Lack the Motivation or Commitment to Get in Shape? Try This Technique...

BY FAR, the #1 thing I've noticed that people struggle with when trying to shred body fat, eat healthier, or just straight up get in shape is the lack of motivation and commitment to do so on consistent, long-term basis.

Most people don't have the ability to push themselves at a high intensity, or the discipline to make smart food choices when they're not being yelled at by their trainer (or me!). It's really, really difficult.

If that's you, don't sweat--you're in the same boat as the majority of Brad Pitt in Fight Club or Jessica Biel in just-about-anything wannabes (I can't even tell you how many times I've heard people say they want abs like Brad Pitt in Fight Club). Lets be serious...if everyone was psyched to exercise and eat right all the time, 35% of America wouldn't be obese. That's just not the reality of the world we live in.

The key to motivation is visualization. It's the tactic I use to lead my obsessive, psychotic, fitness and nutrition driven lifestyle. Visualization has two aspects.

Part 1 - Visualize your goals. Simply saying or thinking that you want to lose 20 pounds of body fat isn't motivating. Visualizing and knowing what your body WILL look like post-transformation is another story. Paint the ideal picture of yourself in your head, shit...find a picture of someones sexy body online and Photoshop your face in. And then print it out and stick it on your wall.

Apply the idea to architecture. Architects don't truly get excited about a new idea or take action on a new idea for a massive skyscraper while it's swirling around in their head...they get pumped up and start building when there's a tangible, visual model of the skyscraper smacking them in the face. Once you have an idea of what you WILL look like after a few months of hard work, it's hard to put it off without feeling guilty for what could have been.

Gerard Butler transformed fat into Leonidas...

Part 2 - Visualize the impact of your choices. The harsh reality of fitness and nutrition is that every single choice you make will have a major impact on your fitness goals, both positive and negative. I mean every choice, it doesn't matter how small or how infrequently you indulge...it all adds up. The key is to visualize the effect of your fitness/nutrition choices and carefully consider if they're really worth making. Also consider this...the closer you get to your goal, the more discipline it takes to sustain progress.

The next time you eat a handful of Fruit Loops, toast a piece of white bread, or drink a can of Coke consider that your blood sugar will spike extremely quickly and your body will start storing glucose as body fat (except directly post-workout). Simply put, any refined carbs or foods high in sugar turn into body fat almost immediately...covering up your abs and packing on the pounds you're trying to lose. Visualize the nasty fat piling up underneath your skin, plastering the crevices between your abs...

Every soda makes you fatter...

Do you eat meals more than 4 hours apart, skip breakfast, or forget to include protein at every meal? Every single additional minute that goes by without protein in your system, your body increasingly taps into your hard-earned muscle for fuel, rapidly eating up muscle tissue and decreasing it in size. When you lose muscle your body fat % automatically increases, you burn fewer calories at rest, and you look a lot mushier. Visualize your muscles deteriorating by the minute...

The next time you're lying in bed or on the couch and can't find the energy or drive to hit the gym, consider that your metabolism is in slow-motion and you're not burning any calories. Visualize yourself getting fatter and developing heart disease. Visualize your progress stopping. Every day you skip, with the exception of a well-deserved rest day once a week or so, you're taking a step backwards into the fatness abyss. It's not fun down there.

If you're in the gym on your cell-phone, zoning out to TV, or using weights that are way to light to have an impact, consider that you're wasting your time. Visualize that you're not being productive and not getting results. Results come when you push yourself and exercise with intensity, not when you move on cruise control.

These are just a few examples, but visualization should be applied to all aspects of fitness and nutrition. I want you to feel guilty when you make a bad choice...if you do than you're on board the visualization bandwagon and you're feeling its effects.

Happy visualizing!

How do you motivate yourself? Let me know in the comments section!