I talk to individuals every week that are struggling with their training, energy and generally not feeling great in their own skin. In this post I am going to share 3 common pitfalls I see most that I’m sure many of you are making too.

Problem No.1 – Calorie counting vs. finding the foods and schedule that FITS

A calorie is literally measured in a lab by burning a compound over a flame to measure how many calories it took to burn.

It DOES NOT give an accurate measurement of how I burn it off vs. how you will burn it off. Or even how our body feels on one given food to the other.

?Our ability to absorb and use nutrients to fuel our day by choosing quality foods we know we’ll feel good on is far more important than checking how many calories it has in it.?

If you are choosing foods based on their low calories yet fail to see your energy is terrible or it affects your cravings later on, then you are constantly going to feel like you need to go lower and lower and your body is working against you.

Calorie counting is time-consuming, narrow-minded and will lead to a dead-end if you are not looking at the bigger picture of digestive and gut health, energy production and absorbing and honestly… just common sense.

I have DOUBLED the calories and energy of clients that have followed this approach while still staying lean and living life.

The biggest adjustment I can universally give to help here is literally doing a food diary for a week (either write or take pictures of each meal) then start to notice the patterns to where your energy slumps and you reach for another cup of coffee or you feel bloated and gassy.

I guarantee half the foods you thought were “healthy” will be caught in the headlights.

Problem No. 2 – Thinking more is better (longer and longer workouts)

I remember looking back on my uni days, and I simply don’t know how I wasn’t falling apart. I was training SO often – harder and harder but things just started slowing down and not working the same. (This shouldn’t be happening at 50, let alone 20!!)

I thought that the only way I was going to really build the body I was after was to make every workout a new PB and new level of effort – since I have learnt to step back, rest and make a couple small tweaks to get DOUBLE the results without endless training sessions.

I got stuck on the caffiene train and every couple months I’d start adding another half scoop to my pre-workout shake because it was the lifeblood of my intensity and progress.

In hindsight, looking at this you can easily see this is not sustainable and will (and did) hit a pretty hard realization one way or another.

Yet (at varying degrees) it’s how most people look at training. We don’t consider how we ate yesterday, how stressful today is, etc. and how much that has a MASSIVE impact on our hormones and ability to recover.

Luckily for me, before this all crashed and burned too bad, I had the humility to know I need guidance and direction with what I was doing and started hiring mentors and coaches. Within WEEKS I realized that I was doubling the volume of most program I was doing but getting HALF the results.

My problem was not working hard – I’d stay on that leg press till I was absolutely spent. But what was highlighted for me at different stages was that I was throwing everything into it but I was looking at it mechanically (with numbers and macros) rather than as a nourished healthy cellular organism that need to recover and adapt to what I want torturing it with.

My one action step here: Learn HOW the muscle functions rather than the fancy new exercise that insta athlete just “made up”. This alone with DOUBLE your effectiveness in the gym because you will have an INTENTION behind everything you do.

If you are stuck on this muscle movement and control, we dive into DEEP here: spotterinsider.com

Problem No.3 – Waiting for something to change rather than seeking action.

I use the story of the dog laying on a nail a lot here.

If you haven’t heard it, it’s simply that the dog is moaning as if it’s in pain…

When a man asks the owner what’s wrong. The owner says he is laying on a nail – it’s uncomfortable but not uncomfortable enough for him to be motivated to move.

This is where most of society lies…

They know they should do something; they know their body and quality of life is literally deteriorating but they play it down enough and tell themselves enough “justification” stories as to why it’s ok.

If you play it down and fail to recognize the impact it has when you’ve given up on being your best, when you no longer show up with the same drive and standards for yourself, then you’re really stuck.

The hardest bit is showing up, having the humility to ask for help. The strongest and most driven individuals seem to also be the most willing to admit they don’t know everything – and THAT is exactly why that excel.

Stop seeking a magic pill or “saviour”. This game and ultimately your life doesn’t improvement until you realize the severity of stagnation and decide to act.

If it’s time for you to take control of your energy levels, hormones and how you feel in your own skin to really show up as your best for decades to come, then I am very much looking forward to our call together!

P.S. If you haven’t booked in with me or want to see the framework we use with all our clients, check it out here.