How much is too much?

As August approaches and the temperature gets unbearable, we start salivating at the mere thought of a big cup of frozen yogurt to cool us down and give our taste buds a nice jolt of cold, tasty, delicious flavors. Yum!

One thing about getting yourself a nice cup of froyo is that you can’t forget about the toppings. The options are many, but sometimes too many! You’ve got your Nutella drizzle, the almond flakes, the granola bits, fruits, and syrups. You name it, they’ve got it. And it all tastes super good!

“Ok Nadine, we get it, you like frozen yogurt. But what does that have to do with fitness?”

Well, think of Fitness as a big ol’ cup of frozen yogurt. Some people like it simple while others like to add a lot of toppings. But how much toppings is too much toppings?

When you want to train for a goal you need to see it as the plain frozen yogurt. The base, the core, the heart of your program, the rich creamy goodness. The toppings then, are all those little extra goals that you think you need.

“Coach I’d like to get strong, and build muscle (plain froyo), but I also want to work on my mobility, walk on my hands, do bar/ring muscle ups, climb mount Everest, run a marathon, swim with the dolphins, annnddddd lose 20lbs of fat. (the toppings? Maybe a little too much?)”.

Back to frozen yogurt, if you add “the works” – too many or all the toppings, the flavors would clash and you’d end up with something that just doesn’t taste right because the flavors don’t work well together. Rather, stick to a couple at first. Or better yet, stick to one flavor (main goal – strength for example) and make it the flavor of the month or the season, then change it.

But enough about frozen yogurt.

In training, you’d want a solid goal first. The “core” of what you’d want to be doing. If it’s getting stronger and bigger, then you’d want to focus on lifting and eating well (and enough).

So let’s say you’d also want to work on Olympic Weightlifting or Gymnastics (the toppings). You’d only sprinkle those on top as they have to compliment the main goal of getting stronger. But what we see most folks doing, is doing way too much! From random HIIT workouts here and there, to daily 10k runs, juice detoxes, and random fitness challenges – these mini goals clash with the main one.

I get it, you really love your HIIT workouts, you love your runs! You also really want to cut down the last few pounds, so you start thinking to yourself, am I really doing what it takes to reach my goal? Or should I do more?

This is when fitness becomes overwhelming. It’s not wrong to want more, but it’s important to know that sometimes, more is less. And by doing more, you are actually moving further and further away from your initial goal.

Think to yourself, why do you want to do more?

What are you gaining by doing more?

Is social media influencing your mindset and perspective about fitness and health?

I myself, started with a main goal. 7 years ago, all I wanted was to get strong and look good. A few months into my fitness journey however, I realized I wanted it all. I wanted to build muscle, yet be super lean. I wanted to increase my stamina and endurance, yet lift the heaviest. I wanted to achieve all gymnastics skills, yet I feared I would gain too much upper body muscle. I was confused, I was influenced. I forgot what I really wanted, I had way too many goals (toppings) that didn’t work well together. I mean, I couldn’t even remember what my real goal was!

But I was lucky. I was lucky to be able to find a coach who was able to guide me rather than give me the answers that I wanted. I was not told that I could achieve all my mini goals while working on my main one. I was told the truth. I had to focus, rethink, and reassess everything that I was doing. I had to think about my long term plans and goals, where I see myself in the next 5 years, what my mini goals really mean to me, if they were really worth it, and what brought me overall happiness. I was challenged, and that is exactly what I needed.

Coaches could show you the way to achieve what is realistic and maybe necessary without all the “unnecessary toppings” that you thought you wanted or needed.

A coach is not just someone who gives you a program, counts your reps, or motivates you when you’re being lazy.

A coach listens, and helps you filter out your thoughts, and narrow down your goals to what’s really important right in that moment.

A coach challenges you.

So if you are not seeing the results that you wanted, if you feel like you are biting off more than you could chew, if you feel like you’ve plateaued, if you feel like you’re confused, if you feel like you are not making any progress, if you feel like you are giving up…

Talk to a coach!

At the end of the day, toppings are just toppings. It’s all about the froyo 😉🍦

With love,

Nadine Kassem