“When you look at people who are successful, you will find that they aren’t the people who are motivated, but have consistency in their motivation.” — Arsene Wenger
Whether you want to lose weight, increase muscle mass, improve your mobility, or something else entirely, there’s an easy rule:
Long-term consistency wins in a race against short-term intensity every time.
I get it, that’s quite broad and there of course there are nuances. But let’s for a second look it at like studying for an exam — Let’s say you have an exam in a week.
Scenario 1: You have no study routine and don’t start revising until a week before the day, and go at it for several 11 hours a day, ignoring friends, eating badly, staying awake with energy drinks, you’re stressing out and barely sleeping.
Result of S1: You may be able to answer some questions, but the chances are you will be exhausted and you won’t know the content well enough for when the professor throws you a curve ball on a question you thought you knew the theory for.
Scenario 2: You set up a study routine three months before the exam. You revise regularly, maybe for several hours a week but not excessively and not in a way that severely impacts your social life or other routines, you eat well, drink primarily water, and sleep 7-8 hours a night.
Result of S2: You’ll feel more confident, better prepared, healthier and you’ll have retained a lot more of the important knowledge that will allow you to answer the curve-ball question more easily.
The same effect applies for your health and fitness routines.
Translating this to an all-too-typical “Let’s get Beach-Fit” plan (caveat; the idea that you aren’t “beach fit” already is not ridiculous — you are in any case); if your regular routine does not include a lot of movement and your food intake is fairly high, then you try in 4 weeks to achieve what you perceive to be the perfect body. You sign up to a gym, start only eating salad and get to it. You may lose some weight for sure, but the chances that you will feel pretty sore from the gym as your muscles are not used to the regular engagement and you will probably feel hungry and irritable from not eating your standard foods or amounts.
Not the perfect start to your holiday!
The results thereof; you likely won’t maintain this routine past your holiday if it hasn’t been set and the goal is always only short term. On holiday, you treat yourself for your hard work, get right back to your standard food and low-movement routines and sooner than you thought possible, the next year rolls around and you find yourself right back a the beginning…
A second important rule though: It’s not about perfection!
Nobody is perfect. When it comes to health and fitness, very few people on this planet could attempt to say so. Every person has different work schedules, different bodily capabilities, different favourite foods, different comfort routines…. There is no “perfect” to strive for when it comes to fitness, but a routine can help you reach your goals independent of how well you end up performing.
Do you want help with creating your fitness routines? Best Life Blueprints may be just the thing for you! Check out my Fitness Blueprints page for pre-fab plans, trackers and much more that can help you on your way!
