Last week, we spent some time and talked about SMART goals for the New Year! What this included was being specific with what your goal is, making sure it is measurable and you are able to track your progress to that goal, that the goal is attainable and realistic and that you are not shooting for something that may just be impossible or very unlikely like earning a million dollars in a day, and then finally setting up a time frame to which you want to accomplish those goals! Now, with those big goals we can start to get discouraged and give up easy, but this is where smaller goals come into play.
Let’s use the example of losing 20 lbs of fat weight that we used in the last blog post. We had talked about how we wanted to start strength training and then also playing basketball, but should we jump right into working out 7 days a week? Not at all, we should strive to do about 2 days a week to start! Moving from sedentary to active for 2 days out of the week is a big jump, so being able to manage that at first is crucial. From there, you work to add in a day every couple of weeks once you start to get in a routine and a pattern and feel comfortable going more days. Now, with nutrition, there is a lot more that we need to look at in order to make sure that we maintain what we are trying to do. For example, we do not want to take drastic measures and cut out all bad foods that we are used to eating cold turkey and switch to healthy foods, and there are two main reasons as to why we do that. The first and most important reason is that there is always room for some unhealthy food, no matter who you are and what your goals are! The second reason is because we risk relapsing back to where we were. Just like a smoker cutting cold turkey is more likely to go back, if you have a bad diet and cut it out cold turkey you run into the same issue as that is all you know!
So, what do you do? How do you steadily get into a habit and a routine? The most important thing to do is make a list. Make a list of all of the unhealthy things that you eat and pick 1-2 to focus on every couple weeks. Take chips and cookies for example, if you eat those 7 days a week, try to cut it back to 5 days a week right off the bat. Take some time to get used to that and then cut down to 4, then 3, then 2 and until you get to the point to where you crave it on occasion. What your body will do in this instance is start to notice these changes and get used to eating those favorite things less and will slowly just stop craving cookies and chips on a regular basis as it hasn’t had those foods on a regular basis in a long period of time.
To put what was discussed above into a brief and more applicable statement, pick smaller goals along the way to accomplish that will lead you to a big goal. Increasing practice time on an instrument, playing a certain song, going to bed just 30 minutes earlier for more sleep at night, small things that you can apply now so that your brain can adjust to all of these new changes and not be overwhelmed when you throw big tasks and ideas at it for it to try and process and learn. Take your time, while we know you want to reach your goals, it is important to keep in mind that the longer you take, the more of a chance you have at making it a habit instead of just a goal that you hit and never maintain.
As for New Years Resolutions, people looking to get fit and healthy and are looking at personal training, this portion is for you all. Personal training, as we have talked previously, has been notorious for getting a bad reputation based off of a few trainers who do not treat their clients well. I want you to know that this is not how we operate. Personal training shouldn’t be something that you fear or that you hide from the people that care about you and that you care about. Personal training should be something that you brag to your friends and family about because a professional is helping you reach your goals and being a friend during the process as well. As personal trainers, my brother and I not only look at the physical side, but the mental and emotional side as well and want to help you reach your goals! Online training is one of the ways that we do that, and we feel is the best bang for your buck in terms of what you get for the cost. For just as much as $150 a month, you get access to an app that has planned workouts, nutritional guidance, sleep and measurement tracking, along with constant attention and coaching from myself or my brother. In-person personal training is still offered by us, but not all the time do you get the immediate attention that you would get with the online package, which is why we feel it is the best on the market right now! If you are tired of not accomplishing your goals or just bored of what you are doing now, reach out to us for a free consultation and we will talk with you about what WE can do to help YOU!
Comments