Site navigation and social media links
Consistency
Health | December 02, 2014
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
– Aristotle
Most of you have heard me mention the need for consistency frequently in my posts. Consistency is the foundation of all that we do at the ZGym. It is the bedrock of fitness and wellbeing. Without it, progress can’t be made. It is consistency that safeguards us from taking two steps forward and one step back, getting caught up in an endless cycle of frustration.
Habits
Remaining consistent requires us to make a habit out of diet and exercise. We can’t constantly rely on finding motivation. As many of you already know, motivation can be an incredibly inconsistent and fickle guide. Sure, it’s great to be inspired, but our fitness and diet routines cannot depend on them. There will often be days, even weeks where motivation will be hard to find and fatigue a constant, unwanted friend. That is when it’s crucial that we put our heads down, grit our teeth, and blast through our workouts come hell or high water. Being able to workout during these kinds of days and weeks may seem terrible and daunting, but it will make you not only physically stronger, but mentally stronger as well. And that strength will carry over into your daily life as well. I guarantee it.
Slow and Steady Wins The Race
A common way that people rationalize not being consistent with their workouts is to essentially have a junkie workout day where they decide to go crazy and binge through two or three workouts at the Zgym and then follow it up with a five mile run. Satisfied, they then take the remaining week or month off. That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point. Regardless, such an approach is counter-productive and offers little, if any, growth. Fitness and wellbeing are about creating a healthier, more enlivening life.
Make a weekly plan for your workouts and stick to it. Don’t get carried away or over-extend yourself. Set attainable goals that are reasonable for your current level of fitness. Sometimes actual progress is a game of inches, figuratively and literally, but every little bit counts!
Where are you with your consistency at the ZGym? What do you consider your main obstacles that are in the way of being more consistent?
Private Member |
fenton, missouri, united states
You’ve read my mind! I just posted a comment on your last workout about my lack of consistency this past year. I used to be so consistent with my workouts, followed a very strict Paleo diet and kept a workout log for everything I did. Then I went through some life issues..pesky things.. 😛 I completely stopped eating healthy..stopped working out consistently and my clothes were beginning to feel tight! I hate commercial gyms..I don’t know how many I’ve gone to and just have been disappointed with either their classes or lack of space because everything was so occupied by machines. I shared my frustrations with my friend and he immediately sent me a link to your website..I did one workout and I was hooked! It’s been a little over 2 weeks since I joined and I’ve been completely consistent and back on my clean eating with the help of my bf. I already notice changes in my spirit and my body and It’s only been 2 weeks!! I’m excited to grow with you and everyone else. So far so good I think..no obstacles yet..you make working out exciting. Thank you
Private Member |
Welcome to Z community Nina! And congratulations for your effort and consistency, so far 🙂
Zuzka workouts are always challenging but fun! Easy to workout this way! 😀
Private Member |
la valette-du-var, france
Keep the good work Nina 😀
Private Member |
fenton, missouri, united states
Thanks girls!
Private Member |
helsinki, finland
Welcome Nina 🙂 🙂 You gonna love Zgym more and more each day 🙂
Private Member |
balestrand, norway
I am super consistent with your workouts, even when traveling staying in hotels or on vacation. It’s fun! My problem is about 11 days before my period and all bets are off with diet. I get the munchies like crazy at night and eat whatever is in reach! Have to keep trigger foods out of the house at this time. Since it happens every month for about a week, I don’t make true progress, except that I am getting stronger physically. I definitely don’t have motivation for a strict diet during this time.
Private Member |
Try supplementing vitamins B-6 and B-12 starting mid-cycle. Personally I have a hard time remembering to do that and so I get on a butternut squash kick for a week. Most of all remember to keep up your protein and iron intakes (spinach, kale, lentils) it will help curb those pesky munchies for sweet and fatty foods.
Private Member |
balestrand, norway
I’ll give it a try! Thanks!
Private Member |
For me its the waking up. I’m not punctual and usually oversleep. I have been like that for my whole life. Its something to be ashamed of, but I’m trying to be better. I prefer to wake up in the morning and do my workout, because in the evening there is always something in the way. Being consistent with going to sleep and waking up earlier is my goal. Recently I’m very consistent with working out, especially that my mom does it more often too. So it is sometimes a family time too, pretty hard family time 😀
Private Member |
I can sympathize! I’m just not a morning person, and when I work out very early I feel like I can’t breathe and my muscles are so fatigued…I just can’t get going. One thing I’ve started doing is drinking a zero calorie energy drink…I think coffee would have a similar effect but I don’t like coffee. This has helped but I’m still not the kind of person who can work out at 5:30 in the morning. 8:00 or 9:00 I can do, but not any earlier than that. For us non-morning people, we just need to get really inflexible about the time we’ve blocked out in our calendars to work out. If that means coming home from work, changing into our workout clothes, and working out from 5:30 to 6:30, we have to be really focused on devoting that hour to working out and not allowing ourselves to be distracted. Hard? Yes. But harder than working out at 5:30? No it isn’t!
Private Member |
And when I’d rather do anything else besides work out, I remind myself that I have NEVER completed a workout and wished I’d spent the time doing something else. And when that thought isn’t convincing, I tell myself I will work out for 15 minutes, and at that point if I want to quit, I will do so. 90% of the time, I don’t want to stop after those 15 minutes.
Private Member |
usa
It’s true! You are far more likely to regret NOT doing the workout than you are to regret SMASHING it! Objects in motion tend to stay in motion =) (Not to imply by any means that Z-Warriors are OBJECTS, haha!)
Private Member |
lodz, poland
My main problem with working out is the fact that I always procrastinate the moment to start the workout 🙂
I feel great when I start and afterwards, but I always linger and can’t bring myself to start. For example, I intend to start exercising at 8 A.M, and then I realize I have a mess in my room, so I have to clean it up first, then I realize I have to call my friend and do some million unnecessary stuff on my computer, and I usually end up starting my workout an hour later that I originally planned 🙂
I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but that’s my thing 😀
I’m a weirdo, haha
Greets, Magda
Private Member |
Lol maybe its the polish thing 😀
Witaj w klubie 😉
Private Member |
My problem is a mix of you two. I have difficulty waking up, and when i get up my body is aching, and I still feel sleepy for a while, I can’t imagine myself working out hard. So I procrastinate and keep doing things around in the house. If I don’t workout before noon, then it is typical for me to postpone to the next day…Also, I often hurt myself , so i quit for a few weeks, and then start again for a few months…and so on. So i don’t really get outstanding results. I’ve been working from home almost every day in the last 2 years, and most of the time i did my workouts just before lunch. I was let go last August and thought: wow, I’ll be able to work out after getting up, and get rid of it for the rest of the day! But I just can’t do it 🙁
Private Member |
Magda, a suggestion. Tell yourself you MUST put your workout clothes on and at least do 5 minutes. If the 5 minutes is up, and you want to stop.. You CAN.
Most of the time, when you are 5 minutes in you will complete the whole workout because you feel so good.
Always allow yourself that out. Sometimes our bodies need the rest more.
Private Member |
OMG this is so me. I was up super early to check emails, read, etc. even get dressed. I come to the part to leave (it’s 25 degrees here) for the gym and I just do a little more “morning work” until I run out of time or I decide to get back into bed and snuggle my husband instead. I can’t do my workouts at home… it wakes everyone:-(… I do the same things at the gym.
This article is great timing!!!!!
Private Member |
fenton, missouri, united states
This is what I do for the days that I’m not feeling like working out at all….I think of all the things I hate doing that I have to do that day…like dishes,5000 loads of laundry and cleaning. And so I workout to procrastinate doing the things I hate. Haha probably not the best way to get me off my butt.
Private Member |
north carolina, stinacon@gmail.com
Haha nice! That might work for me cause I definitely procrastinate house work…so now ill procrastinate with workouts! Genius. Thanks for the suggestion:-)
Private Member |
I have 3 reasons why it is hard to keep consistent. I have very similar problems to Weronika and Magda. My main problem is I am not a morning person at all. I never have been and probably never will be. I go to bed late and wake up late. A goal of mine would be to get up earlier and get my workout over with. I have tried to do that though and I end up feeling tired after. Working out around 10 or 11am is the time I start feeling motivated. I really want to stick to the schedule but my second reason is that my job is very physically taxing and it is basically impossible to workout on a work day for me so I pick the toughest routines and workout 4 days a week generally. I’m lucky to only have to work 3 days a week. I try my best to work out on those days too but it’s really hard. My third problem is alcohol. I like to drink with friends on the weekend. Not excessively, but enough to feel like crap the next day. Also, I play in a band which has my out at gigs late at night and the atmosphere is generally a bar or party and therefore drinking is involved. I have an “off switch” where drinking is concerned so I never get out of control but I tend to feel hung over the next day and so my workouts and overall health suffers because of it. I know it is something that should be very few and far between but for me it is usually once a week so my 4 day workout plan will go down to only 3 days. I am always disappointed with myself when this happens because I know I am sabotaging my hard work which is something Z always reminds us NOT to do. However, I am responsible with alcohol 99% of the time and I work hard and train hard so I have that to be proud of. I am in very good shape and I intend to cut the drinking down to a minimum in the coming years because it is getting harder to tolerate as I get older.
Private Member |
Very good article. Motivation always runs out eventually. Building habits by being consistent will make health and fitness effortless. Doing things without thinking; it is just what you DO. 🙂
Private Member |
Great articles. It takes time for being consistent. You have to push your butt for a while and then you’ve created a new habbit and can’t get off it. It takes me a lot of times to got it. But now i’m here and can’t miss a workout for a day cause it makes me feel so good and it is automatically on my schedule on a daily basis. And now, i can say there’s a lot of benefits of being consistent.
Everyone can reach it !!!
Private Member |
So many excellent points made here! I always get dressed in my workout clothes first thing in the morning. That is truly half the battle for me. My biggest obstacle is fitting in my exercise around my toddler, but it is an absolute priority for me, so there are days I can do it before she wakes for the day, when she naps, or it has to happen after she goes to bed. I am all over the place some days. But I also have a calendar I printed for each month and each day, I write down my workout. It’s really motivating to be halfway through the month and see I’ve stuck to my 5x/week schedule! And doing Z’s workouts .. they are fun, functional, and fast. The amount of time I may spend lamenting the fact that I didn’t work out is usually the same amount, or longer, than the time I could have spent actually DOING the workout. There’s a lot to be said mentally, physically, and emotionally for being consistent and fitness happens to be a tangible vehicle for achieving this.
Private Member |
usa
This is a great post! I totally agree that getting out of the bed and into the clothes is the hardest part. Because of my schedule, the only time that I can exercise is early in the morning. I find that it helps to have everything set up (clothes by the bed, jump rope out for warm up, KB/DB set out, journal out and open, timer set out, etc.) For awhile I think I was doing too many intense workouts without mixing them up with lighter workouts. I would burn out and end up skipping half the week because of exhaustion. The variety of workouts and the schedule help to keep me CONSISTENT =) Thank you, Zuzka & team!
Private Member |
Before I signed up, I used to workout at the gym a lot. Ever since school started I haven’t been able to stay consistent because I didn’t want to neglect time with my son, or time for studying. Going to school full time and being a parent full time isn’t the easiest. Since I joined the Zgym, it’s made it a lot more convenient for me because I am still at home with my son, I don’t have to guess what workout I will do since it’s already in front of me, and I don’t have to spend as much time at the gym as I used to! The consistency with my workouts is much easier now! Greatest investment thus far! So thank you Zuzka & team! <3