Be the opposite as lazy

It’s 4:30 am and your phone alarm starts ringing.  The night before you swore to yourself you were going to get up to go to the gym.  The first thought you have when you see the time, “I’m tiiired.”  You hit snooze and lay over in your bed.  Ten minutes later the alarm goes off again, you hit snooze and keep sleeping.  Before you know it, it’s too late to get to the gym.  You get up, start the coffee and turn on the news.  Today is “just another day”.  You have told yourself many times that it’s time to get in shape, lose some weight and work on your fitness.  But months have passed, and you have not upheld your end of the bargain.  This is a roller coaster many people live in.  Mr. Lazy is in your head.  You listen to Mr. Lazy too much and it’s costing you your goals.  You have goals but are too lazy to actually get up and do the work. 

Let’s switch this up now…

It’s 4:30 am and your phone alarm starts ringing.  The night before you got the coffee ready, put out your workout clothes and finished the night with a motivating article.  “I have goals and they will not be accomplished if I do not act,” you thought to yourself.  The first thought you have when you see the time, “I’m tiiired.” (by the way this is normal, it’s 4:30 am)  You turn off your alarm and sit in bed for 30 seconds.  Before you fall asleep again, you pop out of bed, head to the kitchen, turn on the coffee and then go wash your face with a cold washcloth.  Once you start waking up, you grab a banana, and search your social media accounts.  You find an inspiring article and read it.  This gets your mind right first thing in the morning.  You get in your car and throw on a song that fires you up as you head to the gym.  You crush your workout, come home and make yourself a nutrient dense breakfast.  After a refreshing shower, you grab that second cup of coffee, your water bottle and healthy snacks and you head to work.  “Today, I am going to be the opposite of lazy in everything I do,” you think to yourself.  You have goals and you know that action is required.  You are taking on each day and hustling. 

The power of simple choices…. One person decided to hit snooze and not head to the gym and “lives another day”.  I am not saying that person’s life is bad; I am saying that person is listening to Mr. Lazy regarding their fitness goals.  Sometimes that is the easy road.  It’s freakin’ hard going after your goals.  It’s hard getting up at 4:30 am to workout.  It’s hard to plan your meals.  It’s hard challenging yourself in the gym.  But just because something is hard, it shouldn’t discourage you from doing it.  Doing challenging tasks or activities will stretch your limits.  And when you are constantly stretching your limits you are growing as a person.  The person who woke up at 4:30 am and got to the gym made a choice to NOT listen to Mr. Lazy.  That one simple choice snowballed into other positive and healthy choices.  This person took responsibility for the things they want and ignored the Mr. Lazy in their head. 

The moral of the story is to ignore the lazy thoughts in your head.  Well, that is if you want to achieve your goals.  If you want to get in great shape, lose the weight, run the marathon, build a business, become financially independent, improve your relationships… Mr. Lazy will do nothing to help.  You must create major action.  You must grind and constantly hustle.  This is a long-term journey.  In fact, if you look at it as a quick fix, you will end up discouraged. 

Tips to do the opposite as lazy:

·      Surround yourself with active and motivating people.  This is huge!  If the people you are constantly hanging around are going after their goals, odds are you will do the same.

·      Get a coach.  A good coach will keep you accountable.   

·      Feed your mind positive and inspiring words.  Read the good books and articles. Put positive quotes around your house, your office and in your car.  When your mind is filled with positivity, you will act that way. 

·      Eliminate excuses.  This is easier said than done but is a game changer.  Take away all excuses and just go do.  Watch what happens!

Reasons you are not getting results

Getting results in a fitness program is easier said than done.  And especially getting longer term results (sustaining a fit lifestyle for over 12 months).  If you are currently training, you may be making some of the below mistakes which is causing a plateau in performance.  A lack of improvement leads to a lack of motivation.  When you aren’t motivated, you stop working out and eating right and quickly your health is at risk.   Don’t fret though; I have also laid out ideas for you to work on to adjust your mindset and training regimen so you can keep getting big time results!

1.     Trying to overhaul your entire lifestyle overnight.  Fitness is a type of thing where many people gain extreme motivation for short periods of time.  Unfortunately these short time frames did not allow this individual to instill habits into their life.  Instead they tried to overhaul too many things in their day-to-day life.  Then the typical fitness roller coaster happens of being on a diet and going off the diet.  Or doing the workout program and then going off the workout program.  I have really been talking about this idea because our industry needs to hear it.  To me, fitness should be about “finding your way”.  But too many people go after unrealistic and unspecific objectives.  Just because your co-employee is an Ironman triathlete, doesn’t mean that you have to do that training.  If you desire to set a goal like performing a triathlon or running a marathon, you can get there, but understand that it takes months, even years to truly reach high fitness levels.  Do not try and do it overnight; it will just lead to an increase of you giving up on the lifestyle.  As a replacement, focus on 1 or 2 components that needs attention.  “I will train 30 times over the next 45 days.” Or “I will eat 4 servings of vegetables everyday for the next 8 weeks.”  When you start mastering these daily actions, your “lifestyle dial” will keep moving and before you know you will be in the best shape of your life. 

2.     Nutrition blunders.  Building a healthy nutrition plan is an integral aspect to getting results in fitness.  But this component is also the most difficult for people to comply to.  Many people view “healthy eating” as bland, poor tasting, and a chore.  But, just like I made my point in #1, building a creative and healthy nutrition lifestyle takes time.  Full on meal prepping may not be for you, just yet.  Take small steps to eating better.  Drink more water and eat more vegetables.  It can be that simple at first.  Once you instill these simple nutrition habits, choose two more to focus on.  Going on an extreme diet is a nutrition blunder and a complete overhaul in your lifestyle. Thinking supplements will lead you to your results is a nutrition blunder.  Supplements can assist your nutrient and vitamin deficiencies.  But you should not focus on supplementation until you have mastered healthy food intake.  Not allowing for flexibility in your diet is a nutrition blunder.  Life happens and you will need to adjust on the spot at times.  Be ok with that; there are many healthy choices you can make on the go or spontaneously.  Just be conscious about your decisions.  Lastly, aiming for a “perfect diet” is a huge nutrition blunder.  It’s quite all right to splurge on foods you may be craving once in awhile.  Look at the big picture; if you are consistent, that is what matters. 

3.     Not recovering properly. You are consistently working out now.  First off, kudos to you for getting in the gym and being consistent.  That is a big step.  But now, you need to really focus on adequate recovery outside the gym.  If you are not fully recovering in between sessions, results can stagnate pretty quickly.  And then you risk overtraining, injury and stopping of the program.  Getting 6-8 hours of sleep a night is critical to recovery.  Eating nutrient dense foods is also in direct relation to ample recovery.  Let’s also look at your workout scheme.  If you are training daily, and doing nothing but high intensity and hard training, you will not recover properly.  You need to trickle in active recovery sessions and lower intensity training and balance them with your harder training sessions.  Smart training leads to bigger and faster results. 

4.     You are going at it alone.  By no means am I saying that you cannot get results training solo.  I have coached myself for many years and attained decent results.  But once I hired a coach, my performance soared through the roof.  A good coach will set you up to be successful.  They will build a program that fits your needs and individual specifics.  Also, a good coach offers motivation and positive accountability.  Truly, this is what keeps you, the athlete, going.  If you are looking to take your fitness and performance to the next level, go invest in yourself. 

5.     You don’t fully believe in yourself.  This is a critical message here.  Many people fall short in this department.  When you lack personal belief in yourself, you create limitations in your life.  When you have physical and mental limitations, you set your standards low and risk not becoming the best version of yourself.  I do not encourage this way of living.  Instead, I want you to work on your belief system.  Positive self-talk, positive notes and quotes around your house and office, daily affirmations, good books, encouraging people; these are just a few of the practices that are needed in your life to truly start believing in yourself.  Once you start breaking a few personal barriers, the possibilities become endless and the door opens for you to go after your biggest goals and dreams. 

If you ever need any specific help, please email me at justinlevine03@hotmail.com.