Having trouble committing to a change when it comes to health and fitness? This article breaks down the best 10 ways to increase your likelihood of change.

1. Know your Why and own it. Knowing the deep reason why you want to do something and naming it is much more powerful than the surface reason. If I asked you why you wanted to lose weight and you told me because you wanted to be a size 10 instead of 14, I can already tell you, you probably aren’t going to hit your goal. If you told me that you wanted to lose weight because you want to have confidence and energy to play with your two-year-old, I can tell you this reason is much more likely to finding success in weight loss. Why? Because you found your vulnerability and the deep reason for what weight loss will do for you. We need deep meaning to make long-lasting change. When your goals get hard and inconvenient, you can remind yourself Why you’re doing all this is the first place. If you know your Why, the What’s don’t matter.
2. Take note of your current habits. If you don’t have a proper baseline and take an honest look at your current habits, (without shame or guilt) you can’t dissect where you can grow and then measure success.
3. Focus on adding in one thing until you master it. This is huge. It is so easy to get pumped about making a huge lifestyle change and wanting to change everything at once. Don’t. Pick one thing. Maybe it’s eating one more vegetable a day, master it and then add one more thing. This allows you to change your lifestyle not just change a bunch of behaviors for a finite amount of time.
4. Don’t fall victim to “not enough time” focus on what you can do. This is the number one excuse for not working out. If you know your Why, you can conquer the What (like not enough time). You don’t need an hour, a perfect Lululemon outfit (although it would be nice!) and a trainer. Do what you can. Find something you can do that’s 20 minutes if that’s all you have time for. Workout in the morning before everyone else is awake, or at night when everyone goes down. Don’t let yourself take the weak excuse of not enough time. There is enough time, it is just not a priority yet. And when you look for ways to increase your health with the time you have, you have begun to change your mindset from excuses to solutions.
5. Change your mindset to “and” versus “but”. “And” helps you find a solution, “but” leads to excuses. I have stolen this strategy because I think it is so good. It is simpler than it may sound. If you come across a barrier instead of using “but,” use the word “and.” So a barrier may be: “I want to work out, but I don’t have time to make it to the gym”. Instead of using but, use “and.” So it now goes like this I want to work out and I don’t have time to make to the gym. Your mind automatically goes into solution mode. You then think well I can do bodyweight exercises at home, I can walk around the neighborhood, etc…
6. Motivation and Confidence come and goes. Have unshakeable commitment and know your minimums. You’ve been waking up at 5 am to work out before work and it’s been going well the first couple weeks. Then… You wake up and you just don’t feel like it. Your motivation is gone, and you rather just cuddle up in bed and stay asleep. That doesn’t mean you’re failing, and you’re not cut out for your new lifestyle. It means your normal! No one feels like working out all the time. The ones who are successful in their fitness journey, do what they have committed to, whether they feel like it or not. Don’t let your emotions dictate your actions
7. Make conscious choices. You make your choices, not your emotions, circumstances, or habits. Be mindful of what you do.
8. Be uncomfortable being uncomfortable. One of my favorite sayings. All my clients always comment on how much I say this. I think it so powerful for one to be comfortable in an uncomfortable situation. An obvious example of this is what happened when you perform the exercise, planks. The plank is just holding an isometric contraction, at the beginning, it is usually fine, but at one point it begins to suck, really bad. When it begins to suck and get really hard, can you manage your thoughts and breathing and be comfortable in an uncomfortable moment. Being uncomfortable is where you find growth, so if you can seek out discomfort and find comfort in discomfort, well then, my friend, you are unstoppable.
9. Set yourself up for success, plan for the next day and create a mental game plan. Personally, I know roughly what my next day looks like for the most part. When I’m going to work out, what I am going to eat, what work I need to get done, etc… I think this sets me up for success. I have a game plan on how I am going to handle all my responsibilities before the day even starts. Somethings I do to help is I meal prep and get all my stuff ready for the next day: bottles ready, clothes laid out, clothes packed, and lunch and breakfast ready before I go to bed.
10. Do the right thing 80% of the time and don’t beat yourself up when you’re in the 20% of the time. You don’t have to be perfect 100% of the time. Have fun and enjoy the cheat moments!