19 Jan CONSISTENCY OVER INTENSITY
New Years Resolutions have started rolling out in full swing. Some of them have fizzled out in the first week and some may hang on for just that little bit more. More often than not, by February they have all but died ready to start fresh in 2019 but that’s another 11 months away.
Most people plan their new year’s resolutions around a new strict set of rules which requires far too much of their time and effort – effort that cannot be sustained. They’ll say they are going to train 5 or 6 times a week when they didn’t train at all last year or they’ll throw in the I’m going to eat so clean and healthy with no cheat meals when they don’t even cook at home in their own kitchen at least 80% of the time to start with.
If these people are super motivated they’ll go full speed ahead for at least 2 weeks, maybe a month. All of a sudden, they return to work, their appointments and events come up and interfere with their super strict schedule and life just happens. They have given up and fallen back into their same old routine because it’s easy, it’s comfortable and it works for them.
The thing is – this isn’t the first time that these people have made these promises to themselves and started on their new years resolution band wagon. Each year they make bigger promises to themselves, requiring more commitment than the previous year and each year they feel more deflated.
If you have a specific goal to meet by a specific deadline then by all means go all in, stick to the plan and achieve that goal. But if you want to lose weight or meet a specific health and fitness goal don’t set a deadline go in for the long haul and just be consistent.
INTENSITY = 10kgs in 2 months (which is 5kg a month)
CONSISTENCY = 10kg in a year (which is a little over 800g a month)
Intensity requires a life overhaul, cutting out a lot of things like social events, increased training and possibly counting of macros/calories, cutting out food groups entirely etc etc
Consistency requires small changes, building new habits and building on those week in and week out. You adjust your life one week at a time fill your personal belt with the tools you need to tackle life head on and be able to make the best choices to help you achieve long term results.
Which method seems more realistic here to you? Which option could you implement for a lifetime? Are you ready and willing to make those smaller changes?
If this is the year that is going to be different for you, opt for CONSISTENCY over INTENSITY. Give yourself your best chance and make this your best year yet.
