A couple of weeks ago I had just finished a great training session. All of my clients were happy to be finished and ready to continue on with their days. One of my clients was waiting for everyone else to leave so that he could approach me. Once the studio had cleared he said, “Sandro, I noticed that you have many new people and they are getting great results. Who lost 15 lbs. in 5 weeks? Here is the deal: I have been with you for almost two years and I don’t see the same results.”
I responded with another question, “Do you remember when you started? You had very good results in the beginning, right? Now, you tell me what happened?.”
“Yes, I lost a significant amount of fat, but I’m stuck. I do not know what happened. I’m eating right; I’m coming the days that I should be coming. I don’t see where I am making a mistake.”
“Here, I’ll tell you what I think is your mistake: When you began, you had a lot of motivation...
you paid attention to your eating, you were progressing on your weight lifting, did your cardio, and simply, you did what it took. Now, you are complaining about your discomforts; you said that you feel tired, don’t want to do your cardio. According to you, you are eating right; not taking into account when I saw your junk food shopping in the super market. You said that it was the exception, but you know I don’t believe in coincidence. You have stop doing what you were doing when you got results.”
He had no excuses so I continued talking, “I will give you two examples: I had a client, who signed up for one year, she was so afraid of hurting herself that she did not achieve her goal. In the beginning, she started chest pressing 5 pounds, then she went to 8s, after 10s, 12s and finally 15s and doing the same progress with other muscle groups. She lost 5 pounds in one month because she was motivated. Unfortunately, her fear of getting injured never when away and she started to decrease her weight lifting from 15s to 12s, to 10s, 8s and finally 5s. Even though I tried hard, I couldn’t help her break her psychological barrier of being afraid of getting injured. Then you tell me what do you think it happen with her results?”
He responded, “She gained back her weight and lost all her strength that she had worked for.”
“Correct! In contrast, have you see the results of “X’ lady? She has not even completed two months and she is already toning her body. Her abs are showing and she is losing body fat even though she was in a healthy category when she begin. And you know why? Because she knows what she wants, she pushes herself every single time she is here. She does not waste her time. If I tell her do battle ropes for one minute, she does it, not because I tell her, but because she knows is challenging for her and will lead to results. She amazes me because I see her in discomfort and she continues until I tell her to stop.
Same happened with the guy who lost 15 pounds in five weeks...
He is not wasting his time. He is doing what it takes here in the training studio. Plus, he is walking and eating healthy. This is what produces results: dedication.”
I continued, “Don’t get me wrong, I do understand when someone is in real pain. I do not want anyone to be injured, pain that is coming from an injury versus discomfort are two different things. However, you have been complaining about your discomforts for a while, you got in the habit of doing one set of small weights, you are decreasing your weight lifting, you are not doing your cardio between your sets because according to you, you are tired. Plus, I have no idea how are you eating since you have been rescheduling our assessment.
This is your problem: You are not motivated enough to get weight loss results”.
As we continued the conversation, we found out that he had some stress that he needed to deal with. However, this was a wakeup call to him because after this conversation he started to push hard. Now he is lifting more than 100% than what he was lifting before in his weight training and he is doing his cardio between sets. There is not more knee pain. Now, he started losing weight again. He lost 8 pounds in 4 weeks.
Conclusion, you want it? Do what it takes, trying won’t get you anywhere, specially for weight loss results.