My new podcast episode is out now.
Here is talk about why understanding the reasoning behind your goals is important so they really matter to you and allow for an enjoyable process, as well as how to refine your goal to make it effective and plan it in to your everyday life.
You can listen here:
https://anchor.fm/heather-sherwood/episodes/Goal-Setting-Your-Why-and-How-e1pver7
Week 2 of Project Fitter at 40 and this week my goal has been to improve consistency with various habits.
Some, like going to the gym, are habits I find easy. Hitting 20,000 steps a day, not drinking too much coffee, daily gratitude journaling are habits I find a bit harder to hit. Whilst I’ve still got room for improvement I have been more consistent with these habits and I feel like I can continue to work on this.
What I’ve definitely identified as my issue this eek though id my diet. Specifically, quite simply, I’m eating too many calories each day. In reality I’m less active than I used to be, simply because I’m teaching fewer classes each week, this is why I’ve put on weight. So what I need to look at next week is planning my meals and sticking to that plan with a view to lowering my intake. I’m looking to make no adjustments to my training, as I feel like if I’m reducing calories a bit I might want to adjust to that before I look at training intensity, although I might do a few classes as a participant just to mix things up a bit.
Honestly I’ve felt fat this week, probably hormonal as I’ve neither gained nor lost any weight in weeks, but to be my face in particular looks fatter in the mirror (not helped by a spot outbreak I don’t think). When this happens it’s natural to feel an urge to do drastic things to feel better (detox, strict diet, up training sort of things) but my new approach is to consciously avoid this kind of self talk ad approach my week in a kind way, a way I’m more likely to stick to and enjoy.
What do you need from a PT?
In the past when face to face was really the only way people saw a PT you’d have one or more sessions a week, maybe get a plan to follow in sessions alone (or perhaps you only trained with your PT), you’d discuss nutrition perhaps with them, maybe they’d measure body fat.
Lockdown did a lot to speed up changes in the way PTs can work though, online coaching was already starting to develop but the need to communicate remotely sped up the process of people realising they didn’t need to physically see a PT in order to get results.
Of course there are still benefits of seeing a PT in person, improving forma and technique, not to mention motivation, but in reality what you can get with online training brings a whole new element into coaching.
You will have heard PTs say what you do outside your one hour of exercise a day matters more than what you do in that hour, what you eat across a week matters more than one ‘off plan’ meal and other such variations of the same. In other words, what you do consistently matters more than any on moment, however good or bad.
So here’s where online coaching can be beneficial. Unless you have a very specific goal, are very new or nervous in a gym or really really lack the motivation to go, you don’t necessarily need someone by your side as you workout. What can be more beneficial is having someone in your corner to give you the push when you can’t be bothered, aren’t quite sure, are having a wobble. To answer the random questions when they come to mind (before you forgot them by your next session), to keep you on track every day not just one hour a week.
Getting fitter, stronger, leaner, whatever goal you have, unless it’s incredibly specific. I’m telling you it’s more about your headspace and consistency than it is your rep range or workout split or exact macros.
That isn’t to say face to face PT isn’t great, but really in the current world your face to face PT should be offering the online support the rest of the week as part of your package because success comes from much more than that specific training session.
Project Fitter at 40 has begun.
I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t really care about being super slim or fast or the strongest person in the world.
I would like to feel healthier, better, more positive. I have some aims I’d like to complete this year for myself of course but I also want to just feel good, organised, relaxed ad comfortable in my own skin.
So my approach needs to be different to previously. I know what I could do if I wanted to see big results but I also know that part of feeling positive and good about myself means no sacrificing things for a result, enjoying the things I enjoy (and one of those is food).
This week I have:
Next week the plan is to focus on the areas I’ve identified for tweaks.
What’s the difference between an anchor and a fad in fitness?
We generally think we know a fad when we see one. Those slimming pills, crash diets, random exercises that claim to dissolve stomach fat. Some are clearly cons, clearly money making schemes that prey on people’s insecurities.
So where is there a grey area in my opinion? When things that could be deemed fads become anchors.
What’s an anchor? Almost like a habit, something you do that makes you feel better, like you’re on track. The little positive habits you create that when you add them all together they make you feel good.
For instance if I’m in a good routine I’ll wake up and have hot water with some lemon, sometimes also a homemade juice (water, a banana, some frozen strawberries and a handful of spinach), I’ll take my supplements, then I’ll have a coffee. If I do this I feel like I’ve set myself up for the morning, it gives me time to sit and wake up and leaves me feeling less rushed, that generally leads to a more productive day simply because I’m not chasing my tail. If I can do this morning routine most days a week I start to feel really good, more energetic, more positive. The actions act as an anchor to keep me from sailing away from myself and my goals.
Some of those things could be seen as faddy, but here’s the thing.
I do not believe the lemon in my water magically burns fat. I don’t think the juice has a magic blend of ingredients to make me lose weight. I don’t think any of the supplements I’m taking will stop me gaining weight. But the lemon makes the water taste nice and is a refreshing way to get water in before coffee, same as the pint of water I use to take the supplements and the water in the juice. These habits make me feel good because I’m hydrating when I wake up. The juice means I’m getting one of my five a day in first thing without thinking and the supplements literally supplement my diet for anything I might be lacking through food. The act of doing these things and then taking a moment to sit and drink them first thing provide a moment of calm to start my day, that makes me feel more positive. I could equally substitute these things for anything and have the same result. The anchor is the action of habit and the feeling it creates not the specifics of it.
So some ‘fads’ can be positives within your routine that you do not need to feel bad about doing, the key is knowing why they work for you. Often it’s not because they are the ‘magic’ element, simply that they create routine that helps you reach your goal, as long as you understand that and know that if you miss a cup of hot water and lemon one morning you won’t suddenly gain ten pounds there’s no harm in letting some ‘faddy’ things anchor you throughout the day. Fitness people like to fit habits into boxes, demonise one thing and praise another because it’s easier to help people by keeping things basic but there’s so many shades of grey to most things that it is rarely so simple as to say that’s a fad and bad and that’s ok do that.
Apart from the creams that burn fat. Yeah they’re just fads.
I write a lot about calorie deficits to lose weight and how what you make those calories up of doesn’t matter in terms of dropping weight.
Of course that doesn’t mean that what you eat doesn’t matter. How you actually structure your diet to meet these calories will have an impact on how you feel.
The fact remains that you can eat foods in any combination, eat specific foods, eat at certain times. If you aren’t in a deficit you won’t lose weight, but once you’ve got the deficit thing nailed looking at what you actually eat can help you progress further and feel better with it.
Increasing your protein intake for instance, that can help you feel more satiated, which in turn makes calorie deficits feel easier.
Swapping out some of your sugary snacks for fruit will make you feel better over time and also reduce the calorie value of your snacks.
Looking to fill up on denser lower calorie foods (piling your veggies high for instance) will keep you full but also help stay within your calorie goal.
Focusing on eating homemade food with lots of salad and veg included will make you feel better than takeaways and grab a go sandwiches, probably be lower calorie (and reduce your spending).
So of course how you chose to make up those calories does have an effect.
Why do PTs tend to say calories matter more as a headline then?
Because it’s a pyramid and you need to have the foundations right before you build.
If you aren’t yet in a deficit then looking at changing everything about what you eat and worrying about the specifics of certain foods is going to feel overwhelming. Quite simply if you can hit a calorie deficit by cutting a snack out, reducing your portion size, changing your McDonalds order from Large to regular, making your takeaway coffee an Americano instead of a Pumpkin Spiced Late every day, well that’s going to make sticking to a calorie goal easier. Once you’ve adjusted to that then you can look at some more small changes bit by bit. Generally speaking we are better at adjusting to small changes over time rather than overhauling our life all in one go, we are much more likely to stick with small changes consistently and consistency is what is needed to reduce weight and keep it off.
When is a calorie deficit not a calorie deficit?
You might be surprised at how often people say to PTs, I’m barely eating anything and still not losing weight or I’m in a calorie deficit but nothing is happening.
This is when the idea that it must be your metabolism, carbs, the time you’re eating or the lack of random expensive magic juice in your diet that is stopping the weight loss.
Now I’m reality, on the odd week it might simply be water retention, not having a poo recently, your period or hormones affecting your weight.
But if your weight is consistently not coming down week on week even if you are in a calorie deficit here’s the reason for the scale not going down.
You aren’t actually in a calorie deficit.
– Are you actually tracking and if you are are you including EVERYTHING (sauces, coffees, left overs). You need to honest with yourself here.
– Are you consistently in a deficit. If you are Monday to Friday but waaay over calories on the weekend you probably aren’t actually in a real deficit.
– Maybe you are being honest about what you’re eating but overestimating how much your burning each day.
If this is the case you could try dropping your calories by a small amount each day (250 calories to start) and seeing what happens, you might need to drop a bit further but by bit until you start to see movement.
If you are in a calorie deficit consistently you will overtime drop weight so if you aren’t seeing progress you are not in a calorie deficit. Good news here – now you know that’s the issue you can work to change it.
What does fitness success and progress look like to you?
Is it losing 2 stone? Running a marathon? Dropping 3 dress sizes?
Whatever it is one thing many of us are guilty of is not feeling like a success until we hit that goal. Goals are great motivators and having a strong reason why can be the difference between having a dream and making that dream a reality. What we need to remember though is to celebrate and feel good about all the other achievements along the way.
Because if you want to drop 2 stones in the process you’ll lose your first pound, first half a stone, a stone. When you are one pound lighter you might not be where you want to be yet but you’ve started and made a step towards that.
If you want to run a marathon at some point in training you’ll run 5km, 10km, a half marathon, Again these are all massive achievements in their on right and using them as reasons to celebrate can help keep you motivated towards reaching that ultimate goal.
I think the key is to keep in mind that your progress might not be perfect, instantaneous or linear but changes are all positive, whether they have a big or small impact. If for instance your doctor has said you need to lose weight for your health, they may well have an ideal weight in mind but as a starting point a reduction of any size is still better for your health than staying where you are. If you currently do no exercise three sessions a week may be the ideal but even if you only manage one you’ve still increased your activity 100%.
This goes beyond fitness too.
Having a chat with a fellow fitness professional the other day we touched upon the idea of success within our field. There’s the idea I think we all subconsciously have that there is one end point within our corner of the industry by which our success is measured, whereas in reality what we get value and a sense of purpose from is actually very different, and whilst it’s good to have things to aim for sometimes this can cause you to lose sight of achievements which actually mean a lot (even if there’s less public glory associated to them) and you can end up judging yourself harshly. The fact is there may be things we will never achieve but focusing on those suggests we’ve failed whereas in reality the impact we have made has made a difference.
For me the key is of course striving and setting the scary goals but also being kind enough to yourself to notice the small wins that happen along the way, because when you do reach that big goal that won’t be the end, you’ll find new goals or bigger goals so when you think about it, only ever looking forward can end up being tiring and leave you always feeling like you aren’t enough.
So it isn’t case of don’t aim big just don’t forget all the other wins in the mean time.
I had a bad week at work. Stressful and early mornings, late nights.
It did two things for me. Firstly when I’m stressed I want to comfort eat which tends to make me feel worse. It also meant I just got out of step with what would make me feel better. When I got in late I either ate quick fast food or just grabbed some toast, in the morning I grabbed more toast at the office. This meant my resolve was low to saying no to the many cakes in the office because simply put, I was already hungry and had limited food already prepped (I did have lunch prepared so I at least had a proper cooked meal for lunch). My brain kind of set into a cycle where I hit the fuck it button with my diet. I kind of trained a bit but I didn’t feel committed to it so all in all I felt rubbish.
You can prepare all you want for the week ahead but sticking to intentions is tough when you face changes to your plans. It goes to show diets and fitness plans aren’t just knowledge dependent, although of course that is the first step, they’re also very mindset based and having the ability to remain consistent in the face of life is the key to getting results. That isn’t about doing everything right no matter what happens, but it is about being able to bounce back from rubbish days and keep going so that you do what you planned more often than you don’t.
What should you look for in a PT?
There’s lots of ways you can work with a PT now: one on one, small group, online programming, apps. Beyond cost, what do you look for when deciding who to go to?
Maybe it’s location, if you want to train in person that will be a big factor; but it could also be their specialisms, experience, how fit they look, how comfortable they make you feel, the recommendation from people you trust or their client testimonials.
All of these things are valid reasons, ultimately you’re picking someone to work with based on things that are important and relevant to you is key, and here’s where I think the most important factor in looking for someone to work with comes in.
Do they get ‘you’. Specifically can they understand your pain points, identify how they affect your fitness and help you work around them?
We all have some sort of pain points, whether you think it or not, Some may be more obvious than others.
If you deal with depression or anxiety, that’s going to have an effect on how you train. Shift worker, busy mum, student; all these things can affect your training and diet.
Whether your issue is with fitting in gym sessions in the first place, struggling to focus during sessions, struggling to pluck up the courage to go to the gym or anything else in between; what you want is a PT who can understand that issue and help you with that.
Because in reality getting a gym plan is useful. Having someone tell you what to do in the gym gives you focus. A good PT will programme your sessions to incorporate progression and work specifically towards your goals.
All of that is useless though if it doesn’t work around your pain points. A good coach doesn’t just give you the right exercises for you, they understand the obstacles you face and look at how you can overcome them. That has an effect on what they have you do.
That doesn’t mean they have to have lived your experience, of course that can help but it’s not essential, but they need to be willing to listen, pin point the issues their clients faced and think about how to incorporate solutions into workouts.
If you struggle to stick to workouts or get results, a plan and a coach who can help you work around yourself and the things that keep tripping you up might make a difference. It might not make fitness feel easy but it might make a difference to your results.
Heather Sherwood Fitness 