Are you beginning a fitness journey? Or, maybe you are continuing your journey and want to revisit your approach.
Here are the top 3 mistakes you should avoid:
- Restrictive dieting. Restriction is never the answer! Restriction causes our bodies to have a complete lack of control around that food. You probably even experience intense negative self talk and emotions when consuming that food! When we get caught in this cycle, it becomes really hard to get back on track again. Research shows that restricting and labeling foods as “bad” may cause you to desire that food even more since it is “off limits”. And then once we eat those off limit foods, we view ourselves as a failure. 95% of all diets fail. A better approach is seeing multiple colors in your day, trying to get each macronutrient at your meals, allowing yourself to choose foods you enjoy, choosing foods that are satisfying, aiming for variety, and eating every 3-4 hours.
- Random training. Random workouts lack the precision & progression. Our coaches design programs that take into account your fitness level, goals, and needs. This ensures a planned out progression of exercises, which gradually challenges the body to adapt and grow. The fancy term for the type of training we employ at Paragon is called Blocked Periodization or Blocked Programming. A training block refers to a period of time when the primary focus of each workout is directed towards achieving a specific response in the body. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with exercising for the sake of exercising. The act of getting to the gym and checking off a box saying you worked out that day has plenty of psychological benefits to go along with some health benefits if you’re able to keep checking that box off consistently over the long term. However, if you’re making an investment of both time and money to go to the gym, we believe that you should be getting the greatest return on that investment possible. Regardless of your personal goals, training with a purpose is essential to continued progress.
- Body-focused goals. The urge to shrink your body can be pretty strong in a society that focuses so heavily on aesthetics. On top of that, we see weight-loss drugs and weight-loss supplements! Challenge yourself to move away from goals focused on shrinking yourself. When is the last time you made a health goal that didn’t have to do with your weight or how much you hate your body? Choose goals that empower you and show respect for the body you have. Examples would be aiming to include a walk in your day at least 3 times a week or trying to incorporate more colors into your meals daily.
Navigating your health can be confusing. Starting with this list is a great way to remove some barriers in your journey!
