Thinking of yourself as an athlete..

Until now you may have been thinking of yourself as someone who exercises to lose weight or to stay fit.

Today I want to challenge you to change your mindset.

I want you to see yourself differently; to get you to think about things a little differently.

I want to challenge you to think of yourself as an athlete and not just as someone who exercises to lose weight or stay fit.

If you already are or have been an athlete you will know the difference I am talking about.

When you think of yourself as an athlete things change.

You begin to take your training more seriously, you begin to think more about what you put in your mouth and why, you begin to think seriously about your recovery so you can back up and do another quality session the next day; you begin to take notice of your improvements; you begin to place more importance on your training and you begin to set bigger and better goals.

Think about it....
Say out loud "I am someone who exercises to (insert reason here)"
Now say out loud "I am an athlete"
Which is more inspiring?
Which makes you aspire to do bigger, better things?
I don't even need to ask do I?

Before you begin to tell yourself "I am not an athlete; I am overweight or unfit or I have never been an athlete or any of the usual negative things you tell yourself as yourself push all of that aside and just stay with me for a bit.

What makes an athlete?

Being an athlete does not mean you need to be a National Champion in a high profile sport.

Being an athlete is about taking a professional approach to your health and fitness goals.

For example if you injure yourself as someone who exercises to lose weight or get fit you are likely to let it go, let it linger and hobble along with it for a month or so till it pulls you up short and you have to rest completely. You lose your momentum and lose all progress you have gained in the last month.

As an athlete you would be conscious of the fact this may impact on your training if you don't get it sorted so you make an appointment with the physio - you do the exercises you are given, take it easy for a week or so but still do whatever training you can that does not impact on your injury.  You don't lose momentum, you don't end up with an injury that sidelines you for weeks.

As someone who exercises to stay fit and lose weight chances are when you buy your new runners you go for the colour you like best; as an athlete you have your runners correctly fitted (this costs nothing extra) and know that properly fitting runners will have an effect on whether or not you get injured.

Think of your favorite athlete - mine is Lance Armstrong - how would your athlete treat their body and the way they approach training and recovery?

How would your athlete manage a night out with the girls? Would they go completely mad and drink till they could drink no more or do you think they would know how to have a good time out without getting hammered knowing they have to get up and train regardless of how late the night went?

The difference is in the mindset and making that mental shift will have quite significant impact on how seriously you take your training and nutrition.

I know the day I was acknowledged as an elite athlete changed my life. I had never considered myself an elite athlete before then.
I knew I trained hard, won competitions and trained with and competed as part of the state squad but it didn't compute I could now call myself an elite athlete. One of the coaches with the squad was speaking to me about recovery and said "As an elite you really need to make sure your recovery is excellent because the quality of each and every training session is paramount; dragging a tired and sore body to training day after day is just hard work , perpetually tired and sore bodies don't get the improvements that well recovered bodies do".

It was true I was sore and tired every session and it wasn't fun but he lost me after "As an elite athlete"!!
From that day on I took not only my training seriously (always did that) but my nutrition, my recovery, my rest, my hydration etc etc etc

To this day this is still how I operate even though I am no longer a competitor. This approach means I do not fall off the wagon when it comes to exercise and taking care of myself - once and athlete always an athlete.

So...take this week to think about what you will do differently now you are an athlete and drop me an email with some dot points outlining these changes.

Have fun with it.

Michelle x