So we’re about a month into the New Year. How is that fitness resolution coming along? Are you still on target? Did you know that according to statistics, most people have already given up on those resolutions! You don’t have to panic.
You really need to make sure your goals are realistic. You probably started off with the best of intentions. Some of the problems we face are that we tend to set goals that are unattainable and therefore we give up too easily instead of taking the common sense approach and revising them. We want dramatic results and we want them when? Yesterday of course! Does that sound familiar?
Now the excuses are already starting to come out again. I am too busy, my kids are off school, we are going out of town or on vacation and I don’t want to get started until we get back or I am too stressed out to add one more thing to my calendar.
If you truly want to “transform” your body, then you can’t, I repeat you can’t keep doing what you have always done. You have to change it up. You can’t snack on a whole bag of candy while you’re sitting at your desk because you’re bored or can’t take out the time for lunch. Get up and take a walk, make yourself a sandwich for lunch and eat it while you’re walking if you don’t have much time.
Do you curl up on the couch and eat a bag of chips as you watch your favorite show. Its habits like those that you’re probably aren’t even aware of. But think about it, isn’t that how those pounds crept up on you in the first place?
Now back to the resolution, did you promise to give several things up? You have to do or see something for 21 days to form a new habit and make it a part of your life. It’s the consistent, repetitive action that forms that habit.
Success comes much easier to you when you create smaller goals that can be achieved in the short term. Setting smaller attainable goals will help and guide you toward that long term goal. You have to think about taking your goal of losing weight and breaking it down even further, to first deciding how much you can comfortably and safely lose in the time frame that you’ve given yourself. Well first of all, what is a comfortable, safe amount? 1 to 2 pounds a week is a safe amount to lose. Now how are you going to do this?
To make things simple lets shoot for losing 1 pound at a time. Of course this doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but think about it, if you lost 1 pound every week for a year that would add up to 52 pounds lost. Not everyone may need to lose 52 pounds, but you get the picture. Throughout that year you will probably lose some pounds, gain some pounds and fall off that wagon every once in a while, but for the most part you will learn how to maintain your newly created healthy habits.
It really isn’t that complicated to figure out how to lose that 1 pound though. Keep in mind that to burn 1 pound of fat, you have to burn 3500 calories more than what you normally use. But remember, we are talking about losing those 3500 calories over the course of a week, so you need to burn off an extra 500 calories a day for 7 days. That sounds a little more reasonable to me.
But even 500 calories a day can seem intimidating, especially if you’re on that treadmill for twenty minutes sweating away and you look down and all you’ve burned off is about 80 calories. The good thing is the 500 calories can be a combination of a deficit of calories taken in (eaten) and calories burned off (exercise). What that means is you can work a little harder exercising and eat fewer calories to reach that daily goal.
Check back for Part II
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