Why Am I Not Seeing Any Progress?

Ashley Paradise
Jun 10, 2017
4 min read

You’re going to the gym day after day, week after week, and now you’re getting frustrated because you’re body isn’t changing. This is one of the most frustrating challenges that people come into contact with on their fitness journey. If you can relate and you’re wondering why, let me ask you a few simple questions.

What are you eating before and after you go to the gym?

How soon do you eat before and after a workout?

How late are you eating at night?

What are you eating late at night?

What are you doing at the gym?

Are you constantly doing the same routines or intensity every day, every week?

But most importantly… What are you eating?!

It’s true… Food is just as important, if not more, as working out.

As the saying goes, you can't out train a bad diet! If that were the case every meal I ate would consist of peanut butter with a side of peanut butter and peanut butter cookies! A lot of people use the gym as punishment for what they ate. Or use food as a replacement for working out. There is such a negative stigma about eating quote on quote "healthy" and working out that we unfortunately get a misconception about what health and fitness really is. This is why I 110% stand by and believe the statement on the main page of my website "Eat To Fuel. Train To Feel Good." If you are using pure will power to go to the gym and hate it, as well as restrict yourself too far on calories and eat foods you don't enjoy. Eventually you will run out of fuel. But it doesn't have to be that way! Oh my goodness, aren't you glad you found my website... There are easy tips that you can put into practice that will help make your fitness journey easier & more enjoyable!

What you are eating before and after the gym & How soon you eat before and after a workout:

Lets start with what you are eating before you go to the gym. If you are going to lift weights or do some type of resistance training you want some kind of food in your body. If you don't have food in your system your body will have no source to pull from and will resort to using your muscles as energy, ultimately breaking down the muscle you are deliberately trying to grow. You want to feed your body some kind of fuel. That being said, you don't want to eat a huge meal or eat right before you go to the gym. When you eat, especially a lot of carbs, before you workout your body ends up burning up the food you just ate instead of stored fat which is your whole goal! This is not for everyone, everyone is different when it comes to what works best for your body. For me, I like to eat some kind of carbs and proteins some time before I train just enough to give me a good source of energy. After I workout I like to do the same thing and eat some kind of carbs and protein. Be careful eating a high amount of fats after your workout!

How late and what you are eating at night:

Are you eating late at night? Right before you go to bed? To be honest, I do this. Eating late at night is my weakness. If you're like me, you're home and its late at night, there happens to be a kitchen filled with food and absolutely no more will power left for the remainder of the day. Your tired and trying to stay awake, so your brain tells you to eat more food to give you energy. We're human... it happens but we can make better decisions when it happens. What happens when you eat late at night is the food sits in your digestive system because it doesn't digest while you sleep. Some of this ends up converting to fat. If you like to eat late, just think about the better foods you can reach for. You can also eat protein late at night and you will be fine! I'm not sure the process that the body goes through as to why... But hey you can reach for the protein source so who cares!

What you are doing at the gym & workout routine/intensity:

What are you doing at the gym? Are you actually breaking a sweat? Are you switching up your workouts and intensity? These are all tricks you can do to enhance your progress. If you aren't actually challenging your body, it's not going to change very much... With anything, the more effort you put in the more you get out. Believe it or not! Also avoiding plateaus with your workouts! So so so so important. If you keep doing the same exercises, your muscles and body will catch on. They're smarter than we like to think... When your muscles catch on they slow down your progress and you stop loosing weight as fast. So it is extremely important to trick your muscles and change it up every couple of weeks!

The majority of your results will come from what you eat though! No matter how hard or how much you train if you are eating like crap all day every day, you will become what you eat. Yes working out with this diet will make it a little better than if you didn't at all... But that's not the point! If you care about your body, you should care to nourish it properly. Feeding it foods that give you energy and make you feel good! Once you start eating better, that doesn't mean salads and rice cake every day for the rest of your life! No! But it does mean, no more McDonalds and donuts every day!

So what on Earth did we just talk about?!