encouraging bits of trivia like that?  Well, don’t let it get you down.  Use that information as a reminder to yourself not to slip back into your old ways!  Now you may not be in that exact situation, but if you’re trying to make even a small change you should remember that you have been doing things a certain way for quite a while and it will take time to build new habits.  A good rule of thumb is it takes 30 days of consistent success to make a new behavior a habit.  Every one’s time frame is different, but if you stay consistent you will eventually find that the new behavior isn’t “new” anymore.  It’s just what you do.

So how do you get those 30 days of success in the bag?  There are several different approaches to this and the one that works best for you depends a lot on your personality.  If you tend to have a competitive nature, try making every exercise session a little contest with yourself.  Tinker with the number of reps, the weight, the distance, and the speed.  If you can beat your last performance, chalk up a win! If you are easily bored, try changing your activities regularly.  Sure, you may end up as a “jack of all trades, master of none,” but so what?  This isn’t your job, it’s just exercise!  There are any number of ways to motivate yourself, so try a few and see what works for you.

What’s the bottom line?  Get going and don’t stop!  When those of us in the fitness world say “lifestyle change,” that’s exactly what we mean.  A change in the way you live your life.  For the rest of your life.  When you’re starting out, don’t think in terms of “for life,” think in terms of today.  Exercise today.  Eat right today.  Stack up a whole pile of successful days and what do you get?  Yep, a successful life.

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