by Boyd Myers

Created on: January 31, 2007   Last Updated: April 18, 2007

Although it's important to make fitness and healthy nutrition a part of your lifestyle, it's also important to remember that variety is the spice of life. Unfortunately, boredom or lack of results are the two biggest reasons people do not stick with their body transformations. Just remember, if it were that easy, everyone would be in great shape! Consistency is key, and if you want to reach your fitness goals, you have to stay at it.

Keep It Changing

Albert Einstein said it best: Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results! You must understand a very basic principle - the body is a highly adaptive organism. To force the body to change, it must be introduced to a stimulus that it is not familiar with (also known as the Overload Principle). If you continue to do the same thing over and over, not only will you become bored with your workout, you'll also become discouraged due to the lack of progress. So many people say "This is what I did when I first started working out and I gained X# of pounds of muscle and lost X# of pounds of fat." Well, let's think about what I just mentioned - you went from doing nothing to something, and although that "something" may not have been the optimal training program, it was definitely a foreign stimulus and the body had to adapt and you made progress.

Aside from physiological progress, it's important to mix it up for the sake of the mind. I love change. I also love progress, so it's important to understand when something in your workout STOPS yielding the desired results, change it up! With that being said, it's also important to GIVE IT TIME. You didn't get out of shape in 1 week so you're not going to totally transform in a few days.

Exercise classes are an excellent source of variety. There are many bootcamp and high intense dance style classes. I do, however, recommend that you still make resistance training the centerpiece of your exercise routine and use these classes as supplemental to keep yourself interested.

Get Competitive!

I'm a very competitive individual, so I have found different ways to use my competitive instincts for success. For me, it's paramount (from a psychological standpoint) to beat my previous workout's numbers (pounds or reps or both!). So, everytime I am in the gym it's a competition with myself. It keeps me motivated, but it also provides that ever-so important overload. If it's resistance training, focus on doing that extra rep with the same weight or

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