Outside Factors That Impact Your Progress

For most of us, the most challenging part of achieving the results we’re looking for with our workout and diet program appears to be coming up with the plan to begin with and then making the concentrated effort to stick with it.

If you’re not performing regular workouts or are frequently ‘cheating’ on your diet, that’s when you’re going to see progress take a nosedive as you no longer see any type of success.

In addition to the diet and workout program however, there are other factors that can influence your performance as well – what are commonly referred to as ‘lifestyle’ factors.  Making sure not to neglect these will also be incredibly important.
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Here are the main ones to keep in mind.

Stress

The first main thing that can have quite an impact on how you do with your efforts towards your goal is the amount of stress you’re experiencing on a day to day basis.  Those who are very stressed out are going to find that they not only don’t have the energy to workout but they will also feel hungrier during the day.

Obviously hunger control tends to be one of the maker or breakers of any diet as when you’re ravenous will power really goes out the window.

Feeling stress also puts you in an overall negative emotional mindset which will decrease your feelings of your ability to stick with the workout program and diet.

As much as you can, find healthy, productive ways to handle your stress so it doesn’t impact your progress.

Sleep

Next, sleep is another key element necessary for great results.  Whether you want to build more muscle mass or lose body fat, sleep is a must.  Sleep is the primary time when the body will work extremely hard repairing and rebuilding your torn down muscle tissue, so if you short yourself on this, you’re going to find it takes you longer to feel well between sessions.

Additionally, if you’re staying awake longer each day and sleeping less, this also sends a signal to the brain that the body has a higher glucose requirement (often sleepiness is mistaken for hunger) and since you’re up rather than asleep you may find yourself eating more.
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Getting at least seven hours, preferably eight, should be mandatory for those who are looking to make positive changes in their body.

Personal Support

Finally, the last thing that will have an impact on your overall progress is the personal support you’re getting from others.  Those who don’t live in supportive environments or have family who are constantly nagging at them because they are preparing different meals or refusing to eat the new recipes being tried will really struggle to stick with it.

If instead you have a bunch of people around you who take interest in your goal and do anything they can to help you out along the way, you’ll have a much easier time.

Keep in mind too that sometimes an unsupportive environment at home can be overcome by finding friends who are very much working towards similar goals. You can workout with them and they will be the positive influence you need.

It’s a sad situation when the people you love and care about aren’t encouraging for you but it is something some people need to be prepared to address.  If you try hard enough, usually such as situation can be overcome in the long run.
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Being sure to take the most well-rounded approach to your weight loss will get you to the finish line looking and feeling the best.  Don’t just focus on diet and exercise.  These are definitely two extremely important factors but it really is about everything altogether that you’re doing.