‘Tis the season.
The holidays have come and gone and leave you feeling a bit more lethargic and heavier than before. You set out goals of weight loss and join the crowds at the gym. Slowly the your attendance declines until it stops completely. Before you know it, it’s March and you’re wondering why you haven’t made any progress towards your goals.
Sound familiar?
It’s really nothing to beat yourself up about though, and it happens to most people. And I applaud you for recognizing the need to make a positive, healthy change. As an ICU nurse, I frequently see people who are literally killing themselves with their unhealthy habits. Unfortunately, they often don’t even want to recognize it.
But sometimes it takes more than recognizing the problem to actually change it. Change can really suck sometimes. So how do you beat the odds and actually stick to your healthy intentions?
I’ve compiled a list of things that I’ve found to be helpful to help me stick to my fitness goals. Feel free to drop a comment if you have any other tips. Let’s work together to make all of ourselves a bit healthier!
Step 1: Write down your goals somewhere.
What are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to lose weight? Feel more energetic? Fit into a particular pair of jeans? Maybe you want to maintain your weight, but be a bit more toned? Maybe you even want to gain some weight (but in a healthy manner)? Write it down somewhere, whether it’s in your notes app or in a physical journal. Just make sure it’s realistic. Most people lose about 1-2 pounds per week when they are on a exercise and/or diet regimen, so it’s probably not best to say that you want to lose 15 pounds in a month. Otherwise, you may end up feeling disappointed by the end of that time frame and fall off the wagon.
Also, write down WHY you are doing it. Maybe it’s to feel better, for your family, to overcome a disease, to look better, etc. WHATEVER it is, write it down and look at it often to remind yourself why you are doing what you are doing and to motivate yourself to get your booty moving.
Step 2: Tell Someone about your goals
I’ve found that letting your spouse, best friend, and family know about your goals is an important step for the sake of accountability and temptation. I know this can be kind of a weird step, because you are having to be real about where you are versus where you want to be. But you may inspire someone who you share this with! And maybe even gain yourself a workout buddy or accountability partner.
When I told my best friend that I was going to do a certain workout guide again (more about that later), I found out that she was too! Now when we hang out, we do our workout together or even just go on walk/run together. And when I told my husband that I wanted to eat less meat, eat healthier, and workout more, he now more often suggests that we go workout together on Saturday mornings. He also brings home Ben & Jerry’s less often because of this, which is both a blessing and a curse 😉
Step 3: Take some progress photos
This one is a little awkward and may or may not hurt, depending on your present head space. But the reality is, while the results of working out are instant (physiologically and hormonally), you probably will not notice physical changes until about a month of two of regular diet and exercise change. The rule I often see is that it takes you 4 weeks to notice change, friends/family 8 weeks to notice, and the rest of the world is 12 weeks. I think that if you can get to that 4 week mark and then see the changes from progress photos and notice the changes you feel in your body, you will be more motivated to continue.
Step 4: Make a routine
I’ve heard different numbers from different sources, but roughly, it takes 2-3 weeks to make something a habit. This doesn’t sound TOO bad, but as I’m sure you know, when you’re sore and exhausted, committing to exercise daily for 2-3 weeks feels like a long time. What helps me the most is having a weekly exercise plan to keep me accountable. (NOT AN AD but) I personally am a big fan of the program Bikini Body Guide (often abbreviated BBG) by Kayla Itsines. You can buy the eBook for about $50 and download it to the iBooks app on your phone. It lays out a workout for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and then tells you to do something like a brisk walk, jog, or cycle for 30-40 minutes (called LISS) on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. It slowly works you up to higher reps and more advanced moves over the course of 12 weeks, and then once you’re done, you can try BBG 2.0 or just restart the program! I’ve done BBG probably 3 or 4 times now and really think it’s a great way to get toned and build up some endurance. Plus the workouts are only 28 minutes.
That is what works for me, but some other great programs are LikeAGirlFitness (quick workouts sent to your email daily and she’s also a Charlotte native!!), Barre, and Crossfit (never personally tried, but I have lots of friends who love it!). Find something you like and make a weekly plan. Ex: going to barre 3 times a week and going to go on a 2 mile walk 2 days a week. Just make sure it’s realistic and you can figure out a way to make it seamlessly work into your current schedule.
And remember, it takes about 90 days to make your habit a lifestyle. Example, after about doing 3 months of weight watchers, my parents barely ever formally counted their points anymore. They had learned appropriate portion sizes, knew that fruits and veggies had zero points but would leave them feeling full, and knew that the amount of points in certain things just wasn’t worth it. They have been doing it now for about a year and now making healthy choices is a no-brainer for them!
Step 5: Wake up early
I think this is the best way to make your new plan fit into your life. Go to sleep a little earlier (it’s healthier for you anyway!) and wake up 30-45 minutes earlier. I lay out everything I need so that my zombie-like state can get to working out as easily as possible. I set the coffee maker, lay out my clothes, and make my lunch for the next day before I go to bed.
Waking up earlier and knocking the workout for the day can set your day up for success. It make your mind a bit clearer and sharper, and will likely cause you to make healthier choices for the rest of the day. Working out in the morning leaves no opportunity for you to get home and say “oh I’m too tired now to work out”. Just get it over with first thing 🙂
Step 6: Make fitness fun
Try going on a hike, bicycling through your town, Zumba, or running outside in a park. Find something that you actually enjoy that can get you a bit more active, rather than binging another show on Netflix. Sometimes I’ll go to a Zumba class after dinner even though I’ve already done my formal workout for the day, just because it’s fun! Or if you’re really desperate to watch that new show on Netflix, try watching it while you’re on the stationary bike or elliptical!
I think another thing that I’ve done to make fitness more fun is investing in things that make me want to go workout more- like cute workout clothes or a cute gym bag. And you don’t have to throw down a ton of $$$ at Lululemon to do this. I’ve bought Lululemon, Nike, and Fabletics from people online, on apps like Poshmark (use my code saburroughs for $5 off your first purchase!) or eBay, for much cheaper. It sounds silly, but sometimes having a cute outfit to put on, rather than old sweats and a t-shirt will make you more willing to go to the gym.
Step 7: identify the big offenders in your eating
Keep a food diary for at least a week. Apps like MyFitnessPal are great, but for the sake of this step, just writing it down on paper is fine. Write down EVERYTHING that you eat and roughly the amount. After a week, look over what you had eaten. What was something that you ate very consistently?
For me, that thing is bread. For you, it might be dessert, cheese, fast food, beef, or pork, or all of those things.
Step 8: start with Little changes to your diet
Once you determine your big offenders, make a plan to cut your consumption of those things down. Like for me, I took a trip to the grocery store and found a bread that was organic, 1 gram of sugar, and whole grain with half the calories per slice of the bread I had been eating. It also has resulted in limiting to one slice of bread at the Italian restaurant rather than 2 or 3.
If your big offender is beef or pork, figure out some alternatives to make the things you like a bit healthier. Ex: swapping out ground turkey or ground beef in tacos or burgers.
Doing a complete overhaul of your diet in one day is one way to make yourself hate your resolution quickly. Throw out some junk and pick up a few more fruit and vegetable based snacks on your next grocery run. Good examples are pre-sliced apples and peanut butter or carrot chips and hummus. The important thing is that you don’t have to cut any one thing out completely, just cut it down.
Make small goals for your diet; examples: saying that you will pack your lunch for work 3 times a week, cutting out meat once a week for dinner, adding more vegetables to your dinner plate and 25% less meat, eating salmon 1-2 times a week, or eating dessert 50% less per week.
Step 9: Do it when you don’t want to
This one sucks and I’m preaching this to myself rn.
Like I said earlier about making a habit, working out (or even eating healthy) consistently, develops a habit. Eventually this becomes a lifestyle so you will barely even think twice about waking up early to workout or choosing the greek yogurt over the Doritos as a snack.
So just do it anyway. It makes it easier in the long term.
step 10: praise yourself for the little accomplishments
Try to take notice of the little changes occurring in your body by the AWESOME thing you are doing. You’ll soon start to notice that those ten burpees weren’t nearly as bad as they used to be. Your body is an amazing thing, and praise yourself regularly for the positive change you are making. Remember that not everyone has the ability to do the kinds of activity that you may be able to do. Try not to take your body and fitness for granted!
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