More than likely you are at the PNP Community for two reasons: you want to be healthy AND you want to look good. There is nothing wrong with the desire to get into the best shape of your life and then showing the world the results of your hard work.
Notice the last two words of that sentence: HARD WORK. It doesn't sound glamorous but it can be. The results from make hard work feel like fun work. When you focus on building a lifestyle around fueling your body with nutrition and exercise, you feel strong, in control, and sexy. What woman doesn't love that combination?
Here are the most common ways you can sabotage your weight loss and exercise efforts AND how to turn it around for amazing results.
Sabotage Effort: You go to the gym or your to your basement to workout and you coast through it. You rarely work to your full potential but feel good that you do something.
Amazing Results Effort: Be focused and mentally prepared for a workout. Know what type of workout you are doing for the day. Is your scheduled day HIIT training? Be ready to sweat a lot and to let nothing distract you. If your day is steady state cardio then you can afford to take a moderate hard pace and talk to your friend on the machine next to you.
When completing your weight training review your sets and exercises. Lay out all of your equipment beforehand and crank up your music. Look like you don't have time to be bothered with distractions. Keep your notes in front of you for reference and move quickly from exercise to exercise filling your rest breaks with crunches, lunges, squats, or push ups. I suggest breaks be filled with push ups and crunches on leg day and lunges and squats on upper body days.
Sabotage Effort: Too many daily indulgences. When in weight loss mode most of us eat within 200-500 calories of our maintenance caloric range. It doesn't take many nibbles, occassional drinks, spoonfuls of peanut butter, guesstimations on portion sizes, or snack packs to stall your progress.
Amazing Results Effort: If you are willing to eat it you need to be willing to write it down and post it in your PNP Journal over at the Forums. Occassional treats are fine but to see results the term occassional means once or twice a week. Not once or twice a day. Each time you want to have a treat, think about your goals and decide if it is worth possibly stalling your progress for one week. Thinking in terms of your goals might help you curb many temptations.
A splurge meal might also be in order for you if you like to have your indulgences. A cheat/splurge meal means that you are strict with your clean, nutritious eating all week so that you can allow yourself one meal that is unlimited in choice and quantity. I like to set a stopwatch and give myself 60 minutes from start to finish to have what I want. This allows me to enjoy myself and have a clear stopping point of when it's back to business.
Sabotage Effort: Allowing others to convince you that you are not #1. If you don't take care of you...who will? Certainly not the people who are demanding your time and attention. As women we tend to take care of everyone around us before we ever think of taking care of ourself.
Amazing Results Effort: First, identify your supports and your detractors. Thank those who support you and tell them about how proud you are of your efforts. Tell your detractors how important it is that they support you and basically deal with your desire to be healthy and fit. Find ways to compromise making sure you come out with the ability to take care of yourself. Second, prioritize your life in a way that allows for exercise and healthy eating. Others will see your determination and respect it. If it is clearly important to you then most people will respect your wishes. If you constantly put your exercise and healthful eating on the backburner (it's the first to go when times get tough) then no one else will respect your desire to do it either.
Tell everyone you know about your goals. Paint a clear picture of what you want to do, feel, and look like. That builds in a community of accountability. People wil find it easy to support you when they understand what you are doing.
When you want to look and feel good it takes work and a lifestyle built to support it. Take the time to arrange your life that makes your health a priority.