Case Study -­ Aoife Purcell

Let’s begin the this section with one of the most common forms of motivation – goals and rewards.

Now talking about goals is nothing really new. We’ve all heard about why it’s important to set goals and we’ve probably all set them at some point, even if it’s as infrequent as once a year as new years resolution.

So the problem that we all usually have with goals is not in setting them, but reaching them!

One of the main reasons we see this at Booty Camp is we often tend to set goals without actually having a reason to set them. For example if you set a goal to lose 20 pounds over the next 3 months, do you actually have a clear reason why that’s an important goal?

You see we’re never going to do anything unless there’s a payoff at the end of it. Therefore before you even think about setting goals you first need to go through all of the rewards that you’ll get at the end.

Let me give you a great example by looking at our first Booty Camp case study:

Aoife came to Booty Camp in January of 2013. She married her husband a few years previous to that and had her first baby who was now one year old. Over that period she had gradually gained some weight and now she was keen to get back into her pre-pregnancy weight.

As soon as Aoife joined Booty Camp she decided to set a goal for herself and reward herself at the end of it. At the time one of the discount coupon websites (I think it was “Groupon”) were doing a great deal on a fashion makeover where you got advice from a professional stylist and makeover artist for a few hours.

Aoife bought the package and set a date in 12 weeks time for her fashion makeover. Aoife hadn’t really treated herself to something nice since her baby was born so she really wanted to go for it.

Aoife was now committed to getting back in shape. She set herself a goal, she had a great reward at the end of and fortunately this was enough to give her the motivation to continue Booty Camp over the next 12 weeks.

During that time her transformation was simply amazing.

She lost a total of 20 pounds and xyz inches.

Here are some great before/after photo’s that Aoife had once she took her fashion makeover:!

Here are some really great before and after shots of Aoife and her lovely new makeover!!

What a fab result!

And that’s the first step.

Let’s first figure out some of the rewards you can give yourself. This can be a great motivator as it’s something that you can look to to keep you on track if you feel yourself slipping.

Once you have your reward in place the next thing that you’re going to need is to set some goals for yourself.

Setting Achievement Goals

There’s been so much written about goals and goal setting. But really all you need to have when you’re setting a goal is that is needs to mean something for you and get your fired up a bit!

For example a common goal might be something like – “Lose 20 pounds in 3 months”.

You could look at that and think that it’s a good goal, but it’s really got no significance. Instead what you need when setting goals is a “WHY”. You need a reason to set goals. Therefore at Booty Camp we like to set goals a little differently.

Instead of having weight loss goals, we like to set achievement goals.

Achievement goals are things like – fitting in to my old skinny jeans, running my first 5K, or wearing a size 12 dress for the first time in my life. These types of goals are usually far better than weight loss goals as you have something significant to work towards and it has some meaning!

Let’s get back to Aoife to see how she did this.

After her initial success Aoife wanted to set herself another goal and reward to keep herself motivated. She was delighted with her results but she felt as though she had a little bit left to go before she was totally happy.

Her friends wedding was coming up and so she decided to use that as her goal. Tucked away in the back of her wardrobe was her favorite dress that she hadn’t worn in years. She tried it on and it was still too tight for her. But she knew that she could wear it at her friends wedding if she really pushed herself.

Her goal was now set.

She wanted to fit back in that dress and look her best.

Let’s take a look at the results that Aoife was able to manage over the next 2 months:

By using the right goals and rewards Aoife was able to lose a total of 35 pounds in 5 months and reach her ideal body shape and size. She then maintained this for a further 8 months until she got pregnant with her 2nd baby (Congrats Aoife!).

So this is where we need to start when we’re trying to make any change. We need to have a goal that has some meaning and we need to have a reward at the end of it. This works because when a “why” it becomes a lot easier to do what you need to do and get the result that you want.

Another great strategy that Aoife used is reminders.

When she had her goals and rewards she wrote them down in her phone. During the day when she didn’t feel like coming to Booty Camp, or when she had temptations with food, she would take out her phone and look at these.

That little reminder was huge as she was able to say:

“OH YEAH! That’s why I’m doing this!”

She also had an old photo of herself in that dress that should would look at every now and then, just to remind herself why this was important to her.

You can do this too.

Let’s just start be figuring out why you want to change and why it’s important to you. Let’s also figure out some of the rewards you can give yourself when you do make this change. In all likelihood you’ve been trying to change in the past but you’ve never had a clear reason why.

I’ve listed some quick exercises here that will help you out. Take a few minutes and go through these exercises. I hope this inspires you to take some action and to get started on your journey. And if you’d like to learn more about Aoife and her story just click this image below and you can watch a quick chat that I had with her about her results:

Good luck!

 

Exercise #1 -­ Achievement Goals

Why do you want to change your body?

– Fit into that dress?!
– Feeling comfortable in your swimwear?!
– Looking your best for your other half?!
– Role model for your kids?

(i) Write down exactly what you want.
(ii) Write down exactly why this is this important to you.

Exercise #2 -­ Rewards

What is something that you could really treat yourself with? Pick something that you really LOVE. Really treat yourself. Set a date and promise yourself that you will reward yourself on that day if you stick to your workout and nutrition plan.

(i) Write down the reward and when you will treat yourself to it.