Fit For Life: Prevent That Plateau in The First Place

I made a good analogy yesterday when I was talking to one of my clients about losing weight and reaching her goal. I told her that you can compare building yourself to building the perfect lawn. It’s difficult in the beginning, but when you hit your goal, the maintenance gets easier. She was on point with her food and exercise program, and lost over 20 lbs. doing everything correctly, and being precise with her nutrition plan. But, now she is at a standstill, and the weight loss hit a plateau. Not uncommon among people. After digging into the issue at hand, she confessed that she wasn't eating perfectly, but couldn't understand why the weight loss was not happening as rapidly. So I hit it home with her that every time she ate something bad or too many calories that it would halt progress. It usually won’t make you go backwards, but every bad decision you make while trying to achieve your goal, is like hitting a speed bump in the road. Using the perfect lawn example, I said that in order to have a beautiful manicured lawn, you need to dig up the crab grass, kill the grubs, dig up and spread new loam, rake it, level it, plant seed, and water it relentlessly, until it’s where you want it to be. After the initial hard work and labor it’s easier to maintain. All you need to do is water, fertilize, and cut it. Reaching your weight loss goal is no different. It’s a lot of hard work and discipline until you get there. You need to be religious-like with your eating, and workout regularly. Building muscle and burning fat takes time, effort, desire, drive, and discipline. If you don’t follow this format, it’s like not watering that lawn on a hot day, it’s going to halt progress or knock you back a step. You need to take a straight line, no nonsense approach to reach your goal, or it takes longer to get there. Like I said earlier, the maintenance is easier, and here’s why: It takes time.

Muscle takes time to develop. It takes you longer to build muscle than it does to burn fat. But once you develop muscle, it not only makes you look better and your clothes will fit looser, and hang in a more flattering way, but the biggest benefit is that it will elevate your metabolism. A pound of muscle is smaller in volume than a pound of fat, and it’s metabolically a more active tissue, so it will torch more calories at rest and make it easier to maintain your weight. But you still need to do the work to maintain your healthy and fit body. It’s not a part time job.

Being fit is a lifestyle, not a part time job. You can't go all out “sometimes”, especially when you have a big goal to accomplish. You need to go even harder until you reach your goal. You can't coast to success, you need to get on the high speed train, and stay on it until you reach your destination. If you need to lose 40 lbs., and you get to the 20 lbs. point, and then lose interest, and slack off, you will plateau, or even worse, slowly regress. However, once you hit your goal, even if you slack off and put a pound or two back on during a vacation or holiday, you only have a short distance to go to get it back. My advice is when you need to reach your destination, go full speed ahead, once you get there, it’s ok to go sightseeing. Make it happen first, then relax and enjoy later.

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Fitness is like a business.

Success in fitness is a lot like success in business. I compare the two all the time, because I am trying to be successful with both. I got the fitness down. After 25 years in the industry, I can get you fit faster than anyone else, and I am very confident about that. Being in business is a different story. Although doing great 18 months out, I know I still have a lot to learn. Every month, my business does better, but I can’t - and won’t - coast just because I have a great month. I work relentlessly to reach my goal (even though my goal of success is undefinable).  I am working just as hard as I did on day one, but I work differently now. I am building my team and growing to new levels, so I still work hard, but I work more efficiently, now. Once I reach a certain point, I won’t coast, but the maintenance and flow of everyday operations will become more manageable, and easier to organize, just like your perfect physique. So, when you set a goal, go after it with everything you’ve got. Even when success shines a little, you can’t rest, and get complacent. We will always have temporary setbacks, but you need to make sure they stay that way - temporary. Always keep that positive “I can do mindset” and realize that anything is attainable if you work for it. Then when all the hard work is done, new habits will be formed, and the maintenance will be as simple as brushing your teeth. It becomes part of your everyday life, and when you fall, getting up becomes a lot easier.

Matt Espeut, GoLocal's Health & Lifestyle Contributor has been a personal trainer and health & fitnesss consultant for over 25 years. He is the owner of Fitness Profiles, a one on one, and small group personal training company, as well as Providence Fit Body Boot Camp, located at 1284 North Main St., on the Providence/Pawtucket line. You can reach Matt at (401) 453-3200; on Facebook at "Matt Espeut", and on Twitter at @MattEspeut. "We’re all in this life together – let’s make it a healthy one!"

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