Reprogramming For Fitness

Most likely I will never tell you how to work out. There's plenty of fitness blogs, youtube fitness gurus and rising instagram health coaches to instruct you how to squat 100 different ways.

Instead, the only exercises I will introduce to you are for the mind. (Mind over matter, baby)

Lately, I have been incorporating only 3 types of thinking when it comes to working out.

1. Set a steady and consistent workout plan/diet.

Initially, your primary goal is to make working out a habit. You have to realize that it won't be easy at first to develop an active lifestyle, but after 30 days when the habit has formed it'll become tolerable.

Also, you have to realize that shifting a healthy mindset to your reality right away is going to be a challenge in itself first. You could be like, "I'm only going to eat one bite of this chocolate cake.. only one bite.. damnit, I ate the whole thing!"

Don't worry and don't beat yourself up. Just tell yourself you will have the intention to only eat half the cake next time. And maybe the next time after that, you could just avoid it all together.

2. Always finish your workout.

When you start to get in your head that you want to skip the last 30, 10 or even 5 minutes, you're only setting yourself up for failure. You'll start to develop a new habit that it's okay to bail on your sweat session and your future results will most likely suffer. So make sure you stay strong willed to get to the end of each workout. If you hurt yourself, just stretch out and use the remaining time you have left to think about fitness. It sounds silly, but your mind will register that it's still fitness time and you'll avoid developing bad habits.

3. Do better each time. 

In P90x, they encourage you to keep a journal and track your progress. To become stronger, you must be willing to do more each time. Write down your reps and what weights you use and have a strong intention to level up next time. When you incorporate this habit of advancing every time, you can expect miracles to occur.

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Bonus tip:

Earlier this week, I had a craving for m&m's at work and bought some from the vending machine. As I sat in my cubicle, I looked at my candy and realized eating this isn't aligned with my fitness goals. I know it's just only a little bit of chocolate, but I need to level up and rid myself of these types of sweets.

So I took the unopened candy in my hand, looked at it and threw it away in the trash can. I made a promise to myself that if I ever bought candy, I will always throw it away in the trash. Sure, I could have given it away to someone and prevented wasted candy.. but what I did was program my mind to suffer the pain of wasting money when I buy candy again because I know I will always throw it in the trash even without a nibble.

Now I never buy candy.