It is a truth universally acknowledged (I love Jane Austen) in the fitness world that consistency and progression are key components to hitting our goals. I try to apply them on a daily basis but sometimes it can be hard.

I’m currently seven weeks into a 12 week programme to get my body fat percentage to a healthy level. I started this process back in June when my summer wardrobe was decidedly lumpy. I had a body fat percentage of over 36 which is considered obese. Not that anyone would have described me as that. I hid it well. But I knew it was there. 

By September I had shed nearly 4 kgs of fat whilst holding onto my lean body mass. My body fat % had dropped to just under 33%. After a fairly indulgent holiday it was back to it. With a view to get to 30% body fat by Christmas. This Christmas. 

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find the same motivation now that the cold, often wet days, have struck. The opportunity to run in the park has diminished and I hate the treadmill. My sugar cravings have emerged and for a few weeks I didn’t get weighed and measured. Not that all hope is lost. My gym visits have been spot on, I’m not letting poor weather stop me doing Parkrun and whilst I haven’t been as disciplined on my nutrition I have managed to drop another 2% of body fat.

So what has this taught me that I didn’t already know. Number one is probably my need to be accountable to someone else i.e. my personal trainer. I’d love to be able to claim that I have the motivation to be accountable to only myself but sadly that is not the case. And I’m not alone which why slimming clubs can be so appealing. 

When I’m being weighed and measured every week there is no wriggle room. But if the period is longer I find myself thinking that I have time to get back on track. 

What I can commend myself on is being fairly consistent. I’ve stuck to the programme 70-80% of the time. There would have been a time when one indulgence would have resulted in me giving up but not anymore. 

Consistency. Not a particularly exciting concept but where fitness and fat loss is concerned it has to be a mantra. Only if we are consistent with our nutrition and exercise will we reach our weight and fitness goals. Starting a diet on 2nd January for it to become a distant memory by February or being a fair weather runner is just not going to hack it.

Where exercise is concerned it is now a habit that is in my DNA. I devote about six hours a week to it. This includes throwing on the Lycra and walking/driving to the gym or to the park. I don’t have to make myself to do it. I want to do it. Well sometimes I don’t if I’ve had a difficult day or it’s cold and dark. But I just do it and I never regret it. Plus I walk on average 9-10 kilometres a day just by walking the dog and my daily commute to work.

Consistency where nutrition is concerned is a bit more challenging. I’d love to be that person that automatically reaches for the healthiest option but sadly I’m not. I have to be disciplined. Every morning I have to remind myself that I have a body fat goal. I have to count my macros. Sometimes I am not successful. But I just brush myself down and refocus.

Progression is the bedfellow of consistency.

To maintain and even improve on fitness there has to be progression. If you do the same thing week in and week out but expect different results that is (according to Einstein) just insanity. You always need to be stepping it up. 

I think Parkrun is a great example of progression. I have been doing Parkrun for nearly four years. I started a few months after having open heart surgery. I haven’t been particularly consistent. I’ve only notched up 58 runs in that time due to other commitments and (if I’m honest) down to my reluctance to run in the cold and the wet. But this winter I’m going to make more of an effort. 

Over those four years I have seen many newbies walking the 5 kilometres before progressing to the odd run interval which over the weeks become longer and longer. They have been consistent and progressive. It is great to see although I’m not that happy when they run pass me.

Our bodies are made to be challenged. It is how we get stronger and fitter. And if we lived the lives our bodies were meant to live we wouldn’t even have to think about this. We would naturally push ourselves without a second thought. 

The analogy I think works is a gardening one. An unfit person decides that his/her garden needs some serious work. Their first attempt lasts for half an hour before flopping onto a bench exhausted. Over the coming weeks he/she is able to spend increasing amounts of time digging over flower beds, loading up the wheelbarrow and what ever else is considered as heavy gardening. There isn’t a thought that as only half an hour was managed the first day that that should be be repeated for ever more. Over the weeks there has been a progressive overload which has resulted in an increase in endurance and no doubt some pretty impressive muscles.

In the absence of a garden this has to be replicated in the gym. The weight or the number of repetitions or sets need to be increased and/ or the rest period reduced. If something starts to feel easy it needs to be made more challenging. Walking into a gym should be a comfortable experience. The workout should be a challenging one.

For years I wasted my time in the gym doing the same thing everytime. Low weights with repetitions that I easily bashed out. I didn’t put my body under the stress it needed to grow the muscles and strength I desired. But I  now know what I’m doing and what is required. 

However, as an older adult my progression is now  much slower than it would have been thirty year ago as it includes fighting off the deterioration that comes with age. And it can be demoralising to feel you  are being left behind when the majority of the people you train with are a lot  younger. But I remind myself that at 60 I’m so much stronger (and leaner) than my 50 year old self. 

And 2020 will be the year that I crack that pull-up.