Tag: exercise

confidence, exercise, sleep, time management

Immediate gratification

I know the process of exercise doesn’t feel good, in fact, it’s quite the opposite at the time. Being hot, sweaty, uncomfortable it’s quite an ordeal.

The same goes for food choices, it’s effort to cook a meal that will be better for you than a takeaway.

And getting to bed at a reasonable time rather than staying up for some more down time is tough.

Putting time aside to journal or meditate is also a challenge. Because at the back of your mind you know you’ve got a lot on your plate and you could be tackling some of that.

Doing these things gives us a short lived sense of achievement. From knowing that we’ve done something good for our health, but it’s negligible.

Everything else in our lives we get immediate gratification from. A take away meal or fast food gives us a big wave of dopamine. A cigarette gives us a nicotine hit, an alcoholic beverage gives us a buzz. Ordering something online arrives next day (sometimes the same day, thanks Mr Bezos)

It’s hard because we live in a world that caters for immediate gratification. Yet, these acute immediate gratifications are short lived. And some even come with remorse!

They’re very easy to fall into the habit of doing. When you’re busy with work and kids you might not be prepared to eat that well. Also, eating the stuff that’s not so great for you feels good when you’re stressed (thanks alot dopamine).

It’s easy not to go to the gym because ‘you haven’t got time’ or ‘you’re not feeling up for it’

It’s easy to watch another episode and stay up late because your day hasn’t included any time for you. It’s been all work, work, work.

With exercise, sleep, your diet, stress management there isn’t an clear or immediate feel-good association. Only the pat on the back you give yourself.

This immediate gratification is what you are fighting against in order to make a change.

Not giving into the things that feel good now but doing the things that will pay off later. Delayed gratification. The gratification that comes from achieving confidence from looking and feeling good. That feeling of being stronger, healthier, energised takes a bit of time.

But, imagine waking up every day feeling good, happy with what you see in the mirror. Thinking ‘you know what I’m going to change my social media profile pic to not just a headshot’.

‘I’m going to get those jeans from that store’.

This gratification will not be short lived! This will be with you for the foreseeable future, long-term happiness.

confidence

Fear of failure

Have you ever avoided something because you are scared of failing?
Of course you have. This fear of failure is something we pick up in adolescence or adulthood. It protects our ego.


Think about it, what do we tell our kid’s when they come to us and tell us that something doesn’t work? We tell them to try again and when they come back and say it still doesn’t work. We say ‘try again’. Is that what we do as adults?? Nope! If we try again, we make sure nobody knows about it we don’t want anyone to know that we failed, right?


How long do you give your average baby to learn how to walk, before you shut them off and stop them from trying anymore? 🙂 They get up and keep failing until they walk! That is the magic formula. That is why you are able to walk. You persevered until! Thousands of attempts and thousands of ‘failures’ to see you walking. You tried until!


Unfortunately over time people are deterred from taking action and persevering because of fear. Fear of failure!

What I would suggest to you is that you change your perception around failure. To discipline your thinking in a new way, new thought process. What I mean is I want you to think that;


‘there are no failures, there are only results/outcomes!


Ask yourself do I always get my goal? But do you always get an outcome? Maybe not the one you intended, but it is a result. So the truth is you never fail you always succeed in producing a result, now it may not be the one you intended but that’s ok.You can make a subtle change and produce a new result.


People that succeed are the ones that do not believe in failure. There is no failure only outcomes/results. This guides them to continually take the action that eventually produces the kind of results that most people only hope to produce.


The thing is you probably don’t feel good about failing, but you feel good about learning. So the way you are going to succeed from this moment forward is you are going to realise that there are no failures. Because you learn from every experience. You succeed by learning from every human experience.


You will learn far more from these failures than you do successes. And as long as you learn from the experience then you can change your approach to produce the result that you want!


Now what I’m going to put to you is, how about you remove all the time spent trying and failing? How about you expedite the result with a proven method that will see you transform your body and mind. Improving your energy and productivity. A method that will see you looking good and feeling great!


click here

confidence, exercise, nutrition, stress, time management, weight loss

Small commitments, big results

When addressing health and fitness the common misconception is that it you have to make some dramatic overhaul to your life.


That countless hours will have to spent at the gym on exercises you detest.


Your diet will have to be drastically adjusted and a large chunk of time will be spent with meal prepping.


Sleep, stress and recovery plans will impact your week placing even more time constraints on you.


When the reality is you only need to adjust what you are already doing. No more time required just optmising what you are already doing.


The time you spend exercising will not change only the exercises and how you organise that training. To ensure that you are building muscle and boosting testosterone levels.


The time you assign to your diet will not change only the choices you make with your meal selections. To ensure that you are energised and managing your weight.


Sleep and recovery can be improved so that your performance is better. Because improving your performance is not about how hard you can go at it. It’s about how well you can recover.


Knowing this is important because time is precious and what with juggling other demands. Working long hours. Caring for family. Trying to manage a business. And so on. The last thing you want to feel like is that you have to give more time to something.


With The Limitless Lifestyle Blueprint you have a Health Professional take care of everything for you. All the heavy lifting is done. No more guess work. No more time wasted doing redundant diets. Irrelevant exercise routines, or erroneous sleep and stress regimes. You have a plan to follow and support and accountability along the way.


The only extra time you need to set aside are for our weekly check ins. Where we go over what progress you’ve been making with performance and what, needs adjusting as your body changes and if your lifestyle changes.


Not more time, time better spent.

exercise, stress

The guilt trip

Ever feel guilty taking time for yourself?

I know most people I speak to do. When they are doing things to benefit their health like exercise, taking relaxation time, meditating. They tell me that they feel guilty for not spending that time on their work or with their family.

It’s not surprising. I’ll use the example of when you last got a course of medicine from the doctor. I bet you didn’t finish it and the bottle/packet is still in your medicine cupboard. But if that course of medicine was for your child or your pet you’d make sure they’d complete the course.

You downgrade your own self-care and put other things first. Which is admirable and kind but it puts your health on a negative trajectory.

You may even perceive this time for yourself as selfish. So many people are this way inclined. Self-care almost seems taboo. You have so much to do. And the thought of taking some of that precious time out of your day for yourself seems egocentric.

Combine that with time pressures and the fact change is hard. Well, 
time for your health and fitness seems even less appealing. I implore you to put your health on par with the other things in your life. If you don’t then that’s the real selfish act. Sooner or later your poor health will impact others. Their time, their concerns for you, or them following your example!

And if you put emphasis on your health and fitness you will see this change permeate other areas in your life. You’ll feel better, your energy will increase. Your quality of life will improve. Which will benefit your family, and your work. 

I know you are there nodding saying ‘you’re right Andrew’. But knowing and implementing are 2 very different things. They are worlds apart. This is why the single best thing you can do is factor in time for yourself. Put it in your diary/scheduler. This will increase the likelihood of you getting it done (by a significant amount). From doing this you have accounted for it and you have set the intention.

Then the next challenge is for you to stick with it, to complete that course of medicine.

Need some help with staying the course? Click here

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Habits trump Motivation!

Another kilo down and one closer to my goal of 100kg lost. This is over the 7 years of self experimentation with weight loss and gain. I’ve has some people ask.


‘How are you staying motivated over this period?’


I’m going to let you in on something, I’m not! I’m not reliant on motivation! It’s not a concept I use or need.


I know that if you are reliant on motivation then you will struggle with consistency! That’s why I don’t rely on motivation, I rely on self discipline created by my routine!


Lots of people have more time afforded to them at the moment. Yet they aren’t exercising/doing workouts or keeping on top of their diet. Because their motivation is low, due to the current climate.


I’m not relishing all the workouts I’m doing, but I know they are beneficial to me. They are a positive action for the future me. Plus a good example to the younglings.


So I know I should be doing them. And I’m getting them done out of habit, not motivation. I’m getting fitter and stronger with time. Rather than the reverse, which is the general consensus.


It’s like investing/saving money. No immediate gratification now, but in the future, the money will compound. It’ll add up to a nice amount in your account. I put in place things that will keep those habits going. Setting a reminder at certain frequencies to invest and save money. Just like I set a reminder/time in my diary to workout.


These things make sure what I need to do gets done. They ensure it happens and these actions add up to a big return over time.


Think of your exercise sessions and food choices as investments in your health. Accruing over time to see you get fitter, stronger, healthier, happier.

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Why you don’t want to ‘boost’ your immune system

The advice from the world health organization is social distancing I’m miles ahead of it, as I’ve been avoiding people for years!


On a serious note, what you can do is avoid any erroneous claims or snake oil that charlatans try to sell you for your immune system. I find it incredible that people are proclaiming to have methods and products to cure the virus. Or products to ‘boost your immune system’! 


You can’t, neither would you want to ‘boost your immune system’. You can only support it! Your immune system can be split into 2 parts; innate and acquired responses.


The innate response first and it’s not specific. It makes you flehmy/snotty to try and catch the infection. It also increases your temperature [a fever] to try and, for want of a better word, boil off the infection.


You may feel weak and want to stay in bed, which is a good thing. Because you don’t want to go out and catch another infection in this delicate state.


The acquired immune system takes longer to kick in (5-10 days). This part is more precise and makes specific antibodies. The only thing that can speed up the response of the acquired system is vaccines. So if you boosted your immune system (innate) you would feel pretty crappy.


If anyone starts blabbering on about foods or supplements to boost your immune system. They are trying to sell you some good old snake oil!


Components of our diets are required for healthy immune function [vitamins and minerals]. The ones claimed to boost it! But if you have a good diet you will not need extra. And if you have a good diet you do not augment your immune system with supplements. Focus on maximizing your health now, avoid those health conditions that put you more at risk.

It would be prudent to ensure your diet is healthy and inclusive of lots of fruit and veg. Stay on top of your exercise and get good quality sleep.


Need help with any of this? Book in for a quick chat.


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