I’ve been a trainer for the better part of 10 years and have owned a private training studio for 9 of those 10.  In that time I’ve averaged about 30 training sessions per week give or take a few due to upswings and downswings.

I don’t say that to brag, although that’s a whole heck of a lot of training sessions, but rather to preface the point I want to make.

Over that time it’s become apparent that we tend to focus too much on the past.

And we don’t focus on the good stuff from the past, either.  It’s the bad stuff.  The stuff that makes us feel depressed and down in the dumps.

It’s the stuff that pushes us to the “punishment zone.”

There’s a saying in the fitness world that, “Every Monday is New Years.”  That basically means that every Monday people want to start fresh because their weekend, or previous week(s) were bad.

This can be good if it’s approached from the right frame of mind (and we’ll get to that in a second), but unfortunately it’s what puts all too many of us right into the “Punishment Zone.”

A friend of mine calls the Monday rush to the treadmill the “Cardio Confessional” because so many are paying for their eating sins.

I have news for you, and it’s news you’ve heard before, most often in church, but it needs to be said over and over and over.

What happened yesterday, last week or even 30 minutes ago is OVER.

You can’t change it.

No matter how hard you try, you cannot go back in time and get those moments back.

You can’t undo eating a plate of nachos before digging into the Chimichanga and downing it with a sugary margarita (I’m craving Mexican food right now!!).

You can’t undo skipping workouts for the past week.

You can’t undo the mental beat downs you’ve put on yourself.

It’s done.

It’s over.

It’s finito.

The ONLY choice you have is to move forward.

Vow to be better today.

Don’t let yesterday come into your mind.

Forgetting yesterday does NOT mean you don’t pay the consequences – if you eat poorly for too long, you will gain weight, your joints will ache and you’ll have zero energy…

…Unless you stop, remind yourself you can’t change what you did yesterday, and then move forward. 

How can you move forward?

Focus on Baby Steps.

One of the biggest problems I see new clients, or hell even clients who have been working with me for months or years, is trying ot conquer too much at once.

Don’t do that because it only leads to more frustration.

Focus on something simple and build on it.

Do you have trouble with emotional eating?

Find a new outlet for your stress (but you also need to fix that stressor).  Maybe tell your self that you’ll eat that “treat” but only AFTER you’ve done a quick bodyweight workout, gone for a walk, or ate some super-sweet and water-rich fruit. 

If you make that a habit, I can all but guarantee you’ll no longer be emotional eating, you’ll lose that extra baggage and you’ll find the stress in your life, or at least the way you react to it, severly diminished.

Do you find yourself skipping breakfast, then getting too hungry by lunch time or mid-morning and make poor eating decisions?

Simple fix – start your breakfast preparation the night before so you don’t have to do anything in the morning.

Every evening I get the fruit and other ingredients ready for my smoothie, as well as wash a couple pieces of fruit and cut out a chunk of homemade protein bar to have for my morning at the studio.

That way when I”m rushing out hte door at 4:30am (yes…4:30), all I have to do is blend up the smoothie and grab the snacks out of the refrigerator.  I drink the smoothie on the way to the studio and have those snacks a few hours later.

Because of those actions I don’t skip breakfast…like ever…and my lunch decisions are usually 100% perfect (evening is another story!!).

Have trouble sticking to your workout plan or do it sporadically that it makes you frustrated and you constantly vow to be better?

First, step back and relax, and then break your workout up into shorter “windows.”

Pretty much every workout I design – for myself and clients – focuses on 7 or 10 minute windows of time.

That way I can still get a really good training session in even if the day is pressed for free time.

Sometimes clients have to get out of our session early, but they know they’ll still get a really great session in because of this philosophy whereas if I didn’t design workouts in this manner they would cancel much more often because they think they “need” the hour.

Make sense?

Struggling because you want to make a change but a loved one won’t do it with you?

This can be an incredibly difficult challenge to conquer, but it is definitely doable.

First, take the focus off the loved one and put it back where it matters – YOU. 

If you focus on YOU, make the right decisions and changes and do so consistently, the loved one will see the positive changes you’ve made and will want to join you, but don’t push the issue.

If you do things the right way and focus on living a truly vibrant and lean lifestyle, everything you do will seem doable and achievable to that loved one and because they see your awesome results and how awesome you look AND feel, they won’t be able to help themselves but join your bandwagon.

Remember, that you can’t change yesterday.

You can’t change what you did in your past.

All you have power over is today.

Today do better, but do so intelligently.

Vow to be just a little better today than yesterday.

Vow to eat 2 servings of fruit and 2 servings of vegetables today.

Then tomorrow eat those same 4 servings, but also add a healthy evening snack while also doing a quick workout.

Then the next couple days do those same things, and don’t add anything extra.

Just be a little better every day.

Keep moving forward.

If you make a mistake, so what?  Pick yourself up and move on because IT’S NOT A BIG DEAL.

You can conquer yourself and LIVE a Lean and Vibrant Lifestyle…

…but you have to put yesterday OUT of your mind.

It doesn’t matter anymore.

Today matters.

Today you can be better.

Today you ARE better.

Talk soon!

ed