A Personal Journey By Anne Simon B.Sc (Hon’s)
I have been on a personal journey over the past four weeks. Like many people at New Year, I decided that 2014 was going to be the year I lost the excess weight and got back in to serious training. I wanted to lose it all in four weeks.
I signed up to a 4 week health camp, that started with fitness assessments (including anthropometrical measures), nutrition lectures and several exercise sessions on day 1. This was continued with weekly email follow-ups to check on progress and commitment, finishing with a re-assessment on week 4.
Knowing what I know about sensible weight loss, muscle gain against fat loss and what that means on the scales, why did I still have the psychology of believing I could move the earth in four weeks. This only set me up to feel so disappointed when at my re-assessment I hadn’t lost at least a stone a week, not just the 2lbs a week I did lose?
This disappointment has set off a whole train of thoughts, one of which being it’s time for me to get a grip and sort myself out, it takes a defecit of 3,500 kilocalories a week between kilocalories in and kilocalories out to lose one pound of fat a week so, of course it’s going to take a while! What would I have done if it had been one of my clients rather than me? My job would have been to help motivate them to achieve their goal.
So what does motivation mean, where do I get it from and how long will it last?
Motivation is defined as the process that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviours.
Being fed-up of being over-weight and not being able to fit in to any of my clothes motivated me to change the way I eat (now follow the carbohydrate pyramid plan) and to start exercising properly again, committing to at least 5 sessions a week. This is considered intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation comes from within the individual. You may also have heard of extrinsic motivation, this comes from outside the individual and often involves rewards such as money, medals, praise (especially from a significant other) and social recognition. As a trainer you may need to come up with appropriate extrinsic motivation to keep your clients on track.
Knowing that I was going to be –re-assessed in four weeks kept my intrinsic motivation high. However when I got my results it took a nose-dive not having lost as much as I had hoped, even though I had lost what would be considered a good weight loss in that time frame. Four weeks felt forever. I wondered how I was going to continue to stick with the programme and lose all the weight I need to, after all the first 4 weeks was really just the start of my journey but it seemed such a long time.
That was when I had a light-bulb moment. As trainers we talk about clients goals all the time but is it something that we take as seriously as we should? It is important when setting goals that we use the SMART (or SMARTER) principle.
S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Achievable and agreed
R – Realistic
(E – Exciting)
(R – Reviewed)
Specific – Identify exactly what it is your client wants to achieve, be detailed about it (Lose 8lbs fat in 12 weeks)
Measurable – Establish how you are going to monitor progress towards their goal (Assess body fat measurements every 4 weeks)
Achievable – Your client needs to believe that their goal is achievable and it is your responsibility to guide them into setting sensible goals (we would all love to be able to lose 7lbs of fat a week but actually the reality is that by combining sensible eating and exercise you are likely to only lose 1 – 2 lbs a fat a week, your client needs to appreciate that too)
Agreed – If your client doesn’t take ownership of their goal they are unlikely to be successful
Realistic – As a trainer you need to ensure that the client can complete whatever tasks you are setting them. You need to take a holistic approach, consider what other commitments they have, job, family, hobbies etc and make sure that what you set them is do-able.
Exciting – Easy one, if a goal excites your client they are more likely to succeed
Reviewed – Once a goal has been achieved you need to review it and make any changes needed to make sure that the client goes on to achieve not only short-term, but also medium and long-term goals.
I should have asked myself what can goal could I have set myself that kept in my mind what I realistically could lose each week, and then my short-term goal would have reflected that, and in hindsight I would have had a greater sense of achievement at my re-assessment. Needless to say I now have a long-term goal, divided into smaller steps (short and medium-term goals) and I am motivated to stay on track. From now on I will view goal-setting with much more importance, if I can let myself down so badly what is it like for our clients if we don’t treat their needs and wants with the respect and commitment they deserve from us, their trainers.
Goal-setting is included in every qualification, ask yourself did you take it seriously on your course? If you did, then well done, and if you didn’t maybe you can learn from my mistake to the benefit of your clients.