Rewiring Your Brain
Today I took a personality test, but it was different than normal ones. Usually you take a personality test to find out about your work personality, or something for your career or interpersonal relationships etc. I took one for fitness and working out. The Rewired personality fitness test from BodyBuilding.com by James Grage. Honestly, I took the test just from a place of curiosity and skepticism, because I've never been a fan of these special workout plans that are really out there just to line the pockets of the 'trainer/creator'. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I thought that it would be interesting to see what it said if nothing else.
RESULTS:
YOU ARE 50% THE FEELER.
When it comes to fitness, you prefer to go by feel rather than by a hard-and-set plan. This means that the quality of your training and diet often depends on your mood.
YOU ARE 35% THE THINKER.
You tend to be a perfectionist in the gym, both for better and worse. You have a great plan, but the reality is that things don't always go according to the plan!
YOU ARE 10% THE SOCIALIZER.
You're the life of the party and like to see and be seen in the gym. After all, what's the point of all this work if you can't show it off online or out on the town?
YOU ARE 5% THE PROVIDER.
You train when you can, but you have plenty of other pressing obligations. You tend to put your needs after everyone else's, and there often aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done.
Right away when I'm looking at these results I'm raising an eyebrow. 50% the feeler? What the heck does that mean? But the last sentence really grabbed my attention. "The quality of your training and diet often depends on your mood." Well... yeah, isn't that how it is for EVERYONE? Who wants to work out when you're down in the dumps? Who wants to put everything into this one period of your day of awful when you barely have the energy to get through the door and deal with everything ELSE you're responsible for? Ok, fine. YES, maybe sometimes my emotions choose decide if I'm roasting that chicken and those veggies or if I'm dipping pepperettes in tzatziki sauce while claiming it's a meal. This isn't the normal for everyone else? Well shoot.
So that's the initial results. From there, they give you a link that goes more into detail about what your personality 'type' entails... Which is where I found myself nodding along in agreement with every damning thing they described.
When everything comes together, nobody loves training and the fit life more than you. You want to take control of your fitness and nutrition, but sometimes, it feels like everything in your life is conspiring to leave you discouraged. Easily discouraged. Comfort eating. Self-conscious or intimidated in the weight room. Afraid to extend yourself or try new movements. When you're enthusiastic, you train hard- maybe too hard. When you're not enthusiastic, you struggle to get to the gym at all. You don't track or plan your workouts, so you have trouble gauging progress.
“The quality of your training and diet often depends on your mood.”
ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME? This is me. Over and over and over and over. New workout plan. Super enthusiastic! Can't wait to try it! Throw myself into it, work really hard, dedicate myself to it and love it... Until the setback. That one setback turns into another and then another and pretty soon it's been 2 weeks since I was at the gym, and I'm barely keeping up in practice, everything hurts and I'm real grouchy. Trying to get motivated again is near impossible, until the next new and exciting wave of enthusiasm makes it's appearance. Sigh.
Alright. So now I know my fitness personality... what's next? Apparently, you now sign up for a 9 week program to get 'Rewired'. I'm not going to do that, but I am going to follow the tips they gave and try to focus in a little more on how to combat the hurdles that come along with being 'The Feeler'. What have I got to lose?
Their suggestions?
Enjoyment
Focus on enjoying your time in the gym and opening yourself to the experience of training rather than just the results. You've got a long life ahead of you, and you need to learn to love the work.
Building Confidence
Do what is necessary to master your workouts and feel strong and confident. If that means hiring a trainer, do it. If it means working out consistently with a partner, that's even better.
Getting Consistent
Focus on reaping the full benefits of training. Follow a program without any customizations, lapses or shortcuts. Do the work, do it hard, and see what happens.
Building Healthy Habits
Don't justify an unscheduled cheat meal (or day). You have to train your willpower like a muscle, by making difficult choices over and over, day-in and day-out. Follow a nutrition program to a T, and stay on guard for comfort eating and other 'secret calories' in your life.
If we're being honest here, these are things that everyone should work on when they're tackling their fitness goals. Maybe not everyone needs to build their confidence or learn how to enjoy the gym - some people come by these things easily, naturally or otherwise.. But consistency is something I see everyone struggle with, along with building healthy habits. Unless you're like my old trainer, who only viewed food as fuel, and not as something to be enjoyed. (Which directly goes against my #1 new focus of enjoyment! Suck it!)
They also told me to write a letter to myself that lays out three things I want to work on, why they matter to me and how I'm going to make it happen and finally, to start tracking workouts and my food to help me with consistency. Lucky for me, I'm already tracking all of that with the help of my FitBit and MyFitnessPal.
For the letter to myself? That's this post, right here. Lucky you! The 3 things I want to really work on?
1. NUTRITION
Nutrition is so vitally important to my lifestyle and goals. I can't continue having those cheat days because I just 'don't feel' like cooking because it was an emotionally taxing day or anything. Eating keto isn't hard. It's probably one of the easiest ways of eating I've ever experienced... Why do I keep making it hard on myself? My goal is to consistently log all of my food for 90 days, and to stay keto for the majority of it. I would like to, out of the next 90 days, have had no more than 5 days where I've consumed over 50g of carbs in a day. How am I going to make this happen? By meal prepping weekly, valuing my body and making choices through food that I know will benefit my body, my physical needs as well as my emotional needs. If I find my need for comfort food overwhelming me, I will do my best to ensure that those comfort foods have been adapted to be ketogenic, healthy, whole foods.
2. FITNESS
My level of fitness is important for injury prevention and to stay on top of my game on the track. Not only do I have derby to think about, but I have old injuries I have to make sure stay as medical history, rather than aggravating them or re-injuring myself in other ways. I need to remember to do the exercises given to me by my physiotherapist & osteopath. I also need to make it a focus to continually work on my tight spots in my body through stretching, targeted static & dynamic movements and training. I would also like to reintroduce myself to the gym, as off season has arrived for derby, reducing the amount of on skates time I will have for a few months, and allowing me to care for the injuries sustained during the regular season. I also need to start thinking about the next season, getting my workout plans on paper and following them, 100% without excuses.
3. POSITIVITY
This is easily, by far the biggest struggle for me. Staying positive and not beating myself up mentally is something I have to face head on, every single day. Struggling with mobility in my ankle can leave me yelling at myself and telling myself how terrible I am, and that will never help me succeed. It's important for me to stay positive because without that, I will never be able to see myself getting better, as it will never be enough. I'll be stuck in a never ending cycle of frustration and not being 'good enough' to myself. I need to focus on successful goals I've achieved and enjoy myself while I do it. How am I going to make this happen? Honesty to myself. Accepting feedback from those around me (trainers, teammates, etc). Listening when they say I did something well, rather than brushing it off and focusing on something I did poorly. Finding something that I did with excellence every single workout.
Really, that's all. I'm not saying everyone will find so much use through this test, but I myself did. If you want to take it yourself and see if it helps you out, you can do so here. Feel free to share your results and thoughts with me if you want. I'm always looking for new fitness minded buds who also enjoy exploring the science of nutrition & training. For now, I'm off to put together a meal plan and schedule some workouts.
xo
Beat'em