Do you question whether or not the exercises you are doing are going to bring you the best results in the amount of time you are putting into them? Do you think that your workouts are a waste of time, and you struggle to complete even 10 minutes of exercise?

It’s possible that you are just fighting the physical activity since it is easier to be sedentary. But if you continually think that the time you are spending exercising is just a waste and you’re spinning your wheels, then you aren’t going to be very motivated to get moving. Who wants to waste time on an activity that isn’t going to give you a good pay-off?

If you are doubting the effectiveness of your work out routine, this is an easy way for you to sabotage your weight loss goals and any effort you’ve put in up to this point. The solution to turning this doubt into confidence is the same as yesterday’s solution to doubting your diet: research and knowledge.

Unless you are a fitness professional, you need to educate yourself on the proper ways to exercise. It wasn’t until I came upon the Six Week Body Makeover that I knew as much as I do now: I learned that you do not have to kill yourself in the gym, or like the people do on The Biggest Loser. I learned how effective it is when you target the specific muscle or muscle group to reshape and sculpt your body, and just how important the proper breathing technique is when you are doing resistance training or cardio.

I learned that the best form of cardio is paced walking, as long as it is in your target heart rate. In fact, I learned what a target heart rate zone is! There was so much that I did not know prior to the 6WBMO, and I used to think that in order to lose weight, that I had to restrict the amount of food I ate and work out endlessly, when exactly the opposite is true: eat more and exercise less!

I now have 100% faith and confidence in my exercise routine, knowing that I am getting the best bang for my buck. Like most people, I don’t have endless amounts of time to spend exercising. Yes, you still have to schedule time to exercise, and you must take action if you are going to accomplish your goal of weight loss and fitness, but it is unrealistic to be spending 2 or 4 hours a day working out like I’ve read of others doing.

The more I think about this topic as I’m writing it, I think that this area could be the least likely one that you could have doubts about in your weight loss efforts. The reason is because even if you aren’t doing exercises that will give you the results you want, you probably think that what you’re doing will help you because you are taking physical action. It seems that most of us think that as long as we’re moving, no matter what kind of exercise it is, that it will help us lose weight.

I used to work out every day on my treadmill for an hour minimum, but I didn’t lose any weight. I thought that since it was exercise it had to be good, however I wasn’t walking in my target heart rate, breathing properly, or eating the proper pre-workout and post-workout meals.

Now I do my cardio on the treadmill 5 days a week, and only for 30 – 60 minutes (I average 45 minutes), and do resistance training (body sculpting) twice a week (only 20 minutes each session). Would I have known how to do this prior to the 6WBMO? No way. I do have complete confidence in the training though, especially since it is all put together by Michael Thurmond who has been in the profession for over 35 years.

The main point is that you maintain consistent confidence in the work out routine that you are putting your valuable time into. If you have doubts about its effectiveness, you probably will waver and will find your motivation waning. Motivation can be difficult enough to maintain and it’s much easier when you can erase any areas of doubt that you have about your weight loss and fitness plan. Otherwise those thoughts of doubt will just be waiting to remind you how you might as well give in to your old eating habits and sedentary lifestyle since you don’t think that what you’re doing will work anyway!

This post is part four in a series of 5 posts regarding areas of doubt that can sabotage your weight loss efforts. The previous articles are located: introduction, part two, part three.