What’s Your Poison?

Determine your Achilles’ heel and conquer it

 

In working at Bombshell Fitness with thousands of women over the years who are in pursuit of their fitness goals, I have coached women from all walks of life and from around the globe; Physicians, lawyers, students, homemakers and everything in between. These are intelligent women who successfully manage their daily lives and the lives of others. But without fail, at one time or another, they all come across something which causes them to struggle when it comes to managing their healthy lifestyle. Even those ladies with a chance of a lifetime pageant date looming in the distance face internal battles toward reaching their goals. Struggling with achieving your weight loss and fitness goals does not mean you are not strong, smart, worthy or intelligent. It simply means that reaching these goals is a challenge for you, and that is okay! The key to getting past these challenges is figuring out what your personal poison is which may be keeping you from success. Identify the factors YOU struggle with and from there you will be able to take the steps necessary to change the behavior.

Robert Sternberg, a Professor of Psychology at Yale University has constructed several theories upon why seemingly “smart” people make foolish choices which lead them to failure. Sternberg has identified the following seven factors which may be may be responsible for these behaviors; Lack of motivation, lack of impulse control, lack of perseverance, fear of failure, procrastination, inability to delay gratification and too little or too much self-confidence. Let’s take these seven factors and equate them to fitness success, to help us determine WHY as smart women, we struggle to succeed in reaching our health and fitness goals!

1. Flip the Switch

The motivation to hit the gym, or to pack your meals each day MUST be there or you simply won’t get it done! Many women come out of the gate blazing, only to lose that motivation within just a few days of getting started! The key is to dig deep to find out what drives you. A goal such as your pageant, a vacation, wedding, reunion, or simply to fit in a certain pant size are all goals which can assist you in motivation. However, your motivation has to drive your behavior, not just lip service! Reminding yourself of why you want to reach that goal, why it is important to you and use that why to fuel your fire. Find what motivates YOU and DRIVE toward that goal!

2. Step Away from the Cookie Jar!

Ah, impulse control! This one gets everyone at one time or another. Impulse control does not simply come naturally, it is something which takes effort and planning to master. Realize there WILL be occasions in which you are tempted to grab a cookie at work or to pull your car into the fast food drive-thru. Understand if you simply deny the impulse, it WILL go away. The key is to be PREPARED for these situations and READY to conquer them!

3. I Quit!

Perserverance is extremely tough, especially when you want results, NOW! When the scale doesn’t budge, or you aren’t seeing instant results, it is VERY easy to throw in the towel and quit. The most important thing to remember is that it took a lot of “playing” to get your body where it is now, and it’s going to take a lot of “paying” to make it right! Fitness is not a game of instant results. When setting your fitness goals, be prepared for the long haul! Don’t give up when the results don’t come right away. Keep plugging along and it WILL happen!

 

To read the rest of the Fitness feature… Click Here