Have you ever ended up finishing an entire bar of chocolate when you only intended to have one piece? Or have you come out of a relationship and told yourself you’re going to change how you look so you can hold on to the next partner that comes along?
If you have, and you’ve gone to the gym soon after to try and right the wrongs, ex-military commander and The Biggest Loser tough guy Steve Willis says you need to rethink your training regime.
Why? Because training out of guilt will only result in a one-way ticket to failure-town. Population, you.
Commando Steve, as he’s better known, says training because of guilt is an unsustainable approach to achieving fitness goals. Speaking to News.com.au he said, “there’s no space in it to experience happiness, joy, peace, and gratitude.”
“It is debilitating and it will wear you out in a short time.”
It’s something the majority of us can likely relate to; feeling like we should push harder next time we’re on the gym floor because we think we overate the night before, or because we had a fight with a friend and have to find a space to vent our anger.
It will only have damaging effects, says Steve: “People push themselves so hard that they end up sick and magnify the stress and anxiety in what they’re already having to deal with even more.”
He stresses that in order to make any changes to your outside, you need to start taking better care of your inside. Your personal wellbeing. #GoodVibesOnly.
“When my four-year-old is upset or needs some reassurance, I am gentle, but as adults, we don’t do that for ourselves; we don’t go to that four-year-old within us and nurture ourselves and say ‘it’s all right’.”
“Guilt gets things done in the moment, but has it really done anything that has a sound basis, that is promoting wellbeing long-term?”
Steve speaks from experience, he says when he was younger he never used to like himself, and turned to exercise as a way to escape the pain, but he used it to hurt himself, not to get himself ripped. It wasn’t really until he discovered Buddhism some seven years ago that he really started to enjoy life and improve his relationships with other people.
That’s not to say you need to go and find a new religion to practice your life by, but we can certainly all benefit from taking some ‘me’ time.
Since obtaining his newfound wisdom, Steve is keen to preach that we can all be “mindful” when we train and that we need to realise that we won’t reach our goals overnight, or “yesterday” as he puts it. He explains that for him, there are just three rules to abide by if you want to reach your fitness goals: commitment, consistency, and awareness.
“Committing to things is easy at the start. It’s maintaining the commitment when things get challenging. It’s about showing up even when we don’t feel like it.”
“It’s one thing to commit to something and rely on a coach or trainer to encourage and motivate you, or you can choose to do that yourself.”