You CAN reach your fitness goals this year. Would you like me to show you how to make that happen? If So, Read on. It's not very complicated.
The first thing you need to do is, avoid the most common and destructive mistakes. You have probably made these mistakes in the past. Everyone but you will make them this year.
5 Most Common Mistakes:
- Decide to eliminate all favorite foods
- Decide to only eat 100% healthy foods starting on Jan. 2
- Attempting to train too hard on day 1
- Poor choice of training techniques
- Improper use of training
This is a small but destructive list. We need to start somewhere. Once you read this, you can find more help in the other posts on this blog. Everything you really need is right here.
Let's address these issues in more detail.
1. Decide to eliminate all favorite foods and 2. Decide to only eat 100% healthy foods starting on Jan. 2
This is an unreasonable move to attempt and it will derail most people within 24 hours. You don't want to try to make such dramatic changes all of a sudden. People do this because they want a quick fix. That nearly always fails. You can't change who you are, or your fitness, overnight.
The fix: Rather than removing your favorite foods, right away, add healthier foods into your current diet a little at a time.
Adding foods will be an easier adjustment. Slowly add healthier foods into your diet. Add a little each day. As you do so, it will be easier to begin to gradually remove the foods that are keeping you from reaching your goals. Soon, you will be eating a healthy diet and enjoying your meals.
(Extra tip - slowly begin eating smaller meals. Your stomach will shrink, and you will feel full on less food.)
3. Attempting to train too hard on day 1
Like a drastic change in diet, this will not work. People who do this are in a rush. They push hard for a few days. They keep getting on the scale and find the results to be nearly non-existant. This has a destructive psychological effect.
People who do this will quickly begin to second-guess and hate their workouts. (Traing should be and can be fun!) Once they doubt themselves, they will find an excuse and quit.
The fix: Add training to your life slowly. Don't be in a hurry to see immediate (and usually short-lived) results. Begin by building strength and some endurance. Make your first goal to exercise daily. Then, make a goal to exercise for up to one hour each day.
This will make your training less like work and more like a simple, and enjoyable, lifestyle change - which is what it should be.
4. Poor choice of training techniques and 5. Improper use of training
Nearly everyone decides to do cardio and abdominal workouts. They typically choose these workouts because they want to lose weight (that should actually be body fat, not weight.)
People incorrectly believe that cardio exercises, such as running or stair-climbing, are the exercises that burn the most calories. NOT TRUE! There are far more efficient ways to burn calories. (You can find those in my other posts.)
Also, people train their abdominal muscles in a misguided attempt to trim their waistlines. #worstmistakeever
The fix: As for choosing your training, read more of these posts. This is a large topic that requires a lot of explanation. However, when it comes to trimming your waistline, sit-ups and crunches do almost nothing.
WHY?
The reason that training the midsection doesn't trim the midsection is because there is no such thing as spot-reduction.
In other words. Training your abs won't remove fat from your abs. What you want to do is burn more calories. Crunches burn few calories, yet they are an unpleasant exercise.
As you burn calories, your body decides where that fat will come from. For instance, did you ever notice that runners stay trim? Why? Because they do a TON of running. It's not just their legs that have no fat . . . right?
Closing:
So. Ease into training and nutrition. Add healthy foods first, then, begin removing unhealthy foods. Start your training program by setting the goal of training every day. Then, set the goal of making your workouts 1 hour long.
Remember, there is no such thing as spot-reduction. Choose training methods that improve your strength and flexibility. Opt for methods that train all of your muscles and burn many calories (Training your legs with heavy weights is the VERY best.)
If you want to learn more, read my other posts for greater details. If you feel that you are ready to make your fitness goals a reality, check out my book:
