Psychologists say that's how long it takes to implement a habit, and to some extent I believe them. But from my experience it takes a lot longer than that.
It only takes a few weeks to fit it into your regular lifestyle but it takes far, far longer for a habit to become a habit of a lifetime.
Take this example:
Every day you brush your teeth, or at least I hope you do. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing you'll brush your teeth every day. This is a deeply ingrained habit which cannot be undone.
Think about going to the gym, if everything is going to plan you go on Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays after work. but what happens if you stay late at work? Or you have something really urgent to do which gets in the way?
Do you plan to go before work, do you plan to get up early on Saturday morning to get your session in or do you just say, 'Well I'll just do two this week.'
If you go for option number 3 then it is not the habit of a lifetime, because skipping training wouldn't bother you that much if you had a good excuse.
Back on topic;
Since you've made it this far, you'll be thinking about all of the classes you'll be doing and all of the sessions that you'll be having in the gym.
'I'll do Zumba on a Monday, cardio on a Tuesday, weights on a Wednesday etc.'
Then there's the diet that will go with it, usually this involves two interventions:
- Less alcohol
- Less calorie dense and processed food.
If this is you or similar to what you are like, with all the good intention in the world what you have done is taken yourself from what is probably a roughly neutral calorie balance to a severely negative calorie balance in the period of a week,.
And how does your body respond?
Badly.
What will happen is your body will think that the world is coming to an end and that calories are suddenly severely limited, and as a result of that it will begin to shut your body down.
This will present itself as reduced energy, low mood and a compromised immune system.
So although you are doing everything that you have been told to do, you feel sadder, more tired and more sick than you did when you were eating healthily.
But isn't that how you lose weight? By reducing your intake and increasing your exercise?
Well yes, but it's not as simple as that, because the truth is that your body has a group of chemical messengers which control how your body functions. They control how much energy goes in and out in the long term.
After 6 months of doing what you may be doing now you'll find yourself plateauing. The reason for this is simple, your metabolism has adjusted to your intake and expenditure.
Basically you took on too much at once.
Time for some great news!
You can get a very similar result from changing one thing at a time, to the result you would get if you went from zero to perfect, with a lot less stress and much higher compliancy.
The problem is that everyone wants the quickest fix.
Let's give some perspective, After at least 20 or 30 years of bad eating you can reverse the whole process in only a year or two. That's how much your body wants you to be lean, that is a miraculously quick fix.
So what you should do to get as fit and healthy as possible is two things.
Firstly, focus on the intensity of your training.
- Start by training for one hour per week. Only one hour per week, and commit to training as hard as you possibly can. You should feel it for days afterwards.
- Also you need a programme. I never want to see anyone in the gym just going in for a 'work out'. If you go into the gym looking just to burn some calories then you will never succeed, period.
- Don't take anything away from your diet, work by adding good things in, so your body begins to get healthier.
- This will leave you with a modest calorie deficit, and will kick start the fat loss.
It's so simple, there is no quick fix, the vast majority of people cannot turn themselves around psychologically in a month. Implement the habits of a lifetime and reap the rewards.
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