As I have gotten older, one of the greatest life lessons I’ve learned is that the sooner you learn patience (wait, is that an oxymoron?), the less stressful and the more successful your life will be. Embarking on a health and fitness program, or total healthy lifestyle change, is a prime example of how practicing patience will yield success.
 

A WATCHED POT NEVER BOILS

If you start on a fitness program, and know that you are doing all of the right things – food journaling and hitting all your macros, getting in all of your cardio and strength-training workouts –for 2-3 weeks, you may not see dramatic changes. But if you see any changes at all – your clothes are a little looser, your energy level is better, you’re lifting heavier, your endurance is improving – you are progressing! In other words, what you are doing is working.

Do you remember the old saying “a watched pot never boils?” If you turn the heat up, it takes a while for the water just to get warm. But it’s not boiling yet. That doesn’t mean the heat isn’t high enough for the water to boil, it just means you need to give it more time. So you stare at the pot of water waiting for it to start boiling. You see a little steam coming off the surface of the water, so you know something is happening. But it’s not happening fast enough. You get impatient and turn the heat up even higher. What happens? The water gets too hot and starts to boil over, and you scorched the bottom of the pot.

The same can be applied to your fitness and nutrition program when you’re going through body composition changes. I’m not only talking about fat loss – going down in clothes sizes and dropping numbers on a scale – but all body composition changes, including muscle gain, toning/tightening, etc. Sometimes (actually most of the time) this can require on-going fluctuations in numbers on the scale and some really funky phases in how your clothes fit.

 
PATIENCE WILL GET YOU THERE

If you obsess over getting results – thinking about your body composition every day and wondering if there will be changes the next morning – it will likely stress you out and potentially alter your perception about the results you are getting. For example, if someone is fixated on losing 15 pounds and is on a fitness program for four months but has “only” lost 8 pounds, that person may be disappointed in not losing more weight. Even though losing eight pounds is a great step towards reaching their goal of losing 15 pounds. If, on the other hand, the same person didn’t worry so much about a certain weight-loss amount in a specific time frame, the eight-pound loss might be celebrated instead of looked down upon.

If you stare in eager anticipation waiting for something to happen, then it could feel like nothing is ever going to happen, or that it is taking too long. That is when your mind starts to play tricks on you and you feel like you should be doing more, or doing something different, or you get discouraged and give up all together.

 

FOCUSING ON THE HERE AND NOW

Don’t focus on the end goal when you are hundreds of thousands of steps away from being there. This can send you into a downward spiral of negative thoughts, doubts and despair. Instead, focus on what is right in front of you and it will make patiently waiting for results a little more realistic and bearable. Take each week ahead of you and do all the things you need to do to get closer and closer to that goal.

Here is a short-term checklist of some things you can do to get you on your way:

• Plan out and prepare all of your meals and your workouts for the next 7 days

• Weigh and measure your food instead of yourself
Not sure how to measure your food? Check out this video.

• Food journal every meal and beverage every day, using apps like MyFitnessPal

• Structure your strength-training and cardio workouts and block those times out in your calendar; they are appointments you can’t miss! The fitbook PREP is a great tool for this!

• Take each day, each meal, each workout and focus on doing your best and giving it your all!

If you focus on accomplishing the little daily tasks you know will eventually lead you to your goal – even if it is for two years, or five years or 10 years – one day you will wake up and see what you have worked so hard for smiling back at you in the mirror saying “Great job, you did it!”

 
 

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ABOUT NAOMI RABON
Naomi-lighterBIOOne of the trainers on Nicole’s elite NW Fitness Training Team, Naomi is a certified Personal Trainer and Fitness Specialist through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. She is a NPC Figure competitor who has been involved in the health and fitness industry for over 12 years.

Go here to find out more about training with the NW Fitness Training Team!