Anyone with experience “going from 0 to 60” on a physical fitness program will tell you that it can be a difficult thing. Trainers with clients who have gone the distance achieved incredible results will confirm that it's not an overnight process. Each person's fitness journey is different, and has its own twists and turns along the way.

So how do you beat the “no results” blues? How you persevere when muscle pain and soreness follow every session, and all of those positive signs you're looking for just haven't started to blossom yet?

The diet and fitness combination

One of the most common troubles with a workout routine is how it interacts with diet. So many beginners stick to their guns on workout schedules and activity routines that should be boosting a weight-loss program, only to find that the results come much slower than expected.

If this is the case, the first place to look is in the refrigerator. Careful diet tracking will give a new fitness enthusiast a better chance at seeing the results they want sooner. That doesn't mean that someone trying to make changes should stop eating, or swing too hard into her diet cycle. Instead, focus on recognizing and correctly evaluating caloric intake.

Don't push

another common problem is in what you might call “negative motivation”: this is when a beginner in physical fitness, despite their best intentions, begins to mentally associate their routine with a kind of “negative energy” for negative associations including self-deprecation, excessive “driving” of their program, or overcompensation of some kind. Practitioners and students of holistic wellness would argue that a “power fitness” routine will not provide the correct results when it's harnessed to negative associations.

Sometimes, this means that to get better results, an individual should actually “slow down”, or, more accurately, take time to take stock of their program, ready themselves for new activities, and put themselves in a good headspace before beginning to ramp up a new program. This may be easier said than done; changing your outlook on a program involves concentration and reflective thinking.

One way to think of this is with the slogan “one day at a time”. Fitness a day at a time means rejoicing in the progress that you have made, and appreciating your activities for what they are. It means enjoying your spinning, running, or aerobics while you're practicing it. It means taking time for a comfortable cooling down process after a cardio workout, or taking an extra minute at the water cooler after weight sets to appreciate what just happened. Furthermore, it means that at the end of the day, you think of what you did as a positive act in itself, and not just one more desperate step.

Three steps forward

With this kind of approach, fitness beginners can get a better chance at breaking a “one step forward, two steps back” kind of situation. Thinking about how the mind and body cooperate can get an individual closer to recognizing his or her own “best practices” for workout routines, schedules, and more.