Here we are, nearing the end of January and all of our best laid plans to have the fittest year ever just may be losing their momentum. The work/school/life grind is already starting to wear you down and who can be bothered with the gym anyway? After a loooooong day, it's all about Netflix chillin' with some wine and take-out. Ain't nobody got time nor energy for some boring rabbit food dinner and mind-numbing cardio.

January was a free trial month. You'll start over in February.

Or maybe March.

Or maybe you will put in ALL the effort for Carnival/Crop Over/your birthday...

And then what?

The timing and circumstances will never be perfect and it will always be hard challenging.

Some days will be way easier than others and you will always hit points where you want to quit. Worse yet, you may hit points where you can't even be bothered to start.

But what else is new, right? We've heard this over and over and OVER again. Yet here we are.

That's why I want to share 5 of the best pieces of advice I've ever gotten to help me achieve my own fitness goals, advice that can pretty much be applied to every area of anyone's life.

1. Start where you are

As in, start now. Right NOW. We have this tendency to want to wait until the right time to do things and the right time sometimes (read: just about always) never comes.

We allow our own hangups about how our body looks stop us from going to a gym, conveniently forgetting that all the super-fit looking humans in there also had to start somewhere.

We let our often misguided perceptions of our own abilities hold us back from trying, and I mean REALLY trying, something before declaring, "oh well, I can't do that anyway."

We let the fear of failure keep us from going after what is ours.

If that ain't me... Boy. It's embarrassing how much I've let myself hold me back.

Fun fact: I was terrified to start training people, despite being a certified personal trainer since 2013 with a bodybuilding competition background. Just wasting bare time smdh. All because I thought that I needed to do x before I could do y, when I just needed to DO.

Just do. Leap. Do the thing you need to do to get the thing you want!

How are you ever going to learn to do the thing if you never actually *do* the thing?? How will you ever learn to dance if you never actually go to a dance class because you don't think you can dance??

Matter of fact, just screenshot this pic, replace "fit" and "CrossFit" with whatever words fit your situation and read it out loud whenever you find yourself saying something like "I wanna try such and such class/workshop/challenge but I need to lose weight/get fit/be a pro first":

Let it sink in. Good.

Moving right along.

2. Fail

Fail forward, fail often. Try again, try better. Then fail again and fail better. Rinse. Repeat.

Have you heard Will Smith speak on this? If not, first of all, where are you living, and second of all, go and look up Will Smith's epic 'fail forward' video. Go now. Then come back here. 🙂 You're welcome.

Failure is actually your friend, because when you fail, you learn and you get presented with two opportunities: try again, armed with new knowledge from the lessons learned OR you can quit. [Pro tip: don't quit.]

But don't be trying again and play you "forgot" the lesson you were supposed to learn. You know what happens when you don't learn your lesson? It will keep throat punching you until you do learn. So learn. And keep failing!

Also...

3. Forgive yourself

So you fell off the wagon. Again. What do you do? Cuss your own self for being so stupid? Reprimand yourself for being too blind to learn the lesson you're supposed to learn from failing yet A-BLASTED-GAIN?!

It's easy to get mad at yourself. But be honest, if a total stranger were to talk to you the way you talk to yourself, would you or would you not be offended? Would you or would you not want to present them with a list of brightly coloured expletives and tell them about their family members? Come now, tell the truth!

Therefore WHY would you use that tone of voice with your own self, in this one and only body you're going to have for the rest of your life?

Be kind to yourself. Forgive yourself when you fail, know that it is actually a GOOD thing.

Give yourself a compliment. Pat yourself on the back for being brave enough to try a new fitness regimen / diet plan / health challenge and another (a bigger one) for getting back up and trying again when you do fall. High five your own self for any and all wins, big and small!

Matter of fact, go give yourself a big hail in the mirror now. And say something nice to YOU. Go on. I'll wait.

4. Keep it simple

We are living in the age of ALL. THE. INFORMATION. Everything you ever wanted to know is right there, a click away, accessible instantly! If only that meant that things were easier since there is so much info out there, just waiting to be absorbed...

Alas, it's a big fat NOPE. There is so much information, coming at you in so many ways, with brand-new supposed gurus and influencers and self-proclaimed experts popping up every second selling you the latest quick-fix miracle product / routine / diet / belt / tea / snake oil / whatnot pushing all the things, all the time, every second of every day.... How is anyone supposed to know what to do, ever?

It's utter confusion. Take poor Marge who just wants to lose the extra belly weight. At this very moment she could trying to drink the tea, fast every Tuesday, limit carbs and fats and sugar and actual food, while only eating the pre-packaged Fat-Be-Gone bars 4.3 times every Sunday, and also wear the special suit when she does the weighted-HIIT-yoga-combat-cardio-meditation class in the heated room for exactly 3,046 minutes weekly, because out of all the "celebrity" endorsed programmes out there SOMETHING has to work, right?

Sadly, no. Marge is just setting herself up for epic failure (and a possible hospital visit) and you are too if you try too many crazy things at the same time.

So what to do? Keep it super simple (K.I.S.S.) baby!

To start:

pick one nutrition protocol (IIFYM, paleo, intermittent fasting, Zone, nutrition coaching, or any that makes sense for you...), and one fitness protocol (CrossFit, personal trainer, gym classes, swimming, running, or anything you actually like to do...), then
do your research - i.e. read up in proper peer-reviewed books/articles, listen to actual experts, review honest client results, ask plenty questions, etc. before you
make a plan and then make sure you
STICK TO IT for at least a month
then ignore everything else. If you give it an honest try for at least 4-6 weeks, you can then make an informed decision on how things worked for YOU and how you will proceed.

Remember:

And with that, we'll move on to my final piece of advice for today...

5. Keep learning

In every single thing you do, understand that you are learning more and more about yourself and growing into a better and better version of you.

For example:

If you find that when you're stressed out you turn to things like ice cream and Chefette Wing Dings because they give you life, then you're learning that food is a source of comfort, which you can absolutely learn how to control. And still even get Wing Dings on occasion. 😉

If you realise that you just can't keep up with Crossfit classes because you're always so dang tired, you're learning that maybe you're pushing yourself too hard, or not eating to support your activities or maybe just that high intensity work isn't for you and yoga is actually your jam.

And even if it is that you found the exact exercise programme and diet plan that is perfect for you, you should still be learning how to make things even better - your performance, your mental health, how you feel in your skin or whatever.

There is no such thing as perfect, so let's stop chasing that. But there is better, there is stronger, there is healthier. There is happier.

So friends, let's start where we are right now, know we will sometimes fail, turn it into a positive when we do, forgive, K.I.S.S. all the time (😉) and be kinder to ourselves and never, ever stop learning.

Oh and, please to share which piece of advice resonated with you and what nice thing you told yourself today - if you're not too shy that is!

P.S. If you clicked this post because you expected a magic formula to unlocking the perfect body, sorry guys. That doesn't exist. But we can help you get closer to your fittest self in totally get-it-done-able ways! Keep it locked for more updates, freebies and info on upcoming goodies!