The practical aspects of changing your body are pretty obvious: diet and exercise!

However, one of the most underrated aspects of body transformation, and in my opinion one of the most important is the ability to…

‘MASTER YOUR EMOTIONS’ 

You could have an amazing exercise plan, written by the best personal trainer in the World. You could have the most optimal nutritional plan and a personal chef – but still, even with these key ingredients you fail to get the results you want because you can’t stick to the plan!

It’s not the body but the mind that is letting you down. If you get the mind in the right place you will transform your body and that’s what this post is all about…

What Happens When Things Go Wrong? 

Life is full of change, one minute you are sailing along, the next…

• An unexpected bill gets posted through your letterbox
• You get caught in a traffic jam and are late for work
• Somebody you care about gets diagnosed with cancer

Things can change in an instant, not all of these changes are drastic or life changing but we are constantly being challenged by our circumstances because they are forever changing.

How well you deal with these challenges will determine how successful you are not only when it comes to transforming your body but also transforming your life.

Don’t get me wrong there are going to be BIG challenges, ones which will knock you for six! But if you can get good at dealing with the smaller issues then over time you’ll be able to cope with the bigger issues more efficiently.

It’s Nearly Always An Emotional Problem…

In my personal training career I’ve completed over 8,000 personal training sessions, during that time the people who struggled the most didn’t have physical issues… but emotional ones…

• A bad day at work = lets eat cake and cheer myself up!
• A job promotion = lets get hammered and celebrate!
• A boring day = I’m bored lets get a takeaway!

The people who get the best results still face challenges and have good and bad days, but they are better at understanding their emotional behaviours and triggers. They spend time working on their mindset and build more postive habits into their daily routine. This helps them stay on track and they become more resilient when faced with adversity.

The Power Of Emotions…

Logic and emotion are two very separate things, for example…

Logically… we all know that we need to exercise and eat well to live longer and prevent disease.

But…

Emotionally… eating cake is something that gives us a temporary boost, it tastes good and can instantly provide relief or make us feel better.

Our emotions are super powerful and when they kick in they may override the conscious, logical part of the brain. The stronger the emotion the less likely you are to be able to think clearly.

For example…If you experience a fire in your house you are not going to sit and ponder for a minute whilst you figure out what to do…Instead your body will kick into survival mode and you’ll try to escape asap!

Although the example above is an extreme one, this is how our emotions work, and the more something affects you the more your emotions are likely to take over.

Let’s look at a more common example…

You are sat in a cafe with your friend, usually you buy a coffee and a cake but today you’re on a new diet…

What do you do?

1) Think Screw it! and justify having a slice of cake?

or

2) Find a strategy to use so that you don’t eat the cake?

These types of small decisions that we make on a daily basis are what separates those who get results from those who don’t.

Changing Our Emotions and Habits will test us…

To start with it’s hard to correct and the longer you’ve been doing something the longer it will take to change. If you are used to going into a cafe and ordering cake and have been doing so for the last 10 years then it’s not just going to happen over night… your mind will resist…

“oh come on you always eat cake. Why stop now?”

“That cakes going to taste so good”

“One piece wont hurt will it?”

“Let your hair down for once”

Have you ever experienced these types of thoughts?

I certainly have!

Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you wont have these thoughts, especially at the start. Our mind is a creature of habit and will fire in the way it has been trained. As Dr Joe Dispenza says “neurons that fire together wire together”

It will take time to re-train your mind…

Training The Puppy…

Think of your mind as 3 separate pieces that all work together:

1. Human Mind : This is your conscious, the one that wants you to lose weight, and be happy. The one that wants to achieve and be successful and make good decisions.
2. The Puppy: This is your emotional brain, it’s erratic, one minute it’s happy, the next sad. It’s constantly judging and has it’s own needs. The puppy needs constant attention, especially when it’s not happy!
3. The Computer: this is like a computer hard drive that stores all of the information you put into it. It’s a combination of the puppy and the human mind. This is where we store our beliefs, emotions, and past experiences.

Issues arise when the Human Mind and the Puppy clash…

The Human Mind wants to lose weight but the Puppy wants that delicious piece of apple crumble! You create a battle in your head and unless you train the puppy… it always wins! It gets what it wants and then leaves you feeling miserable and disappointed that you couldn’t stick to the diet!

As strange as it sounds… you need to build a relationship with your puppy (the emotional brain), you need to try and understand how it works and what things are preventing you from achieving your goals. This can take time but the more you practice the better you’ll get.

How To Master Your Emotions…

There are lots of key resources out there but here are 3 that I would personally recommend checking out….

1) The Astonishing Power of Emotions – buy here

2) The Chimp Paradox: The Mind Management Programme to Help You Achieve Success, Confidence and Happiness – buy here

3) Switch: How to Change things when Change is Hard – buy here

If you’d prefer to listen to these books instead of reading then download them using Audible.

There are also some articles which I wrote relating to mindset, if any of the following interest you please feel free to check them out…

• WHY MEDITATING FOR JUST 10 MINUTES PER DAY CAN DRAMATICALLY BOOST HEALTH & HAPPINESS!
• THE FITNESS PERCEPTION SHIFT THAT DRAMATICALLY TRANSFORMED MY LIFE
• FED UP OF FAILING TO MAINTAIN A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE? HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO DO…

Conclusion…

Don’t get me wrong in order to transform your body you have to do the physical and practical things such as exercise and diet. That’s a given and you can’t hide from this fact. But if you solely focus on the physical components and neglect your mindset and emotions then you may never reach your true potential.

When you get the mind right your body will follow.

If you enjoyed this post and learned a thing or two please leave your ‘comment below’ or email me at nick@lepfitness.co.uk  i’d love to hear from you!

Thanks for reading,

Nick 🙂