Maintaining Success Despite Obstacles

You’re 100% motivated and you’ve been sticking with your diet to the letter for the last three weeks. Your gym sessions are going great and you’re seeing vast improvements on a weekly basis.

And, you’re getting the results you always dreamed of. Things just couldn’t be going better.

…..and then it happens.

Something comes in the way of your progress and completely threatens to throw you off track.

Whether it’s a friend who’s invited you out on a night you were supposed to get in your hardest workout of the week or it’s a husband who’s come home with a bag of your favorite brand of potato chips to tempt you all night long – you have this twinge of anxiety that says you could be headed for trouble.

What do you do in a situation like this? How can you combat these obstacles so that you can stick with your workout plan?

Let’s look at a few of the things that you must consider.

Invite Friends To Join You

The very first and one of the most effective ways to combat the social element obstacle is to try and get your friends to workout with you. If you exercise together, then you can get your social time in while staying active, reaping the benefits of both.

Some friends obviously may not go for this depending on their own personal preferences and their desire to adopt a more active lifestyle but the more you can surround yourself with people who do want this in their life, the easier it will be maintaining your plan.

Join a group that gets together regularly for walks or workouts and this will actually boost your desire to stay healthy.

Keep Goodies Out Of Sight

Moving over to the treats side of the equation, if you have a husband, wife, or roommate who is always bringing foods into the house that you know you shouldn’t be eating but will be tempted to, at the very least ask them to keep these out of site.

If it’s a roommate, perhaps they can keep the food in their own room so you aren’t faced to look at it each time you open the pantry.

Or, if it’s a husband or wife, they can at least store it on the top or bottom shelf where you’re less likely to look. Obviously you will still ‘know’ its there, but when it’s not staring you down each day, it will be easier to choose otherwise.

Exercise Early

Another smart tip to use to make sure that you don’t face missed workout sessions is to get up earlier and do your workouts first thing. Since no one is going to crowd out your time at 6 am (except for possibly that snooze button, which you do, as much as you may deny, have complete control over) this is a sure-fire way to guarantee that you do get in your workout.

Early morning exercisers are much more likely to stick with their workouts over time as well, so there are plenty of benefits to getting up earlier to get the activity in.

The first week may be a bit brutal, but once you’re past that and it’s a habit, it gets easier.

Plan A Cheat Day

Finally, make sure that you plan for a cheat day in your program. No diet should ever be so rigid that you can’t treat yourself once in a while and by having that cheat day in there, you can use this whenever the time comes up to go out for dinner or to a friends for a party.

This way you can detour off your diet slightly without feeling all too bad about it.

So there you have a few quick tricks that you can put to use immediately to make sure you stay on your plan. Use these next time you face temptation.