We have made it through the holidays . . . Christmas, the New Year and all other celebrations of the like and here you are – at the end of the Body Comp Challenge! The 4 weeks of the BCC seem to fly by and as fast as it went by, everyone is ready to hop back into the BodPod at some point or another this week! I can’t even stress enough how important it is to not look at the end of the challenge as an opportunity to revert back to your old ways! This is not the Biggest Loser, it’s not about making the most amount of progress in the shortest amount of time – it’s about learning how to make permanent changes to your lifestyle habits. Regardless of what the BodPod tells you this week – know that you are going to have to continue to work to change the way you look at your intake. You should always be aware of what you are putting into your body and you should never think there is a time that you can eat whatever/however much you want! Hopefully, if you committed to this process you are at a point where you feel comfortable implementing and maintaining the principles of body composition change. So whether you have made progress that you want to maintain (or continue) do your best to control the aspects of optimizing your body composition!

Although most people I have spoken to are lacking extravagant plans for the New Year, for some this weekend will be yet another caloric challenge. What does this mean? Another opportunity to show the world how amazing you are at refraining from overindulgence. We are on the final stretch before the re-test so obviously that means . . . it’s crunch time! Really focus on adhering to your deficit and killing your strength training sessions. Do everything you can to make the most out of these last few days and remind yourself that everything you consume will have an impact on your body composition (for good or for bad!). Also, now is a great time to mentally prep for the lifestyle change you have before you. Don’t go into this thinking that as soon as you get out of the BodPod that you can eat whatever you want and things will be fine and dandy. Get ready to make some serious changes to your intake habits!

If you’re participating in this month’s challenge, you are well aware of how difficult it is to adhere to your deficit during the holidays. It truly takes a lot to hold back from certain temptations. And sometimes, as hard as you try . . . you just give in. And sometimes, when you give in, you really give in. This can be a little disheartening, especially if you have done a fabulous job up until your sweet tooth decided to come in and take over the place. Not only can it be disheartening, it may even feel like you have done some serious damage to your body comp progress. But don’t give up! Don’t let these moments be a reason to give up on making further progress. Just because you had a minor slip, doesn’t mean you have failed. Use these moments as an opportunity to re-motivate yourself! There is still one week (and some bonus time before you get back into the BodPod) to make some progress. So although the holiday’s celebrations may have gotten the best of you, keep working toward your goals!

Yeah, you might want to change your body composition and you might know what it takes, but without understanding your motivation behind your desire to change, it might be difficult to actually make the progress you are hoping to achieve.

So ask yourself, “Why do I want to improve my body composition?”

Is it to improve your health? You physique? Increase your self confidence? Or is it because you want to look gooooood for someone else?

If the reason for change is not your own, it’s going to be very difficult to commit to this process. If you’re changing for someone else or trying to change because you think you’re supposed to look a certain way (you know, that way that all the magazines, movies and all those other unreasonably high standard media outlets make you feel you should look) it will be very difficult for you to achieve your goal.

Your motivation should really lie behind you. What do you want to achieve? How are you going to benefit from reaching your body composition goals? How are you going to feel if you don’t reach those goals?

If you really have it in you (no, not like the Gatorade commercials) . . .  then you are in a very good position to have the commitment in place to be able to work toward improving your fat percentage.

Looking back on the progress I have made, I don’t think I would have come this far if I was trying to achieve some standard set by the media. As a personal trainer, most people expect you to look a certain way and while it was always on my mind it wasn’t the main driving force behind my commitment to the process. I made the changes for me. I wanted to increase my self confidence . . . so I set small reachable goals and every time I achieved each goal, every time I hopped back into the BodPod and saw my numbers change, I got that extra little boost of self-esteem that I needed to continue to work toward my goal.

So as you continue to progress toward your goals, sit down and think about why you’re doing what you’re doing and use that knowledge to help you persevere through the rest of the challenge!

I’m the kind of person that likes to take advantage of every ounce of sleep I can get. Although I sometimes have the best intentions to wake up early and get an awesome breakfast rolling, more likely than not you can find me hitting the snooze until all I have left is just enough time to get ready and not much of an opportunity to get a good meal in. And while you can justify this with having something to take on the go, it is highly unlikely that I take advantage of that opportunity either!