She was broken. Beat up. Defeated.
She had tried so many times. Tried so many things. Different diets. Different exercise routines. None of it seemed to work.
She came to me for a bit of hope. Just a glimmer of something she could grab on to.
I promised her we could get her down the path. But only if she promised to stick to two ideals…
Consistency & Small Steps
She had to promise to be as consistent as possible. And she had to promise to take it all in small steps. So small in fact that the steps amount to 1%.
You see, this client was used to the all-or-nothing mindset.
They had to be all in on a diet. Whether that was no-fat. Low-carb. Cleanses. Name any other number of gimmicks.
Sure, the results came. And they often came quickly. But the desire faded soon after it started. Soon enough, the pounds and inches that were lost gave way to extra pounds put back on.
Exercise was similar. It was either long stretches on the treadmill. Or all out sweat sessions where getting spent at the end of the workout was the name of the game.
As with the dieting, the excitement of a new workout routine lasted for just so long. Then she was burnt out. Or worse, injured and couldn’t work out. More trouble.
There is a different way.
When she complained that the nutrition coaching was a bit slow, I reminded her to stick with it. Work on it just a little bit every day. Before long, the pounds were coming off. Not in a big way. A pound this week. A half a pound the next. Soon enough, 20 pounds were gone. Then 40. And she hardly even noticed. Not giant struggle against the her diets. Just easy, daily wins.
Exercise was the same. She wanted to push the kettlebell swings. I said no. Start small. So small that you can’t not swing the kettlebell each day. We started with 10 swings. That’s it. For the whole day. Eventually she worked her way up to multiple sets of swings daily.
Her strength improved. Her endurance improved. She was liking the look too.
She has now fallen in love with kettlebells. And best of all, no injuries to speak of.
Every day. Consistency. 1% better.
Consistency. It’s like giving yourself a gift. Every day. And, every day, if you improve just 1%, those small steps add up to miles in a single year. And hundreds of miles in a decade. And years over a lifetime.
What would you do with a couple of extra years to live your life?
What is YOUR 1%…?