Here at Strive Fitness and Performance, we have made a huge impact in the Macomb County are in a very short time. In that time, we have worked with a variety of different clients. We’ve seen what works, what doesn’t work, common struggles, and as coaches, we are constantly looking for ways to improve our clients’ results.
We fit our programs around our clients instead of fitting the client around a specific program. We pride ourselves in treating people like people, not just another number, so we pay close attention to everything going on. We can see the signs, and we can usually tell in those first few weeks with someone new to the program whether it’s going to be smooth sailing, or if a new client needs to take a step back and take it little by little.
Your coach is always here to help, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have your own responsibilities. Your daily habits and actions dictate your results, and while we can give advice, support, and help along the way, the day to day execution is where the magic happens.
Looking at the common trends among our most successful clients, it’s pretty easy to tell within the first few weeks how well this is going to go. There are common habits and behaviors that let us know a client is probably going to see great success early and often.
Before we dive in, remember that you do NOT need to be perfect to see amazing results. Nobody is perfect, not even coaches, and we don’t expect perfection from our clients either. The best results don’t come from the people who hit their macros perfectly every day for 12 weeks; the best results come from those who build the proper habits and mindsets. After all, those habits are what help you keep your results for the rest of your life.
The following habits and actions are the things that are most successful clients do right away and often. Even if you are not currently accomplishing these actions, they are a stepping stone to reach for in the near future if you want to see success and results.
Any diet that expects perfection is simply setting you up to fail. You’re going to mess up, and that’s okay – success doesn’t require perfection.
What it DOES take are honesty and accountability. If you slip up and have a bad weekend, log it anyway and tell your coach what happened. Hiding it from us means we can’t help you.
If you leave a day blank or just decide not to log that piece of cake you ate from guilt or shame, while that may feel like a way to not confront what went on, it’s important to remember that’s not giving yourself, or your Coach, accurate information. Us as coaches, can only work with the information giving us. I mean, imagine going to the doctors and not giving all the symptoms or your medical background, they may give you the wrong prescription and hinder your progress rather than help it.
We are an open book here at Strive Fitness. We education our clients every day with emails, facebook posts, videos and documents. There is so much information out there about nutrition and exercises, and the majority of it is wrong or misguided. This has led to the majority of the population following the wrong information and hurting their long term results.
We want our clients education and to ask questions so they understand. The more educated you are, the better results you will get. Happy clients, happy business....Make more of an impact 🙂
Eventually, you’ll reach a point where this is second nature, and you understand how to plan and track your macros. But in the beginning, as you’re still learning and building those habits, we expect you’ll have a lot of questions, struggles, concerns, victories – and we want to know about all of it.
Having flexibility in your food selections is a huge part of our NUTRITION PHILOSOPHY and why our program is sustainable. You should live your life 90/10, 90% whole foods and 10% stuff that you like. That does not mean that the stuff you like should be an all the time thing. Instead we should be consistent with whole foods and hitting our macros and using those "special" foods as treats.
We suggest using the 3-3-3 method for a reason: the simpler your diet is, the quicker you’ll build good habits and consistency with your numbers. Planning macros can be a little time consuming and stressful at first, and if you are always trying to find a way out of it, you will burn out very easily. Instead, we should focus on getting the right foods and becoming better at LIFESTYLE MODE. Once we mastered that and have control over our nutrition, we can start to learn how to fit other things into our nutrition.
This needs no explanation. Every time you plan your day ahead of time, you’re going to have a much easier time hitting your macros, no exceptions. There’s no thinking, adjusting on the fly, or panicking when you realize you have 5 grams of fat left and still need 87 grams of protein. Even if these are the only habits you built, your chances of success will increase exponentially. When you food log, you hold yourself accountable and are mindful on what you are putting in your body. When you plan ahead, you know that if you accomplish your plan 100%, you will be spot on with your numbers and consistent. Going through a few weeks of learning and adjusting your plan you should be able to get to your perfect plan. We suggest MACRO PLANNING and putting in your macros ahead of time to fit your plan around your lifestyle so you can sustain it.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Unsuccessful clients do not adjust their plan when it is not perfect. Successful clients learn each week how to become better. Slow progress is still progress. Getting better every day will always results in success, as long as we are positive and actually change.
So what about the habits that will no doubt make your progress stall?
These are the habits that will frustrate clients because they think they are working extra hard and end up not seeing the results they desire.
It’s easy to slip back into old habits, and we want to help you avoid that. Look at how you’re currently approaching things, and if any of these hit home, maybe it’s time to make some adjustments.
Clients who struggle to get the results they want usually have these common habits and practices of their own:
Set Yourself Up For Success
Whether you just joined us here at Strive, are on the fence, or have been with us for over a year, it’s never too late to take a step back and look at your daily habits and mindset. Even if you identified with some of the "other" habits and are ready for a small change, it is never too late to improve.
[To Apply For A Free Strategy Call, To Go Over YOUR Personalized Macro Plan, CLICK HERE NOW]
Nobody is perfect, not even your coach, and we’re here to help. If you think you need to make some changes to improve your results and adherence with this program, let us help you. Talk to your coach, start working on those success habits, and build yourself a strong foundation that will support good nutrition for the rest of your life.
Meal Planning can be really time consuming and overwhelming at first. Motivation is so strong at first that you want to change literally everything that you view is wrong. Many times, this turns into a quick failure because it is simply too much and it will lead to some failures that you are not ready for. To be honest, failures come regardless and is a part of the journey to becoming better. The less opportunities for failure the better and the bigger chance you have to reach your goals.
Here at Strive Fitness and Performance, we track macros (read more on why). This helps our clients meal planning process go a lot smoother and helps them create their own unique meal plans.
To help our clients meal plan, we preach the 3-3-3 method. This method helps with meal planning, because it takes out the variables. Consistency is key (especially at the beginning). The more variables in your meals the harder it becomes to stay consistent.
Choose 3 protein sources, 3 carbs, 3 fats. Green veggies won’t count as one of your 3 carbs, have a free for all (but still log them)
Example:
Make all of your meals with only those foods. At first, you may say “ah that looks like a boring menu”. But think about how many different combos you can come up with. Different styles of cooking, different spices, interesting pairings etc
Why does this work?
It eliminates variables. One of the tricky things with logging food is a fault in perception and mismanagement of what you think you are consuming. This reduction in variables will allow you/your client to pinpoint exactly what’s going on. Essentially, it’s a way to mess up less, stay satiated, get in all the micronutrients, and get used to eating primarily nutrient dense foods.
Once we become mindful of the quantity and quality of the foods we are eating, we have officially reached and mastered LIFESTYLE MODE and can now start to fit in the good stuff like oreos and cake (sometimes).
This has been a game changer for people who have gotten comfortable on a diet or those just starting a more flexible approach. It’s not as fun as pizza, cheeseburgers, and wine, but neither is working hard for no progress, right?
We all know someone who constantly seems to be on a diet.
Whenever we see them, they’re on some kind of no-carb plan, they are telling you that so and so foods are bad or they’ve been sucked into a crazy detox diet.
Very occasionally, (and quite incredibly), they might be doing something that makes sense—like counting calories, tracking macros and eating in a deficit (even though they do not know why this works)
Regardless of what method they’re following though, one thing is consistent: They always look the same.
Figuring out why someone on a fad diet never changes isn’t too difficult; chances are they’re regularly binging (either on purpose or they don't realize they are going over) and having huge cheat days. But what about that "clean eater"?
There are plenty out there who seem to be on point 95% of the time, yet forever dieting and not seeing results.
The answer to their issue is that those "clean eaters" are always in DIET MODE. They are chronically always trying to lose weight. Instead they should learn to cycle their nutrition to get the best results.
If your body didn’t hate dieting, you wouldn’t have the urge to overeat!
To lose body fat, you have to be in a calorie deficit. There are no two ways about it. Your body adapts to the deficit by losing weight to get back to normal. Your body does not like being in a deficit (it does not care that you want to be skinny), all it wants to do is survive. Almost immediately, the body starts to fight back as you are trying to lose weight. As you will probably know from previous experience though, losing weight isn’t the only side effect caused by a calorie deficit. You can also experience:
So how do you ensure that you can diet long enough to hit your goal weight without falling into the trap of feeling like you’re forever in a deficit?
There are two phases in proper nutrition, Diet mode and lifestyle mode.
Even though the word "diet" is often seen as a bad word, all diets have a purpose. DIET MODE is when you have a specific goal. Losing fat, building muscle, or prepping for a competition. While Diet mode is turned on you should be almost perfect. I said almost. Nobody’s perfect and nobody should expect it. In Diet mode, you should limit the drinking, eating out, and hard to track adventurous foods. Slips may happen here and there but the sacrifice is needed to remain in diet mode.
Diet mode should be used sparingly. If you are looking for a timeline, think about 6-12 weeks. It really depends on the individual. Some can not stay in a deficit that long without metabolic damage and some can stay in it longer. If you are curious on where you stand, contact us for FREE NUTRITION CONSULTATION
LIFE STYLE MODE is what you cruise with. Lifestyle mode should be where you live most of the year. Some people never even go into diet mode and they still get great results. Lifestyle mode is living by having successful habits. These 10 habits include, having protein at each meal and focusing carbs around your workout (see more here). At this point, you know what’s healthy, what’s not, and how to plan make good decisions. You may be able to get a little loose here and enjoy more. Un-tracked meals out, drinks, and more adventurous foods come back into play but you still must be aware, honest with yourself, and careful.
Lifestyle mode is great for those who have met a goal and want to maintain progress or are ok making slower progress. Lifestyle mode is where you may want to eventually settle in and is where you spend most of your time in. It is also where you should return to after you are done with diet mode.
You are still aware of your food environment but you are experienced enough to enjoy yourselves guilt free within reason. During this time you enjoy life and are not really stressing weight gain (you may actually gain a little here), because you have control of your life and habits and the weight gain will be minimal.
It is important to return to lifestyle mode for many different reasons. You body will like you because it hates dieting. As you go back to lifestyle mode you will begin to notice your energy and workouts becoming much better. Your mind will like you because you will be able to live your life without the stress of always watching what you eat and actually enjoying life every once in a while. For long term weight loss, your metabolism will finally like you. Having a healthy metabolism is one of the key factors in long term health and weight loss. You metabolism begins to lower and slow down as you are in diet mode. This is completely natural and you cannot stop it (this is why we have plateaus). Coming back up to maintenance and increasing calories during lifestyle mode will help you reset your hormones and metabolism so that when you want to lose weight again, your body will be ready.
You may toggle between Diet mode and Lifestyle mode as you see fit. This can depend on goals, events, time of year, or necessary mental breaks. Here at Strive Fitness and Performance we are in DIET MODE 3 times a year (fall, winter and spring), each time for 8 weeks.
Most people find themselves always trying to lose weight 24/7. Their lifestyle mode has become their diet mode. This way of living is very rigid and full of restrictive diets, binging and overall weight gain in a never ending cycle. It sucks and it is one of the main things plaguing people in the United States and is one of the main things holding people back from getting the results they deserve. We see it all the time with our incoming members (probably around 80%).
ONE FINAL TIP: If you want one lasting tip, start by learning the 10 habits that will put you in a healthy lifestyle mode. If you are no where close to having a healthy lifestyle (this is the majority of people), start with one habit at a time. As you perfect lifestyle mode, you will begin to notice some differences with your body as well as your biofeedback.
If you are clueless on where to start with your journey or are a "clean eater" and have plateaued CLICK HERE and set up a FREE nutrition consultation and we can work together to find a plan for you.
We like to give you these FREE Weekend Warrior Workouts to perform on the days you’re too busy to get to the gym! This one requires a single kettle bell and that’s it. For women, an 20 lb bell is recommended and for men, a 35 lb bell will be good. Adjust as needed. Remember, we recommend 2-3 training workouts per week and these mini-workouts throughout the rest of the week for optimal health. Just keeping yourself moving and lifting heavy things on a daily basis will help your fat loss and muscle building goals. The workout doesn’t have to be extreme, long, or complicated!
Remember, we recommend 2-3 training workouts per week and these mini-workouts throughout the rest of the week for optimal health. Just keeping yourself moving and lifting heavy things on a daily basis will help your fat loss and muscle building goals.
Descending Ladder
Total Time: About 10-minutes
Perform the following ladder rep scheme of 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 for the following exercises:
Enjoy and hit us up on Facebook to let us know how you liked it!
Around the New Year, The masses start to make "New Year Resolutions" and begin to think about how they can make the next year better. One of the most common "New Year Resolutions" is to get healthy and this leads to a large surplus of people joining gyms. While these new go-getters are certainly well-intentioned, sadly for the majority, the motivation doesn’t last. Quora.com reports that 80% of resolution gym goers will stop attending by the second week of February.
There are lots of reasons, and many of them are specific to the individual, but one overarching reason is that for most people, a gym is simply a place to work out, and that isn’t enough to entice most to make it a regular part of life. People join gyms and become a number and are not provided with direction or even acceptance in some cases. If you stop showing up, no one else notices or cares; and soon, your yourself stop caring, because the space adds no value to your life. After a few weeks, once the fire of the new years resolution fizzles out and the desired results have yet to show up, it’s difficult to drag your butt out of bed at the crack of dawn (or before) to go to a place where you are alone, physically uncomfortable, and nameless to the other bodies sweating next to you.
Here are four reasons why it’s important and in your best interest to join a gym – or enroll your kids in a gym – that is more than just a gym.
1. A gym that is more than a gym helps you train to become better, not just workout…
…and yes, there is a difference, both between working out and training, and a gym and a training center. Any local gym will be a decent fit if you are the type of person that enjoys exercise in itself – the discomfort and the exertion wrapped up into one 60-minute sweat fest. Some people think exercise is fun, and this direct pay-off is sufficient to propel them to create their own discipline and accountability. But for most of us mere mortals, the individual sweat sessions are just not enticing enough. And if you are just hitting the gym with no direction or the latest Pinterest workout in hand, the sessions start to seem disconnected and purposeless, making you question if the discomfort is really worth your time.
That’s why it’s important to join a gym that is, specifically, a training center. Meaning that the institution has a mission statement that hinges on coaches who come alongside you to help you focus and adapt your sessions toward a clearly defined goal.
is the key idea here. We would all laugh if, while we were driving, we saw a man in a field throwing darts in different directions, aiming at nothing. Throwing darts only becomes meaningful and recognizable as a sane activity when there’s a target involved. This illustrates the distinction between working out and training. It’s easy to quit showing up if you’re not sure where you’re aiming. Working out is simply a task; training is a goal-oriented process, spilling over and reaping its benefits into other areas of life.
A great coach helps you identify and define that target, articulate WHY it’s important in your life, and then works with you to create a path for your journey and helps you form tactics to adjust when hardships come about. A training center operates daily with the purpose of helping its clients embrace an improved quality of life, whereas a gym simply exists to make money. In short, a training center cares about YOU, while a gym may not.
2. Such a gym can become a second home
A gym that is a second home is composed of staff and members who create community by fostering and maintaining meaningful relationships. If you join any local gym, chances are, you’ll see the same people a few days per week...You may say hi or introduce yourself....but you’ll never actually get to know them and connect. It is no more to you than space with weights and faces that have no significance.
As a coach on the floor at 5:30 every morning, I relish the opportunity to be the first positive interaction in a client’s day. As Strive coaches, we focus our efforts on staying in tune with every important aspect of our clients’ lives – family events, work changes, surgeries, and victories both inside and outside of the gym.
At most gyms, you’ll walk in and out of the door without anyone acknowledging your presence. Make sure you find a gym that can also be a second home.
3. Community creates accountability
Belonging to a gym that feels like home entices you to make training a habit. Community fosters accountability. Period. When you know you will be missed, you are more likely to go. You are far less likely to skip when you know a coach will be calling or emailing you, checking up to make sure everything is okay if you don’t show up.
Here at Strive Fitness and Performance, your coaches are just as serious about your goals and training as you are. They are consistently positive and relentlessly demanding, and they, along with the clients who have become your friends, will remind you of what you really want even when you don’t feel it. They’ll help you maintain focus when your own vision of your target gets blurred by other life stresses or periods of low motivation.
The truth is, we aren’t wired to be our best on our own. We need accountability where discipline wanes. Join a gym that fills that need.
4. Enrolling your children in such a training center provides them with positive role models
If you want your child to become a more well-rounded athlete, seek out a training center with coaches who are positive role models. Sending your kid to the gym might make them stronger and better at their sport, but being regularly under the guidance of coaches who are relentlessly positive, demanding, as well as caring, will reap a much vaster benefit. Kids adopt the habits and mannerisms of people they look up to, so placing them under the guidance of coaches who are excellent role models is a move that has the power to transform the way they think, see, and conduct themselves on and off the field.
For parents with young girls especially, it’s a great moment when your fourteen year-old daughter comes home from her training session and says, “Mom, I want to be STRONG,” instead of “Mom, how can I look like a Victoria’s Secret model?” Entrusting your female athlete to the care of coaches who emphasize the importance of feeling strong instead of being skinny – both through their coaching and their own habits – has the power to reverse the damaging societal norms associated with female body image.
If you want your child to get stronger, buy them a gym membership. If you want your athlete to become stronger, more inspired, increasingly confident, and a better teammate, entrust them to a training center with coaches who are positive role models.
Contact us Today and set up your FREE Success Session
Committed to your success,
Derek Ledwidge
