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How My Personal Training Clients Accept Themselves

My personal training clients first learn to love themselves before embarking on a personal training journeyWhat is the secret for my personal training clients accepting themselves for who they are?

Did you look in the mirror today?

What did you see?

Did you see someone that you love unconditionally? Or did you see someone that you would rather just ignore?

How about your body? Did you look at your body in the mirror today?

What did you see there?

Are you in love with your body? Do you accept your body in its entirety? Or do you feel like you want to get rid of all the mirrors in the house? How about comparing yourself to someone else? Do you wish you had a body like your next-door neighbor? How about a famous celebrity that looks great.

When it comes to weight loss, we are our own worst enemies. There is such an ugly stigma attached to the way we look and feel about ourselves.

No, you are not perfect. I am not perfect. None of us are! But you are perfectly YOU—unique with your own qualities and traits. We all need to learn to embrace and love our own unique style rather than obsessing over the things that we would like to change.

When starting a weight loss program, the first thing that you need to work on is your mental well-being. Too many of us get caught up with how we feel that others perceive us. We always think that someone is looking at us and judging us without them really even knowing us. We all do it from time to time. But for some, they do it ALL the time.

I think about those people who are self-conscious about going to the gym. I get it. That’s why I have set up our personal training programs to help those people who do not want to go to the gym (among other things). But the one thing that I have noticed when going to a gym is that the majority of people are not paying attention to those around them. They are focusing on themselves and not you.

The flip side to this is those gym members (mostly men in their 20s and who have built quite a bit of muscle) who walk around the gym and WANT people to notice them. It’s sooooo easy to pick these people out. They walk around, arms out to the side, puffed up chest, and walking slowly. In fact, I was at a local gym the other day, and I noticed not one, but two of their personal trainers who walked this way. I guess by walking this way they feel that people will automatically want to be their clients.

I always get a kick out of these guys. 🙂

It breaks my heart every time I meet someone who does not love themselves for who they are. Weight loss and health begin on the inside, not the outside. But I know it’s hard when we are conditioned as a society to emulate those who we think to have the “perfect” body. Magazine covers are just full of them. And it’s unfortunate that we are more inclined to focus on the whole vanity side of things.

I tell my personal training clients that we need to focus on getting healthy first. After they develop the habits necessary to continue on their fitness journey, then the vanity side of weight loss will come.

If you are focusing on only the vanity side of weight loss, I have news for you. No matter what you accomplish, no matter how much weight you lose, it will never meet with your satisfaction. You will always think that there is something more that you need to do to get the perfect body.

Train your mind first, accept yourself for who you are and then take that next step. After almost ten years of doing this, I can say with 100% certainty that those clients who accept themselves all their positive and negative qualities are the clients who succeed.

You are not Jennifer Lopez. You are not your neighbor. You are not the lady over on the elliptical machine sweating and working as hard as she can.

You are you and that is all you need to focus on. Focus on what makes you unique. Focus on all the positive things about YOU and not someone else.

Love yourself, then better yourself. That is the key to health and fitness success.