When it comes to a successful transformation, it can often seem difficult to decipher the exact formula, given how you can arrive at the same destination through various paths. To transform your body specifically, everyone needs to do the following over a long enough period of time:

• Nail their nutrition.
• Train with weights 3-5 times a week.
• Get enough steps each day/week.
• Get good quality sleep most of the time.
• Do some extra cardio.

But as simple as that sounds, there is so much “beneath the surface” that manifests to make the above a reality. 

Having transformed thousands of lives around the world, we’ve found the exact seven commonalities that you need to embody in order to not only get into the shape of your life, but stay there for life.

Let’s dive in (in no particular order)!

1. They Are Intrinsically Motivated 

The trigger for embarking on a true transformation rarely ever comes in the form of a deep, innate desire to want to finally become healthy. I mean, if it was that easy, there would be no need to write this article, nor exist as a company that helps people actually transform.

More often than not, the impetus for change comes from what appears to sometimes be a very surface reason, such as seeing someone on social media, seeing a photo of yourself and hating it, or just an “off the cuff” comment from a friend or family member. 

There are far more serious reasons, such as being told by your doctor that you are killing yourself, but funnily enough, this doesn’t appear to be as powerful as a kickstarter in comparison to the more superficial reasons. Granted, most people when surveyed will say that their main reasons for losing weight are to “be healthier” but in practice we rarely see this working.

Being human means that as much as we might hate to admit it, we do actually care what others think of us whether we realise it or not. Throughout evolution we relied on social hierarchies to determine where we fit within our tribe and we always want to feel like we are closer to the top vs the bottom. You couldn’t just force yourself to the top, other people would place you there meaning you had to demonstrate your worth.

In today’s day and age, demonstrating social status in the western world is associated with looking fit and healthy. We are not saying this is wrong or right, we are simply demonstrating why the motivation to create change is more powerful through superficial means. 

Unfortunately, no matter what circumstance pertains to you the most, the truth of the matter is that an external motivator (something outside of you) can only get you so far. Research and our decades of experience working with thousands of people from all walks of life, shows time and time again that for a long term successful transformation, there needs to be an “intrinsic” or “from within” reason to truly transform. 

“I don’t eat well because it’s going to make ME the envy of everyone at the party, I eat well because of how it makes you feel and function as a high performer.”

“I don’t train to just look good in a tight shirt, I train because of the structure, mental clarity and love for challenging myself on a regular basis.”

“I don’t walk to hit my “quota” for the day, I walk because I simply enjoy walking for its own sake.”

Before you think “Damn, I am one shallow mofo” don’t stress, these things do not just happen overnight. For many RNTers such as Karan Joshi, these behaviours take time to manifest but it would be wise to start viewing how all these positive behaviours impact you that go outside of just aesthetics.

“It all starts with taking care of yourself. You have to be at your best and only then will you be able to deal with whatever life throws at you. I have made this commitment to training because going to the gym helps me clear my mind. When I’m having a hard time, training helps me calm down and I instantly feel better about it. It is my release. 2020 was such a hard year with the pandemic and everything, I think if it wasn’t for training I would have lost my mind!” - Karan

2. They Take Action Consistently

We talk about mindset a lot here at RNT and it’s very easy to see just how important this is when you read all of our transformations. Every single person that transforms through our platform experiences a huge shift in mindset. However, it’s important to recognise that this new mindset, new identity, or new “way of being” did not just appear from:

• Visualising who they want to be.
• Saying mantras in the mirror.
• Meditating.
• Telling everyone that “this is finally the time I change”.
• Listening to motivational quotes.
• Reading more self development books.

This may appear to be action when in fact, a lot of it is just pseudo action or mental masturbation. 

It feels good doing those things at the time but at the end of the day, nothing changes and you continue spinning your wheels looking for the next motivational talk, book or guru promising you the world.

Can all of those things help? Sure, but only when combined with the action steps that truly make a difference. With all of the above, you are trying to use the mind to change the mind when in fact, you would be better off changing your mind through your body (or physical self).

“You can't change the mind with the mind alone, or we'd all be enlightened.” — Wendy Palmer.

Want to improve your mindset and confidence? Lose the excess weight through:

Eating in a caloric deficit to elicit a 1-1.5% drop in BW per week.
Training hard with weights 2-4 times a week.
Being active throughout the day: Aim for 8-10k steps per day at a minimum
Prioritising sleep: 6.5-8 hours per night.
Staying on top of hydration.

You taking positive physical action in the right direction does so much more for your mindset than the examples mentioned above. Why? Because you’re proving to yourself that you actually can change vs just talking about it.

The rule of ‘ruthless consistency’ was followed to the ‘T’ by RNTer Sanjeeta. A single mother of two young girls. She had totally lost her sense of self worth and was at a really low point in her life when she came across RNT on social media. Her instinct told her this was what she desperately needed and decided to take the plunge. 

Today, Sanjeeta or Sanj as we call her works at RNT as a coach and her life has totally transformed. Training is her corner stone without which she feels out of control, she relies on the routine she has created to make sure she never goes back to her old self. And she never will, once you know what good feels like, you never want to go back. 

3. They Plan Ahead

“Failing to prepare, is preparing to fail.” - Benjamin Franklin

The more decisions and processes we can automate throughout our week, the more successful we are going to be in whatever endeavour we set our eyes on. Another common trait we have seen across all successful RNT transformations is the ability to plan and know exactly:

• What they are eating.
• When they are eating.
• When they are exercising.
• When they are going to sleep and waking up.
• How they are going to get their steps in.
• What challenges they need to work around.

At first, this may look and feel like a lot to balance but we can assure you, taking a few weeks to really master this at the start of your journey can save you months of time throughout your process phase. In fact, one of the biggest reasons people spend way too long in this phase is down to poor planning as they always end up spinning their wheels because they are operating from a shaky foundation.

We want everyone to get “in and out” of their process phase and only diet for as long as they need to (dropping between 1-1.5% BW per week) so they can start living the life they have always wanted without worrying about dieting ever again. For this to occur, planning is essential and should form the backbone of any body transformation.

To see just how impactful this can be, check out how Suraj stayed on top of everything to achieve his crazy transformation!

4. They Are Adaptable & Find Solutions, Not Excuses

As great as planning can be, at the end of the day we never know what curve balls life can throw at us, putting an inconvenient dent into our “perfect plan”. 

• A busy morning causes us to forget to bring our lunch.
• We need to stay late at work, meaning we cannot train that evening.
• We slept in, missing our morning session.
• We need to attend a last minute business meeting at an unknown restaurant.
• The meeting went longer than expected, causing us to miss our scheduled meal.

It’s so common for people to completely go off their plans if everything isn’t perfect. It’s either 100% or -526%. How many times have you eaten a small bit of something not on your plan and then said “f**k it, may as well just eat everything in sight now”?

Interestingly, we don’t seem to take this same approach to other aspects of our lives when things go wrong. The best analogy we like to use here is if you’re driving down the road and you pop a tyre, the logical answer here is to simply fix or replace that tyre and continue driving towards your destination, NOT pop all the other tyres, blow up the engine and roll it off a cliff.
 
This “all or nothing” attitude can really mess people up because unless you live in a vacuum with no outside responsibilities or obligations, life is always going to mess with your plans to some degree.

As annoying as the above situations might be, by being adaptable you can continue moving forward. You understand that just because you forgot your lunch or need to go to a restaurant, doesn’t mean you cannot find something healthy to eat that aligns with your goals.

Every place you go to (even McDonalds) offers a low calorie dish with some sort of lean protein and vegetables. You do not have to have appetisers, desserts or drinks.

Parents or friends cooking up a big feast and there is literally nothing in line with your goals? Have a protein shake prior to going and consume a small portion of whatever they have on offer.

Is it ideal? No, but it’s much better than popping all of your tyres and destroying your entire vehicle!

Busy mum of three Arwinder felt she had no time to focus on herself, but she knew she had to make the time so she could stop feeling weak and lethargic. She wanted to lead by example and be a positive influence on her family. To do that, she had to make her needs a top priority, not buried under a never-ending list of chores.

She adapted and found ways to work around her hectic schedule and through her RNT journey she lost 27kgs. She is now a completely new person, she has abundant energy to live life to the fullest and on her own terms!.    

5. They Want To Learn

It’s a shame that our schooling systems never teach us the things that seem to really matter when it comes to adulthood. I don’t remember the last time I had to use Pythagoras theory or a bunsen burner but I sure as heck wish I knew more about financial budgeting, taxes, relationships, basic home and car care and most importantly, how to actually look after myself through nutrition and exercise.

Our goal with everyone that we work with is to give them an “MBA” in understanding their own bodies. In fact, it’s so important to us that we made it one of our core components of RNT Pro as we have seen a huge difference in people who want to be educated vs just blindly following a plan with no understanding of how things work.

Education doesn’t mean memorising every enzymatic step of the Krebs cycle, being able to regurgitate every detail about protein or talk about advanced hypertrophy concepts. Knowing facts is great, but how you apply those facts is far more important as it transfers to real life results. 

In our view, real education in self care comes down to the following points:

• Taking an interest in all the aspects that can practically help you make better decisions.
• Always asking why. You should know why you’re doing everything you’re doing!
• Being able to learn from mistakes.
• Figuring out what works for you and what doesn’t through trial and error.
• Having an overall curiosity for getting the most out of yourself. 

Bruce Lee definitely encapsulated our entire ethos around education with the quote:

“Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own.”

6. They Deal With Stress Effectively

If you ever want to know how strong your habits really are, examine what you do and how you respond when you’re going through emotionally challenging times. 

Pertaining to this article, 80% of people appear to modify their nutritional choices when dealing with prolonged stress. Interestingly, individual variation sees a 50/50 split between people who over consume or under consume in relation to their baseline intake. We also see this in the trenches but over time, the individuals who reach their checkpoint and remain in control post checkpoint seem to also have far better coping mechanisms when it comes to stress.

Akash’s father, Dipak, struggled with emotional eating for decades and subsequently, found it difficult to get in shape but it also bled into other areas of his life. If he had to have a hard conversation with a colleague, he never had the confidence to speak his mind as he was always used to “burying his head in the sand” or just not standing up for himself. The response to these negative feelings would then lead to overeating.

This wasn’t very apparent to him at first but once he realised what he was doing, and most importantly, started taking positive steps to actively cope with his stress. 

“Active coping refers to cognitive and behavioral attempts to deal directly with problems and their effects, while passive/avoidant coping refers to cognitive attempts to avoid actively confronting problems and/or behaviors to indirectly reduce emotional tension by such behaviors as eating or smoking more.” 

From then, his results skyrocketed and to this day he stays very close to his checkpoint weight while also taking a lot more initiative in his workplace, leaning into hard conversations and not letting people walk all over him.

If you want to know more about how to handle stress more effectively, we recommend checking out this article.

7. They Keep Themselves Accountable & Surround Themselves With Like Minded People

“Accountability is the glue that bonds commitment to results.”- Will Craig,

Accountability is one of the most important factors when it comes to achieving anything worthwhile in life. You can have all the knowledge, resources and motivation to truly change but without this fundamental component, you simply will not get very far at all.

At RNT Pro, we utilise multiple avenues to create “omni-accountability” for all of our members. This is not because we are control freaks, but because we have seen just how well people can perform when placed in the right environment. 

Action is the key driver of transformation. And accountability is what forces action on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. That’s why in RNT Pro, we’ve created an accountability system that literally ticks every box possible.

If you engage with RNT Pro, it’s impossible not to transform. Here’s how we guide you and hold you accountable inside:

• Daily dashboard entries and streaks
• Weekly Progression Checklist with questions to answer
• 2x Weekly Q&A opportunities with our expert team
• Accountability from coaches if you miss 1% bodyweight expectation (fat loss only)
• Accountability from coaches if you don’t fill in your dashboard
• Our Transformation Challenges (with massive prizes to be announced!)

What makes us different at RNT is you will have an entire team engaged and obsessed with your progress. That means you’ll always be on track to achieve your goals, which is what this is all about!

According to social psychologist Dr David McClelland, the people you hang out with most or your “reference group” can influence the failure or success of your life by a whopping 95%. 

As crazy as that number may sound initially, we do see this happen in the trenches as people progress throughout their own transformation. They don’t want to spend as much time with people who have been holding them back, are always negative or just living an unhealthy lifestyle in general. 

When you start spending more time with people that are living the life that you want, your standards inevitably rise up and you hold yourself much more accountable to your actions. If everyone at the dinner table is ordering a healthy meal and holding back on the desert and alcohol, what do you think you’re going to feel inclined to do? If all of your friends love training and going for walks, it’s more likely you will join in too.

From what we have seen (in not only members, but ourselves too), self accountability does not just appear out of nowhere. It takes time and it is always the end goal for everyone we work with but to make it happen, we believe the below formula is essential for most people.

Peer accountability + expert accountability x time = self accountability.

Conclusion:

Unfortunately, there is no “one weird trick” or “biohack” to achieve a true transformation. There is no magic diet, magic training plan or magic coach to do the work for you. Rather, there are multiple, overlapping factors at play that ultimately come down to you taking intentional, consistent action over a long enough period of time, in the right environment, with the right people.

There might be no shortcut but if you take on board everything we have discussed in this article, we know you will not be disappointed.

To recap, here are the seven traits:

1. They Are Intrinsically Motivated
2. They Take Action Consistently
3. They Plan Ahead
4. They Are Adaptable & Find Solutions, Not Excuses
5. They Want To Learn
6. They Deal With Stress Effectively
7. They Keep Themselves Accountable & Surround Themselves With Like Minded People

If you’d like to see how you can tie everything together and how you can put these 7 traits into practice, The Great Reset holds the key.