Everywhere you look there is someone with advice on how to get in shape.
Nearly everyone gets one thing wrong.
Do a Google search for “how to lose weight fast” or “how to get a flat stomach” and you will get pages and pages of websites with all different recommendations.
They are mostly useless.
Why? Because almost all of those websites are going to tell you what to do. They are going to tell you to do this thing that worked for all these other people. They are going to tell you to do it because it worked for all those other people.
That thinking is simply wrong.
The one thing almost everyone gets wrong about health and fitness it that you should do what someone else did.
Whether it is a workout program that worked for your friend (she lost 50 pounds!) or a diet plan your favorite fitness competitor follows (she has amazing abs!!) the likelihood that it will have the same results for you is extremely small.
You are not your friend. You are not a fitness competitor.
You are uniquely you, and that is why what works for someone else is not the thing you need.
What you need is the thing that will work for you.
When a person makes the decision to lose weight or get healthy, they often start by trying to find out what everyone else does. Instead, let me suggest the first step should be looking inward and not outward.
Don’t look for the workout program that helped dozens of people get lean; think about what type of exercise you enjoy. Do you prefer a slower pace, like walking and light aerobics, or do you thrive on high intensity activities like boxing or circuits?
Whatever it is you enjoy, seek out exercise programs that fit the mold. Look for something you are excited about doing, because you’re not always going to want to do it and in order to get results you’re going to have to do it anyway.
A workout program that you hate will never get you results, no matter how well it worked for someone else.
When it comes to diet, resist the urge to jump on the bandwagon for whatever eating style is super trendy right now. Even if your fitness idol touts the benefits of going “keto” and how it helped her get that amazing body, that doesn’t mean the Keto Diet is for you.
Which types of foods do you enjoy most? What can you not live without? If the answer is carbs, then you are never going to successfully reach your goals eating a Ketogenic diet.
Sure, it could help you lose weight, but trying to eat in the completely opposite way of your preferred way, and avoiding foods you really love is not a long-term strategy.
Only a long-term strategy will produce long-term results.
Skip the fad diets and think about what small changes you can make to the way you eat. Can you cut down your portion sizes, eliminate calorie-heavy beverages like coffee drinks or soda?
None of us can eat what we love all the time and still be healthy and lose weight, but we certainly can’t do so eating things we hate, either.
The right diet is the one you can actually adhere to. The one which allows you to restrict just enough to be successful but not so much that you can’t maintain it.
No matter what the workout program or diet is, the only one that will work for you is the one you will actually do for more than just a few weeks (or even a few months.)
This is what almost everyone gets wrong about getting in shape. They think they have to do what someone else does.
If you’re struggling to lose weight or want to change your lifestyle, start by getting to know you better.
Give up the search engine and do some inner searching. That’s where you’ll find the plan that works. It might not work for everyone, but on this journey, you’re the only one who matters.
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