Strong Enough vs. Confident Enough
There’s something many people don’t notice until it happens to them:
Being strong enough and feeling confident enough are not the same thing.
I see it all the time.
Someone might have the strength to stand up from a chair, step off a curb, or get down to the floor,
but their body still hesitates.
Not because they’re weak.
It’s because trust is missing.
Confidence in movement isn’t a personality trait.
It’s not bravery.
And it’s definitely not about pushing through.
It’s a learned response.
Before almost every movement, your body quietly asks a question:
“Do I feel safe doing this?”
If the answer isn’t clear, your body slows you down.
Even when you’re capable.
That’s why people begin to move more slowly.
They start holding onto railings they never needed before.
They avoid the floor, stairs, or uneven ground.
Many think the answer is to try harder.
Or to be more careful.
But confidence doesn’t come from either approach.
It comes from proving to yourself, again and again, that you can do it.
You need proof that your body can load, balance, bend, and recover safely.
You need proof that nothing bad happens when you move with control.
You need proof that you’re not fragile.
When you see that proof, something changes.
Your movements become smoother.
Decisions feel easier.
The hesitation goes away.
That’s the real difference.
Strength is what your muscles can do.
Confidence is what your nervous system believes.
The good news is,
you can train confidence just like you train strength.
It happens one calm, successful rep at a time.
How to gamify your fitness From A St Johns Wood Personal Trainer
determined to keep it up no matter what.
4) Join a new league or take up a sport!
Try golfing, volleyball, bowling, badminton, biking, basketball, Football, swimming, surfing, or a dance class. The most important thing is to have fun!
Have a goal? Here’s how to meet it From A ST Johns Wood Personal Trainer
Do you have a specific fitness goal that you are hoping to achieve? This goal could be a number on the scale, or a clothing size. Or maybe you are hoping to wear a certain cut or style of clothes like strappy tank tops, shorts, or a bathing suit.
While having this goal is great, it will NOT guarantee success.
You knew that, though, because this isn’t the first time that you’ve had a fitness goal. A goal that you didn’t meet. In fact, you probably know dozens of other people who also have struggled to meet their fitness goals.
Here’s the typical scenario: you get all pumped up to lose weight and get into shape by starting out completely gung-ho. Your enthusiasm lasts about two weeks, before old habits and routine slide back into place, cutting your results off before reaching your goal. Then your goal begins to fade from your mind, and life goes on.
The problem, my friend, was your initial focus on the result rather than a sustained focus on the process. Let me break this down for you…
Fitness success is not about focusing on your goal. It’s about making the fit lifestyle stick.
Of course, once you’ve gotten a fit lifestyle to stick you’ll end up meeting that goal!
This may go against everything you’ve come to believe about achieving a goal, but then, your techniques haven’t exactly been working. The number that you’re hoping to magically be one day doesn’t matter one bit, and here’s why…
IT’S ABOUT LIVING IN THE MOMENTUM.
Can you remember how it felt the last time that you ate clean, exercised hard and got adequate sleep for a few consecutive days? A feeling of momentum came over you, didn’t it?
There was a buzzing in your cells and a rhythm in your pace. You felt alive, you felt sexy, and you felt empowered. Never mind that you weren’t yet at your goal number, you were headed there!
Getting down to your goal weight, and fitting into your goal size, is the direct result of living in that state of momentum for an extended period of time. You see, the momentum can be felt immediately, once you start eating clean, exercising hard and taking care of your health, whereas that “goal number” simply can’t be felt until it is achieved, and so it’s not as powerful a motivator.
My challenge and advice to you is to find the joy of living in the momentum, and keep that momentum going until your goal number is achieved. Focus only on the momentum, not on the number.
Fitness is a way of life. Being lean is a lifestyle. Neither of which can be had by going about it halfheartedly.
You have to become the momentum.
Today is a big deal
You woke up this morning and began making choices.
You chose whether or not to exercise, to eat a healthy breakfast, or to do something productive. You chose whether or not to eat that donut, to sleep in, or to watch an extra hour of TV.
At the end of each day the sum of your choices pushes you in a direction.
It could be pushing you in the direction of fitness and health, if your choices were predominantly wholesome.
Or the sum of your choices could be pushing you in the direction of weight gain, health issues and problems.
I find this perspective to be helpful when it comes to making a major body transformation. It’s tempting to feel helpless in changing your body when you have so many pounds to lose and so much work to do, since you aren’t able to do it all in one day.
However, by capturing the power of each day by making wholesome choices, you will be pushed in the direction of weight loss and health day after day, week after week.
Until one day you’ll look in the mirror and see that you’ve arrived at your ultimate destination: a lean, healthy and vibrant you.
So embrace the power of each choice that you make today, and allow a momentum of good choices to push you through to your goal.
Today is a big deal. Today is all you have.
Make the most of today.
You’re getting out what you put in
Why is that?
It’s frustrating when you are the person going through a fitness routine without seeing dramatic results. Might make you look for a reason outside of yourself to blame, such as genetics.
In reality, the thing holding you back is something that you have complete control over: it’s the intensity with which you exercise.
Intensity is something that’s difficult for the outside observer to measure but is felt within your body as you go through the motions of an exercise.
- It’s how hard you push yourself to go as heavy and as quickly as possible.
- It’s picking up a weight that feels hard to handle.
- It’s putting a boost behind each stride as you run.
- It’s resisting the urge to simply go through the motions.
- It’s outdoing your efforts from last time.
Now I understand the urge to put out token effort in your workout, going through the motions while cutting corners along the way. We all have days when the weights feel extra heavy and our energy stores feel depleted, and those days will naturally be less intense.
However, when low intensity workouts are your norm, you simply won’t ever achieve the results that you’re hoping for. And this is something that you completely control.
So, as you go into your next workout, think about the intensity that you’re bringing. Are you pushing yourself with each rep? Could you go heavier? Could you be faster?
Fight the urge to be comfortable while you exercise. There’s plenty of time throughout your day to feel comfortable, just not while you’re working out.
Does this make sense?
Attack your next workout with 100% intensity and set a new standard for yourself to continuously push to become stronger, faster, leaner and more fit.
This is better than perfection
Do you follow fitness stars on social media? Their perfect, chiselled images popping up in your newsfeed to give you just the right amount of motivation to get you into the gym…or does it?
Striving for perfection doesn’t always work.
Quite frankly, perfection is unattainable, and will always leave you falling short and feeling bad about yourself. Instead I like to remind myself of this quote…
‘Strive for progress, not perfection.’ -Unknown
Progress isn’t as exciting as perfection, but it is attainable. And progress builds upon more progress as you climb your way towards the accomplishment of real goals.
And yet…the gap between your current body and the body you want gapes wide and deep. Any time that you want progress and improvement in your life it requires crossing over from one way of doing things to a new way.
But how do you make it across?
- How do you go from 3 stones overweight to a healthy BMI?
- How do you go from a junk food lover to a health food lover?
- How do you go from a snooze-hitter to an early riser?
- How do you go from a couch potato to active and fit?
- How do you go from someone who talks about their goals to someone who accomplishes their goals?
Lucky for us there’s a formula to follow that will get you from point A to point B every single time without fail. And all you have to do is stick with it.
Small Degrees of Progress + Time = A New You
Commit to making one small degree of progress each and every day, and over time you will arrive on the other side of that chasm, a brand new you.
Did you eat white rice with dinner yesterday? Today choose brown rice. Next week choose cauliflower rice.
Did you eat a donut for breakfast yesterday? Today eat half of a donut and a piece of fruit. Next week choose a protein bar.
Did you wake up at 7 a.m. today? Tomorrow wake up at 6:45. Next week wake up at 6:30.
Did you sit all day today? Tomorrow walk for 15 minutes. Next week walk for 30 minutes.
And the end result, the reward, comes after you’ve made that new way of doing things a part of who you are.
We are all capable of great progress and great improvement – just not all at once.
Progress takes place one degree at a time, so don’t look to perfect fitness images on social media as your measurement of success, but rather look at your personal degrees of progress in the right direction.
Refuse the urge to compare yourself to others–the only comparison that matters is between yourself yesterday and yourself today.
Progress isn’t about finishing the race it’s taking that next step in the right direction.
If you aren’t yet one of my amazing clients then consider your next step of progress to begin a challenging and fun exercise programme with me. Call or email me today to get started.
Now that’s some serious progress!
The most important healthy eating tip
There’s a lot of talk today about the importance of eating healthy.
You hear it from your doctor, on the news, in magazines and online. The consensus is clear: in order to have your best body in good health, you must eat healthy.
Unfortunately for most, healthy eating is a confusing concept.
There’s so much contradicting information out there about what is or isn’t healthy that even the most well informed dieter becomes overwhelmed.
Should you eat a grain free diet? What about dairy? Is it OK to include fruit? What about rice? How about these granola bars that are labelled as heart healthy?
It’s enough to drive you crazy!
The most common reaction to this confusion is to give up. Why continue to strive for a healthy diet when a granola bar that’s mostly made with refined sugar is marketed as healthy?
I’m going to clear up some of the confusion for you with this very simple, very effective healthy eating tip: Eat low sugar.
By eating low sugar I mean check the sugar grams on each thing that you eat throughout the day, and only eat items that contain low single digit or zero sugar grams.
This single strategy will cut out a majority of the confusion surrounding healthy eating. Since eating items that are high in sugar is the biggest downfall of most dieters, by honing in on sugar grams you can avoid many bad food choices.
Are there other aspects to eating healthy, such as including enough lean protein and fibre-filled veggies in your diet? You bet! And once you have grown accustomed to eating low sugar then you should work on increasing your fibre and protein, but for now simply work on cutting out sugar.
Remember that participating in a consistent, challenging exercise programme is vital to getting into amazing shape. I’m here to help you do just that.
Call or email me today to get started on the most effective exercise programme around!
Easiest fitness hack that you’re not doing
It’s the time of year for focusing on fitness, health, and self-improvement; and, as to be expected, I’m busier than ever with clients looking to shed pounds and to take the New Year by storm.
I love seeing this renewed enthusiasm for fitness and the surge of motivation in the air! I hope that you’re feeling it too.
What’s not as awesome is the struggle that I see so many of you endure when it comes to shedding pounds and transforming your body to firm and toned. Improving your fitness level should be enjoyable, and it’s my sole purpose to help you in this process of achieving your best body and best health yet.
Let’s start with the easiest fitness hack of all, something that I can almost guarantee you’re not doing. By making this small change to your daily routine you’ll quickly find those unwanted pounds coming off quickly and easily.
***Warning: This fitness hack is going to sound so easy that you may be inclined to simply dismiss it. My advice is to try it out before writing it off as too easy.***
The easiest fitness hack that you’re not doing is to drink a minimum of 64 ounces of water daily.
Now I know that sounds boring, but take a moment to reflect on your water intake over the past few days. Did you even get close to the minimum of 64 ounces? Really, for optimal fat loss, you want to be drinking closer to a gallon of water each day.
Why is water such a big deal? Here are 3 compelling reasons as to why drinking a minimum of 64 ounces of water a day will help you drop pounds and achieve a stunning transformation…
#1) Water Aids Fat Metabolism in the Liver
When it comes down to the technical process of losing fat, your liver is where the action is. The key to having a highly functional liver, one that quickly removes metabolic waste and built up toxins, is to be properly hydrated by drinking a minimum of 64 ounces of water each day.
Your liver is a filter for your body. When you aren’t drinking enough water, your liver accumulates a build up of waste product that slows the process of fat metabolism down.
#2) Water Helps Balance Hormones
Without getting too technical about the science of fat loss, it’s important that you understand that your hormones play an important role in your body’s ability to lose fat. When your body enters a state of dehydration, your organ and digestive functions are compromised, which in turn negatively impacts hormonal balance.
This stress, brought on by dehydration, impacts your adrenal glands, signaling the need for an increase in cortisol, which encourages your body to begin storing fat, rather than burning it.
#3) Water Reduces Calorie Intake
Now that you understand the science behind water and weight loss, let’s examine the positive effect that proper hydration has on your daily caloric intake.
By drinking a minimum of 64 ounces of water daily, your desire for high calorie, sugary drinks like soda and high fructose juices will diminish. This decrease in fattening calories really adds up!
In addition to weight loss, drinking water has an infinite number of benefits – including improved skin complexion, boosted immune system, cleansing toxins out of the body, etc.
While it’s important to drink plenty of water in general, be sure you’re increasing your amount before and after your workouts. The more you sweat, the more water you lose, and it’s important to replace that lost water to avoid dehydration.
Does this make sense? Remember: Drink a minimum of 64 ounces of water each day.
I hope that you find this simple fitness hack to be helpful in your quest for a new and improved you this year! Remember that participating in a challenging and consistent exercise programme is absolutely vital when it comes to getting into great shape.
That feels good…
I realised something important about exercise that’s worth sharing with you.
Most of the time, when encouraging you to exercise, I focus on health and fat loss. These are two significant benefits, but there’s another side effect of exercise that’s hugely important…
How you feel after doing it.
Every workout has an immediate impact on your energy, mood, body chemistry, and even mental functioning. The endorphins released are specifically designed to make you feel good.
All of these factors combined create your overall feeling of wellbeing.
Don’t you want to feel good?
The tricky part is that most of us are habit driven, and so our activity level (or lack thereof) is fairly consistent day-to-day and week-to-week. This makes the impact of each sedentary day less noticeable, since another similar day causes no obvious change. It simply perpetuates your current state of un-wellbeing, with a slow decline.
Why this matters: You could begin feeling a lot better than you do today by starting to exercise.
This could come as a surprise, especially if you believe that the way you feel today is a given, and not something that can be improved.
By maintaining a consistent, challenging exercise plan:
- Your aches and pains can disappear.
- You can feel light and your energy levels can soar.
- Your mood can naturally become more optimistic.
- You can avoid illness and disease.
- You can think and process information quicker and with more clarity.
And then, once you’re in the groove of exercising regularly, you’ll forget about the pain, the sluggishness, and the discomfort that you used to live with.
Making regular exercise part of your routine is a foolproof method for improving your overall wellbeing. It’s a gift that you give to yourself with each workout.
5 Sneaky Ways to Burn Calories at Work
You may think the 30 minutes you spend every other day in the gym is enough to keep you trim and healthy, but it’s not. If you want overall good health, you need to eat well and find windows of exercising opportunity every day—not just during your scheduled workouts.
How can you squeeze in a little exercise when most of your hours are spent sitting at a desk, meeting in the conference room, and preparing for big presentations? Read on to find out when you can squeeze in exercise and how to do it.
1. On the Way to Work. To start your day with a smidgen of calorie-burning exercise, you may need to wake up a few minutes earlier than usual. Not to get in a workout before tossing on your power suit, but rather so you’ll have time to torch a few calories on the way to work. To shed some calories before clocking in, you have a number of options depending on your situation. You can bike or walk to work, perform seated calf raises on the bus or train, or park your car at the far end of the parking lot so you get to walk farther to reach your office. And of course, once you get to your building, take the stairs.
2. When Doing Mindless Tasks. Admit it: everything you do at work doesn’t require an amazing amount of brainpower. Take advantage of the easy tasks by multitasking with some exercise. The easiest option is to flex and squeeze your body. From your glutes and your abs to your pecs and thighs, you can get rid of a few calories by simply flexing them as you work. As you grow accustomed to the flexing, you may find it to be a great way to work your way through a long, difficult meeting.
3. Every Time You Finish a Task. When you first get to work, make a to-do list. This will help keep you on track and will also set you up for exercise rewards. Each time you cross a task off your list, give yourself an exercise reward. This could be walking a couple laps around the office, standing up and doing a couple quick stretches, or closing your office door and knocking out a dozen push-ups. Know what your reward of the day will be and go for it.
4. When You Need to Communicate. Helpful as email may be, there is a way to communicate with your colleagues that actually keeps your body moving. That way? Getting out of your seat and walking to your coworker’s office to talk things through. Have to make a few phone calls? Stand up as you talk or better yet, pace back and forth during the conversation.
5. At the Top of the Hour. A great way to sneak a little calorie burning into your routine is to get up every hour. And your exercising doesn’t need to be super intense. All you need to do is stand up. Do this for five minutes, eight times a day, and you will drop 100 calories a day.
That’s right—all you have to do to stand up for your health is stand up!
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