While picking up some items at the grocery store, I overheard a group of people discussing their fitness-related challenges. It brought back so many conversations I’ve had with clients over the years. Today I’m going to share what I call “4 Weeks to Forever”.
One of the things I struggle with the most as a fitness professional is our society’s need for instant gratification…
Everybody wants results in crazy-short timelines!
The interesting thing is that most people (not all) are actually fine with working hard to get results.
They just aren’t willing to reframe their effort around realistic timelines, or they don’t know the difference.
That’s why the 7, 14, 21, and 28-day Challenges are so popular.
Some are willing to virtually kill themselves in the gym while simultaneously starving their body and brain of fuel in order to lose weight (neither of which we recommend).
Doing this actually takes a lot of effort, self-discipline, and willpower. So it’s NOT that these people are lazy…they are just misguided in their efforts and reasons.
Unfortunately, in some ways, I’m contributing to that misguidance…
In order to make my living as a fitness professional, an essential part of my job is to get new people to try out the various programs we have to offer. That’s where marketing comes into play…
After over 25 years as a professional coach, I’ve yet to figure out how to market the reality of fitness. How would you respond to an ad like this…
“Come and work with us. Join us for some amazing functional movement, mobility, and lifestyle coaching sessions where we will repattern your mindset, habits, and brain-body connections to help you move properly, avoid injury, and take on any challenge life has to throw at you.
You will learn about a positive mindset, build healthy exercise, nutrition, and lifestyle habits. Slowly but surely transform your life so that you eliminate most of your aches and pains, sleep better, have more self-confidence, be happier, feel stronger, have more energy, and lose weight for good…
Yes, that means without gaining it back!
I know you feel you need to get in the gym, sweat, work hard, and feel exhausted after each workout. However, at this point, your sedentary lifestyle combined with being chained to a desk all day has created a “time bomb” of injury and frustration that’s waiting to explode if you do typical high-intensity workouts. That’s assuming we could snap our fingers and fix your poor exercise technique from years of practicing incorrect form on most exercises.
The great news is that while the past 20+ years of neglect have been rough on your body, it will only take ONE YEAR of sustained effort to create those long-lasting habits and results you want. After that, you will still have to continue doing the work, but it won’t seem like as much effort because you will actually enjoy it and look forward to it.
We call this our FOREVER MEMBERSHIP!
If it were only that simple, and people responded to the truth!
No. Instead, people are overwhelmingly more attracted to short-term programs like the 6-week-20-pound Challenge, a 30 Day Kickstart, or our 14-day fat flush program.
Don’t get me wrong…
Those programs have DRAMATICALLY helped so many of our clients and acted as the catalyst to amazing life transformations. Many of our clients have been with us for 5, 7, or 10 years and counting! Yet, almost all of them started with some type of trial program.
However, these are the people who understood going in (or very quickly accepted) that true success in health and fitness is about the long game.
4 Weeks To Forever
Think of it this way. Which outcome would you prefer?
- A) Lose 10 pounds in 4 weeks and then gain it all back in the next month or so
- B) Lose 10 pounds in 4 months and never gain it back
I’m hoping you chose option B.
Now, in many cases, you CAN actually have both!
Yes, it’s possible to lose weight in a short period of time and keep it off forever.
We help people do this all the time. The key factor is that they start with a positive growth mindset and keep working on themselves. Learning about nutrition, exercising regularly, and making healthier lifestyle choices.
It’s the ON and OFF “roller coaster” that creates failure, frustration, and the negative mindset that so many people have about fitness and weight loss these days.
Much of the current “diet/fitness” mentality looks like this: “I’m going to kill myself in an extreme program, see fast results, and then magically keep the weight loss and fitness improvements while stopping all the positive things I did to get those great results and going back to what caused me to gain weight and be out of shape in the first place”.
Now clearly, nobody actually says that (at least consciously).
However, subconsciously that’s exactly what’s being said, and what their actions show!
Of course, the “elephant in the room” issue is the fact that people are still focusing on WEIGHT LOSS…
Our society is so focused on body image and being a certain weight that overall health and fitness performance are seen as less important parts of the equation.
Contrary to common belief, just because someone has a great looking body or is at their “ideal” weight doesn’t mean they are healthy, happy, or even “fit”!
That’s another conversation entirely…
The point I want to make about long term success is this:
Weight loss is a positive side effect of doing the right things to improve your health, fitness, and happiness. The great looking body is a natural outcome of the consistent work in each of the 4 Pillars of Performance (Mindset, Habits, Movement, Fuel).
Try your best to remember 4 weeks to forever! Plus, I encourage you to PLEASE FORGET about society’s warped vision of getting “a better body”. Focus on YOUR better body and realize this…
BEING HEALTHY AND HAPPY IS HOT! 😉
If you would like some help in figuring out what long-term success looks like for you, we can help! Book an appointment with one of our experienced life coaches today. You can contact us HERE! We look forward to hearing from you!
