Being fit and losing weight is not as simple as going on a diet and exercising. I know many of people that have done this without any success. Diets in a persons mind have an end date. “I am going to do this diet until I lose X pounds.” Then what happens when the diet is over? I will give you one guess…They go back to eating the way they used to and gain all of the weight back. What a bummer…right? The way to get in the best shape for your LIFE begins with these five steps:

1. Define exactly what you want to achieve with your body – Don’t just think about it, write it down and be specific. How many pounds do you want to lose, why you want to lose it, where you want to lose it, how you feel when you do lose it, etc. Be as detailed as possible.
2. Decide to change – Writing down your goals is one thing. Deciding to change is a whole different thing. You have to tell yourself that there is no other option but to change your habits and don’t go back on your old ones. Creating new habits are hard, but you have to keep your eye on the prize. You want a new body and there is no other option right? As you continually succeed on keeping your new lifestyle habits, it gets easier and easier everyday.
3. Don’t make excuses for failures – We all have a busy life, kids, work, stress etc. The plain fact is that these are NEVER going to go away. If you fall down by eating poorly or skipping that exercise session noticed that it happened and get your butt back on the program. This is your life and your health and should be your greatest investment. If you aren’t around anymore, none of your excuses will matter anymore…TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF FIRST then worry about everyone else later.
4. Take action DAILY – “What am I going to do this week to improve my health and fitness?” This question should be answered in writing EVERY week. It should include what you will be eating for the week as well as when you will exercise. Try to exercise at least 6 times each week. It could be as simple as going for a walk around your neighborhood, but just make sure you do something that keeps you moving each day outside of your regular daily activities. Keep it in front of you and do what it says. If you need help setting this up I will be adding more detailed descriptions of each of these mindsets in following blog posts to help you out with these.
5. Treat yourself once per week – Let’s face it, if we completely restrict ourselves from the things that we like, it will be really hard to succeed. Do well for the entire week and then treat yourself to something good. Whether that is having a beer or a glass of wine, a nice dinner out, whatever it is, just do it and get back on the program. This is going to be your reward for doing so well. Do not give yourself this reward if you haven’t stuck to the program….that’s cheating:).

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 28th, 2010 at 10:23 pm and is filed under Fitness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted by Carlos Payte | in Fitness | No Comments