But Will You? (Accountability)

But Will You? (Accountability)

Over the years of being fitness professional, I have focused my attention more and more on the psychological aspects of achieving success in health and fitness. I realized that it doesn’t matter how knowledgeable a person is if he/she doesn’t put that knowledge into practice. I think back on all the people I have known who clearly understood that eating that second serving of ice cream and falling out of their fitness regimen was not good for them, yet they still did it.

So, the question remains, how do we hold ourselves accountable for our actions? How do we ensure that we will do what we set out to do? Just like anyone else, I find it difficult to balance healthy eating with my professional goals and raising a family so I have learned many creative ways to hold myself accountable. I’d like to share some of these findings with you. If these methods worked for me, they might just work for you.

Make a commitment or promise: This is a very simple shift in mindset that has changed my life. I stopped being wishy washy about the things I set out to accomplish. I started making strong promises and commitments. There is a world of difference between saying that you “might” work out or show up to a fitness class if you feel up to it, and promising to be there. When you make a commitment ahead of time, you will set your alarm, wake up, get ready and be there whether you feel like it or not. We can’t let our every day moods dictate what we do in our lives. We need to be in charge of our own destiny. If we don’t commit, we won’t get there. That’s the bottom line, so make a commitment to being the person you want to be.

If you can’t hold yourself accountable, find someone who will: This is where I started getting creative, for it is one thing to let myself down but letting someone else down is something else altogether. Oprah lost weight by hiring a personal trainer who went with her everywhere she went and told her what she should and shouldn’t eat. I did the same thing but for a much cheaper price. I hired my son who is now eleven. I was getting chubby as my busy life was causing me to eat out too much and indulge on deserts that I mistakenly thought I “deserved” due to all my hard work. I knew I needed to stop this. I told my son that I would pay him five dollars for every pound I lost. Of course, if I gained and lost a pound, it didn’t count.

My son latched on to this idea like a pit bull. Nothing makes children happier than the opportunity to turn the tables on their parents and to make money on top of it. My son was relentless. He never let me eat junk food and he forbade me from ordering desert. If I ate too much, he made sure I worked it off. The waitresses thought he was so mean for stopping me when I tried to order a brownie a la mode at Denny’s but he didn’t care. He loved telling me what to do. I lost seven pounds since we started this. The best news is, my husband joined the program and lost seventeen pounds so far. Now my whole family is eating healthy which has changed the whole culture of our household. There is less junk food around and we are all dedicated to eating healthy. My son has gained a new awareness for health as well. It was a win win situation all around.

My son isn’t the only one who holds me accountable. You do too. Yes, you, my readers hold me accountable. My students and clients hold me accountable. My job is to motivate others and if I can’t do what I expect you to do, then I am one big hypocrite. So thank you, for being one of the main motivators for me to be super fit and healthy. I have benefited so much from your support.

This is very important as our friends and family members can sometimes pressure us to eat unhealthy and skip our workouts so we can spend more time with them or so they have someone to drink and eat chocolate with. If this is the case, it is very important to find people who support you in your goals. I tell my son that he is my “angel” because he is the angel on my shoulder telling me to eat right. Of course, I consider him my angel for many other reasons.

Here are some other things you can do to get others to hold you accountable:

Write blogs, form groups, find a workout buddy, hire a coach or make a strong promise to someone else. Sometimes I give people deadlines and if I don’t get something done by then, I ask them to contact me and get on my case. If this happens, I feel bad and make sure I get it done.

For a great example of how to use social networking support to hold yourself accountable, check out my guest blogger: https://heroestraining.com/?p=604

Write it down: Not long ago, I was reading a fitness journal. In it, a study was conducted that showed that if you write down what you eat, you are 50% more likely to lose weight. This method worked for me. As a matter of fact, I had been trying to lose weight after having a baby for four months and I didn’t start seeing results on the scale until I finally wrote down what I ate. I have my clients do this. Most of them don’t realize how they eat until they do this. Writing it down makes a record of your progress and it holds you accountable. You may not realize that you eat more calories than you should or that you starve yourself for hours, lowering your metabolism until you write it down.

Write your goals down as well. There is something profound about a written contract. It sets everything in stone and shows that you are not just thinking about it. Write down your actions in your diary or date book. Write down your workouts and rest days. Set your weekly and monthly goals, Make notes, have a check list. Update it on your blog or social networking site so your friends can hold you accountable. It makes a huge difference.

Ask “how can I” questions: This is something I learned from Anthony Robbins that I find to be so life changing. I learned that the mind is capable of amazing things but if we focus on the wrong things, we waste a lot of time and energy. So, when you want to improve your life, ask questions that are proactive. Instead of asking yourself why the government sucks, or why you weren’t born with a slim waste, or why can’t ice cream be good for you, or why we can’t be more beautiful as we grow older, ask yourself questions that directly relate to what you can do to change your situation. I notice that people waste a lot of time on what they can’t change.

I call these “how can I” questions. How can I write to my leaders so I can improve the current laws? How can I slim my waist now? How can I find a level of health that will make me feel younger? Once we stop blaming the world and start taking responsibility for our actions, change becomes easy but we have to know that it is us that makes the difference, not our friends, our government, our employers or our families. What can I do? I will do this. I have found that when I do something proactive to make a change in my life and in the world, the world follows suit but we can’t expect it to work the other way around.

Meditate on your character: Here is something I did which really turned my life around. I asked myself what character traits I needed to change in order to see a positive change in every aspect of my life. In the beginning of the year I made a list of these character goals:

Slow to anger

Better discipline and attitude towards work

Perseverance

Reliability, keep my word

Honesty and tact

Practice selflessness

Practice humility and support for others

I meditated on these character goals, realizing that if I can improve these aspects in myself, my fitness, relationships and career will all get better. I realized that life isn’t handed to you with a magic pill. Without perseverance, for example, we can’t succeed in anything. After four months of making these character traits my new years resolution, I have seen positive improvements in every aspect of my life.

So ask yourself what beliefs and character traits you need to change in order to help you get to your goals. Ask yourself how you can get there. Make a promise and commitment to get to those goals and find creative ways to get others to hold you accountable.

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