Last year a client set a goal to be photo-lean in relatively short order.
Things didn’t go well.
Now, I never say “I told you so,” but in this instance, I wanted to.
Because back when she told me her goal, she also mentioned an upcoming vacation to Italy while “sticking to the plan.”
My first words were, “That’s gonna be tough.”
Sadly, I was right.
The gym situation near her sucked, and the food was both wonderful AND plentiful.
She got in a LOT of steps, but it left her too exhausted to piece together a hotel workout and also cranked up her appetite (did I mention the food?)
Hence the “I told ya so” temptation.
But instead, I came up with something more… helpful:
“Okay, bad luck happens. But you picked a goal and a deadline, and it’s something you want. So you have to WANT it.
That means you do what ya gotta do. Or, in this case, do the best at what you CAN do.
The fat loss process has 4 parts:
• Diet
• Lifting
• Movement/cardio
• Sleep/recovery
Think of them as legs on a table.
If you have all four legs the table works great—it’s stable & functional.
But take away just one leg, and that changes. It can maintain balance, barely, but you wouldn’t lean on it or trust it to support anything. So it’s not really functional.
Take away a second leg, and it’s all over—the table crashes down.
Right now, your fat loss plan has the movement leg. The sleep/recovery leg is also there but might not match the movement leg. You can dig a little on that one.
But the diet leg is WAY off. You can MAYBE adjust it to fit, but it will require big-time willpower and a lot of do-whatcha-gotta-do.
Which leaves the training leg. And that just isn’t gonna fit until you get back home.
So, at best, you have 3 legs out of a possible 4: maybe good enough to maintain, but only if you adjust and focus—and do it FAST!
Probably not what you wanna hear, but it’s reality. So manage your expectations, shoot for the 3 legs you can make work, and do your best to maintain.
It’s better than attempting the impossible and risking driving yourself nuts or even quitting on your goal altogether.
When you get home, we’ll pull it ALL together and really get after it.
– Coach Bryan