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On Saturday night I caught up with a dear friend.

As he tucked into his massive hunk of cheesy-greasy-chicken parmigiana and fries he questioned me with that tone I’m so used to… let’s call it one part impressed and three parts frustrated-annoyed-just-get-a-burger-into-you-girl: “How do you always stay so perfect with your food?”

I didn’t want to turn our catch up into a food rant however it did spark an idea for todays show. Today I’m sharing 3 aspects of achieving your body gain goal where absolutely 100%: It Only Gets Easier.

I’m going to address: It Only Gets Easier from the angle of FUEL (that’s everything food), MOVE (that’s everything exercise) and LIFE (that’s everything time). Let’s start with…

One: FUEL. This is the area I see most people who are yet to achieve their body gain goal letting themselves down. Upgrading your current eating habits will provide the highest bang for your fat burning (body gaining!) buck.

Put simply, without exception every food decision I make is geared towards making it easier on myself.

Certain habits, rules, and situations are basically setting yourself up to make the choice that isn’t going to lead to that fit, healthy body. Equally you crave what you eat. Fatty, salty, sugary and fake fuels a desire for fatty, salty, sugary and fake.

Luckily the reverse is just as true.

It’s our natural human inclination to take the path of least resistance.

It simply comes down to your planning (or lack there of) whether for example: at 8pm it’s the Parmi OR maybe some nuts to tide you over till you get home for the meal you’ve got ready to go.

I can hand on heart say I never envy other people the meals they eat… NOW!

I also never feel Deprived. Or Hungry. Or Restricted.

Just as importantly I never feel GUILTY or like I’ve let myself down (so far as my eating that is!).

However here’s the thing… I used to struggle with ALL of these things.

Indecision over what to eat and: “If I could get away with it?”

Guilt over what I’d eaten and: “Why can’t I have more self control?”

Frustration so far as all the hours I was putting into exercise and the minimal return on effort I was seeing because of the lousy food choices I made.

Constant, nagging, overwhelming and all consuming cravings that made me feel weak and un-certain when really I like to feel strong and in control.

The takeaway?

I guess my point is whether you choose a meat-free-primarily-one-ingredient-high-protein-high-fibrous-veg approach to eating – as I do – or if you choose Paleo, Vegan, Raw… or anything else (but please don’t choose some packaged-low-fat-calorie-controlled-fake-crap-o-la-RUBBISH!) …whatever YOU choose, once you commit. Once you decide to stick with it consistently and gradually refine and upgrade your approach then please know: It Only Gets Easier.

The good habits you create build on each other. 

They create a momentum. They deliver results. They fuel a desire to continue making the best choices for your body and gradually the thing that gets harder… like really hard, is to feed your body the rubbish that you used to eat.

Perhaps I should just speak for myself. It’s absolutely the case for me though:

A). I don’t want to give my body nutritionally void crap and,

B). I don’t want to risk spiraling back into a fake-food-addiction I ditched many years ago. Let’s move on…

Two: MOVE. In the same way that good habits have momentum… well, sadly excuses also have momentum. One will generally lead to another. And with each additional excuse you’re guaranteeing yourself a tougher time of putting a stop to the onslaught as your clever mind comes up with reason after reason to justify the lazy-excuse-option.

Put simply, You can talk yourself into anything. So use your potent powers of persuasion for GOOD!

At those times when that little self negotiation reel starts to roll, remind yourself: “Don’t start making excuses because where will you stop?”

The takeaway?

It’s vital to eradicate any “I will exercise tomorrow” self-talk.

6 days of exercise + 1 set rest day, removes this potential excuse.

Zero. Energy. Wasted. Deciding.

If you’re still facing self-negotiation consider:

1) Is there value in doing it?

2) Will delaying make it any easier to do?

3) Can you allow a mere 5 minutes to just make a start?

AND will you feel better immediately for committing those 5 mins? (and likely stick it out for the entire 30!)

I now believe the hardest thing about exercise is that time you waste thinking about how hard it’s going to be.

It’s really never as bad as you make out once you just start. In fact once you commit and get into a regular, consistent routine. Once the last time you exercised is only ever a day or 2 ago… and you can remember clearly how good you felt after you finished. Once you get fitter, stronger and better at doing the exercise do (!) well, you guessed it: It Only Gets Easier.

Three: LIFE. I see Life and Time as interchangeable. You waste one you waste the other. Now that doesn’t mean working or exercising like a maniac is the answer… more-so just making decisions about how you spend your time – YOUR LIFE – with volition.

If not prioritizing great fuel is the thing I see hold most people back from achieving their body gain goal then not having the time to prioritize fuel (and exercise for that matter) is the most common excuse.

However here’s the thing… What if next time you are tempted to fly with that old excuse you instead swapped out the word time for the word life? 

Here’s how it’d look:

“Do a bi-weekly shop for fresh veg or organize to get it delivered? Yeah, no I don’t have the life for that!”

“Prepare meals on mass? Oh, no I don’t have enough life for that!”

“Get up 30 minutes earlier and walk to work? No, that’s really just not something I have life for right now!”

Put simply, Make time NOW to prioritize the essential little fuel and move habits that will allow you to achieve your body gain goal or you’ll have less life later.

Now that may literally be less life. Or it may be less quality of life. They’re both pretty unappealing right?

I know you’ve had the experience where you thought you had: “No Time.” And then something really big happened. Unexpected. Outta the blue. Perhaps it was a massive opportunity. Maybe it was a tragedy. The thing is in that scenario it’s just a simple automatic prioritization where something you had thought was important has to get ditched or delayed or delegated to make time – to make life – for this bigger thing.

The thing is you know what things you need to make life for. Even if you’re not yet doing it you know. Like me, you also likely know what things could be ditched to create that time – that life. Neither of us actually need a massive opportunity and we certainly don’t need a tragedy to shake us into making that life.

The takeaway?

What’s hard is knowing what you should be doing and continuing to not do it. You can come up with the most extravagant excuses however you know. And it’s draining to know you’re letting YOU down. It eats away at your self belief. At your reputation with yourself.

Once you commit to those most essential little habits. Once you decide, YES they are worth the time – the life… And you lock and load them into your daily and weekly routine. At that point when you get to stop the “Will I, Won’t I?” “When will I?” tedious self negotiation well then that is when you’ll find: It Only Gets Easier.

To get actionable today, I don’t want you to take my word for it.

Todays action step is simply to think of the good habit you created in the past 12 months that has gotten easier. To remind yourself of that habit each time you commit to creating a new good habit. It’s the natural inclination to think of everything that’s been hard, that you haven’t stuck with however you have at least as many examples of things you have stuck with and those are the things to focus on.

Todays quote is from Saadi: “Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy”.

That’s it for me today. I hope you can join me for the Wednesday Weigh-in show. I’m covering: What Is A Nice Amount Of Vice?

If you liked this you’ll also like: My best Fuel, Move, Life advice for out-smarting weight loss overwhelm.

If you’re yet to share the Healthification love – just click here to zip over to iTunes and leave an honest rating and review. It’d help me out big time. With gratitude, Kate.