WE DON'T SELL WORKOUTS! WE SELL ACCOUNTABILITY.

Here at EXL we have a proven system that delivers consistent and measurable results. It includes cutting-edge workouts using a variety of equipment as well as nutrition resources with recipes and meal plans.

I’ve weeded through the research and studied the data in 20 plus years of personal training so you don’t have to…but ultimately you can do the same thing. You can read the books and attend the seminars and scrutinize the blogs and watch youtube videos and come up with a similar system. The information is out there.

But, even with this proven training system, the most valuable tool I have in my personal training tool bag is ACCOUNTABILITY.

Lack of accountability is one of the reasons why most people give up on their fitness goals after a few weeks. And, this lack of accountability is why I have a job.

“Accountability is an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions.” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accountability)

We follow a simple 2 step program to help our clients “account for their actions” or their lack of actions.

Step 1: Commit to more …or less.

Committing to more is where you commit to something bigger than you. This can be as easy as committing with a friend to see who can eliminate sugar for the longest period of time. Or, who can go the longest without eating fast food or skipping a workout.

Or it can be as big as committing to boot camp for a year.

This ‘committing to more’ is a double-edged sword. It’s human nature to over promise and under deliver especially to ourselves.

We want results and damn it…we want them yesterday.

So we commit to more than we can handle and we get overwhelmed. We may be able to juggle all the promises we made to ourselves for a few weeks but then we cave and give up (think New Year’s resolutions by the end of January).

This is where doing the opposite and ‘committing to less’ makes sense.

Under promise and over deliver is the key.

Consider every fitness and nutrition promise you make yourself to be a rough draft, and ask yourself, “On a scale of 1-10, how confident am I that I can accomplish this every day for the next 30 days?’

If you can’t honestly answer 8-10 on the confidence scale then make the promise smaller or easier.

For example, you can change “I will go to the gym and workout for 60 min every morning.” into…

1. I will get at least 2 workouts in the gym and block out the time in my calendar. Here you can reduce the commitment to the point that it is really easy and it’s a bonus if you get more.

2. I will perform 20 push-ups and 50 squats every morning when I wake up.

Here you can choose an option that doesn’t require any equipment or travel.

Keep reducing the commitment till you can honestly answer 8-10 on the commitment scale. If you can do more on a given day, go for it. Just don’t commit to it. Make your daily accomplishments big, but keep your commitments small.

Notice with these new goals you’re placing emphasis on your actions, not your results.

Here at EXL we challenge our clients to focus on what they have control of, their behaviors, NOT what they don’t have control of…their results.

Focus and reward yourself for accomplishing your new behaviors or habits and the results will follow.

So, does this work?

You bet it does. Success isn’t found in doing one of these goals. Success is found when you string multiple ‘easy’ goals together. Once you master the first goal, set another goal. Master that goal and move on to the next.

The first ‘easy goal’ might not make a huge impact, but once you’ve accomplished a series of them the results will follow. And the big bonus is that these new habits will tend to be more permanent.

The next step is where you involve somebody else.

Step 2: Get some help from somebody else.

In the example above you can commit to a challenge with your friend to stay accountable or you can hire a coach.

With a coach you have somebody to report and be accountable to, but also a resource to get answers to questions, guidance and motivation.

We all struggle with staying in shape. There will always be moments when other things in life will take priority. That doesn’t mean we’re deficient or messed up. It just means we’re human.

I do know that hiring a professional to hold you accountable is one of the best things you can do to actually be successful in getting and staying in shape.

This week at EXL we launched our first ever Back to School Accountability Challenge. The accountability challenge is a twist on the usual transformation challenge, which focuses purely on results. The accountability challenge focuses on the journey and the process of gaining new, healthy habits, which in the end will lead to your results.

We have a very successful day to day program, but one thing I know is that when we increase accountability, offer rewards ($500 in cash prizes) and add in some friendly competition we get absolutely amazing results.

We all are on different levels when it comes to fitness and nutrition and we get results differently as well. This challenge encourages and rewards the process of gaining new healthy habits. Anybody can win this challenge. It won’t necessarily be the person that loses the most weight or has the best before/after photos like a transformation contest. The winners will be those that work the program and set small, easy goals and report on them and are willing to take responsibility for their actions.

For more details check out the Back to School Accountability Challenge page here.