Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff! Health and Fitness
Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff!
Transforming your body is not easy and it takes time and there are many, many variables that come in to play to achieve the best results.
When starting on your fitness journey do not overthink it!
Do not think you need to be perfect, do not be under the impression you need everything to slot into place and the stars to align to get results.
At the start the most important factors you need to concern yourself with are:
- Starting – What are you waiting for? Just start!
- Create a routine – Just ensure you go to the gym 3+ times a week
- Start changing habits – Start removing negative habits and replace them with new habits aligned with your goal
- Be consistent – Above all, this is the number one component to get results
In these posts I try to give you as much information as I can that I know will help you get the results you desire but I find again and again that people will get caught up on one or more small elements that they really shouldn’t be worrying about at this stage (beginning)
What Is The Small Stuff? (Fitness Variables)
To give you some more context on would be considered small stuff when it comes to training, nutrition, fitness mindset and body transformation.
When it comes to these areas there are a number of variables at play that we can modify to get various different results.
When it comes to health and fitness nearly everything is a variable that can be tweaked and altered in different ways.
Examples of variables:
- Training Method – Weights, classes, martial arts etc
- Reps – The number of times you perform an exercise
- Sets – Amount of cycles of the rep range you perform per exercise
- Rest Time – Amount of time you rest between sets
- Calories – The measurement of the amount of energy that food provides
- Macronutrient splits (macros) – Amount of calories coming from fats, carbs and protein
- Eating method – Eat clean, intermittent fasting, ketogenic diet, If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM), vegetarian, vegan etc
None of which you should stress over at the start, you just need to start and get going.
The more you train, eat clean and get more confident in the gym or with whatever method of training you have chosen you will become familiar with different variables and ways to change them.
As I progress with these blog posts I will be writing about and covering a lot of them for you!
What Is The Small Stuff? (Absolutes)
Absolutes can be seen as the elements that are fixed that we cannot change.
When it comes to health, fitness and body transformation the only absolutes are that you ABSOLUTELY need to:
- Train hard
- Eat right
- Stay consistent
So now that you know that there is no need to stress over these elements as you choosing to transform your body and you know why and this is how you are going to achieve it.
But somehow people seem to find a way to stress over these factors even though they want to make these changes.
The two biggest reasons for this are not being mentally prepared for what you need to do (not having the right mindset) which is covered in more details in these blog posts but also making excuses.
Even if you are in the right frame of mind making excuses is the number one reason why you will lose track, lose focus and ending up quitting.
Do not stress about, what you can not control!
The Excuses We Make! Health and Fitness
Making excuses can be devastating not just for your mental well-being but for any positive routine and habits you are trying to implement.
Thinking the excuse to your self is just the start but when you start saying these excuses to other people you are reconfirming them in your mind.
Excuses are a form of weakness and limitation factor the trick is to eliminate them as soon you spot them.
When it comes to wanting to make a positive change to your body and life through health and fitness there is no reason to make excuses!
You have decided this is what you want to do, you knew what it would take before you started (or you should have), you know why you want to do it and you know you can fit it into your lifestyle or else you wouldn’t have started.
Be stronger than your excuses!
Don’t Sweat It, It Is Done For You.
There is no need to sweat the small stuff, everything you need is available to you at the touch of a button.
This is also the reason I highly recommend getting a well-made plan created for you when you start your fitness journey.
When you have a plan, a coach or a purchased a program all the small stuff is done for you. All you have to do is show up and follow the plan exactly as it is laid out.
There is more information available than ever before and so many people available to help you there is no reason this should be stressful or hard.
If you have a question or need advice you contact and ask me
Don’t sweat it the answers are here.
The Weight On The Scale
Overall body weight has become everyone’s go-to method of tracking their results which is understandable as it is convenient and can be performed on your own whenever you like (provided you have a scales).
While the weight on the scales is a good metric to help track performance, it should only be one metric of many to give you a complete picture of overall progress.
By relying solely on the figure on the scale you are not giving yourself an overall picture of how your body is progressing.
You need to make the distinction and understand the difference between weight loss and fat loss. They are not the same thing!
Weight on the scale can become a sticking point and can also be the cause of a great deal of stress when it is used as the only method to track your progress.
Over Weighing
If you own a scales weighing yourself is actually too convenient and people can become obsessed with the result, especially when in the process of trying to transform their body.
It is not uncommon for people to start weighing themselves 3 times a day in the hope of seeing a reduction.
You are setting yourself up for a lot of stress and heartache by weighing obsessively.
When starting of limit yourself to a once a week weigh in, Weigh yourself the same time on the same day in the same state. I recommend first thing in the morning before you eat.
Obsessed About The Numbers
When you are relying on just the numbers on the scale to track your progress, they start to have power over you and you can even start attaching emotion to the figure that appears.
If the weight dose not change or god forbid it goes up this can leave you feeling angry, sad, stressed, demoralised and can start a negative spiral that unless addressed can spiral out of control.
If your goal is to lose weight and burn fat and the weight on the scales is going up this is not a reason to stress and freak out, the whole point of tracking is to tell you if you are on track or not and let you know that what you are doing is working.
When the results are going in the opposite way to planned use this is an indication that 1) you are not sticking to or following the plan as it is laid out or 2) the plan needs tweaking and adapting.
Undermining Results
People can become so obsessed with the result on the scale and have unrealistic expectations on how much they feel they should have lost to the extent that even when they achieve results it is not good enough and they become unhappy because they expected more.
A result is a result! Gradual, consistent results nearly always achieve the best and more sustainable body transformations.
Remember overall body weight is not painting the whole picture and does not account for body composition which is a far more accurate way of measuring results.
Don’t Sweat The Scale – It is only part of the overall result, use as an indicator of when you may be drifting off track and remember you are more than just a number on a scale
Don’t Sweat It, Just Do It!
If you talking about it or thinking about just do it!
Starting is the most important step, over thinking it and sweating the small stuff can become a form of procrastination and a way of forming excuses to stop ourselves from starting.
If you finding this is happening dig down it is often the case that we have some form of mental block to starting, we are scared or it is so new to us it is overwhelming and daunting.
If you need help starting for whatever reason enlist help there are numerous people available that want to help and I am one of them.
Contact me whenever you like for advice or a chat.
Just remember don’t sweat it, you’ve got this.
