Uh oh, it’s time to audit your fitness like your finances

You seek the council of a tax professional to audit and ensure your finances are in order .

But do you do the same with the state of your fitness health as well?

You should, particularly if you want to fit those summer clothes in your closet. The weather will be turning soon.

Put on your accounting hat (you know, the one with the visor?), grab a pen and paper and apply the same audit your accountant does to your finances with your fitness lifestyle.

Go hour by hour in your day and reflect on what you can improve upon.

Does exercising make you feel and sleep better? Then do more of that.

Do you feel like taking a nap at your desk after a take-out lunch? Then do less of that.

Do you habitually snack your face off after dinner? Maybe it's time to limit it to a controlled cheat and avoid the free-for-all.

Does that glass of wine at night calm you down in the short term but interfere with your sleep at night so you wake up even more anxious in the a.m.? Then, gulp, you may want to reserve your drinking in moderation for weekends.

Do you wake up in a funk on Mondays because you stayed up late and slept in all weekend? Going to bed and waking up at the same time as you do during the work week is the cheapest long-term fat loss tip ever. You are your circadian rhythm.

Observe how you feel before, during, and after making these small shifts in your behaviour. You’ll start to see how small actions can lead to big results.

Sometimes the little habitual things we do on auto pilot are sabotaging our success.

So, I challenge you to audit and find the little tweaks that'll make a huge difference in how you feel, look and perform day to day.

The Tale of Ken vs Ben

Consider two people with vastly different lifestyles.

Ken stays up too late watching Netflix, snacking on junk food, only to wake up exhausted, hitting snooze multiple times every morning.

He begrudgingly gets up late and rushes out the door, grabs a giant coffee with two creams and two sugars at the drive-thru for “breakfast.”

Then he arrives at work and is in reactive mode, never truly getting control of his work day, having to stay late to complete a project.

As a result, he must cancel his workout with his coach and miss some quality time with his family.

Ben, on the other hand, goes to bed on time, lights out by 10:30.

He gets up before his alarm clock, squeezes in a workout and brings his prepared meals with him.

He works smarter, not harder, and is highly productive, able to end his work day on time.

Ben gets to spend some time present with his family before tucking the kids into bed followed by bedroom gymnastics with his partner.

Not only is Ben less stressed, but he likely looks, feels and performs better than Ken, too.

Be a Ben.

How to Swap Good Habits For Bad

In the book, Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, Chip and Dan Heath use the analogy that when you’re trying to change your habits, you’re like a person riding an elephant.

To make the ride as smooth as possible, the first thing you need to do is to get rid of all the tree branches (obstacles) in the way.

So if you want to get in the habit of exercising first thing in the morning, you need to set yourself up for success the night before.

That means getting to bed early enough so you can wake up to your alarm, having your workout clothes ready and laid out and having a scheduled workout in your calendar with a coach or workout buddy.

If it’s your day-time meals that get you in the most trouble, get in the habit of grocery shopping on Sundays and preparing a few days’ worth of lunches ahead of time.

Whatever your new habit, you need to overcome the obstacles that get in the way of making the right decisions. The less you have to rely on willpower to follow through on your new habit, the better off you will be.

The Law of Red Velvet Cake

At the same time, you need to put obstacles in front of your bad habits.  

Red velvet cake is my guilty pleasure. Specifically, the one a local iconic restaurant, Salisbury House, makes.

The icing.. to die for. The melt in your mouth filling… orgasmic.

But The Law of Red Velvet Cake keeps me honest.

It goes like this:

If the cake doesn’t get into my car, it doesn’t get home. And if it doesn’t get home, it doesn’t get in my mouth. And if it doesn’t get in my mouth, it doesn’t contribute to belly fat.

You feel me?

If the temptation is in the house, you are going to indulge eventually. This rule can be applied to your guilty pleasure. What is it you can’t help yourself around? Make sure it isn’t staring at you from the pantry.

Remove obstacles and temptations so good habits become easy and automatic and bad habits become a chore to indulge in.

When you do that, you make life less stressful and you become more successful.

Mitch Calvert is a Winnipeg-based fitness coach for men and women like his former self. Obese as a teenager, he now helps clients find their spark and lose the weight for life. He’s a regular contributor to Men’s Health and Muscle & Fitness magazines, among others. Grab yourself a copy of his free diet secrets cheat sheet to help you shed 5+ pounds fast exclusively at mitchcalvert.com.