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The “Ouch!” Factor

Your goal this year is to be healthier. Make yourself a priority. To feel amazing! You purchase a gym membership. Put “gym” on your calendar for the week. And maybe go out and buy yourself a new workout outfit. You prepare, show up when your schedule tells you to- to a busy gym.

A very busy gym.

You’re not sure exactly where to start, but a lot of people are on machines and that looks like a good place to begin. Hopping on a treadmill that someone just got off, you start at the bottom and work your speed up to a brisk pace. Feel your heart rate go up and it feels glorious- you’re doing it!

Two weeks in and you’re tired. Things have crept back into your schedule. Your “gym” appointment is penciled in now. And you’ve missed a few days. With a deep breath you tell yourself it doesn’t matter. You’ll get back to it next week. Start fresh again.

But something comes up on Monday and you’ve got a busy Tuesday and just don’t feel like it. The week passes without a gym visit, and the best of intentions fall to the side and you’ve slipped back to where you were. Doing not much of anything. Yet the gym membership keeps paying month after month and you keep telling yourself that you need to go cancel it, if you only had the time.

Guess what? Your gym has anticipated this. In fact, they are banking on it. Literally.

Each month your membership goes unused, you mentally become a little more uncomfortable. The Ouch Factor increases. The Ouch Factor, as I call it, is the amount of discomfort or pain that you feel when your reality does not align with your expectation.

Your expectation is to be healthier. Your reality is that you aren’t getting healthier.

When your Ouch Factor reaches the tipping point, you act. Prior to that point though, you manage it. Sometimes your Ouch Factor incrementally increases with time as my previous examples illustrates with an unused gym membership. Sometimes, that Ouch Factor skyrockets over the tipping point: Seeing a picture of yourself that shocked you. Someone made a biting comment about you that triggered a wake up call. A doctor’s visit, or the realization you can’t do something that you used to. Whatever that trigger is, it tipped your Ouch Factor to the point that you decided it was time to take action.

Then, the question arises: what kind of action do I need to take?

If you are looking to make a long term change to better your health, you need four things:

Access- you need a place to go workout and equipment available
Structure- you need to know what to do when you workout
Novelty- You need to change it up when you get bored so you’ll keep doing it
Accountability- You need motivation to keep doing it when you don’t feel like it

You need all four of these to be successful. If you’re missing one, you’ll stall in your efforts to stay healthy throughout your life.

Access is the least expensive one to cover, and you will see that with $10 monthly memberships. They provide you access to their equipment and little else.

Structure will cost you a little more. At a very minimum you need a workout to do when you go to the gym. Walking on the treadmill will only take you so far. This could be joining a class, a small group training program, or purchasing an app or online program to give you what to do when you exercise.

Novelty is a little trickier to accomplish, but easy to identify our need for it. When you’re bored or stuck, you feel it. It’s that lackluster emotion you have when it’s time for your “gym” appointment. A sigh. And then usually a pep talk with yourself about the importance of consistency and discipline. This is where CrossFit and personal training shine because they are always changing the programming. A good group exercise instructor will change their routines as well to keep it fresh and engaging.

Lastly is accountability, the most critical to the Ouch Factor. Having someone else besides you who is personally interested in making sure you keep going. That’s the biggest reason long term personal training clients stay, to have an appointment with another person to keep them on track, doing the things they otherwise would not.

Knowing now the four pieces you need to make a long term change, you need to determine where you stand on each element. This is a time to honestly ask yourself a few questions based on the history of your habits:

If I had access to a place to exercise would I go? If you honestly answered “No”, then buying a gym membership for access will be a waste of your money. You will need to pay for something more than just access.

If I showed up to the gym, would I know what to do? If “No” is your answer, then a simple gym membership won’t help you. You might go for a few weeks, but for the long term you will need to pay for some instruction.

Can I continue to do my routine into the indefinite future? If you answered “No”, then you will need to find or pay for new programming.

Lastly, ask yourself: When I start something, how likely am I to continue it? If you answered “not very likely”, then having some accountability is crucial to your success.

Having answered these questions, you now have a better idea of what you personally need for long term success. The next step is determining what and how to pay for them. For most of us, if we want to maintain a healthy life long term, we are going to have make a financial commitment to our health. Something that keeps that Ouch Factor up, so we will act.

When someone walks in to CrossFit 1088, I ask them: What brings you here? I want to know WHY they are coming to us. And then I make it simple for them. We identify what it is they want, and there is a price for each part of it. Being a group CrossFit member at our gym is easy in the sense that you just have to show up. The four elements of long term success are built in to our memberships.

But for those that already have something going for them, I offer concierge personal training options.

Have access but need programming? Great, for under $50, I can give you that.

Need some instruction to learn new exercises? A one-time coaching session is available, starting at $30. And off you go to continue what we covered until you need a check-up, a “Tune Up Session” I call it.

Need accountability? I do text coaching for about a dollar a day. Personalized check-ins and status updates.

I have clients who spend $50 with me and are good for the year. I have clients who spend above $300 a month for individual attention. All of them are aware they need the four elements of a long term healthy lifestyle. What’s different is their Ouch Factor. Figure out yours and you’ll be well on your way to forming your reality to the expectation you want.

Keep moving,

Priscilla

Note: As a fitness coach, it is my highest priority to keep my clients motivated and on track despite obstacles, distractions and just human nature. I work hard to determine what motivates each client and how much grace and truth they need to move forward. We all need a supportive environment to maintain healthy lifestyle and habits. If you are searching for that kind of environment, check out what we do here at CrossFit 1088: Hosted by Blue Wave Fit, where our mission is to bring CrossFit to All Ages. http://www.bluewavefitocala.com or email me at: priscilla@bluewavefitocala.com

Priscilla Jones and her husband, Brian, are owners of CrossFit 1088: Hosted by Blue Wave Fit. Their mission is to bring CrossFit to All Ages in Ocala, FL while raising their circus of four children.
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