Finding the right type of accountability partners in your fitness journey
We all know the feeling of hanging out with friends or family and you are questioned about why you need to get to bed early to make your 6:00 AM training session or why a cheat day shouldn’t only be one day a week.
All this sounds familiar, doesn’t it? We’ve all had - or have – people in our lives that don’t understand our training journey or why this is so important to you.
Your friends should know what matters to you so they can support you every step of the way. Your friends care about you – so why would they dismiss your training goals? If they do dismiss your ambitions, are they worth keeping in your social circle?
Here’s how friends can make or break your training in-person or virtually -- if you let them -- and what to do about it if your buddies aren’t supportive like they should be.
Your Goals Matter
Okay, contenders first thing first – your GOALS MATTER.
It doesn’t matter what your goal is or why you care about something. All that matters is that it’s YOUR GOAL, and you deserve to go after it. Whether you’ve always wanted to learn how to box, or you’re looking for a new challenge, or you’re out to find people who “get” your vibe, your ambitions count.
The first step it to be CLEAR about your goals. Your personal enthusiasm is what others will see. Contenders are all winners but you are also a leader. You are the inspiration – and inspirational people go after what matters to them!
Don’t let anyone tell you that your goals don’t matter.
What Happens When You Don’t Have Friends Supportive Of You Fitness Goals
When your friends question your fitness goals, it’s easy for self-doubt to creep in. Don’t let that happen. It’s even easier to lose sight of your own ambitions and give up on them completely. This is what happens when you let your friends dictate your progress:
Motivation Drops
If you let your friends criticize your fitness goals, you’ll possibly lose interest in pursuing them. Once you stop training for a while, it’s even harder to get your head back in the game. Success is a mental and physical commitment; there’s little room for self-doubt.
Remember your WHY
Bad Habits Accumulate
If your friends fail to take your goals seriously, they’ll encourage you to make choices that don’t align with your goals. For example, they’ll always insist on going to fast-food restaurants, or drinking calorie-dense alcohol, or staying out late when you should be resting up for a hard session or not following your programming.
Bad habits are very difficult to break, and they’ll derail your progress.
How to Tell if Your Friends are Sabotaging Your Training
Just because a friend comments on how much you train one time doesn’t mean that they’re interfering with your fitness goals. Some tips on how you can you tell when a friendship becomes toxic and holds you back from what matters?
They make you feel guilty about how much time you spend working out, which means you think you must spend more time with them.
Your journey becomes about THEM and how it makes THEM feel.
They’re dismissive of your goals and say they don’t matter.
Your friends tell you that you can’t achieve your goals for whatever reason and they encourage you to stop.
They’re critical of your appearance and how your body is changing if, for example, you’re trying to add lean muscle mass and you’re looking more toned than usual.
If any of this behavior sounds familiar, it might be worth taking a step back and looking into the friendship. When a healthy friendship is no longer supportive hurts both parties. Again, remember your WHY.
How to Stay Focused and Stay Friends
Friendships are a two-way street, and unless you recognize toxic attitudes like those mentioned above, you shouldn’t throw away a good friend lightly
Check Your Priorities
Most of the time, your training you should come first. However, if you’re truly pushing yourself too hard, your friends will be able to see it. Maybe you aren’t eating enough, and you don’t seem like yourself, or perhaps you aren’t sleeping because you’re worried about your fitness programming.
Remember to always check in with yourself and make sure that you aren’t overtraining or spending too much time working out with GWX On Demand. Contenders are self-aware and understand the difference between testing their limits and hurting themselves.
Stay Flexible
Winners find ways through every obstacle. There’s a solution to every problem, and the same goes for balancing a social life and training. Schedule a time that works best for your schedule to do a GWX On Demand workout and also make time to hang out with family and friends. You can also encourage your circle to try out a GWX On Demand workout with you. They might be hesitate at first but then again they might just want to be included in something that also makes you happy.
Be Calm and Honest
Sometimes, it’s best to explain where you’re coming from without apologizing for it. Here are some examples.
If your friends don’t understand your fitness goal, explain it to them. Tell them, for example, that you want to improve your conditioning and endurance by working out virtually with a Gloveworx Coach and your really excited to reach that goal of holding a plank for 2 minute. You could even encourage them to join you.
If you want to workout first thing in the morning or late in the evening explain that it’s “your” time and you’re not going to skip out on yourself. Or, you can explain that you’re working with a coach (Link to Virtual Training via GWX On Demand Site) and they expect you to show up and train. Contenders don’t just speak up for what matters to them. They’re accountable, too.
Don’t want to cheat on your diet? Tell your friends that why your diet matters - maybe you need extra protein to retain muscle for getting stronger, or perhaps you’re trying to shed a few pounds, and you’d love it if they could support your efforts. You could also offer them some healthy recipes to prove that clean eating isn’t boring.
A simple explanation can make all the difference.
We Know Your Goals Matter
Here at GWX On Demand we know what it truly takes to be a winner and we know you are ready to BECOME UNSTOPPABLE.
The bottom line is Remember Your WHY. It’s up to you to pursue your training ambitions regardless of how supportive and understanding your friends are.
If you feel like you need to find people who “get” you and care about your training journey, we’ve got just the thing at GWX On Demand – Virtual Training Sessions. Coach-led groups with like-minded contenders!