When it comes to exercise and healthy eating, consistency is so important. We might feel geared up one week and start off strong by exercising on a Monday, planning healthy meals for the week and using this positive start to carry on in the same way for the whole week. 

Then we have a cheat day on the Sunday, we have a super busy week ahead or we lose our motivation for one of a myriad of other reasons and suddenly we’ve stopped exercising and our healthy eating takes a back seat.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone – we all feel it at times. But this stop-start yo-yo cycle of virtuousness followed by inactivity and poor food choices is no good if we really want to reach our targets and goals. 

Knowing and understanding a little bit more about why it’s so important to be slow, steady and consistent may help you make the choices that will help you Own Your Goals, so here’s why it’s so important to be consistent…

• Over time, being consistent with a routine of exercising on set days each week and being strict with yourself over healthy eating and dietary choices, will help to make them a habit. Habitually doing something that’s hard, such as exercising and saying no to dessert (most of the time, not all of the time) will make things feel easier. It’ll become part of your way of life, which will help to accelerate you towards where you want to be. 
• Rather than focussing on being perfect, focusing on being regular is far more helpful. Regular, consistent workouts with perhaps a few little flaws (who can do a perfect burpee anyway?!) and mishaps is more beneficial to weight loss and toning than being fixated on only exercising perfectly. Perfection is unachievable anyway, there’s always room for a little improvement! 
• One day of exercise and one healthy meal won’t make us fit. We all know that. But the same goes for a few days or weeks of healthy living followed by a few more undoing all that good work. Don’t waste all that hard work getting into a routine of exercise and virtuous food choices by quitting. Your body will wonder what on earth is going on as your metabolism gets a kickstart followed by a period of sluggishness followed by a kickstart and so on.