Mental blocks preventing your fitness goals
A lot of people are interested in fitness, but they don’t know how to get started. They want to be able to lose weight, but they don’t want to spend hours on end at the gym. It’s not always easy to motivate yourself into doing something that you’re not used to doing – especially when it comes down to an issue as personal as losing weight. We all have our own mental blocks that prevent us from achieving our goals, but it’s important for us to learn how these blocks affect our daily lives and how we can overcome them in order make positive changes in our life.
Using the scale as a measure of progress
If you’re looking for motivation to get fit, the scale is not your friend. It’s not that the scale doesn’t measure weight; it does; but it ignores factors like muscle mass, bone density, and water weight. Those three things make up a much larger part of your body composition than fat alone.
That means if you want to lose two pounds of fat, but gain one pound of muscle at an equal rate (or even more), you won’t see any change on the scale. Your weight could even go up. This is all because muscle weighs more than fat and bone density makes up a large portion of our bodies’ overall weight (especially in men). So when we talk about losing weight or getting fit from here on out know that we’re really talking about losing body fat percentage not just pounds.
Believing in fad diets and quick weight loss schemes
If you think that losing weight is easy, you’re wrong. If you believe that all it takes to lose weight is a diet or exercise plan, then you are also mistaken. Losing weight requires more than a simple change of habits. You need to make healthy lifestyle changes in order to reach your goals and maintain them long term.
Here are some healthy tips for reaching your goals:
- Consume a balanced diet full of fresh fruits, vegetables, healthy grains, and lean meats like turkey or chicken breast. Avoid processed foods high in sodium and saturated fats. These foods can cause bloating which can lead to water retention making it difficult for the body to burn fat effectively.
- Make sure that each meal has at least one portion of fresh fruits or vegetables.
- Limit consumption of alcohol because excess alcohol consumption will slow down metabolism while increasing fat storage.
- Exercise regularly.
- Get plenty of sleep each night, this helps with the production of human growth hormone (HGH) which promotes muscle growth.
- Drink at least eight glasses of water per day so that your body stays hydrated when exercising or doing other activities outside.
- Keep track of all workouts using an app like Run Keeper so that you know exactly how many calories were burned during each workout session.
Not getting enough calories in your diet
A lot of people use the excuse that they didn’t get enough calories in their diet as the reason for not losing weight. But this is a myth and not true. If you are a normal person who needs to eat about 2,000 calories per day to maintain your weight, then you will be eating about 1,400 calories if you want to lose one pound a week. If you want to lose two pounds a week, then add another 200 calories so now you’re at 1,600 daily intake of food over what it would be if your goal was just maintaining your current bodyweight.
If you’re exercising on top of this requirement then make sure that when calculating how much exercise equivalent activity (EEA) time per day that includes walking around all day at work or doing chores around the house or whatever else as well as any other form of physical activity such as swimming laps or cycling etc.
Skipping meals
Skipping meals is a bad idea, as it slows down your metabolism and keeps you from working at an optimum level. Skipping meals also increases the chances that you’ll overeat during the next meal (because you’ve skipped one) or later in the day (because your blood sugar levels have dropped).
The best way to deal with this is to be sure that every single day includes breakfast, lunch and dinner. That way, even if something comes up and you have to skip one of them for some reason, it’s not going to throw off your entire system.
Failing to plan ahead
Planning ahead is the key to success. Without it, you’ll find yourself unprepared and missing out on opportunities to succeed. Here are some tips on how to make sure your planning is well thought out and effective:
- The right tools and equipment
- The right clothing and footwear
- The right nutrition
- The right mindset (positive mindset)
Not having support from your friends and family
One of the biggest reasons why people fail to lose weight and get fit is because they lack the support of their family and friends. Having support from other people can help you stay motivated, keep you on track with your goals, and push through when it gets tough. However, sometimes the opposite may happen. Your friends or family members might notice that you’re trying to lose weight or get fit, but they don’t want to see any changes in their lives either so they don’t give much encouragement or support at all.
Eating emotionally
Emotional eating is a common problem for many people and is a way to cope with stress, difficult feelings, and to deal with negative emotions. It’s also a common problem for people who are overweight.
It’s important to find other ways of dealing with emotional distress other than overeating or binging on food. Eating mindfully can help you avoid emotional eating by paying attention whenever you feel hunger pangs so you don’t overindulge in unhealthy snacks.
Making unrealistic goals
Your goals should be realistic. A good way to test whether they are is to ask yourself. “Could I achieve this goal in three months?” If the answer is no, then your goal needs some fine-tuning. It’s also important that your goals are measurable so you can tell for sure if you’ve reached them or not. Time-based goals help keep you accountable. Specificity allows us to visualize what exactly needs to happen in order for us to achieve our goal and let’s face it nobody likes being vague about their plans.
Conclusion
The biggest thing you can do to overcome these mental blocks is to remind yourself of your motivation and why you started this journey in the first place. It’s easy to get caught up with what other people think about you or how much weight you’ve lost on a scale, but remember that it’s not about them, it’s about you. If getting fit is important enough for you then remember all the reasons why it is so important now more than ever before.
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