Think about someone who is great at what they do.
Could be a professional athlete, a chef, someone you see in movies.
Anyone.
What is it about them that makes them so great at what they do?
Maybe you’re thinking about Tiger Woods and how driven he is to golf at the highest level.
Or maybe you’re thinking about Beyonce and how she is able to sing with such an incredible range it leaves you breathless!
Where do you think they started on their journey?
While I’m sure Beyonce always had the voice of an angel, she probably did not win awards the first time she hummed a note.
They all needed to start somewhere.
I have been so fortunate to work with some of the best coaches in the world when it comes to football, as well as strength and conditioning.
One of those coaches, Coach K, would tell us every day what it was that made great people great.
He would say “master the mundane.”
He wanted us to work on the fundamentals because that is where the real progress is made.
Not in the fancy work that looks cool on Instagram or TikTok.
He wanted us to do the things that had the biggest impact on how we play football. Being the fundamentals.
So what does this have to do with health & fitness goals?
Well, if you are trying to lose weight for the summer right now, or if you are trying to be proactive on getting stronger so you can live more independently as you get older, this tells you exactly where to start.
That’s what I will do for you in this blog today.
What are the fundamentals of health and fitness?
You can break health & fitness down a million different ways, but I’ll put it very simply here.
The two main pieces of it are diet, and training.
No matter what your goal is in these two categories, they both start in the exact same way.
They start with one question, what is your goal?
This is the first and most important fundamental of health & fitness.
Specificity.
All of the work you do, should help you get closer to your goal.
Think of specificity like your GPS on your drive to your vacation.
You can’t just punch Florida on your phone and know exactly how to get there.
It’ll get you far, but not exactly where you want to go.
I’ll run through a quick example of what I mean.
Let’s say your one goal is to lose weight.
Great! But now what?
Knowing we want to lose weight doesn’t take us anywhere. So, let’s take this one step further and get a little more specific.
I want to lose 20lbs.
This is a little more specific than just wanting to lose weight. But let’s try to get more specific.
I want to lose 20lbs by June.
This is a pretty specific goal now! I love it! But, it is still not specific enough to really tell us where to start.
This goal has no pull to it. This is just a statement.
How do we turn this specific statement into a solid foundation that will lead us where we want to go?
Well, why is this goal important to you? Why does it matter? What is this going to do for your life?
Let’s run through this one more time and try to be as specific as we can with this goal.
I want to lose 20lbs by June because I have not been able to feel confident in my body since I was in college and I want to prove to myself that I can make this change happen and win back my confidence to make a positive impact on my future.
Now THAT is a specific goal that has some pull to it! This gives us a lot to work with now we know EXACTLY where we want to go!
Now we just build a plan that does just this!
The 5 Questions
When we build plans for our clients, we ask these 5 questions to make sure we are crystal clear on how to get where we want to go.
You can ask these to yourself to help you know exactly what to do on your plan.
Best practice is to take things one week at a time.
This will make sure you can control what you can control.
1. What do we do?
So if we are losing 20lbs by June, what can we do to specifically work towards that.
It could be anything! We write out detailed plans for our clients telling them how much to eat and how to train to get there.
But even if you don’t know exactly how to do all of that, you can still make progress on your own with things like this:
- I will swap weekly pizza night with weekly salad night. (just be careful with the dressings and other fixings)
- I will walk for 30 minutes every day
- I will swap my Tim Horton’s iced cappuccino with chocolate drizzle and extra whipped cream with a regular coffee.
It could be anything! Most people already have a pretty good idea on what is the right call with diet and exercise.
Find a few simple ways where you can work towards losing that weight that already fits into your schedule.
2. How will we do this?
Now, it seems like we already covered this in the first question, but this is actually a great opportunity for us to dive just a bit deeper into being specific with our goal. It could look like this:
- I will shop for salad ingredients so that I have everything I need for salad night.
- I will use the treadmill at TENRA Fitness to walk 30 minutes every day
- I will put a sticky note in my wallet so I do not forget to order a coffee instead of my sweet treat at Tim’s
3. When will we do this?
The more specific we get with this plan, the less decision fatigue builds and the easier it will be to stick with.
- On Sunday, when I grocery shop for the week, I will get all the salad ingredients
- After work, I will stop at TENRA on my way home and knock out 30 minutes of walking on the treadmill.
- On my way to work, I will stop at Tim’s and my not as fun regular coffee
This may sound redundant, but it is so important to have this already planned for yourself. The less grey area there is in your plan, the more likely it will be you stick to it.
4. Why are we doing this?
Things will eventually get tough. You are going to want to trade your meaningful goal down the road, for what is comfortable now. When times get tough, it will be so important for you to remind yourself exactly why we are doing this.
This will help take that goal of yours and keep it top of mind for anytime you think to yourself…
“Maybe I skip salad night this week. I am not feeling it and a slice or two of pizza would really help me unwind.”
You could then think about specificity and say, “Will this pizza help me get closer to my goal, or will it take me further off the path?”
There’s always nuance to this, but having someone to keep you accountable and talk through these difficulties is usually where we help out best.
5. What obstacles can get in my way this week to stop me from accomplishing my goal?
If you can prepare for the worst to happen, you will have a better chance at staying on track!
Knowing what you will do when…
- There’s no lettuce at Wegmans to get for your salad night
- Your spouse needs you to come right home after work to help with the kids
- The line is too long at Tim Horton’s and you don’t have time to grab your coffee
…will help keep your plan and your goals protected when things inevitably get in the way.
Going through all of this is the first step in the right direction for getting to your goals.
Specificity is the cardinal rule when it comes to training, and diet.
This is where we start all of our clients and how we help them see success so swiftly.
If you want help breaking down your goal so that you know exactly where to start we are always happy to help!
You can join our free Facebook group and ask us and the community as many questions as you need. I’m always in there to lend a hand and give some extra help!
Here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1CoJavVdxM/
I can’t wait to see you there!