What is harmful to your staying in shape? Bad diet, disturbed rhythm of the day, stress? These are certainly factors that negatively affect your well-being and physical condition. What else hurts your efforts to keep in good shape?
What does it mean to "be fit"? To feel physically fit, ready for challenges, healthy and refreshed. When we are "in shape" we often are happier to plan meetings with friends, spontaneous trips, quick home renovations and generally have more energy and enjoy life more. We just have the strength and energy for it. Illness or prolonged stress often make our good form a thing of the past, and we feel can discouraged, tired, and dissatisfied with ourselves.
Not enough sleep
For an adult, the appropriate daily amount of sleep is between 7-8 hours per night. Many people complain that they cannot afford such luxury because of their family and professional responsibilities. But we should be doing everything in our power to get in our hours every night. Sleep is crucial in the regeneration of muscles and the nervous system. It brings relief in disease, helps fight infections, counteracts obesity and diabetes, and can significantly affects the appearance. Just look at yourself in the mirror after a long night. These are just the superficial effects of a lack of sleep.
Training "on fatigue"
An ambitious approach to training assumes that the plan is to be carried out "no matter what". As a result, we can sometimes train, even though our body is not prepared for it at all. And although after two exercises we know that we are not at our best and that we feel "weak", we do not want to quit, because we treat it as a failure and often as a sign of weak will. This is ridiculous. It takes more mental strength and resilience to recognize when we need to recuperate or take it easy than to be stubborn, compromise form and even increase the risk of injury.
Increasing training loads
Progress in most training plans assumes a gradual increase in weight - extending the training time, accelerating endurance and speed exercises. However, this process can only be carried out when the body is ready for more effort. Treating increased weight as a form of mobilization or even punishment never brings good results, it is instead a sure way to guarantee overtraining injury.
Too strict diet
Adaptation is the basis of a successful diet. It that drives the body to increase muscle mass or lose body fat depending on how you are focused. The body needs to get used to the rhythm of meals, the number of calories, the type of food etc. And adaptation takes time. If, immediately after a binge or cheat meal, we go into a strict deficit "as a punishment", then we make negative association between our food, the diet, our goals, and our exercise. This can often become unhealthy both physically and mentally.
Unregulated diet
Taking that into consideration, "One deviation from the diet won’t hurt" - these are the words often repeated when we want to explain to ourselves a sudden desire for something sweet or fast food. Granted, one deviation is not a problem if we have followed this diet for at least a week before (and after), both qualitatively and quantitatively. Because if such deviations happen several times a week, it is difficult to talk about following the diet. Be honest with yourself.
Stress and discouragement
Living in a feeling of constant tension, with unfulfilled expectations, piling up tasks and bad relations with the environment causes a state of increasing stress. It is difficult to exercise and regenerate in such conditions, it is also difficult to follow a diet, because there are cravings for something sweet or prolonged periods of reluctance to eat. Unless we deal with the causes of stress, we will notice a decline in form quickly.
Stress management
It is an ability that few people really possess. Calming down often results from cutting yourself off from stimuli, overloaded thoughts, and detaching from waiting issues and challenges. It is worth finding your own way to mentally regenerate. Walking, playing with animals, needlework, art, yoga, or meditation, or even gaming. Whatever you do is good if it works.
In closing… 70 percent better than 100?
Can you give 100 percent of yourself in your training and follow a diet 100 percent of the time? Who can do it? Maybe for a few days with particularly strong motivation. But for most people, training in a professional gym or home gym, even with the best equipment, you'll achieve better results if you follow a diet of 70 percent and exercise 70 percent. That's enough to see the results and be satisfied with yourself whilst not torturing yourself at the same time. Realistic goals always have an advantage over ambitious ones.