As winter begins (hopefully) to start to fade away we begin to become a little more inspired and motivated – a completely natural thing I see each year within the fitness industry.

As you get out of your winter rut and start planning and goal setting I see common trends happen every single year that I want to highlight to stop you from making these same mistakes and to stop self-sabotaging your results!

When you sit down and plan your little heart out about all the amazing things you are going to achieve this spring and summer, it’s only naturally to feel a sense of excitement and motivation – you are READY!!!

Wether it be get to X amount of training sessions OR loose X amount of weight OR run X amount of km’s – whatever it is you want to achieve in the beginning there is no stopping you.

You know exactly what you want and when you want it by.

The problem is women tend to make these 5 mistakes whilst on their journey, I’ve listed them below in hopes that you can recognise and learn from them to help you achieve great things this summer….

HERE ARE 5 COMMON MISTAKES I SEE THAT SET WOMEN BACK FROM REACHING THEIR GOALS:

1) YOU ARE NOT PREPARED – I mean you are organised but that’s a totally different ball game – writing a list is different to getting the things on the list done.  Being organised means writing a shopping list and all your meals for the week, being prepared means going out to the shops and buying the things on this list, then coming home and preparing as much as you can for the week ahead. Lists are easy – setting out and hitting everything on the list is hard and what really matters at the end of the day. The more prepared you are the less room you have to fail. If you have your food ready to grab first thing in the morning that will stop you from buying shit for lunch.

2) FAIL TO CELEBRATE THE SMALL WINS – You ate amazing, hit all your training session and you feel so bloody good BUT the scales say you only lost .500g this week – I know I’ve been here and it is disheartening, it hurts – all that effort and a measly 500g is all that comes off – this isn’t the way you should be thinking. If your goal is to loose weight this is a win, if you keep this up for 12 weeks that is 6kgs down!  Plus think about how good you are feeling and all the other amazing efforts you did this week that you wouldn’t of usually of done. Learn to celebrate these wins because they are what will get you to the finish line!

3) BECOME OVERWHELMED – One week goes by and you realise still how far you have to go – it gets overwhelming and seems impossible so you just want to quit. Rather then looking at things day by day you look at the big picture and that big picture can sometimes seems impossible. It isn’t. You just have to look at it a little different, rather then saying okay I have to hit 40 training sessions in 12 weeks break it down smaller, into a week by week basis. If you hit these small targets of 4 sessions a week it will get you to the big outcome. 4 sessions doesn’t seem as daunting as 40! The same goes for weight loss – wanting to loose 10kgs in 12 weeks rather then looking at the bigger numbers of 10kg and 12 weeks break it down to smaller wins – .850g per week is all you have to aim for.
Lay brick by brick and eventually you will have a wall.

4) WHO YOU HANG WITH MATTERS – Sadly not everyone wants to see you win. More times then not they are actually ready and expecting you to fail and will do anything in their power to have that happen, maybe not directly, it might be a comment here or there or a “C’mon one chocolate won’t hurt” OR “Just miss the gym this once.” OR “Why are you even doing this?” OR “You’re addicted to fitness” OR “Don’t loose anymore weight” – trust me I could go on and on forever and you girls cop it from so-called ‘friends’. You don’t want or need negative people trying to sabotage you- choose whom you hang out with wisely because they influence you more then you know.

5) IT WILL BE HARD – Most goals you set out to do are not going to be easy. Some days you will crush it and the next you will not want to get out of bed to train and will want to eat everything in sight. If reaching goals were easy we wouldn’t have an obesity epidemic on our hands. When things get hard it is okay, step back take a breath and remember WHY you started. If you have a hard day and you miss training or eat terribly – it is okay, it is human! Know from the beginning that this will happen, one bad day wont ruin your results just as one good day one get you to the end results either.

If there is anything you can take out of all of this is to not over complicate things.

Be realistic, prepared and keep it simple, do the same daily good habits over and over – this will lead to the end goal.

You don’t need fancy supplements, magic potions, crazy workouts, ridiculous diets or heath food fads – do the simply shit consistently and I guarantee you will get there!

I believe in you.

Stay Strong & Stretch,
Tel X

Someone messaged me the other day and said “How do you stay so positive and happy all the time”

At first sure it’s a complement, then I felt sad that I portray a life of constant happiness, my life isn’t perfect – its pretty f*cking great but negative sh*t gets thrown my way (more common then not at the moment) that leaves me in a dark, depressive place.

My role as a coach is to encourage, lead and inspire people but it is never to be fake with people – I’ll never pretend that I’m a cardio loving, kale eating, always happy AF person because I’m simply not!

I get grumpy, I get sad, I get depressed – I feel all emotions everyone else feels –  the only difference is I’m in tune with what I’m feeling and accept it, know it is only for brief period of time and try to learn something from it – the good old quote “it’s a bad day, not a bad life” hits it perfectly.

It’s been a strange few years, although each year I’m growing and learning more and more about myself, who I truly am and what I was destined for, I’m also hitting hard resistance and set backs that try and pull me into dark places.

I think everyone faces these resistances, these depressive states, tho we may not talk about them as openly as I talk about mine, this is why I write, as someone who is/was a chronic “bottler” who hates talking about emotions and feelings – writing them gives me a sense of freedom, to lead people to know dark places exist for everyone and it is okay to feel and explore them but know you are never isolated and stuck in them, that the light at the end is always within reach.

So what do I do when resistance and dark thoughts hit?

1) Allow the darkness to wave over you but do not allow it to overwhelm you. Realise that every single person experiences the darkness, to feel emotions (although not portrayed on social media) such as sadness; depression and isolation are extremely normal. They are emotions, just like being happy – it is completely okay to feel them, to be down. What you do need to realise tho is these states don’t have to last forever – sure take your time to process the situation that has happened but then ensure you learn a positive from it. There is ALWAYS a positive to a negative – that is something I’m a firm believer of.  If you don’t take the time to process situations properly and continue to push them down like nothing has happened they will only keep coming back up – so it’s best to take the time to get in tune with your body.

2) Write down 3 things you’re grateful for – your list of negatives tend to stack up and the pile looks so big that you can hardly focus on anything else but it is important to redirect that focus – there are beautiful things happening around you – wether it is a loving partner, family, friends, roof over your head, animals just take the time to appreciate the small things you have.

3) Talk –  not always as easy as it seems, but having just that one person you can open up to will make the world of difference, in the beginning it may be scary but afterwards you’ll feel a huge weight lifted off your shoulders – this may always be a different person depending on the topic. If you know someone has had a similar experience you may want to open up to them because they will understand what you’re going through a little better.

4) Walk, everyday – wether it be 20 minutes or an hour – even if you don’t want to – I use to walk listening to music or podcast but I’d get so overwhelmed with noise that it all just became white noise – I started listening to nothing. I’d allow thoughts to come to my mind; I’d process them, as need be then tune into nature, the birds, and the wind – feeling the sun and cool breeze on your face instantly lifts your mood.

5) Meditate – seems like a hippy thing to do, I felt the same way – but when feeling overwhelmed and my mind keeps racing a guided meditation helps me re centre and helps me dissolve away any excess tension I may be holding. I use the app ‘Calm’.

Stay Strong & Stretch,
Tel X