Being a personal and group trainer, I’ve noticed a common pattern with ALL of the clients I work with.

Before someone is ever able to change their health and body, they have to first:

Not change their nutrition habits...

Not change their exercise habits...

But change their mindset!

This may seem kind of annoying at first. You may be saying, “Oh great, I have to change completely how I think.”

It’s not really that bad.

There are really just a few simple changes that we can make that will make a night and days difference in how you think… which of course will carry over into improving your fitness and reaching your health goals.

Tip #1: It’s possible to have your cake and eat it too

Eating healthy has somehow been related to bad tasting foods. What does happen, is when we get used to a lot of the processed foods, we get used to very high fat and sugar contents (which desensitises our sense of taste). When we go to eat less processed foods, it doesn’t taste nearly as good!

To overcome this, you simply have to take a week of eating less processed foods, and trying new foods out you’ve never tried before. You’ll be surprised at how many new foods are out there you haven’t tried, and the “fresh” flavor they provide.

Basically, you can eat healthy food and still have it taste amazing!

Tip #2: Nothing is Bad or Good!

I picked this up from the great book, “Fatloss Happens on Monday”. How many times have you told yourself, “I was bad today, I ate some cake” or “I was awesome today, I had carrot sticks!”.

The truth is, you want to avoid getting overly disappointed or overly proud of yourself. What you eat has nothing to do with what type of a person you are!
I like to look at it very objectively. Instead of what I mentioned above, try changing what you say to yourself like this:

“Eating cake today moved me farther away from my goals.”

or

“Eating carrot sticks moved me closer to my goals today.”

As you can see, just from reading it in the book, there is a very different emotional response. When you say “good or bad”, you feel emotional.

But when you say, “closer or farther away from goals”, it’s more logical.

We want to remove that emotional part as much as we can, because as I’m sure you’ve experienced, emotions and food do not mix!

Tip #3: Set the Bar for Yourself - Be Responsible

One thing I probably heard more than anything growing up is, “you need to be responsible.” Can you guess who said this to me the most?

Adults.

And it’s true, I don’t believe you are truly an adult until you are responsible. And that means two things.

You need to take 100% responsibility for where you are today.

Life happens, and you make choices. Whatever those choices are, you need to own them. If you blame outside factors for your health, you will not have the power to make the changes you need to to reach your goals.

Obviously, if you were born with a certain disease, that was completely out of your control. But focus on the factors you can control!

But what do you do if you make a choice that doesn’t move you closer to your goals.

You can do one of two things:

Feel bad about yourself (emotional and irresponsible)
Go to the store, buy healthy food, and cook it! (action and responsible)

Being responsible is going to be a key to your success

Tip #4: Have a Long Term Mindset

Also known in business as an “investor's mindset”, this is when you give up current pleasure for the potential of a better future.

I saved the best for last on this one. And we have ALL done this before. Remember when you were younger and wanted that toy so bad? You had to save up for it. You decided not to buy little things, save your money, because you knew that if you did, you’d get that awesome thing in the end.

That is having a long term mindset.

I like to say things how they are… so I will say it. Exercising and eating healthy are not always easy! Sometimes it’s the last thing you’ll want to do.

But other times, it’s exactly what you’ll want.

It’s the hard times that will test you. And if you can have an “investor’s mindset”, you will be successful in achieving your goal!

Before we move to the next chapter, I want you to answer these four questions:

What are 5 foods that you enjoy eating that are a fruit, veggie, or protein?

Describe a time that you when you got worked up too much from eating a “bad food”?

What’s an example of something you have previously blamed outside factors on, and how can you take 100% responsibility for it?

What’s an example of the last time you had an “investor’s mindset?”