A client on my fat loss fitness programme posted this on the Facebook group yesterday:
It is going to be so hard once On one hand, I was quite pleased to see this. I’m always encouraging my proggers to think about what challenges they might face over the next few weeks and to plan ahead for how they’ll deal with them. So it’s brilliant that’s she has foreseen that the cold mornings could give her some difficulty… If she lets them. The thing is though, the way she phrased her comment shows me she’s under the false impression that when it is cold in the morning she will find it hard to get out of bed and that she has no choice in that. She’s thinking, ‘It’s going to be hard. All I can do is look for ways to make it easier.’ But the truth is it doesn’t necessarily have to be hard at all. The only thing that, if she didn’t change her thinking (which I’ll help her to do), will make it hard is the fact that she’s decided it should be hard. You, me, my progger, or anyone else, can choose to wake up and think about how cold it is outside of the bed, how much nicer it would be to stay cocooned in the comfort of the warm soft sheets, recoiling at the effort it’s going to take to exercise. We can all do this and more to make getting out of bed seem a thoroughly miserable prospect for ourselves. We can choose that. Or we can choose something else. My progger has made a decision to get fitter and healthier and shed the fat she’s not happy about having on her body. She has made a commitment that every day, no matter what, she is going to get up and do what needs to be done to make that happen. Especially given that she’ll be getting up anyway, whether she feels miserable about it not, doesn’t it make sense to not feel miserable about it? In reality most of us have much more to be happy and excited about as we get up in the morning – if only the fact that we are able to get up in the morning – than we have to be miserable about anyway. Next time you wake up ready to exercise on a cold morning, how much better do you think you’ll feel if, instead of the above, you focus on what a fantastic gift you’re about to give yourself by exercising and how amazing you’re going to feel afterwards? Reminding yourself that, after just a few minutes of exercising, you’ll get that rush of endorphins pumping into your brain infusing you with positivity and energy. And then, after the exercise is finished you’ll get those satisfied, relaxed, proud feelings that can often stay with you all day. Plus you’ll know that you’ve taken another step towards your training goal. Isn’t that something you should be really happy about doing? Isn’t it something you really ought to be looking forward to getting out of bed for? I know it’s not always easy to change where your mind goes, especially when you’re used to following a pattern of, for example, spending extra time in bed when it’s cold. But I want you to open your eyes to the fact that you can change that thinking whenever you like. It takes effort, especially at first, and that’s when having a coach and a supportive group can really help. But, with repeated daily practice, your new way of thinking can become your natural pattern and you won’t have to keep redirecting your brain to focus on the reality of the fact that getting up to exercise is a privilege. You don’t need to be in a group like mine to get support, you could simply buddy-up with some friends who have the same aims, or talk to someone who has already achieved their goals. But in 2014 I’m going to be expanding my coaching services to help more people, so stay tuned if you are interested in joining me and my growing online gathering of people backing, encouraging and educating each other to get and maintain the changes they want to make to their bodies and their lives. In the meantime, here’s to some awesome cold morning workouts. Like this post? Then you’ll probably like my best selling book, The Fat Burn Revolution. 