I wonder how many of you guys are tired of hearing me talk about consistency. I’ve certainly covered the topic A LOT in the past, but that’s because it’s so damn critical to success in your health and fitness journey. Anyways, I thought today that I’d look at consistency, or lack thereof, from a different perspective.

You know why Whole30 is so popular? Or 21 day fix? It’s because anyone can slam the gas pedal to the floor for 3 or 4 weeks. And there is likely to be some progress that’s seen. But nobody can can go all out all the time. You burn out. Break. Wear down. It’s science (probably). And the progress that you saw will wane. You’ll only be left with that “after” photo and the feeling of shame and guilt down the road when you realize you’re back to square one… or worse. Which leads me to the title of this post…

Tortoises can be found, but are pretty rare, because most people I see, act like the hare.

I literally just made that up. True story.

But it’s true. The successful people are the one’s who grind day in and day out. Some meals aren’t great, but most are pretty good. Some workouts or training sessions get shorted or skipped altogether, but most don’t. Even when they feel like just going home and plopping on the couch, they do it anyway. Even if they’re a bit under the weather, they do it anyway.

I’m going to take a minute and give an example here. There’s this girl I know who gets up around 5 am(ish) every weekday. She often works until 5 or 6 pm. So far, this may sound like a lot of you out there. Here’s where she stands out. After work, she will come home and take care of some things (walk dogs, start laundry, etc), but then she has the audacity to lace up the sneakers, go back out to the gym, get in a training session, and then come back home to cook, clean, and prepare for the next day. I don’t know about you, but after a long ass day of work and knowing what still lies ahead at home for the night, I’m not sure I’d have it in me to consistently lace up and go back out to the gym. Now sure, it may not be the greatest of workouts, but it’s better than not doing one AND… it maintains the habit. That last bit is key by the way. I often tell people that even when I don’t feel like getting in a lifting session or a swim at the pool, I at least make sure I show up and give it a try. And you know what? There have been times where I’ve gotten to the gym to lift or swim, got through my warm-up or a couple of sets, and packed up and went home. It wasn’t there for whatever reason. BUT… and this is a big BUTT (see what I did there?)… I still went and kept the habit.

Unfortunately, what I see far too often are people who take the hare’s approach. And we know how that one turned out, don’t we? They go for a couple of weeks at full throttle. Killing it! Woooo!!!! Then they fizzle out for a few weeks or months. Then they realize they’ve gotten lazy about their diet and exercise and….

Wooooo!!!!! #killingit

And the cycle continues. But that won’t cut it. What you need to find is something that you:

  1. Enjoy
  2. Can do easily on a consistent basis

That’s it. There is no number 3.

So stop the full on, full off cycle and get consistent already. You’ll likely finally see the results you’ve been looking for all along.