Commit to never quit

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/04/2022 (1280 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What’s the secret to stopping yourself from self-sabotaging your fitness and diet goals? That would be attacking the problems at the root, re-wiring our internal thought processes and resisting blaming something or someone else for your struggles.

The fact is, I guarantee everyone reading this could reach their goals over a long enough timeline if they committed to the basics.

There’s a member in our program, Michele, who has lost 80 pounds and has been a star pupil, no question.

But I’m sharing her story because the very excuses I hear from people why they can’t start are exactly the ones she overcame.

Michele could’ve used age as an excuse — she’s in her 60s.

She could’ve used working long hours in health care during a pandemic as an excuse. She could’ve used her total lack of experience with exercise as an excuse. But she chose to move forward because her health mattered more than her excuses.

Now she’s lost over 80 pounds and is a complete savage with strength training; she swims and skis near daily; she knows how to balance fun in her diet without going overboard; and she realized what she thought was arthritis was just a symptom of inactivity.

And she has become the fittest person in her circle simply because she committed to sticking it out until her identity changed. Not for 90 days, but a lifetime, setting her up for decades of quality years to come.

This is what’s possible when you commit to never quit. The alternative is to never really commit and use that “I’ll try” mindset for a few months and then go off in search of another shiny thing, never getting permanent results.

How to know if your plan is working

If you’re not losing weight or seeing any signs of progression despite doing everything right for several weeks or even months, then you’ve not been doing everything right for several weeks to several months.

Ouch, I know. It’s not an opinion; it’s a fact. There are a number of things that could be going on — some things you can control, some things you can’t.

Either way, here are some things to consider:

1. Make sure you’re managing your calorie intake

It’s so incredibly easy to eat a few hundred calories a day more than you realize — especially if you’re not tracking accurately.

The BLTs (bites, licks, tastes) add up. If you’re eating more than 10 per cent of your meals from restaurants and/or you personally don’t prepare from scratch, you can all but guarantee there’s more calories coming in than you think.

2. Make sure you’re moving your body

Some bodies adapt to eating less calories by down-regulating subconscious movement throughout the rest of the day to make up the difference. A lot of this is genetic and outside of your control, however, you can control your conscious activity by tracking your movement.

I don’t know if it happened over time for me, but whenever I eat too much my body demands I try to burn it off nowadays. I get antsy and need to do something, but some just melt into the couch. You want to be the antsy type moving forward.

Aim to get 8,000-12,000 steps per day, or at least 3,000-4,000 more steps than you do right now. This becomes more critical the further you go in the diet. But it is partly preventable by taking the process a little slower and not cutting your calories too drastically.

3. Consider a diet break

If you’ve been dieting hard for months and months and feel stuck, then you may need a little reset. Often, taking one to two weeks to go back to maintenance calories is all you need to break through a plateau and reset your hormones somewhat. This is how I approach fat loss. I call it the “Stairway to Success.”

And we need little “steps” or plateaus along the way to stabilize a new weight and give ourselves a break from the grind. For the vast majority, these happen naturally with things such as vacations, life events that throw you off course, or just one of those weeks where it all goes bad.

But here’s bottom line: If you think you’re on a diet but you’re not losing weight or inches, then you’re not on an effective diet. It’s simply science. And that’s a good thing because it just means there’s something in your plan, execution or expectations that needs to be fixed or adjusted.

Mitch’s Mailbag

Q: Any thoughts on how to train abs to get a leaner midsection?

I don’t obsess over ab training.

That always surprises some people, especially because I have no issues getting my abs to show properly when I get lean enough. I really only program ab work at the end of workouts as a cardio finisher.

Most people perform a bunch of crunches and ab work in an attempt to flatten their stomachs. It’s not that simple. The abdomen is a series of muscles, same as anything else.

Guess what happens when you do loads of bicep curls? Your biceps get bigger, correct? The exact same thing happens when you do tons of weighted ab work — your ab muscles will become thicker and more defined.

If that’s what you’re going for, knock yourself out! But the body fat you’re looking to strip off largely comes from your nutrition and overall movement.

If getting a flat midsection is a big goal of yours, it happens from:

1. Lifting heavy using compound movements and adding some “polishing” with direct ab work here and there, but not obsessively.

2. Being in a calorie deficit (abs are made in the gym but revealed in the kitchen).

3. Getting your overall activity levels up as body fat is lost over time, not by feeling the burn during one workout.

Be sure you focus on the right things and pour all of your energy into them for the best results. Always train smarter, not harder.

Q: Are there “good” and “bad” foods to consider on a diet?

It certainly makes things easier if most of your meals are comprised of single-ingredient, nutrient dense whole foods.

It’s a simple concept to understand — a can of Coke has roughly the same calories as a large apple, but it goes beyond “a calorie is a calorie.”

Clearly the apple is a better dietary choice — the fibre, vitamins, minerals and perhaps most importantly how much more filling it is make it a much better option on a diet. It’ll fill you up for longer and not necessarily leave you wanting more.

This is what makes produce and protein so important. We know how fibre in veggies keeps us regular and protein keeps our muscle. But the true value is in simply keeping hunger at bay.

There’s a psychological factor here. You simply won’t succeed if your plan limits so many foods you’ve come to enjoy. So why not account for some room for fun in moderation?

Energy balance is still the biggest thing to consider. For example, one study examined what happens when you add 300 daily calories of french fries compared to 300 calories of almonds.

Clearly, on paper, the almonds should be the better choice.

The results from a fat-loss perspective? No difference. What about health biomarkers, such as cholesterol? No difference. The results might be different after, say, five years, not just 30 days as was the case here. But I doubt it would be drastic.

As long as you’re eating in a calorie deficit, you can include the foods you love within that daily budget, even if they might be labelled “unhealthy,” and get great results.

Sure, some foods come with a steep calorie cost and just leave you wanting more. But don’t avoid something you enjoy just because it’s “bad” on paper. Including that in moderation might be an effective reward for sticking to the rest of your program and lead to much better results in the long run.

Mitch Calvert is a Winnipeg-based fitness coach who has helped more than 1,400 people transform their bodies and lives over the past decade. Visit mitchcalvert.com to grab a free copy of his metabolism jumpstart or to get direct coaching to drop pounds before Canada Day.