A surefire way to stay motivated is by getting results. I meet people everyday who had the best intentions when they started a workout or nutrition program only to give up before ever getting results. What’s the problem?

Most health and fitness goals fail for one reason: Misguided effort.

Imagine 2 cars both wanting to drive in the same direction. One car goes through the steps to start the car, accelerate forward, and steer to avoid obstacles. The other car spins its wheels. Both cars exert energy, but only one goes anywhere. The analogy here is that you can fill your days with plenty of things that will leave you exhausted by the end of the day, yet you haven’t really gotten any closer to your goals.

The answer isn’t more exercise

Let’s apply this concept to your health and fitness aspirations. Do you want to lose weight? And if your answer is yes, are you putting most of your energy into exercising? If yes, there’s your problem. Most permanent weight loss can be attributed to dietary changes, not exercising more. Am I saying exercise isn’t important? Of course not! But as far as weight loss is concerned, exercise will not negate the damage caused by poor diet.

The million dollar question…

If I asked you, “If I give you a million dollars to reach your ideal weight this year, what would you change in your diet?”, you’d find yourself coming up with some honest answers. It’s a great question to rule out half-hearted excuses and mis-perceptions like “My diet is pretty good.” When clients tell me that they don’t know why they haven’t lost weight, by the time we walk through their dietary choices for the day/week/month/year, they realize how much those spontaneous deviations add up and leave them smack dab right where they were (even though they may have worked out every single day!).

The million dollar answer…

To get results and stay motivated to continue to enjoy those results for the rest of your days, stop spinning your wheels and putting 99% of your effort into 1% of your results. Lifelong healthy dietary choices will yield you 99% of your results, so put your effort where it counts. What you eat, how much you eat and how you eat it matters a whole lot more than how many calories you burn on a treadmill.

For more information about how you should specifically change your diet and fitness plan, email rebecca@choosinghealthnow.com.