Yeah But… You Already Know This
How often have you got some very sound direction from someone with more knowledge on a subject than yourself and still you’ve gone “yeah but…?”
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It’s human nature. We’re a difficult bunch. As soon as we think someone’s telling us what to do, taking away our right of choice, we start to question it or rebel against it. Our own behaviours, the ones that aren’t necessarily helpful to us, we carry on without question, the bag of crisps each night, the cans of fizzy, finishing the kids meals, watching reruns of Desperate Housewives instead of going out for a walk or jog, the negative self-talk instead of being kind to ourselves. It’s our choice, no-one told us to do it so we just get on with it!
You know you’ve done it. We’ve all done it a million times. As soon as we’re able to voice our opinion we start questioning things we’re told. Spend any time with a two year old and you’ll see that!
When it comes to diet and exercise it’s no different. You know you want to change (lose weight, get fitter, get faster, whatever your goal is) and you know you have to change behaviours to make that happen so you join a gym or get a trainer, or you join a weight loss group or sign up for a diet plan. “This is it” you think. “I’m motivated, I’ve paid my money. Here’s this fitness/weight loss expert who’s going to help me reach my goals.”
They’re probably highly qualified and have lots of experience with clients who have similar goals and issues to you and yet, as soon as you get the meal plan or the exercise plan you go “Yeah but…”
“Yeah but… that might work for others but it won’t work for me!” And so you start changing it. Not a lot, just a tweak here or there. Maybe, doing some different exercises instead of what’s recommended. Not resting when you’re supposed to because you think you’re not exercising enough. Or cutting out meals because you think there are too many calories in the (nutrition designed, dietician approved) meal plan you’ve been given.
How’s that working for you?
Perhaps not so great. It’s what’s got you to where you are now so only you can decide if it’s working out how you’d like or not. “Yeah but…” could mean that you’ve been stuck where you are for a while. How do you know something won’t work unless you try it? Chances are if it works for others then it probably will work for you too! Yes we're all unique but on the whole our bodies work pretty much the same, barring certain health conditions.
So, try something different. When you embark on a new programme, whether its exercise or nutrition based, or both. Follow it as closely as you can. Give it a chance to work. You trusted the programme when you chose it so don’t start second guessing it the minute you’ve got to put the work in.
If you’ve got a trainer/coach/guru helping you and advising you then follow their advice (you’ve probably paid for it!) and instead of “Yeah but...” go with “I’ll try this for two weeks and get back to you”.
Two weeks is long enough to see if somethings working for you and if it’s not then you’ve got valid grounds to go back to your trainer/coach/mentor and discuss what’s happening or not happening and they’ll know what can be tweaked or amended to help you get better results. Go back after two weeks of not following their advice and they’re going to struggle to be able to give you any advice thats different than what they started out with.