Change these three things and your physique goals will become a reality!

Everyone at one point in their life has made the tough decision that they want to lose weight, that they want to get in shape for summer or that they want to work towards having an amazing six pack. However, the likelihood of these dreams becoming a reality are often thwarted by a few key omissions that when addressed can make the road to success a whole lot easier.

This is your three step guide to make sure those dreams you have of the ideal body are more likely to become a reality.

1. Dreams vs Goals
   It’s easy enough to sit back and tell yourself, “I want to have a six pack” or “I want to look like Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson” but those are simply dreams that have very little chance of ever becoming a reality. The difference between a dream and a goal is that a goal requires and also states specific actions that need to be taken within certain time frame. This places added accountability back on the individual to make sure they are fulfilling the requirements to ensure they are successful.
   The best way to set a goal is to use the commonly known and utilised SMART goal setting principles (I’ll save the explanation of this for another post).

2. Flexibility vs Rigidity
   Throughout history, as time has moved forward so too have the ideas and inventions. It’s called progress. However, within the nutrition and fitness realms it seems that the progression of ideas and schools of thought take a little more time to enter mainstream thinking.
   For decade after decade coaches, athletes and people of the general population have thought that taking an extreme approach to nutrition and training would yield them the greatest results. While initially that might be the case, more often than not after a short period of stagnation the motivation to keep training and eating proper nutrition becomes severely diminished. This ‘all in’ approach is certainly of the old school mentality and to improve the rate of success a change of though and attitude needs to occur.
   Think of rigid dieting as a dry piece of spaghetti. It will stay intact as long as no major pressure is applied.
   Flexibility however can be more likened to a cooked strand of spaghetti. It will bend, fold and flex a little before its integrity is lost.
   The flexible dieting protocol is a post for another time, but I will state that there is a much greater chance of a person being successful with their diet if they take a flexible approach in regards to not only what they eat, but when they eat and also how often they sit down to a meal.

3. Training vs Diet
   Another age old debate within the fitness industry is the debate that training is more important than proper nutrition when attempting to change the way you look. This couldn’t be more incorrect. For the past 3 years I have been through cycles of gaining muscle and losing body fat and the biggest proponent for change in all cases was my nutrition.
   For a change of body composition to occur there needs to be an imbalance between the energy going into the body and the energy that is being burnt on a daily basis. To lose weight your body needs to be in an energy deficit. To gain muscle your body requires a surplus of calories. This is ultimately governed by how much you eat. Your training will add to the energy your body uses, but the type of training that you do is of no real consequence. Train how you like with the correct energy balance and your goal will become closer by the day.

These are just three simple tips that you can take on board to ensure that when you start your health and fitness journey it will be a successful. Too often does a journey start to only be stopped after a short while.
Set a realistic goal and give yourself a timeline. Take a flexible approach to your nutrition and eat the foods that you like. Finally; diet, diet, diet! Your nutrition should be your number one priority. Train the way you like but keep your calorie balance in check. Remember, to lose weight you need to eat less calories than your burn. The opposite applies if you are looking to gain a few extra pounds of muscle.

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Turn your Raw Potential into Raw Results!

G