The After, After – Momentum In Fitness

Before and After

One of my least favorite things the fitness industry gives us is the before and after. They are literally at any corner of the internet if you do a search on results for a specific program or diet. It almost looks too easy. You buy the diet or program, and within 30 days you will have a before and after to go on the wall of amazing transformations. 30, 60, 90 days? That’s all it takes to have an incredible before and after story. Riiight!

Well, I’m going to tell you before and afters are bogus. There is no such thing. In fact most people that have before and after pictures look nothing like they do in their after picture in their current state if you bumped into them. You know why? Because no one ever posts an “After, After” and pursues it.

An after, after? Yep. That’s the real deal. Only truly dedicated people can post the after, after. What is it you ask? An after, after is your commitment to change long after your mood is gone in which you said you were going to get fit, stick to the diet, eat less McDonald’s and get to the gym at least 3 days a week no matter what! It’s a mentality shift. A life style change.

It takes good habit development and a relentless pursuit of deliberate practice to maintain that after. The after, after is truly something to be proud of that very few “normal” every day people that aren’t professionals maintain. It’s just far too easy once you have met a goal to slip back into our old ways. We are human after all, and our personality traits cannot be changed, only our behavior and it takes a lot of work every day.

One of my favorite quotes is, you will never change your life, until you change something you do every day. It cannot be more true for fitness and nutrition. I learned this the hard way after years of spinning my wheels, being half into everything I was doing. I ate all the time, was not being consistent in my behaviors every day. I have done countless programs and diets and when I look back I never maintained my after. Until recently.

So, how can you get to your after, after once you reach an early goal of 30, 60 or 90 days with some new habits? That new diet commitment, the new workout program, the new goal to bench press 315 pounds? Momentum. Momentum is everything in fitness and nutrition. If you can get momentum working for you and picking up speed, you will just crush every goal you have.

Momentum in fitness is simple. Set your schedule, set your diet and set you goals. Start changing your routine and behaviours to move you towards those goals, then track what you are doing.

For example, for me, I wanted to get more cardio in, because I felt I could lose some fat and become more “shredded”. But cardio after workouts is daunting, and boring etc. Who wants to do 45 minute treadmill sessions after your already grueling strength workout. So I found I wasn’t staying consistent with it. I would do a few cardio days, then slowly fall back into skipping it after i was done my first part of my training. No after, after for this guy.

However, I decided to make a change to something I do every week day. I committed to getting up at 545 am and doing 30 minutes of cardio. Monday-Friday. I set small goals. 1 week. 1 month. 60 days. and before I knew it, I was 6 months in. I kept it fresh, but I always got it in. It became routine. My “before and after” for this change is much better. I lost 20 pounds in 3 months and look great.

But I will tell you the best part is the after, after. It’s in my blood now. I can’t go the morning without my cardio. If I do as I sometimes have a late game the night before, or perhaps some bad sleep ( hey it happens ), and I skip one workout in a month I feel so guilty because of the momentum I had, that I’m right back at it the next morning. Momentum is like a train, once it gets moving its hard to stop.

For yourself to keep your after, after goals in fitness you need to understand that fitness is a journey not an end result. If you chase your after only, you will find you’re never content. You never quite have the 6 pack you want etc. If you are content with where you “finished” you will be hard pressed to maintain it, and eventually end up where you started, just so you can go back and get those same results the next time you decide it’s time to jump into your gym routine again. It’s too comforting.

Shift your mental focus to tracking progress every day, every week, every month with 3 month and 1 year goals. Always track the progress and keep it accountable, so you always pursue your after. You do not need to make this schedule super crazy like a fitness model. If you just want to stay healthy and eat better for life, schedule yourself your 3 workouts for the week and what you eat every Sunday, and at the end of the day see how you did. Track and improve tomorrow. At the end of Sunday night, review how you did and again make small almost micro adjustments to improve the next week. At the end of the month, again do the same and so on. Just small tiny compounded efforts over time will yield huge results maintaining your after. Tracking is so important. Once you start tracking your fitness journey you will see how easy it is to maintain your after.

Try not to get discouraged with the massive before and after that hit us in every turn when we are looking at fitness programs, ideas and nutrition. Focus on your journey and building to your personal after that you can maintain. I’m sure you would rather be feeling and looking good over time than getting to a 60 day after only to lose all momentum because you felt your work was done.

Love the journey, not just the end result.