This week’s writing was prompted after talking to many people this last week about what their fitness goals are and what has prevented them from reaching those goals. Overcoming the fear of failure and fear of pain and exercise were the biggest challenges that were mentioned and what has prevented this group of people to not succeed in their weight loss goals.
Overcoming the fear of failure.
This is how I look at it and perhaps it’s the competitor in me, but I don’t like to lose and I definitely don’t like to fail. Going the yo-yo diet route and fearing my weight loss goals have been my biggest reasons for self-sabotage. I think that if I am not really trying hard, then I am really not failing, right? I was so WRONG! It has taken this long journey to overcome this fear by acknowledging that I am on this journey to improve and challenge myself. I’m not competing against anyone but myself. Fear is nothing more than an obstacle that stands in the way of my progress. I will continue to challenge myself to do better, get better results, work harder than I think is possible. Fear of not reaching a goal weight by a certain date is defeated by success knowing that my journey is a marathon not a sprint. There will always be setbacks, highs and lows, but as long as I keep moving forward my goal will be reached. I know this deep down in my heart.
For me, the simplest way to deal with this fear was setting a goal I know I could reach. It's nice to have long-term goals to work for but, for right now, I did what I needed to do to keep me motivated and sane. I knew if I set the bar too high, I was setting myself up for failure and that before would have been an excuse to quit. Setting goals within my goals helped. My ulitimate goal was to lose 30lbs. I’m almost there, but setting small monthly goals, like losing 5lbs per month helped. If I got close to losing the 5lbs, I never got discouraged. Also knowing as I got closer to my goals, the weight was going to get harder to lose, but looking at 5lbs compared to 30lbs was easier to wrap around my brain. Think small mini-goals!!
Overcoming the fear of pain.
I absolutely hate pain! Whoever actually likes pain is screwed up in the head. Most people, me included try to avoid it as much as possible. That’s probably why most people avoid exercise. People make it painful. Let me just tell you the old phrase of “No pain, No gain” is not true!!
Repeat after me: Exercise DOES NOT have to hurt! Yes, keep repeating it! Exercise should not be painful and if it is, you may either need to slow down your pace or completely stop what you are doing because you are probably doing it wrong. If you haven’t exercised much, you may not be able to tell the difference between the “normal” soreness you feel from exercising and actual pain. In the beginning you feel like everything in your body is tearing and falling apart. Am I right? I am here to tell you, it does get better.
It seemed I always tend to quit after about a week or two of trying. Why the heck did I do that? Seriously, if you think about it, most people get discouraged after the first couple workouts because they are so sore that they don't want to continue going through that pain.
I remember my first kickboxing class. I was trying to keep up with everyone in the class and I was pretty close to running to the bathroom and throwing up. How embarrassing would that have been? Discouragement and reason to quit right there, but after a while I knew the soreness I was feeling would eventually go away and I would eventually see results. I hated feeling that way, but that’s basically what we set ourselves up for, am I right? Start, stop, start again, and stop again and repeat…..why? Do you like going through that disappointment every time? I know I don’t.
The biggest workout tip I give to anyone is, start off with a light program and work within your fitness level. There is no reason to try and go “balls to the wall” with your first workout. This will discourage you and I guarantee you will want to quit. Not being able to walk up or down stairs or sit comfortably in a chair is not fun. We have all been there. Start off by just going for a walk or if you are a jogger, a small short run and increase your intervals from there. I was crazy and went overboard and started with INSANITY. For some reason, I needed that push and it worked for me. I was really tired of this starting and stopping nonsense. This was my last straw, but seriously, I think as you become more familiar with your body and the signs related with exercise you will have the ability to work through them. They will improve and so will your results. You don't have to enjoy pain to enjoy exercise, just be prepared to feel a bit uncomfortable to begin with, but don’t stop and don’t give up!
