Make 2021 Your Best Year | Advantage Fitness

JED WIGHTMAN PERFORMANCE/SPORTS NUTRITIONIST ADVANTAGE FITNESS LTD

This article has been written for Canadian Physique Alliance – January/February 2021 Edition

Here we are, 2020 behind us, a year for the history books indeed.

This year has been one of the craziest, tragic, interesting, unique and all around bizarre in the history of our lives. For me and many that we know, coach and have been close to for a long time over the years being part of this industry and in this lifestyle that we love and cherish so much, this year has accentuated some not so ideal situations.

Most of us have experienced certain ups and downs, inconsistencies with work, family, life relationships, all kinds of things that can put roadblocks and impediments in front of us. All kinds of stuff that we have to deal with while we are on our path of Bodybuilding, Figure, Physique and all realms of fitness goals have been heightened this year. Those in prep for shows have been particularly impacted.

Yet with this last year, I don’t believe any of us have experienced anything this degree of imposing kinds of road blocks issues for us to have to tackle to stay on track. Question is what do we do when things arise that would take us off course, all things that can affect us if we allow them to. For instance, on a much smaller scale we may go through a tragedy in the family, we may lose our job, have a loss of relationship, certainly these things are our awful and painful, they are however singular and we can face them when they come with a staunch forward thinking mindset and we can overcome.

Two things that really help with the process of battling through tough situations are maintaining clarity and focus. One is what we put into our bodies nutritionally so that our head is firing on all cylinders and how we treat our body, so we do not feel negatively affected by any deviation we have caused, yes TRAINING.

Typically when we have a hard day we go to the gym, we had a hard day we wake up we go to the gym. These kinds of days and these issues are most often sorted out in a fundamentally decisive way by the act of physical exercise. We hold the gym in the highest place of exultation for overcoming these rough patches.

Now this last year, for the first time ever on a national scale our gyms have been closed for months at a time. Couple that with losing loved ones, jobs and relationships being strained, food shortages and on top of it we are told to stay inside, do nothing and wait for this to pass. All of these things can cause even greater issues and impediments to our ability to make progress and all while we are working towards our best prep for shows. Aside from growing and prepping, many of us go to gyms for that form of release; therapy in getting mentally squared away and that has been taken from us as well.

All of the above are facts and situations we cannot change. So what do we do, do we eat crap, not exercise, stay away from healthy vitamin D UV exposure, become morose, melancholy and wayward and eat crap and watch our bodies decline as our healthy state of mental being goes with it. Heck no we do not do anything like that, we must maintain laser like focus. Remember none of these things are problems, they are situations. (they are only problems if you make them so).

We are so used to going to gyms that when we can’t go it makes us feel like we have no other option because we are living in a world of convenience. We get used to gyms always being there. It’s easy to get stuck in the mindset that there is little to nothing else to do or to be done about it.

Well let me tell you, THE most important thing is positive mindset. Feeding our body with the positivity and the perspective that we will overcome, that nothing is going to stop us or take us down.

Moreover nothing BUT US stops us from eating clean. Nothing stops us from waking up and doing fasted cardio to start a metabolism burning fat and appetite ramped up for the day, along with lowering that fasting blood sugar are benefits we can reap from these two simple applications. Don’t eat crap and wake up and do cardio and if we don’t have cardio machines there’s a multitude of things we can do, so many I don’t believe I need to list them.

Can’t go to the gym? What do we do instead? We exercise no matter what! Yes, I know finding weights from online resources was very difficult and prices increased exponentially. So we improvised we built home equipment, used our body weight exercises, the point is we do not stop training, WE DID NOT STOP TRAINING, we do not stop eating, we do not stop no matter what!

So whether you have a session where you implement stuff you have at home, at a playground, building barbells and dumbbells using paint cans, water jugs, jerry cans, cinder blocks you name it, if it holds weight you make use out of it.

So here we are at the beginning of 2021 and we are still here fighting on. From when all this started in last March, with all of the chaos and uncertainty, gyms being closed, shows being cancelled, we are still here. For all of our athletes and all of you out there who were prepped and ready for the nationals (that no matter how hard our amazing president of the CPA and the diligent work the organization was doing, trying all they could, the show just couldn’t happen) it still should not stop you. Always maintaining a constant state of readiness whether it is to grow to get ready for prep or need to be ready to dial-in we cannot compromise what we have worked so hard for because times are uncertain.

Maintaining laser like focus, being present today is what it takes to win today; cardio, meals, train and at the end of the day know you did all that you could to be your best today. Then wake up and do it all over again. Every day we are here it’s a blessing and a gift and we need to never lose sight of that. In all our hardships, all of our challenges and difficulties we are still in the most beautiful place in the world doing the things that we love and are passionate about, we care deeply for those around us we have immense self-love and all of this makes every day glorious.

I know we will all make 2021 the best year of our lives yet.