What did you expect? What It Takes to Trim Some Fat

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Although Newton's third law of motion does not directly relate to todays blog, it made me think of the topic. What I want to talk about is expectations, or actually unrealistic expectations, and how they can be hampering your progress.

My bikini shrank too!

When an individual decides to undergo a change in lifestyle, the expectation of change or success is directly correlated with the amount of information that person has received regarding how much time and effort is going to be required to achieve the goal.  For example if a person has been bombarded with information stating that 20lbs of fat can be lost or 20lbs of muscle can be gained in a matter of weeks with minimal effort, it is natural to expect this to be true. Therefore they enter into this endeavor with a high expectation of success with a very low level of commitment. Of course when results fail to meet unrealistic expectations the person becomes discouraged and thinks they somehow failed.  After this cycle has been repeated a few (or many) times, the person gives up trying to achieve such goals and deems them impossible.  The real issue though is not that the goal is impossible to achieve. It is impossible to achieve in the time frame and effort level you have allotted to it.

Fitness marketing today is really no different that get rich quick schemes that have been around since anyone can remember. These schemes are based around the premiss that if you follow their "program" you can achieve wealth beyond your wildest dreams with;
1) Very little monetary investment
2) Very little time investment
3) Very little effort and sacrifice

You could take the ad copy from most of these schemes and switch out the words "wealth" and "money" for "abs" and "lean" or "glutes" and "ripped" and have a website or infomercial ready to go for the latest and greatest supplement, fitness gadget or weight loss/muscle building program.

Instead of citing Newtons law perhaps I should invent my own formula.  Lets try this. Results = Effort x Time.  An even simpler way to state this is, you get out what you put in. Now if you set your expectations based on the fact that results come with consistent hard work over the long term, expectations become much more realistic. When you enter into an endeavor with a realistic expectation of success based on your willingness to be consistent in the long term, your chances of reaching that goal are greatly increased. Apply this to paying off your credit card or trimming some bodyfat.  The variables may change but the basic principals always work.