Training With Intention: The Importance of Reflection

In this week’s training with intention we are going to talk about why reflecting is so important when it comes to your health and fitness.

How many times has this happened to you… you spent a weekend binge eating and drinking your face off but you swore on Monday morning you were going to get back into your routine and “start over”. You were convinced that you were going to "start" and nothing was going to stop you this time.

This motivation lasted a few days, maybe a week, but eventually the shiny glamor of this initial push to change fades away. If this hasn’t happened to you, in some fashion, you are extremely lucky and in a class all by yourself.

However, most of us find ourselves losing focus, struggling and losing the inspiration that once changed our mindset.

So, what is wrong with the majority of us? Why do most of us fail to keep ourselves motivated after we promise ourselves this time it will be different?

Though our answers may be different, one piece of the puzzle always remains the same.. REFLECTING!

Many times when we start this journey, we do it after feeling guilty or bad about something that happened 24-48 hours previously. Unfortunately, with our human nature in full force, our short term memory allows us to forget the struggles and the pain that got us to initially take action to change.

It is here that reflecting on a weekly or even daily basis can help keep us motivated longer as we build the better habits that keep us on track.

You see, too many times we decide we want change, we go all out and expect our bodies to do the same. This is just not reality and something we have to come to grips with.

Many of us are still struggling to combat the decades of poor eating and stress that has consumed our lives well before we decided to get into shape. So, we cannot expect our bodies to change just because we decided we wanted to.

We must understand that any change, whether it be the last 5 pounds or 50, we have to chip away with small habits and reflection to create lasting change for years to come.

Reflection is as simple as this, one day out of the week take 5 to maybe even 20 minutes to ask yourself these simple questions:

What would you rate last week when it comes to your health, fitness, nutrition and lifestyle habits? 1-10, 10 being great.

If you said, 6, ask yourself this…What made it a 6 and not a 5? That positive motivation can keep you moving in the right direction as you should repeat whatever it is that kept you from slipping down.

Now, at the same time ask yourself this question- what can you do this week to bump up to a 7 maybe even an 8? Here's something that can allow you to move forward with your success and something that you can put focus on this week to stay ahead of the game.

Once you ask yourself these questions you can start reflecting on the things that went well and the things that didn't go so well as you head into the week.

The only thing you need to do now is focus on those small reflection points that you discussed with yourself early that week. If you do this time and time again, week after week, you can start building up the success that you need to stay motivated. Even when roadblocks get in your way, which they inevitably will.

Don't expect your results to be an overnight success and it's OK to understand that.

Remember when you reflect, you can see the roadblocks that held you back and identify how you can work around those obstacles in weeks ahead.

To hammer down this point on how reflection can be a game changer in your health and fitness, grasping this concept can be a help…

We live a week behind in our fitness journey, as we cannot predict the future of results. Yet, by reflecting on what we did the week before, we can change the things that we didn’t like and do more of the things that we did. But if we don't remember and can't reflect on what happened, it makes it harder to change the things we don't know need changing. Reflection is a key component and an underrated habit to any long lasting success. It puts a foundation of progress under our feet and helps us take another positive step forward in our health and fitness journey.

Reflect, Revise, Repeat, Results…It is the circle of LIFE 