Consistency is the aim of the game

Forget about “motivation”. Just do it because that is what you do.

You might have seen a series of posts I have done on instagram lately on the subject of consistency (see @dellafit.sydney). For women who are into their 40s and beyond CONSISTENT TRAINING AND CONSISTENT CARE WITH NUTRITION are the answer to achieving a stable and healthy body weight, feelings of well being, strong bones and better sleep patterns.

I’ve explained that by CONSISTENCY I mean that training and eating well is something you do ALMOST ALL OF THE TIME. It is a habit. It’s not a new whiz bang program. It’s not shakes. It is developing a series of good habits around physical exercise and nutrition. Once something is a habit it no longer takes a lot of effort to:

-turn up to training OFTEN (not once a week or once a month – although once is better than none);

– have a plan B when training doesn’t work out; or

-serve up consistently healthy meals and snacks; and

– treat other less healthy food the way it should be treated – as occasional treats.

Consistency means you will be constantly PLANNING. You will look at the week ahead and work out when you will train. You will write a shopping list before you shop and buy only what you need to make healthy meals and snacks. You will possibly do some meal preparation so that when you have to quickly put a meal together there is a healthy easy option waiting for you. You will work out what to do about foods you know you should only be eating occasionally as a treat (don’t buy them at all, measure them into small portions, put them somewhere difficult to access, work out how to enjoy social situations without having to eat and drink things that you really do not want).

If you would like to achieve consistency but its all too daunting I recommend taking up one habit at a time until you are nailing it before taking up another habit.

Life will actually be better than before once you develop these kinds of habits. Training and good nutrition will not be an effort anymore – they will become second nature.