Here’s the truth. There is no magic pill, magic shake, or magic exercise machine that will force us to make the right nutrition choices and commit to exercise daily. First we must understand that a healthy lifestyle involves more than just hitting the gym. It involves making the right choices to help us look good on the outside, but more importantly, feel good on the inside. There are a few simple steps to make this process of change less daunting.
Before change starts, we need to make a commitment to it. Changing one’s life, must be a conscious decision, and made in a way that will allow us to take methodical steps towards the goal. Seeing our goal as a tangible, and reachable end point, will help us to preserver when the process becomes tedious and boring. Before embarking on a major lifestyle change, it is important to do the proper research and planning.
During the research phase, it is advisable to take the time to write down goals. Short term goals, such as workout 6 times this week are in many ways, more important than the long term goal of a six pack! Tangible goals are helpful too, as that will allow measurement of progress. For example, while “feeling better” is a nice goal, it’s not measurable in our lives, but “drop to under 200 pounds” is a goal that is actually measurable and one that we can track progress towards. There are so many benefits of a healthy lifestyle apart from just looking good!
Improving performance on physical tasks, a healthy self-image, greater sense of confidence and reduced chance of medical risks are just a few.
Picking an exercise program is the next stage of creating change. The first thing to consider is picking a program that is proven and will work. Simply going to the gym and hitting a couple machines, then a treadmill for a few minutes is not a program. There are so many great resources available to us now, anything from personal trainers, to online coaching, to following a program like P90X. These are set programs that are proven and simply work. Do the research and find something that is fun for you. Put simply, if it’s not fun, one will quit.
The next and most important part of healthy change is reviewing nutrition. Writing down every meal choice is vital and very simple with the advent of such websites as www.MyFitnessPal.com and www.DailyPlate.com. These are free sites that allow users to log every bite of food and breaks down, not only calories, but the amount of protein, carbohydrates and fat in everything. Just as one wouldn’t dump random amounts of gas in a car and simply hope it got to the destination, knowing exactly what we’re putting in our bodies as fuel is critical to get us to our destination as well.
When people ask for nutrition tips, the simplest tip of all is the best. Jack LaLanne, the fitness pioneer used to say “If man made it, don’t eat it.” There really is no simpler and better way to put it. Strive to eat foods with only one ingredient. For example, a pepper, an apple, a steak, a potato - not a pizza or a bag of Doritos.
Lastly, making a huge lifestyle change is too big and too hard to go at alone. Find a peer group to help you along. Most people do great for the first week for two of a new change; check out the gym from January 1-14! But after that, they fall off. The biggest reason why, is because with out a peer group supporting and encouraging, our old habits come back. Thanks to the internet, we can find a peer group easily online in the form of forums, Facebook, Myspace or any number of other online resources. In a perfect world, our families and friends would help us stay on board and keep going with our new lifestyles, but in the real world, often, we can’t count on them. Find people who are making the same changes as you and join them. This part is absolutely critical to the staying power of a new change.
Jim Rohn has said, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Surround yourself with people who are also working towards creating a better life; people who are trying o make the right choices at the supermarket; people who are trying to live better,longer, fuller, happier lives.
Making this change may seem overwhelming, but it’s as simple as the cliché, “take it one step at a time.” Decide on making a change, make a plan, and put one foot in front of the other. It’s impossible to do more than one day at a time in this life, eat one good meal, then another, then another after that. You can get there, I’m on my way, come with me.
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