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Karina Inkster, MA, PTS, who is a personal trainer and owner of K. I. Health & Fitness, has witnessed people make 2 mistakes that really hinder their progress.
The first one is maintaining an all-or-nothing mindset. "People often believe they have to be '100% perfect' on their diets at all times and nail every single workout without fail, otherwise they may as well quit," Inkster told Bored Panda.
"This is not sustainable (or fun!), and not even professional fitness nuts like me operate at 100% all the time. Instead, try fostering an 'always something' mindset. Aim to make 80% of your foods fit your health and physique goals. Aim for 80% consistency in your workouts. If you don't have an hour to work out, do 10 minutes. 'Always something,' not 'all-or-nothing.'"
The second mistake is relying on motivation to stay consistent. "Motivation is fickle. Some days we feel motivated, other days we don't. If you rely only on motivation to stay consistent with your fitness and nutrition goals, you're setting yourself up for failure," Inkster explained.
"Instead, teach yourself to stay consistent without motivation. Adapt your environment so it better supports your goals. Find workout accountability buddies. Prep large portions of food on the weekend to set yourself up for the workweek."
Of course, physical limitations and health problems also play a part in prohibiting us from getting/staying in shape, since more than half of U.S. adults have some chronic condition.
Modern life deserves much of the blame, too, with long, sedentary work days and infrastructure that often makes it easier to hop in the car than walk or bike to where you need to go.
Furthermore, research has shown that people who don't make much money are less likely to exercise than wealthier people, in part because they may live in areas with fewer spaces where it’s safe and pleasant to be active.
And scientific findings suggest there's one more major obstacle: our brains don't want our bodies to exercise.
For most of our existence, we had to be physically active to carry out the basic functions of life, such as finding or growing food. So humans evolved to tolerate a high level of activity—but also to gravitate toward rest when possible, to save energy for when movement was either necessary or pleasurable, said Daniel Lieberman, a human evolutionary biologist and author of Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do is Healthy and Rewarding.
Simply put, hunter-gatherers weren't out jogging to burn calories. From an evolutionary perspective, "that would be a stupid thing to do," Lieberman said. "You're wasting energy on something that's not going to give you any benefit whatsoever."
Now, many of us don't move much in the course of daily life, but the evolutionary instinct to preserve energy remains, Lieberman explained. "That disinclination, that reluctance, that voice that says, 'I don't want to [exercise],' is completely normal and natural."
But we need to fight that urge, as consistent exercise is good for our health and well-being.
The 2018 physical activity guidelines recommend that adults engage in at least 150 to 300 minutes per week of moderate exercise, 75 to 150 minutes each week of vigorous movement, or an equivalent combination of both intensities.
(Moderate physical activity is defined as walking, weightlifting, and lower-intensity exercise. Meanwhile, vigorous exercise is categorized as running, bicycling, and swimming.)
However, a 30-year study of more than 116,000 U.S. adults discovered that going beyond that substantially contributes to longevity.
Participants who performed two to four times above the recommended amount of moderate physical activity had a 26% to 31% lower all-cause mortality and a 28% to 38% lower risk of cardiovascular disease mortality.
"Those who have achieved long-term results have trained themselves to operate without motivation," Karina Inkster added. "They do what needs to get done, even when they don’t feel like it."
"Real, lasting results take a long time to achieve. Instead of measuring outcomes you don’t have direct control over (like scale weight, your waist measurement, how much you can bench press, etc.), track the variables you do have control over. This includes the reps and sets you do in your workouts, your nutrition (calories and macros), recovery metrics like sleep and mobility work, etc. This way, you become attached to the process rather than the outcome, which helps you stick with your habits long-term."
