The Six Thieves of Progress

 

1) Not following a structured plan:

a. Many people go into the gym with little or no plan, even fewer track their progress and progressively overloading according. Your plan must match your goal if you want to see any type of result.

b. Our bodies are highly adaptable, and we need to change the stimulus placed upon the body, our bodies need time to improve. Time and stimulus will master a movement pattern and adapt to say the stimulus and promote building.

2) Not pushing hard enough:

a. The body responds to stressors, Intensity, volume, frequency, and time. In simple terms you must lift more weight or run faster, do more reps, do it more often, or do it for longer. This is what creates stress on our muscles and our cardiovascular system that triggers your body to adapt accordingly.

3) Too much complexity:

a. Complexity can be the enemy of intensity, meaning if the exercise that we are attempting to perform is too complex for your ability, it will take time to lean the movement pattern and gain the appropriate coordination. Now if your goal is to become more coordinated in a specific plan then go ahead! But if your main goal is to build muscle, burn fat, and get stronger than you must be proficient enough to complete the exercise with maximal muscular and metabolic effort. There are some simple metabolic conditioning workouts that can be done just one or two days a week. Metabolic Conditioning = HIIT

 

4) Not allowing enough time to recover:

a. All gas no breaks right?? Wrong… when we workout we apply stress to our bodies that actually “break them down” when our bodies recognize this several mechanisms take place that allow our musculoskeletal, and cardiovascular systems to adapt and eventually will get stronger. If we don’t provide proper rest, hydration, and fuel through macro and micronutrients then we are simply digging and deeper and deeper hole that we simply can’t adapt to.

5) Lack of patience:

a. Progress takes time, in fact it can take 4-6 weeks to notice and changes in aerobic fitness and 8+ weeks to notice any gains in muscle size! Fat loss is no different than these two. Far too often I see people give up or change goals before they even get moving, it’s like baking a cake and giving up before the oven pre heats.

b. Be patient, be consistent, and give yourself some grace.

 

6) Not following a meal plan for fat loss (if fat loss is a goal)

a. If your goal is to lose body fat, you must focus on calories, amount of protein and micronutrients in order to get the best results with fat loss. How often do you see people in the gym, or who work out consistently, yet never lose the body fat they want to lose? It’s because their diet is not controlled, and they are not eating at a calorie deficit. You must consistently eat at a calorie deficit, and not go over your TDEE on the few days you don’t eat at a deficit. No matter what you are logging, or think you are eating, if the fat loss is not happening over time – YOU ARE NOT DOING IT. It’s easy to make mistakes with your portion estimates and eat more calories than you think you are.

It does not matter what your eating style is, what matters is calories per day over time, ultimately. Some foods and eating patterns help you accomplish fat loss more efficiently and improve your metabolism. You can start with the simple process of learning to build your plate 101.

b. Should you eat big meals, small meals, more meals, or incorporate some fasting? This is different for each person, and individually can also be different each day, each season, and in every situation you should be thinking about the questions listed in "Feeling out of Control with food."

If you want to learn more about your metabolism, I recommend reading “Cracking the Metabolic Code.” 

 

What about hunger?

If you want to try some things over time to control your hunger, you can try Volumetrics, and learn about how to change your appetite. It’s important to know what you are not stuck with being a volume eater all the time, nor are you stuck with fasting all the time, nor are you stuck with always having mini meals all day long. Your body adapts to calories, and how much you eat at meals. 

I have done all of these things over the last 20 years. I’ve done nearly every diet style available, various forms of fasting, as well as volume meals and what I call mini meals. I have found that my hunger does adapt, and recently I was successful at training my hunger to adapt to less calories and mostly smaller meals, although I can still have some higher volume meals. After about a month of a successful calorie deficit, and then a week with the flu which decreased my appetite, and then rolling with that, yet still having a few days at my TDEE and at least one even a little higher, I’m still adapted to comfortably eating at a deficit most days per week and I’m finally losing body fat. I have even done some longer fasting some day because of the work factors of my day and at least one day of needing to do a fasted blood draw. I’ve done fasted workouts a few days a week when it works out appropriately. The thing that I love the most about having learned all these styles over the last few decades is: 

1) You are not really stuck with a particular style of diet except for possibly allergies or food sensitivities.

2) Every day does not have to be the same eating pattern.

The thing is you have to push through some hard adaptation phase in order to change your hunger. It won’t be comfortable, just like the points for exercise above. It all requires some “grit” before you are able to adapt. That means, it requires a lot of fight within yourself to push through, and it may mean some drastic changes in your life to make that happen. This is not easy. It requires intent, doing your own homework on control of food, and learning why diets fail. You should be thinking about those questions for each situation, continuously.

Most people do not feel like they are making progress, even when they are. Most people feel like they fail at diets because they don't follow them perfectly especially when they are experiencing a lot of stress. The most important thing to remember is that you are not a robot. All people successful at finally losing weight go off plan sometimes when travelling or have special events or stressful events. What they are good at is brushing aside the feelings of failure and fear, and just getting back on track with meal planning and setting up their own individual plan for success. That is UP TO YOU. Keep your mindset on BELIEVING that you can do this, and you can do it!

There is no one size fits all answer. The answer on one day may not be the same answer as another day. There are many factors that influence our hunger and fullness signals, and we can best trust hunger and fullness when we are hydrated, calm and well rested. Sleep deprivation and high levels of stress can interfere with these signals. In these cases, it can be useful to use some external cues to make sure you are still taking care of yourself. For example, in situations of high stress, you may simply not feel hungry. In these cases, we can view eating as a form of self-care. For example, if you know it’s been five or more hours since you’ve eaten, a snack or meal will help you take care of yourself. And, of course, we want to make sure we can do what we can to remedy the situation with stress management, good sleep and relaxation. In other cases of stress, you want to eat foods that comfort you, typically high carbs and fats. Think about why you are hungry and think about other things you can do to comfort yourself that do not involve food. Those things will be simple and basic; warmth or coolness, a nap or closing your eyes in a quiet place for a few minutes, a walk, music, a hug, talking a problem over with someone you trust, a drink of water, some deep breathing and meditation even for just a few minutes.

This all takes time and practice. We are not just naturally good at it. Never Give Up!!!

I always welcome messages and comments. Let me know what you think!

Roberta