Tips For Fitness Success
The New Year is right around the corner. Along with the year end holiday festivities, it’s also the time of year when promises of starting January 1st full of zeal, promising to get more active and lose all that weight gained the previous year and during the holiday season. It will be the year where things will definitely happen, but will it? The odds aren’t on your side. According to data, 80 percent fail to achieve New Year’s resolutions. By February, most New Year’s resolutions have been abandoned.
These are grim statistics but with the right strategies, 2021 can definitely be the year that will see a healthier more fit you.
What Goes Wrong Year After Year and How To Beat the Odds
- Goals are Unrealistic
When thinking about losing weight, many want to achieve their weight loss goals by summer for that summer body concept. But if you’ve been putting off your fitness year after year, it’s going to take longer than that. Instead, a realistic and healthy weight loss goal is to aim for 1 to 2 pound weight loss.
There are those crash diets that can result in 5 or 10 pound weight loss in just a matter of a week or two, and while that’s a very tempting solution, it’s not healthy and absolutely not sustainable. In addition to being unsustainable, losing too much weight too fast can cause serious health consequences. The weight loss may actually be muscle loss rather than fat loss and this isn’t good. Muscle loss has an adverse effect on metabolism by slowing it down. Muscle uses more energy than fat to function. Therefore, the more muscle you have, the more energy it needs leading to an increase in metabolism. Muscle mass loss will also cause a fall in hormones that regulate your metabolism, such as thyroid hormone, also contributing to the slow down in metabolism.
- Your Workout Plan Isn’t Right for You
Gyms, outdoor bootcamps, Peloton, virtual workouts are all great option but jumping into something that isn’t quite where you need to start, is a great way to feel unmotivated and defeated. Everyone is at a different level, different skills, different goals. If you are trying to get back into it, groups might be the motivating factor to help you stick with a routine or it might feel too advanced leading to doing too much too soon. Rule of thumb is, you shouldn’t feel so sore that you don’t go back.
Many opt to open a gym membership. Gym memberships are great but again, if you don’t know what to do or where to start in a gym, this can also lead to frustration and eventually you stop stop going.
Instead, consider hiring a knowledgeable personal trainer to help you. Not all personal trainers are created equal so make sure he or she knows how to slowly progress your workouts rather than having a ‘I want to make you throw up and feel like death’ mentality after every workout. A knowledgeable personal trainer can guide you to build a good, healthy workout routine. The goal of every personal trainer is to equip the client with the knowledge and tools to have a successful fitness journey rest of your life. You can start with once a month to once a week to get you moving in the right direction. Think about it as a long term financial investment in yourself and your health.
Given the current pandemic, you can, instead, choose to do a remote home workout program. The focus of the workout program should still be on your goals, skills, level, experience. With a personalized remote program such as Outright’s Remote Programs, workouts can be done on your time in the comfort of your home, at your level, with and without equipment and your personal trainer can still provide the support, guidance and accountability you need virtually.
- Trying to Do Too Much
Trying to change too much all at once can be overwhelming and an easy way to be discouraged. To make your weight loss goals stick for the long run, it requires behavior changes – making better food choices and making exercise a part of your lifestyle. Trying to do crash diets that heavily restrict your food choices and also trying to exercise every day at 5am when you aren’t a morning person can be too much at a time that. The better solution is to start slow and build up. Make small changes with your nutrition. If you are a morning person that likes getting up early to start the day, then a 5am workout might be a good fit. If you prefer a lunchtime workout, that’s great too. Or if you prefer to work out in the afternoon or at night, great. Anytime that consistently fits into your day is the perfect time to get your workout completed. The goal is to make your exercise sessions a lifestyle, not an added chore.
Nutrition is one of the most important factors in weight loss. A small change you can make, for example, is if you don’t eat breakfast, make it a goal to add a breakfast item into your day. Or maybe you drink one less soft drink per day. You can also start a food journal, tracking one or two days and eventually build up to a full week. This will give you a good idea of what you eat and drink and the total calories you consume. This information can help you make small and doable changes that will lead to real, sustainable changes.
When starting your exercise routine, the goal is to do 150 minutes of cardio and 75 minutes of high intensity exercise per week. But this doesn’t mean you need to satisfy these guidelines on week 1. Maybe you start with 10-15minutes 2 or 3 time a week and build up from there. Again, the goal is to create a routine that you can stick with for the rest of your life.
2021 can be the year you beat the odds.
Having a successful weight loss strategy means making positive changes, slowly. Make sure your goals are realistic, make sure you have the right fitness plan, make sure you make small changes to your nutrition habits to form lifelong behavior changes. Hiring a personal training virtually or in person can also help you with accountability, realistic goal setting, and making sure your workout program is the right fit for you.
