A quick note to connect with you before the weekend. I’ve heard many people talking about winter gain weight and now they need to start working out again. Despite being so common, this is a flawed and misguided thought process.
For people who’ve gained weight during the winter (or at any other time), it has almost nothing to do with their missed workouts. Seriously! Look at it this way.
Those workouts account for only about 3 hours each week. That’s nothing compared to “other 165 hours” in their week.
The reason so many people struggle with winter gain weight, being out of shape, and low energy, is NOT about fitness or nutrition. It has EVERYTHING to do with how they invest the bulk of their time each week.
The time we spend outside of formal exercise includes:
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Our overall level of activity (how much we move our body each day)
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Eating habits
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Work habits
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Leisure activities
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Social connections
Let’s face it. We all have the same number of hours each week, but we can use those hours very differently. The actual things we do each day have a tremendous impact on our results in every area of life. Including whether we fit into our jeans after 2 months of staying at home or after a long winter.
How we prioritize our weekly hours, is directly related to our MINDSET. I define mindset as “the filter through which we see the world”. It’s how we perceive ourselves and include self-worth, self-esteem, values, beliefs, and goals.
Enroll in our Mindset Mastery workshop and learn strategies that will support you in cultivating a mindset that creates opportunities and success in your life.
Most of the barriers we face to success in life start with the mindset.
On that note, if these areas don’t change, you will always struggle to make the changes you desire in your life (including health, fitness, career, relationships, etc.). Think about that for a moment.
If you continually struggle to maintain a fitness program, perhaps at the base level you haven’t shifted your mindset, values, and beliefs to see yourself as someone who is an “active person”. If not, every time you try to exercise or go to the gym, you are acting in conflict with your values and self-image. No wonder it’s a struggle!
On the flip side, if you see yourself as a person who values and lives a healthy, active lifestyle, then it doesn’t matter whether you have a gym membership or do formal workouts, you look for and find ways to be healthy and active each day. You will also make better decisions around food choices, sleep habits, and many other healthy behaviors.
So, I encourage you to step back and look closely at the challenges you’ve faced regarding your health and fitness. Are you acting in accordance to, or in conflict with your self-image, beliefs, and values?
The answer to that question will get you far better results than simply forcing yourself to do some random workout because you want to feel you “have to” in order to lose weight, including winter gain weight.
Once we’ve dialed in our mindset, the next step is to implement key success HABITS.
Our habits are the vehicle we use to put our mindset into action. Success habits give us the perspective, energy, time, and inspiration that allow us to accomplish our biggest goals and objectives.
We all have existing habits in every area of our lives. If you are struggling with a certain area, it means your habits are working more against you than they are working for you.
Are you someone who hits the snooze alarm each morning instead of getting up and doing your morning routine? Do you spend more time on your social media feeds or watching Netflix than you do on activities that improve your health?
This is a habit. Think it’s hard to change? What did you do before social media or Netflix? You’ve just demonstrated that you have the ability to create new habits! It’s just a matter of replacing them with more beneficial habits.
Failing to put the foundation of these two pillars (Mindset + Habits) in place is at the heart of most failed goals.
To learn more about the 4 Pillars Of Performance check out my Fitness Curveball book on Amazon.
With a positive, proactive mindset, and simple success habits in place, your fitness and nutrition (and life) goals become infinitely easier to accomplish.
This may sound like a complicated and ethereal process, but it’s actually pretty simple. Here it is in its most simple form.
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Decide the type of person you want to be
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Live into that vision every day
This may seem simple, but most people fail to take these steps! They dive right into things like “joining a gym”, “working out”, or “dieting” without thinking about WHY these things matter, or HOW to most effectively accomplish their goals.
We all have a different vision of who we are, and aspire to be.
We also have different circumstances that will impact how we live into that ideal.
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Perhaps your work is crazy right now
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Maybe you’ve lost your job
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You may have kids at home and are struggling with homeschooling
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You may be loving the fact that you can work from home each day
Each of these factors will impact which strategies work best to help you reach your goals, but regardless of what you may be experiencing, change will start with your mindset and be delivered through your daily habits.
When you are ready to make move past your current challenges and create real change, we at FRESH! would love to help.
Just book your FREE Success Coaching Session and let’s start creating a success mindset and high-performance habits right away!
Also, follow us on our YouTube channel for more exercises and workouts!
