Discipline over motivation: a better strategy for fitness success

Don't use motivation as your driving force to get fit, it won't get you where you want to go. Discipline, on the other hand, is what will help you get fit and stay fit for a lifetime.

80-95% of people that lose weight each year gain it back within 3-5 years. If you were to ask those people how motivated they were when they started, they would probably reply with "very motivated." So what happened?

Many times, this state of high motivation leads us to set unrealistic goals and expectations. We didn't workout at all last year, but now we are motivated so I'm going to do 5 days a week this year! That's not a very realistic expectation, is it? Zero days of exercise last year to 250+ days this year?

This doesn't mean motivation is a bad feeling, it just means we shouldn't rely on it to set expectations or to help us with each and every workout. It's similar to going to the grocery store hungry or having a conversation when drunk, you tend to do and say things that you wouldn't normally. The same goes for decisions made when motivated.

What you can do when you are motivated to start your fitness journey is this: think about setting expectations that are so insanely realistic that you can't possibly have excuses not to do them. Instead of committing to 5 days of working out each week, commit to just 1. Instead of tracking and counting calories, commit to eating a protein dense breakfast. Instead of committing to getting 8-9 hours of sleep every night, commit to going to bed between 9-10 PM.

These should be goals that are super simple and attainable. Small steps in the right direction are easy to manage and sustain then a leap from one side to the other. Once you get consistent with your first goal and it becomes like second nature, you can add another small step. A year of small steps will lead to a great distance travelled.