3 Simple Ways To Tackle Road Bumps On Your Journey Towards Your Goal
If you read my “My Fitness Journey (2014-2017/2018)” post from a few weeks ago, you may remember that the biggest lesson I learned from 3 years of consistent lifting with not much gainz was that I wasn’t eating enough; I ate very healthy but not enough.
I'm 5' 6". Before I started lifting, I weighed around 100 - 103 lbs (I know, I was tiny af haha) and had no noticeable muscles at all. After lifting for a few years, the most I've ever weighed was ~115 lbs (with 19% Body Fat) which was this past summer.
Here's some before/after photos:
Once I learned this, which was around September 2017, I started being mindful about how much I was actually eating in a day.
I realized that although I love food, I hate having to eat multiple times a day. There are times where I wish I was a bear so I could eat a huge meal every few months and just… chill. Now, add some top-notch metabolism (thanks dad) on top of lack of motivation to eat a TON and you won't see much muscle growth.
Because I only eat when I’m hungry, it’s been difficult for me to gain as much muscle. Although I can lift a decent amount, I keep hitting a plateau and I am quite positive it’s because I need to eat more. I’ve been better at it though… Baby steps! :)
Anyways, my saltiness towards having to eat multiple times a day made me realize something simple:
If you’re lazy and aren’t giving something your all, you won’t see much progress.
For instance, in my case, I wasn’t giving "eat more calories (through lots of protein and fat/carbs)" enough attention and was only training hard at the gym.
If you’re trying to lose weight but you cave every time you see McDonald’s or a Starbucks Frappuccino, you’re not giving your all to the goal of shedding some extra fat off.
OR, if you’re trying to learn Java but you only put in 3 hours/week time, you’re not going to learn much since learning a programming language takes lots and lots of practicing on your own; little reading/learning, A LOT of doing.
OR, even more applicable, if you want to succeed on Steemit, give your best; give your all.
Produce good content, write good comments, be genuine, show dedication to the platform and your beliefs, and change your attitude from only wanting to make money to sharing ideas, writing good posts, and having fun!
So, if you’ve been trying to achieve some goal but can’t see much progress overtime, take a step back and try figuring out what you are doing and not doing on the way; try figuring out what you CAN do to bring you closer to your goal.
You could do this in many ways. Here are my 3 favorite ones:
1. Write down what you SHOULD be doing on one side vs what you ARE doing on the other side.
This will help you see where you are at and how much more you have to go.
As I've mentioned in one of my posts in the past, if you write things down - your goals, your aspirations, your frustrations, or words of gratitude and love - you are more likely to figure out solutions than simply playing with those thoughts in your head.
2. Find a Mentor/Trainer
Find someone who has succeeded in that area.
If you want to learn how to program, find a good YouTube tutorial and follow it all the way.
If you want to get into golfing, find an instructor and take lessons for a few weeks or months.
I've honestly thought about finding a personal trainer, at my gym or even online, to help me with my goals. Right now, I'm seeing results as I do certain workouts at the gym so I've taken the task into my own hands but if I reach a plateau again by next month, I will actively search for some help.
3. Think about WHY you took on this challenge in the first place
Try going back and think why you decided to achieve this goal.
What was your motivation? What's your end goal?
Was it even YOUR idea? Are you doing it for YOURSELF or for someone else?
Maybe doing so will help bring back that drive that got you going. OR, you will realize that this isn't what you're interested in.
Because, unless you want to do it from your heart, you will never be motivated enough to make any significant progress on anything in life.
What are some things YOU have adapted to overcome any road blocks on the way towards your goal?
Share with us in the comments below! :) If you found this helpful, upvote, comment, and resteem it to your audience. Come be fit and healthy with me this year!
You are a fantastic motivator @cabernet! I truly enjoy your writing and posts here. You are 100% correct about putting in the time and effort. Work ethic is what makes the weak strong and the good, great!
As well as having a mentor or trainer. This helps excel our learning curve so much because usually we try to just do it ourselves but we are not trained educationally to make the correct decisions if we haven't in the past.
Loved this post!
There's a reason trainers and life coaches exist right? They're there to make our lives simpler. We all can make good use of it.
Thank you for the kind words Matthew! :)
Yea we don't need to beat ourselves over the head to get where we want. We can have guidance to knock out one step one by one! :)
very good information
@cabernet this is so interesting because I was experiencing a very similar issue last year. It was around october of last year when I realized that I was not eating enough and really was not treating my body with the respect that it deserves.
I was half assing my health and this was manifesting itself in my body and my self esteem. I looked and felt weak and it got to a point where I just had to admit that it was time to change.
Now I'm eating A LOT and a lot of that has to do with the fact that I now MUST have at least one protein shake a day. I also am now working out every single day and that's really helped to up my appetite.
Now I'm looking better than ever, feeling really great, and I even have more energy to do more of what I want to do.
Ultimately, in my case, it came down to choosing to love myself more, and once I did, it made all the difference.
On another note, I really like your suggestions for taking action. The side by side goal vs. reality idea is really great. I can imagine how much that would help to bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be!
Awesome article, thank you for sharing this Reez :)
Much love!
~ @axios
Wow. I'm happy to hear I'm not the only one who underestimated the eating part. Glad we're on our path to our dream bods ;)
Thank you @axios! Let's make 2018 a successful year! :)
2018 success + dream bods wooo! Lets do it @cabernet :)
Thissss.. this is very important.. somewhere down the road we often forget the "why" part. One should never forget this part. Forgetting this can be dangerous and may cause you to deviate from your goals..
Great article..
Agreed! The original purpose and the vision of the end goal should never leave our minds. Thank you @jbn! :)
Bingo... spot on
I love reading posts on topics like this! Especially the way you wrote it was easy to follow and enjoyable to read. I’m happy for you that you found your “right way” ❤️
ohh this is the tips to maintain such great figure.; your appealing beautyness great inspiring article, as always you do
Haha thank you @beyond-logic-001!
you welcome
It seems interresting i followed and up voted. Please keep doing your great work
Wow nice beautiful