STRONG: thrive, don’t just survive with fitness and diet advice from Elsa Pataky

Our thoughts and beliefs are what move us forward and also what hold us back, says Elsa in this exclusive extract from her new book, Strong.

T

he What first do step you to want a better to change? you is a Do mental you one. want to walk up a flight of stairs without becoming breathless? Do you want to look in the mirror and be pleased with what you see? The important thing is to be true to yourself. My goal is to live life fully – to thrive, not just survive. I do that by exercising daily, eating healthy foods and keeping my mind active. I could not imagine my life without exercise. For me, it is the glue that holds everything together: my health, my happiness, my relationship

[with actor Chris Hemsworth].

Set your goals 1 Are they specific?

If your goal is too broad

– “I want to get in shape”, for example – it can be difficult to know where to start and you can easily get discouraged or side-tracked. What works for me is to break my goals down into smaller ones. If we want to climb a ladder we must begin by reaching the first rung, then the second one and so on until, little by little, we get to the top. For example, you might set these daily goals:

1. Get 7–8 hours’ sleep every night

2. Get up early

3. Eat a healthy breakfast 4. Exercise every day. You can then break each of these down into smaller steps. For example, to get 7–8 hours’ sleep each night:

• Go to bed before 10pm • Turn off screens and put phones away two hours before bed

• Make sure your bedroom is not too hot or cold, and that you have good blackout blinds

• Have a winding-down ritual such as meditation. My husband, Chris, and

I have started getting into it, doing 10 minutes before bed. It works really well for us.

2 Are they measurable?

It is important to be able to tell when you have reached your goals. Sometimes this will be easy. For example, if your goal is to go to bed before 10pm five nights a week, it will be obvious if you have reached it or not! But for many women, weight loss is their number one goal and they jump on the scales every day to judge their success. For me, a number on a bathroom scale is not all that useful. Instead, I want to know how my body performs: its stamina, strength and endurance.

If feeling at the mercy of the scales is familiar to you, you might want to try this yourself. Instead of weighing yourself each week, focus on the changes in your fitness and strength:

• Can you run five minutes more than you could before?

• Can you do more repetitions of an exercise?

• Can you lift a heavier weight?

3 Are they achievable?

This is important. Your goals must be within your capabilities. For example, if you have an injury or condition that prevents you from running, then a half marathon is not going to be achievable for you. Find another activity, such as cycling, swimming or canoeing.

4 Are they realistic?

This is where you need to factor in how much time you have. The goal to run a half marathon may be achievable with a few months of committed training, but it would not be realistic for you to do it next week. ➝

Be patient

Imagine that you have planted some seeds in a flowerpot because you want to grow a beautiful plant. On Monday you grab your watering can and water the soil. On Wednesday you do the same and on Friday as well. Have you grown anything yet?

What I’m trying to say is that, at this early stage, the process is invisible. You have to be consistent and wait to collect the reward. One of the reasons we often abandon training programs is because we want fast results. We don’t allow enough time for our seeds to grow roots; we want to plant and harvest at the same time. Forget about miracle diets or exercises. “Get fit while you sleep.” “Tone your abdominals while sprawled on the couch.” “Drop three dress sizes in just five days.” It’s all lies. Change doesn’t happen overnight – not if we want long lasting results.

I have worked for many years with fitness educator and trainer Fernando Sartorius. He has always told me that it’s better to exercise three times a week for one year than to work out six hours a day for one month.

Lasting metabolic change takes time. So be patient. Trust that you are on the right path.

Enjoy the journey

Fernando says his primary objective as a trainer is to get people to like exercise because if you like it, you are going to do it. On the other hand, if exercise is an obligation, it’s not going to be something you can stick with. So pick what you like to do. Do you want to join a gym? Do you want to play a competitive team sport? Do you prefer a daily cycle, run or swim? Work with what you enjoy and you are more likely to get hooked. It becomes something you want to do, not something you feel you have to do. But that doesn’t mean you can slack off. You still need to engage in your chosen activity with intensity – sweat it out, feel a sense of achievement at how hard you have worked.

That is the only way to progress, and you can also enjoy the feeling of hard work done well. Tennis champion Rafael Nadal once said, after a seemingly endless and very tough battle against Novak Djokovic, which resulted in his eighth win at the French Open: “I have learned to enjoy the suffering”.