Erik's Weekly Fitness Tips | How Long Does It Take To Create Healthy Habits?

When it comes to making decisions about your health, fitness, energy, or emotions, you are probably a creature of habit. Whether or not this is a bad thing depends solely on you. 

Are you someone that starts out with the best intentions but then somehow ends up back at square one (aka unfit and unhappy)? Or are you someone that is motivated to continuously try and better yourself, be more efficient, and/or feel comfortable in your own skin?

Regardless of your answer, if you want to make healthy habits stick, you'll need to be patient. 

How long does it take for healthy habits to stick? 

I don't usually see healthy habits start to stick with my clients until around the 90 day mark. Whether you want to build strength, improve cardio, build confidence, or gain mental toughness--it will most likely take you 3 months.

What happens at the three month mark? 

Motor patterns are mastered, strength gains are made, and mental fortitude has been built. The body and mind now crave the workout. You have made a positive habit that will result in the desired change. If you are patient, consistent, kind to yourself, and you do the work--you'll succeed at creating healthy habits that will last a lifetime. 

Image by Unsplash

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Erik's Weekly Fitness Tip: Want to Make A Change? Go All In

Almost weekly I hear a client say something like “I want to make a change.” To which I reply, “what exactly do you want to change and how do you envision getting there?" Sure, everybody starts a workout plan with good intentions, but staying 100% committed is tough. Whether you want to be skinnier, tighter, or bulkier you’ll first need to make sure you have the following; a clear goal, a path to achieving that goal, and a desire to GO ALL IN. 

Clear Goal

The more specific your goal is, the easier it will be to stay on course. Instead of saying “I want a beach body,” say, “I want to fit into my size 8 jeans.”

Path

If you find yourself too busy to cook or eat healthy during the week, prepare your meals ahead of time. If you find yourself too busy to make it to the gym during the week, schedule workouts in your iCal ahead of time. Set yourself up for success, not failure. 

Go All In

If you are serious about achieving your goal and you have a clear strategy about how to get there, the last thing you’ll need is gumption. It’s going to take time, energy, and sacrifice but anything worth having is worth fighting for. I can tell you that my greatest accomplishments in life, my marriage, my relationship with my kids, and my health & fitness all work because I GO ALL IN, every day.

*image by Jason Devaun, Flickr

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Erik's Weekly Fitness Tip: The Dark Side of Social Media

I’ve recently decided to do some Spring Cleaning on the focus of my newsletter and blog content. Instead of just providing fitness tips, I want to give you a broader view of what it takes to become and stay a fit person inside and out. Having a beach body is a popular goal for most, but physically fit people don’t just get that way from spending all their free time in the gym. They also have to adopt lifestyle changes such as removing negative forces from their lives. 

Social Media 

Because it is such an influence in most people’s lives, I thought I would start with social media. I would be lying to you if I said I do not enjoy social media. Just like you, I have my favorite pages that I frequently look at. While social media can be a great source of motivation or inspiration for some, it can also make others feel bad about themselves. 

#NoFilter

If you were to head to your Instagram feed right now, chances are you’d probably see a never ending stream of friends and celebrities looking like a million bucks. Their hair is perfect, their skin is glowing and their smile is beaming. Rarely do you see unflattering pictures of people looking tired, unfit, or in bad lighting. In the world of Photoshop and Instagram filters, everyone is striving for perfection but guess what—no one is perfect! It’s not that this person is necessarily lying to you, they are merely choosing to show you only part of the truth. That “perfect picture” probably took them 20-30 attempts. 

Delete, Delete, Repeat

You might be surprised to know that there is a physiological change that happens within us when we look at these photos. We might be having a perfectly fine day one second only to feel bad about ourselves seconds later. This behavior is not conducive to being a fit person.  Here is my challenge to you: If someone you follow (whether it be a brand, family member, celebrity, or friend) makes you feel bad about yourself after viewing their profile, DELETE them from your digital life. If the feeling persists, you can also take it a step further and DELETE them from your real life.  Instead, focus on the positive forces in your life; fitness, job, health, family. 

And lastly, STOP comparing yourself to others or being ashamed of your fitness level. Those “perfect people” have bad days too, they are just choosing to share a filtered version of themselves. 

*image by David Ramalho, Flickr

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