Everyone wants to be in better shape, only once in my life have I met a person who said they were satisfied with their current fitness level (and I suspect he was lying to me and himself because shortly after meeting me he started a walking and “better eating” routine). When we finally decide today is the day to get it all together, we almost always start off wrong. In this blog I’ll go over the best (in my opinion) ways to set yourself up for fitness success.
It’s Saturday afternoon and you’ve finally decided to are tired of feeling this way, tired looking this way, tired of your close not fitting right, so you declare Monday is the day you take your life back! You go straight to the internet and start downloading healthy meal recipes, you look at the gym;’s schedule and decide that you are joining the 6am total body conditioning class, the 6pm spinning class on Tuesday, you’re going to run first thing in the morning Wednesday, another total body class on Thursday, Friday aerobics after work and Saturday will be yoga - got to rest and recover on Sunday, right. Next is a trip to the grocery to get all the foods you will need for the next two weeks of those healthy meals and go home to start prepping. You make 5 lunches, 5 snacks, 5 dinners and breakfast will happen organically. Off to bed early where you set out your clothes for your morning workout and it’s lights out by 9:30pm! Sounds like a great start to a great plan, right?
Now let’s see the reality of how it goes; You go straight to the internet and start downloading healthy meal recipes, you look at the gym;’s schedule and decide that you are joining the 6am total body conditioning class, the 6pm spinning class on Tuesday. You go to the store, home to prep and off to bed nice and early so you are ready to finally become the person you were always meant to be. Monday morning comes around and you spring out of bed on the first alarm, eagerly get dressed and have a banana while you head out for total body conditioning class. You get all your meals in and are feeling quite accomplished as you head to bed tired but excited for what the next day brings. Tuesday comes and you’re sore, but not too bad and you start the day with vigor and finish with yoga and a smile. You go to bed a little later but ready for day 3. The alarm goes off, but you’re not ready, you need just a little more sleep - 3 snooze buttons later and you’re finally out of bed, but it was the hardest wake up of your life. You’re so sore you can barley sit down on the toilet and decide you need the day to get moving again, but promise you will run after work. The meals you prepped just three days prior are starting to get a little bland, but you power through and get your breakfast, lunch, and a snack in, but dammit someone brought in treats and you decide, one bite won’t hurt me, only you end up eating the whole cookie. That’s OK, your run will burn it off, you get home, sit down and think, maybe that run can wait for another day. NO! You get up and run/walk yourself to 2 miles, and go to bed exhausted. Thursday morning is here to soon and you decide you need to skip this total body class because you need to recover and go back to bed for two more hours. Food is now your enemy and decide on lunch with your coworkers and leave the previously prepared lunch at home and oops, the snack too. Friday is happy hour with your friends instead of aerobics class and since you blew it all on Thursday, might as well call the weekend a wash and get ready to start all over on Monday…sound familiar?
Look, you’re not a bad person and certainly not a failure, this happens to everyone. But what if there really was a better way to Set Yourself Up for Success? The next time you want to change your life, instead of changing everything all at once, how about you go in stages. It might be something like this: Start NOW. Don’t wait until Monday, what is so magical about Monday anyway? The best day to start is TODAY. But don’t go getting overly excited about it, just do one thing. Try removing one food or drink that you have on a daily basis that you know isn’t necessarily good for you - donuts, soda, ice cream. Don’t change anything else, don’t count calories or macros, just eliminate one bad thing, and substitute one healthy thing for it - water, fresh vegies, a protein bar or a piece of fruit. For one week this is all you do. On week two you add one day of exercise, it could be a 2 mile walk or jog, that total body conditioning class or yoga. Decide to take the stairs at work every chance you get, but just make it one thing. That makes it 3 things you are changing over two weeks, which is much more sustaining than changing everything. On week three, start logging your food, you’re still not counting ,weighing or measuring anything, you’re just writing it down to see what you are doing right, and what you can maybe do better at. This might inspire you to add another workout into the mix too. So here we are, three weeks in and you’ve made four or five significant changes to your lifestyle, but nothing so overwhelming you can’t handle it long term. Week 4 comes and you start tracking the actual calories and macros your are eating - there are dozens of apps right on your phone to help you do this, and add in another form of exercise. I bet you’ll find that you are at least 4 ponds down in the first month but more importantly, feeling better about yourself because you are building healthy habits that will get you closer to that goal.
So, one month in and you haven’t failed once, your are feeling better and looking for more workouts, classes and healthy options for eating, but not dieting, losing out on times with family and friends, and learning that it doesn’t have to take over your entire life or being. But now is the time to double down, find a reputable nutrition coach to set up a sustainable nutrition plan that fits into your lifestyle, but also challenges you be better. Set up a regular workout schedule of 3- 4 workouts a week of something that you will love, and not something that will kill you; her at The Spot our moto is