Tag: Goals

3 Wishes

You have three magic genie wishes, what are you asking for?

1) To be 10kg lighter?

So would you actually want this? On face value it would be great, to immediately be the size you would ideally like to be. But, without the process and learning the healthy habits to maintain this new weight how long would you be able to maintain it for? One of the things about losing weight in a sensible managed way is that you learn good habits and that helps you keep the weight off.

2) To not want to eat chocolate and all the good stuff?

If we didn’t love the taste of chocolate or whatever food we crave wouldn’t it be easier to manage out diet? Well yes, but then we’d lose the enjoyment of eating those foods and having the really good deserts when out. What we might gain in one respect would be lost in others.

3) To be able to run fast?

To suddenly be able to run a distance in a great time sounds great. But part of getting to the point where you hit your time goal or get a PB is putting in the work and feeling the sense of achievement when you then hit that goal. Just being able to do it easily might be nice but you’d lose that goal that pushes you to keep improving and try and work past stumbling blocks.

My point? As much as we might think it would be great if we could skip the hard bits of the process when it comes to our diets and fitness and just get to the goal point, very often it’s the process itself that teaches us the habits we need to learn and provides the most satisfaction and sense of achievement. The things we think might make our life easier if they just came naturally might also remove some of the joy from things. As much as I might still be tempted to ask the genie for 3 wishes would it be in my best interest?

Goals

Do you know what I think we are all guilty of sometimes?  Not being clear enough on our fitness goals.

By this I don’t mean training without a specific goal.  I mean having a goal but not being clear on what that goal means and what you can expect from it

For instance – do you want to train for performance?  This might also lead to you being able to reach an aestetic goal at the same time, but at other times training to reach a performance goal may mean you cannot also attain to or maintain a certain size / weight.  You need to eat adequately to assist your training and this in turn could also affect your physique.  Aspiring to both drastically change your shape and also hit a physical peak could lead to frustrating disapoitnment in yourself (equally trying to become a body builder and a marathon runner at the same time will probably end in tears).

Do you want to lose weight / get leaner / whatever you want to call it?  Realistically to do this you need to eat less and move more.  This might not be compatible with also aiming for a specific training goal, like lifting more, if you are drastically limiting your energy intake.  Have you ever tried going harder in training sessions when you’re also eating less than normal?  It’s not massive amounts of fun.

I have long said about myself that my training goal is largely mindset orienated.  I train to feel good, it helps my mental health and acts as an anchor.  Equally I enjoy eating and try not to be restrictive with my diet.  For this I also have to accept that I’m not going to be super lean or be breaking any training records any time soon.  Training has a point and that’s to kee me fit, healthy and to make me feel good.  I can quite happily stick to light weights and not feel bad about myself. 

If I wanted to change that, lose some weight or improve the amount I lift I’d also have to seriously reconsider how I approach my diet and how I train.  I’ve done that before and it can, I’ve found, have a negeative effect on my mindset and how I feel about training.  In trying to focus on multiple things it has a negative impact on the thing most important to me.

Essentially, we need to be aware that we can’t do everything.  Of course, there will be knock on effects, you may well find that as you train for an event or to hit a certain PB you also find your body changes and you’re really pleased with that.  But if you’re goal is one specific thing try honestly focusing on that one thing – not getting distracted by trying to do everything at once.