Consistency is the key to keeping you on track

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/10/2020 (1840 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

October is typically my favourite month of the year. My birthday falls on the fourth. There is usually lots of pro sports and my own beer-league endeavours starting up. The cooler weather and fall colours make for great outdoor hikes.

But this October is different. COVID-19 has tainted it some, with new restrictions now in place as we prepare to hold off a second wave.

But the best response is to focus on what you can control. And, this being a health column, let’s stick with your control over what you decide to feed your mind and body.

If it’s nothing but negative news and junk food, you’ll be consumed by it. But if you choose instead to control your inputs with exercise, positive messaging and quality food, you will be in control.

That’s what today’s article is all about. When you focus on bad things, more bad things tend to come your way. When you focus on you, you grow.

This was something I had to learn the hard way. Throughout most of my teens and 20s, I played small, wanted others to fail and lived a bitter existence consumed by a victim mentality. It’s no surprise my life didn’t neatly fall into place.

Truth is, it takes a lot more work to grow and thrive than it does to stay bitter and powerless.

For a long time I chose the latter. I finally realized focusing on what’s going wrong means more things will go wrong in your life. I don’t know if it’s some divine power at work or what, but it holds true too often to call it coincidence. If you have gratitude for the positive things in your life, more positives will find you and you’ll automatically put in the work to create them.

Here’s the take-home message for you: Focus on you. Focus on everything that you want to have and do in life. Focus on becoming the best version of yourself. The chips will fall where they fall, but you’ll know you did everything possible.

Win October in 30 seconds

Big changes start with tiny ones. Simply focus on winning the month of October. Here’s a simple 30-second exercise to get the month off on the right foot:

List your No. 1 fitness outcome goal for the month and two or three process goals.

Outcome Goal: Lose 5 pounds by Oct. 31

Process Goal No. 1: 12 strength workouts completed

Process Goal No. 2: 8,000-step daily average

Process Goal No. 3: Prepare your own lunch five days a week

I promise you better results when you know where you’re headed. But it boils down to the daily choices. So start with a quick win today.

Progress builds momentum, momentum builds optimism, and optimism encourages more action.

Take that first step in the right direction right now. Doesn’t matter how the summer went. It’s in the rear-view.

All you need is just a little victory today — eating a prepped lunch versus takeout — is all it takes to create the momentum to change your life.

It’s not easy, but change never is. When you know where you want to go, the momentary decisions become easier. Do you want to be the ideal version of you who has endless energy and a positive attitude or the one that melts into the couch at 7 p.m. with a beer in hand and negativity filling your head?

Life will punch you in the gut some days. Not every day is rainbows and puppy dogs. If you do not have good habits built and life suddenly becomes overwhelming, you are going to have a much harder time adjusting compared to someone who does the right things mostly on autopilot.

The truth is, the dirty secret that gets lost in 30-day weight-loss challenges is the only way to maintain the progress you’ve made during a diet is to keep doing the same things that led you to make progress, albeit with more flexibility.

You can’t build good habits for a few months, get to your goal or part-way there, and then throw all of that stuff away. That’s not how it works.

You have to start implementing and practising those good habits now because they’re the same habits that will help you maintain your progress.

Learning to track food today means you can eat without tracking tomorrow with a rough idea of how many calories you’re still eating.

Structuring your days so you’re eating a certain number of meals at a certain time today means you can do it without thinking about it tomorrow.

Learning how to meal prep and cook today means you will continue meal prepping and cooking tomorrow.

Learning that you have to make some sacrifices today (like going out and enjoying a meal with a salad and no appetizer) means you can do the same thing tomorrow.

Regularly exercising today means it becomes second-nature tomorrow.

None of this is restrictive or demands a lot of willpower when it becomes habitual; it’s just what you do.

When you get to that promised land, a rough day of work won’t automatically lead to diving head first into the freezer or pantry.

Those hiccups will bump you, but will not throw you off your path because your structure, rituals, habits and routines keep you on track.

If you don’t have habits of steel in place, the good news is you can keep it simple to start.

Have a consistent wake-up time throughout the week. Have a consistent workout time. Build a routine to start the day that gets you ahead of the chaos so you open your email with a few wins already under your belt. Build an end-of-day routine with a strict cutoff time and consistent bedtime so you wake up fresh the next day.

Start there. Fine tune to what suits your schedule best. There’s no reason you have to join the 5 a.m. club to be successful with this stuff, but consistency is key.

When you find your perfect day routine, you’ll have successful habits of steel where a tough day can’t throw you off course.

Mitch Calvert is a Winnipeg-based fitness coach for men and women like his former self. Heavy-set in his 20s, he lost 60 pounds and now helps clients find their spark and lose the weight for life. Need help getting back into the swing of things? Grab a free diet guide at mitchcalvert.com or email him directly at mitch@mitchcalvert.com if interested in fitting into those old college jeans in his next Drop 2 Sizes program.