The C word…(Not the one you’re thinking!)

For most of my life, I was on a diet. Felt fat? Tried a new diet. Saw a new “low fat!” book come out? Gave that a go.

But, always hopping from one thing to the next…

It created a massive problem.

A wildly sporadic style of living, eating and working out.

It took me decades to finally realize something. If I didn’t ever truly commit to one program, one way of being…how could I ever stick with it enough to get long-lasting results?

That is why my word for you today is →

 

Consistency.

 

Good ole keep downing the protein shakes, forcing yourself to hit the gym, get outside even in the cold consistency.

Easier said than done though – isn’t it?

That’s why I sat down with my incredible trainer, world champion and coach, Mark Getty, to talk about our strategies that will actually keep you (and us both!) consistent.

Because although knowing how to work out and eat is one thing…they only work if we are consistent. It’s increasingly more important as we set bigger goals. Maybe you’re like me, training for competition – or heck, to look WILD hot for a big event coming up like a wedding or high school reunion.

Consistency will get you where you want to go.

Watch this video where I break it all down – along with Mark, who also has 4 kids and runs a business! (So we get how wild consistency can be…but know IT IS doable – with the right techniques.)

In this video I share with you:

• The #1 way to set goals that actually works in the long-term
• A mantra Mark swears by for his success
• How being consistent can transform far more than just your gym routine (I share specific ways it has changed my life)

Don’t forget… the best conversations always happen in the comments.  

After you’ve watched the video, leave a comment below and tell me if this rocked your world as much as it did mine!

Love Kim xo

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Kim: Hi this is Kim Constable, welcome to this week’s episode of Strong and Sculpted.
So this week we are going to talk about the ‘C’ word, that isn’t the ‘C’ word that you think, we’re going to talk about consistency and moreover how to build it into your life in terms of going to the gym.
One of the questions I get asked on a daily basis is, Kim how do you remain so consistent? How do you get up, do the work and show up every single day to go to the gym and do what needs done to build the body that you have?
So, I have a guest with me today, Mr Mark Getty who, as you can see has been very consistent in the gym …

Mark: Very consistent.
Kim: …for many years. I know it’s something Mark, that you have built into your life and something that you train your athletes in is really just showing up and doing the work so I was hoping today you could share some of your top tips with my listeners, watchers as to how does somebody whenever they start at a gym programme …Because you know what it’s like, you start on a gym programme and you’re really excited and you’re really motivated and you go to the gym and then the [0:01:06 unclear] kick in and the motivation wains, how do you build that consistency into your life and into your gym programme so that you ultimately can see the results that you crave?
Mark: Yeah I think personally, for me and I’ll just give a bit of background, I’m a business owner, 4 kids and I’m married so I still …
Kim: Like myself.
Mark: Like yourself. I still compete at professional level. I still then have to find time to obviously eat, train, sleep and obviously do my cardio. So how I do it simple. I first of all goal set, I’m a big believer in setting myself goals, long term and short term goals, you know I believe if the goal is too long and you haven’t got anything to keep you interested in the short term, you’re going to go off the rails. So for me, at the minute my long term goal is the Mr Universe, the tour.
Kim: October next year.
Mark: October next year.
Kim: October a year away is where you’re aiming to for now.
Mark: Yeah it’s 14 months you know, short term goals for that, simple at the minute, it’s to basically get my body primed for what’s going to happen. So, for example, between now and Christmas, I’ve set myself a goal of losing 20 lbs, do you know what I mean and actually gaining the same back in muscle, if that makes any sense.
Kim: 20 lbs of body fat?
Mark: 20 lbs of body fat and trying to put on more muscle in certain areas.
Kim: Because to lose 20 lbs you could probably just chop off your arm.
Mark: Yeah no problem you know, so that’s the short term goals and then as the show gets closer, these goals get bigger and bigger and bigger and basically make me what I need done come October. So that’s the way I do it, I’m a big believer in goal setting, a big believer in plan setting and a big believer of the mantra ‘fail to prepare, prepare to fail’, so that’s the way I look at it. Everything has to be set out, my meals my supplements, my training, my cardio. Now getting back, the reason I say I have 4 kids, a lot of people’s excuses for me, is, I don’t have the time, I have these commitments, I have them commitments. I run a business where I’m in the gym roughly 14 hours a day, I have 4 kids I have a wife, a demanding wife by the way.
Kim: No shhh.
Mark: No but the way I look at it is, these things all have to be implemented. Now, I love spending time with my kids and my wife, I love doing other things outside so that’s why I say, you have to work your training and work this into your lifestyle, not the other way about. I believe the biggest mistake I see people making is they work their lifestyle around their training and their training comes first especially in younger people where this is the only thing they think about and on down the line that leads to problems. Me, personally, the way I look at it is,, I want to do 60 minutes of cardio a day, if that means I have to get up an hour earlier in the morning then that’s what I do. I know that if I don’t do my cardio in the morning, I’m going to be chasing my tail the whole way during the day and feeling bad. If I do this for 2 or 3 days, I realise why I haven’t done it and I get back to my routine. So it’s about simple goal settings and making sure that the training falls into your lifestyle and nothing is being left out.
Kim: Okay. So in terms of goals Mark, what is a good realistic, you’re saying break it down into smaller goals, bigger goals so is a month goal good, a two month goal, a three month goal and then should it be a measureable goal, should it be I want to lose ‘x’ amount of pounds or ‘x’ amount of inches or what?
Mark: Yeah a weekly goal for example, if you want to lose a stone which is 14 lbs over 6 weeks or whatever, say it works [0:04:07 unclear] …
Kim: Is that doable do you think, you’d think people wouldn’t even know what to say, like I want to lose 3 stone in 4 weeks?
Mark: I would say, what I try to get people to do is, lose 2 lb a week, that’s an average goal and that to me is an achievable goal that everybody can do, do you know what I mean?
Kim: Yes.
Mark: So if I was getting somebody ready for a show or a photo shoot or just general weight loss, I would be aiming 2 lb a week, do you know what I mean?
Kim: Okay.
Mark: So for a month the aim would be to lose half a stone, 7 lbs – 8 lbs so that’s a short term goal, the short term goal that I would set most people weekly would be 2 lbs, monthly 7 lbs – 8 lbs and then obviously maybe we could take pictures every month and make sure the pictures are looking different than what they were a month a later you know, if that’s going towards a photo shoot that we have left say 16 weeks, if you’re doing 2 lb a week it works out at nearly 2 stone in that 12 weeks.
Kim: Hmm mm and what about also would it be a good goal to set for somebody who’s saying I want to train ‘x’ amount of times per week, I’m going to train 3 times or 4 times or I want to do 2 cardio and 4 gym or you know, should they do that kind of schedule as well?
Mark: Yeah big time, scheduling is a good thing, that’s what we talked about I think in a different video about planning, getting the plan and making sure that your plan is there so you can achieve it, like your plan has to set you goals. So if you want to lose say a stone in a month and you’re training once a week, that’s not going to cut it so the plan has to be in relation to your goals. So for me if I was having somebody wanting to do 2 lbs a week, I would be having them train 4 days a week with weights and 5 days a week cardio, do you know what I mean and then obviously I’d be setting this plan and changing this plan, it depends how the goal changes, do you know what I mean so if the following week I want to up it and go right we’re going to go 3, I might add more cardio in, do you know what I mean, so the plan has to be in relation to the goal do you know what I mean. If you feel that you’re going to lose a stone in a month by doing one cardio session a week of 20 minutes, walking and eating ice cream, then you’re not being realistic.
Kim: Walking to the ice cream shop.
Mark: Walking to the ice cream shop, scheduled cardio do you know what I mean?
Kim: A little bit delusional.
Mark: So that’s the thing, at the end of the day, for me to be consistent it’s about setting a plan, I get excited when I set a new plan.
Kim: Yeah me too.
Mark: I know this sounds ridiculous but I get excited to set a new plan. If I’ve got a plan that I want to start on the Monday I’m excited on Sunday to do it, I’m excited to get up and do my cardio, I’m excited to do my training because I want to see this goal materialising.
Kim: Yes.
Mark: So I want, I’m excited to see what this 12 week or 12 month transformation is going to look like, so for me it’s about making that goal so big that you’re excited that you want to do it, do you know what I mean?
Kim: And what do you do whenever …They always say motivation gets you going, discipline keeps you going, like what do you do whenever your motivation wains like you wake up in the morning and the last thing, like give me some real strategies here, you’re lying in bed, the alarm has gone off, it’s 5.30am, you know you have to train before you go to work or it’s not going to happen for the rest of the day and the last thing you want to do is get out of bed, what do you do?
Mark: Well I work it forward to how I’m going to be feeling later on, like I know come 8 o’clock at night, I’m going to be feeling I have to do that cardio and I know I’m not going to do it.
Kim: Right.
Mark: So I’m going to feel like crap that whole day, I’m going to be constantly thinking about that cardio I missed, thinking about that cardio I missed. So the way I look at it is, I project myself forward 6 hours to know how I’m going to be feeling if I don’t do it, do you know what I mean?
Kim: Yes.
Mark: I know I still have to do it or that goal’s gone do you know what I mean and if you slip once, it’s okay but if you keep slipping then you’re just going to fall down that slippery slope. So to me it’s easy, I know if I miss it by Saturday at 9.30 I’m going to be constantly wanting to train legs the whole day where my wife is going to go just get out of the house, just get out of the house because you’re being miserable, you’ve been moping around because you’ve missed the session and then it runs into Sunday. So my tip is, you know how you’re going to feel by missing it, so don’t miss it.
Kim: And also I think it’s also important to say about how …One thing that I have learnt is, I feel so much better about myself and I think this is true for everybody, they can try this out, you feel so much better about yourself when you show up and you do what you said you were going to do.
Mark: If you think about it, exercise releases endorphins and serotonin in the brain which is considered the happy hormone so that’s why people leave the gym feeling good, they feel a sense of accomplishment they feel a sense of achievement. Everything gym related is health related and everything like that, mental health even, do you know what I mean?
Kim: Right.
Mark: It’s all good for you so why would you not want to do something like that that’s going to influence your body and your life for the better, it’s a no brainer to me.
Kim: It’s kind of like the quote out of Legally Blonde, I think it was Legally Blonde 1 …I think it was Legally Blonde 2 did you ever see the movie?
Mark: No.
Kim: Elle Woods and she said, well there was a girl in it actually accused of murdering her husband and Legally Blonde Elle Woods said, she couldn’t have murdered her husband because she exercises and exercise releases endorphins and endorphins make you happy and happy people just don’t kill their husbands.
Mark: It’s a good point.
Kim: It was such a good quote.
Mark: And the world is better for exercise do you know what I mean?
Kim: And the world is better right. So set a goal.
Mark: Set a plan.
Kim: Project yourself forward into how you’re going to feel when you don’t show up for yourself and then just pull up your big girl pants or your big boy pants and just get on with it, just get yourself out of bed.
Mark: Because let’s face facts, there’s going to be days you’re not going to want to do it but those are the days it’s going to feel far better to do it.
Kim: Well like I was saying earlier, there’s days, I’m sure when people wake up and they don’t want to go to work and that’s the example I give to people, it’s like have you ever woken up at 7am and your alarms has gone off and you just do not want to get out of bed and go to work and they say, all the time and I say well do you get out of bed, yes, what makes you get out of bed, well I don’t know I just do it, the fear of getting fired or the fear of whatever, you know. So it’s about just finding that motivation, just getting up and doing it and projecting yourself forward and showing up.
Mark: Yeah, everybody’s motivations are different but at the end of the day, once you find it, just use that and keep it.
Kim: Yeah that’s true, wonderful. Thank you so much Mark, this has been amazing.
Mark: My pleasure.
Kim: Now, I want to hear from you guys, do you struggle with motivation? Do you struggle to get out of bed every morning and do the thing that you know you want to do? Or, maybe you suffer from too much motivation, a little bit like myself and you bounce out of bed and into your exercise regime every morning? Or what are your top tips for staying motivated? Is it about finding something you absolutely love to do, something that ignites a fire in your soul, maybe Zumba is your thing, maybe you don’t like to train in the gym but you love to do marathons? Whatever it is that keeps you motivated, I want to hear about it in the comments below. So leave a comment below this video, tell me what fires you up? What lights a fire in your soul and I would love to have a conversation with you there.
This is Kim Constable and I will see you next week.

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