Congrats on the race, Ali! You must've been stoked.
Overcoming consistency problems can be a real bitch for people. In my experience, it's usually a multidimensional problem consisting of an objective and a subjective dimension.
Objectively, what often is the root of the problem is poor planning. People who have busy schedules really *need* to plan out their nutrition and prepare a lot of their food in advance. Without doing so, the moment a 'wrench' is thrown in, they resort to what's easy and what's easy often isn't conducive to dieting.
Sticking with the objective angle, as I've stated to you in the past before, simply being flexible with your workouts is key. For instance, if I'm slated to train 3 times per week using a full body routine and an insane schedule overloads me and I'm only able to make it into the gym twice this week... you better believe that I'm going to do *something*. It might not be as 'good' as what I do in the gym but I still did something... at the least a body weight circuit.
The subjective side of things seems to be the most powerful and the most common breaker of consistency. People get on a role for a few days. Then the weekend roles around and all things associated with the weekend oppose those things that must be done if you're going to achieve your goals. These associations easily over-ride your conscious desires b/c they've been ingrained habitually for so long.
Asking yourself key questions and answering them on paper can go a long way, as silly as it sounds...
Why do you want what you want?
What are you willing to do to reach your goals?
What would you be willing to do if you could reach your goal tomorrow?
What will it feel like and what will it mean if you don't ever reach your goals?
What will it feel like and what will it mean if/when you do reach your goals?
I am always answering questions like this myself. And not only answering them, but writing down my answers. It's not that I lie to myself either. It's not that I'm lazy and need to 'sell' the idea of being consistent to myself. It's simply the fact that the decisions we make this moment have a lot to do with the mental conditioning we've had over all the years prior to this. Said conditioning plays a significant role in our perceptions, our decision making abilities and our emotions. They've also gone essentially unfiltered into our minds for a long time with little attention paid. Our actions are the output of the conditioning. Left to their own, what you'll get most likely is what you've always had. Re-programming your internal voice and thought patterns is potent. But it takes continual focus and conditioning, just like your body
When you're on a role, you more than likely don't need to remind yourself of these things. You don't need to read your list of questions and answers. But if you don't consistently read over these sorts of things, as soon as the 'wrench' is thrown into the mix... you're going to trip. And tripping is fine once in a while, assuming you pick yourself up and learn something. Tripping every single week to the extent that you're negating progress... that's not fine.
The subjectivity of it is very individual and there isn't a cookie cutter approach to it. The universal concept is you need to input 'data' into your mind that leads to healthy emotions and behaviors relative to your goals.
way to go, Ali!
