What I now know about fitness is that while eating your protein and doing your squats are essential, NOTHING is as important as your mindset. As in, if you worked out 6 days a week and crushed it in the kitchen but didn’t work on your mindset, none of it would matter.
Allow me to explain.
Yes, nutrition and activity are essential to seeing physical changes in your body. However, if your mindset is not in the right place, it will be very hard to sustain the changes you’ve made. It will also be impossible to know when you’ve “made it”, or when you’ve succeeded in achieving your goals. A goal weight is fine, or even more specific a body fat percentage, but what then?
In getting to your dream body or hitting your goal weight, the value is all in the journey. It’s worth it to build the habits and develop the behaviors that actually reflect a healthy life, rather than look for the newest shortcut. You simply cannot hack your way to lasting results.
I know that lack of confidence and a stressful daily schedule can be the perfect storm that prevents you from taking that first step toward your goals. Here’s what I really want you to know about your fitness, from someone who’s “been into fitness” for a long time:
If you think your body needs to look a certain way or you need to feel ready to commit to 6 months before you feel confident enough to step foot in that gym or think it’s worth it to buy that spinach for a green smoothie…
You’ve got it wrong.
You have to become the person who is confident enough to go into that gym and be a beginner in order to build the confidence you crave.
Action breeds confidence. The first time you do that workout will be hard. It might even suck for quite a few weeks. But you’ll be laying bricks in your confidence foundation, and it will be rock solid once you’ve got enough of them down.
Changing your body takes guts, courage and so much consistency you won’t believe the change is happening, for a while. This is because your body and what people see externally are a reflection of many, many small choices you’ve made along the way. It’s necessary to put what you want long term BEFORE what you want in the moment.
Once you start to see results - it will become addicting. The feeling of knowing that all the reps behind you are the reason you can do the reps today is powerful. And then one day you’ll look in the mirror and realize you’re here. Here in that place that you only imagined you could someday be.
Just remember that the confidence started long before you had the body you thought you needed. It started with that first meal you cooked at home. That first rep you did at the gym. That first alarm you set to get up and take a walk.
Don’t give up. Keep going. One rep at a time.
Hannah Gills
B.S. Kinesiology
Certified Personal Trainer, National Academy of Sports Medicine
Certified Sports Nutritionist, International Society of Sports Nutrition Follow me on Instagram @hannah_trains
