You go to the gym on a regular basis. You eat relatively clean and healthy 90% of the time. You make sure to get the rest and sleep that your body requires to grow and replenish itself. In other words, you are living an active and fit lifestyle. You’ve received some pretty good results with your physique while living this lifestyle and according to your doctor you are in excellent health. Congratulations! You have accomplished something that 60% of the general population are unable or unwilling to do – You’ve taken control of your health.

First, I must applaud you for making such a commitment to your body. It takes alot of self-discipline, self-motivation and determination to focus on long term satisfaction rather then just give in to short term gratification. We all know it would be much easier to stay in bed and sleep an extra hour rather then go for that early morning run or trip to the gym after a long day at the office. And ordering a pizza would be much more convenient then coming home to make a healthy and nutritious home-cooked meal. I mean, who has the time for that? Well apparently you do, so for that I say, good work!

The one thing I always ask my clients who have dedicated themselves to living a healthy and fit lifestyle is whether or not they find it difficult at times to maintain. We all fall off the wagon at times. It’s okay to go out for a few cocktails with the girls or have a few beers with the boys. Temptations surround us everyday and sometimes it’s okay to give into your cravings, we are only human after all. My only issue when clients slip up on their diets or miss a few workouts every so often is when a “slip” becomes a “binge” and a “few missed workouts” become a month to two months of inactivity. This is where we run into problems.

One of my most favorite catchphrases of all time is – “One step forward, two steps back”. Essentially the phrase reflects a situation where, seemingly for every attempt to make progress in a task, an actual retrograde performance is achieved. What I like most about this catchphrase is that I can completely relate to it.

When I first started out on my own fitness journey years ago my initial goal was to simply gain muscle and lose body fat, as are most peoples’ goals when it comes to starting a workout program and nutritional plan. Sure I saw a few results with my body at the beginning but eventually I too hit that proverbial plateau. But did I really hit a plateau? Was I pushing my workouts as hard as I could? Was I sticking to the healthy and clean eating nutritional plan that I had designed for the majority of the time? Looking back now, I can honestly say that without a doubt I was not.

I remember going a few days of what I thought at the time was perfect eating and intense workouts only to be followed by a few more days of snacking on junk food and missing my own workouts. I use to justify my late night snacking and absence from the gym from being “really good” the previous few days. I convinced myself that I deserved the break and would get back on track tomorrow or perhaps the day after that. Well, I stuck to my word and always returned to my workouts and clean eating eventually, but only to slip up again after just a few short days.

From time to time I will have a client tell me that he or she feels that they’ve hit a plateau with their own training and have stopped seeing results. Whenever I’m told of this I think back to my favorite catchphrase. I can’t help but question just how consistent they are with their own training. How many workouts have they missed in the last month? Did they give it 110% each and every time they set foot in the gym? How many meals did they eat out or order in? If the person has been completely honest with his or herself and has done all of the necessary homework to try and accomplish their goal(s) then perhaps a shake up in the training program or diet plan is in fact needed. However in my experience the majority of the time the answer that people seek for hitting that so-called “plateau” usually relies on lack of consistency and not a change in exercise routine or a new diet plan that will help push them past their current road block.

Okay, we’ve all heard that consistency is key. And yes, I do believe that this is 100% true in every task we set fourth to do. I think at times though people in general (myself included) expect big results while putting in mediocre work to achieve those results.

When it comes to transforming your physique for example it takes ALOT of work. Yes genetics and age both play a role with how you will look and feel however neither one of these factor can replace good old fashion hard work in my opinion.

I remember my first bodybuilding show that I ever competed in. I didn’t place 1st. I didn’t place 5th. Hell, I didn’t even place 10th! I placed DEAD LAST!! And get this, I had already been training and working out at this point for over 5 years! It took me another 2 years to move up the ladder to a respective 3rd place finish and another year after that to win my very first show. That’s 8 years of training almost everyday, eating clean 90% of the time, not just for a few weeks but year round, and giving it 110% in the gym even on the days that I only had 10% in me to give.

I guess what I’m saying here is that the road to health and fitness is a long road to travel. In fact, if your goal is to be healthy and fit, it’s going to have to be a life time commitment. It can’t just be something that you do from time to time, especially if you want to achieve results. Sure, it’s important to enjoy life. But who’s to say that you can’t enjoy a healthy and fit life? In fact, living a disciplined lifestyle can be very rewarding. On the odd occasion when I do decide to let loose and go “easy” on myself I just make sure that I go extra hard or even harder then usual the very next day.

Remember, just like your mind, the body likes to be challenged. If your mind is never challenged how can you become smarter? If your body is never challenged then how can you expect it change and progress?

So I suggest that the next time you hit a plateau with your results in the gym or anything else that you wish to accomplish in life, you step back for a moment and ask yourself if you have truly given the task at hand your utmost and outer effort. If you are truly honest with yourself, the answer that you are looking for might already be there.

Yours in Good Health,

Nick Cosgrove