Fitness journeys never run smoothly or perfectly – and that is a fact. Everyone who takes the initiative to become healthy will make mistakes – including you. However, that is completely normal and okay! Don’t let this discourage you. Instead, use it to motivate yourself and embrace the fact that mistakes occur sometimes, but you can always diligently overcome them.
Living healthy is a constant journey, but that’s what makes it so rewarding and worth the effort. You always grow and improve with time.
Now, the ultimate question must be asked to help keep you moving forward: are you making these common fitness mistakes?
1. Setting unrealistic goals
Setting unrealistic goals such as expecting to see immediate results or achieving a goal in a short amount of time is setting yourself up for disappointment. Becoming and staying healthy is a process and not a source of instant gratification. Therefore, don’t expect your habits to change off the bat or see results in the blink of an eye.
To counteract unrealistic goals, make small ones that can be achieved daily or weekly, like avoid eating a sugary snack or choosing a proper carb-source for dinner tonight. These short-term goals may seem insignificant at first, but you come to realize they build the foundation for the success of your long-term and most important goals.
2. Following fad diets
Every season, you will hear about new diets and exercise trends that circulate the fitness and health community. Majority of these trends are fad diets and exercises that do not work nor succeed in the long-run.
Examples of fad diets including juice cleanses, the military diet, and the liquid diet. Instead of following a fad diet, stick to efficiently counting macros and following a reliable exercise routine.
3. Not correctly differentiating what is healthy versus what is not
While there is a variety of food to choose from in the grocery store, there is only a small number of genuinely healthy foods that positively contribute to your diet.
A good rule of thumb to follow is to eat the freshest and simplest ingredients and sources: fruits, vegetables, poultry, and meats – which in another term are lipotropic foods – the fat-burning and supportive sources of optimizing organ health. Anything is either processed with excess amounts of artificial sugar or sodium, such as cereal, fruit juices, and instant-ready meals. You should especially avoid food that is labeled “low-fat” or “diet.”
4.Eating below your recommended caloric intake
While dieting is technically a calorie-deficit, it should never be seen as starving yourself – because it isn’t that at all. Reducing caloric intake is simply strategizing how to consume your recommended amount of macros, which are the carbohydrates, fats, and proteins found in food and using them to fuel your exercise regime. For example, a cyclist requires more carbohydrates to sustain energy climbing steep hills, versus a weightlifter who maximizes proteins to gain serious muscle. In conclusion: keep in mind the type of exercise you do and coincide your diet to match the intensity of its activity and fitness goals.
5. Working out too much
Alongside eating too little, over-exercising can be just as harmful and ineffective. Not only is your body more prone to injury due to the overexertion, but you also will not gain any muscle or lose weight faster. It is imperative for the body to recover, regenerate muscle tissue, and rest.
Over-exercising can also affect the way you function in everyday life and your mental health.
6. Not using proper forms or techniques when exercising
Implementing proper form while exercising is crucial to both your fitness goals and personal safety. It’s better to learn how to utilize the right muscles during an exercise and use a machine correctly instead of diving into exercises or techniques without any prior knowledge of how it works. With improper technique, you are exercising insufficiently, possibly jeopardizing joint and spinal alignment, and preventing yourself from making progress.
Again, common fitness mistakes happen all the time for everyone starting to get healthy. Don’t need to worry if you make one here and there! What really matters on this journey is accepting you can make mistakes, but will still try to keep up good habits that keep you moving forward, losing weight, and taking care of your well-being. Now that you know some common fitness mistakes, you’re better equipped to take on your fitness journey. You will get to where you want to be soon enough.
Best of luck!
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