“Don’t let your mind get in the way of what you can achieve”, I tell all my clients this. The power of the mind is incredible, it can lead you to success or set you up for failure, the choice is yours. Now I recently experienced something which is a good example of this. For most of my entire adult life, I have been fixated on the notion that in order to lose weight and lean up, I need less calories. Even in past days where I was trying to build some muscles, I was still eating on the low end of calories. In my mind, I had to stick to low calories so of course, didn’t see much progress with the muscle gain. Now we all know that there needs to be a calorie deficient to lose weight and that adding muscles will aid to fat loss. However, in order to gain muscles, you need to eat a lot more extra calories.
Now, here is my story. I have several goals set for through out 2019 and to obtain these goals, I want to drop body fat and gain some muscle mass. Then about 3 weeks ago, I entered a fat loss/muscle gain competition through a local supplement shop thinking this would be a great jump start to my goals and its motivational since there is money involved for the winners. I started great, hitting the gym 6 days a week which included either cardio, lifting or a combo of both, and noticing an increase in the weights I could lift. I was also cycling my calories to match what I was doing. And then…setback time! Two weeks in, a tooth infection. So, for a few days, I couldn’t eat much and on one of those days, was leg day, a day which I definitely needed more calories. And for the first time in my entire adult life, I was upset that I couldn’t get my macros/calories in. Then I couldn’t believe I had this thought. BOOM! Mind blown!
After thinking about it, I realized that in the past, I wasn’t focused on my goals but rather focused on what I could and couldn’t do. Thinking like this, I was setting myself up for failure. I was letting my mind get in the way of what I could achieve. Once I got my mind in the game and started focusing on the goals, I started making progress.
Now this event led me to also think about setback. No matter what your goal is, you will more than likely experience a setback. Accept it, it’s going to happen and it is okay, it’s life. Just keep your mind on your goal and do what you are able to in that moment in regards to your goal. Then when the event is over, jump back on that horse and keep moving forward to your goal. Don’t let the setback be an excuse which keeps you from your goal.
Now today, do at least one thing that will get you closer to your goal! Stay body and mind strong!
