I occasionally ask myself this question. Because sometimes, to get your goal is simple but not easy.
Here's another true story for you.
This person came to me because he couldn't gain weight (I know. I was a tad bit jealous. He could eat whatever he wanted and NOT gain weight). He was healthy; yet he found it so difficult to build muscle.
He wanted to bulk up from 72kg to 86kg. Why 86kg? Because that was the weight class he wanted to compete in🏋️♂️.
We looked at his diet, training, and daily habits. It turned out he wasn't eating enough for a few reasons:
he didn't know what he should or could eat 🤷♂️
he didn't know when to eat to maximize his recovery ⏰
he found that when he'd had a lot of food, he felt sluggish to do anything including training so he felt discouraged to eat 😴
he prioritized his training over his meals🏋️♂️
All these prevented him from building the lean body mass he wanted.
We sat down and I asked him: How committed are you to this?
He said: Whatever it takes.
We first discussed about his food intake: he was provided with a guide to how much he'd aim to eat to start gaining weight.
Then together we worked around daily schedule to figure out
when he could eat
what types of food he could eat to speed up his recovery, allow him to train without him feeling fatigued, whilst trying not to skip meals.
Last we looked at his recovery process: what he could realistically do to maximize his recovery so he can be at his best more often.
I gotta tell you, I had to give this guy a standing ovation 👏.
We gradually built up the habits that he needed to gain weight realistically. Initially it felt simple because he could basically eat even more than before 🥚🌮🥩🥘🍺🍌🍑🥑.
But as the weeks turned into months, eating started to take its toll. He was doing great when it came to training, work, and sticking to the schedule; he just found it tiring to eat. It started to lose its pleasure.
5 months in, we were about 1-2 month(s) away from reaching his target weight. I asked him whether he still wanted to keep going. He didn't hesitate to say yes.
During the final stretch, he reached 86kg after 6 months. His muscle mass increased while his fat mass barely moved. He was exhilarated! The hard work was done. He could transition to maintaining the weight he worked so hard to get. The good news for him, it was relatively easier than bulking.
His journey showed that Commitment can be the difference between failure & success. Through his commitment & determination, he took action and succeeded in reaching his goal.
Comment with a 🙌 if you are moving towards your goals!
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