The decision to start looking after yourself, losing weight or improving your fitness is a good one and in all honesty, an easy one!
Unfortunately actually getting started and achieving great results can be quite another thing entirely!
The best way to get around all the obstacles and challenges you will face along the way is to have a detailed plan of exactly what you want to achieve and how you are going to go about it.
If you were going an an interstate road trip or even across town to go shopping, you would plan out your journey. Give your fitness and weight loss journey the same treatment as it is a far more important one as your destination is a long and healthy life!
So with this in mind, and to get the absolute most out of your fitness and weight loss program, follow these keys!
1) Spend a decent amount of time doing some goal setting. That is, writing down the exact reasons why you MUST lose weight and get fitter. DO NOT skip this step because it is vitally important to your end result and a technique not nearly used often enough. Setting goals lets you know where you want to go, creates a commitment to yourself and will help keep you on track. Successfully achieving your mini goals on the way will also give you a great sense of satisfaction and motivation which will power you on to your next goal. There is more info on goal setting including how to do it properly in my Goal Setting article under the Additional Articles tab on this website.
2) Enlist the help of a support network. Be it just one person or several, choose people close to you who have your best interests at heart and tell them about your fitness and weight loss goals. The idea is that they will help you when you are down, congratulate you when you are up and achieving results and also give you some TOUGH LOVE when they feel you need to hear it.
3) Eat better food! Cut out the junk food and limit your alcohol intake. Drink plenty of water and try to eat as much food as you can that is in its natural state or has not been overly processed. Using a food diary is incredibly helpful to assist you in controlling the actual amount of food you consume as well as identifying problem meals or problem times of day.
4) Follow whatever program you are doing as strictly as possible. For this reason it is important to choose a program that is non repetitive and suits your available time, resources and fitness level. Some excellent programs I have used personally are Turbulence Training and Burn The fat, Feed The Muscle and you can find plenty of info about them all over BestFitnessChoices.com!
5) Allow yourself a small indulgence here or there if it helps you fight the cravings. A little treat now and again preferably after you have trained will not do that much damage as long as it is only small, is not regular and you are already eating well. This is far better than totally denying yourself for a week or 2 and then binging out during a moment of weakness!
6) Weigh yourself only once a week at the same time each week. It is a good idea to get professionally measured including body fat percentages every one to three months for really accurate results.
7) Above all, train hard but enjoy it. Training does not always have to be about running, weights of the stationary bike! You will most certainly have your traditional training sessions at least 3 times a week but getting outside and kicking a ball around, playing golf (NO BUGGY!), hiking, swimming, playing tennis or basketball are only a few of the many, many ways you can get active and burn off those calories.
There are of course, other keys to success however these are the main ones in my book. In summary, eat right, move more and keep challenging yourself to stick to your guns and you will achieve all the goals you set out for yourself way back in the beginning!
