The 3 Steps of Committing to a New Lifestyle
The first step is walking in the door. Shopping for the right facility, and hopefully the right coach, to fit your needs and create the best environment for you to succeed. Now, anything worth doing is worth doing right, and that is why I would encourage you to interview and consult with coaches to utilize them to help you with their education to generate true health and not just tell you what they think they want you to hear.
The truly hard aspect of this first step is the financial commitment. You have to understand that this is going to be an added expense, but it is going to directly benefit your life and lifestyle, what ever it may be, which is the whole point of income anyways, right? Now you have done step one, showing up.
Now that you have found the right coach and therefore the right facility, the second hardest part is adjusting your nutrition. I am going to repeat this more than just this once. Anything worth doing is worth doing right. If your coach has your best interest at heart, they are going to not only coach, but give you resources and homework to help you self educate your self on nutrition.
Every person is different and your coach probably can’t be with you 100% of the time, so you’ll need some self education to help him fine tune your nutrition as you proceed along your path. This takes a lot of commitment and will power. Your coach will help you learn how to manage your time and how to prepare your meals to fit your needs and wants, but you have to APPLY IT as well as STAY DISCIPLINED. Now you have completed step two, becoming disciplined about your nutrition.
The third and hardest step, as these have been in order from easiest to most difficult. PROPER RECOVERY. Your coach should ask about how you are sleeping and give your know how as well as more homework when it comes to your mobility and recovery. “Come on now Dale, you have now mentioned homework twice. Why am I paying for a coach if I have to do homework?” Here it is again, anything worth doing is worth doing right.
That is because health isn’t attained only by going to the gym and cooking healthily. If you are not sleeping, not working on your mobility and trying to rush, you are going to delay your process by taking more steps back than forward. Working on your mobility at home with direction from your coach will not only help you recover faster, but will also prevent you from becoming injured while you are not being supervised by your coach.
None of my clients have ever been injured while working with me, but have significantly delayed their growth by not taking care of themselves outside of the gym.
Back on the note of sleep. If you aren’t sleeping well, have trouble sleeping, wake up regularly, wake up still feeling tired, etc., then you are not going to progress as you should. You will most likely continue to break down, see little beneficial change and eventually get hurt. If you are working with an educated coach, they will ask about your sleep habits regularly. Do not lie to them just because you know they are going to tell you things you don’t want to hear or think you can’t do.
“Maybe try turning off your tv and cell phone 30 min. before you plan to go to sleep. You may want to cut out that glass of wine with dinner. Reading may not be the best thing for you as you still have to have a light.” The list is endless. This comes back to your level of commitment, and if you truly want better health, a better life and to stimulate change, you have to work hard and make it happen. Now you have concluded step 3, proper recovery.
Making the decision to commit to your health usually comes with a lot of behavioral change. Last time. Anything worth doing is worth doing right. You have to take time and commit to going to the gym, take time to prepare your food, actually eat that food and make time at home to properly recover so that you can be best prepared for the next days growth opportunities.
This is no easy task and there are many other steps that are a part of this process, but these are the most easily recognized and some of the hardest to make. First is walking in the door and taking the time to find the right coach and facility that have your best interest at heart. Second is committing to your nutrition, getting educated about it and learning to be disciplined.
Third is making sure that you are properly recovering and spending some time on yourself outside of the gym so you can be best prepared for what your coach has planned for you next. (My clients have homework, and if they don’t do it at home, they have to do it in front of me during the session. This means we get less done during the session than I had planned, thus delaying the speed of their progress.) None of this is easy. You have to work hard for it and earn it. Now the decision is yours. GET COMMITTED AND GET STARTED!
