Starting a New Fitness Journey
People have make commitments to lose weight, be healthier, be more active, and every other commitment you can think of that changes how we look. Unfortunately, statistics show that by early February most New Year resolutions have already been broken. There are many reasons these resolutions are broken, but for those of you are hanging in there or for those of you who want to recommit, here are some tips for starting your fitness journey. Just remember, fitness is about long-term change, not an instant result.
The first part of getting fit is looking at your general lifestyle. What kind of food do you eat? How much food do you eat? How much do you move around? How much do you sleep? What kind of bad habits do you have? Do you have any unhealthy addictions? These are all great questions and answering yourself honestly is the key to starting over.
If you decide that your food intake could use work, try keeping a food journal for a week. Write down everything you eat or drink. This includes the handful of chips you snuck from the pantry. After keeping this for a week, take a good look at your journal and decide if you need to make eating changes. If your problem is how active you are, start looking for ways to walk more. If you work in an office, take the stairs instead of the elevator. If your work parking lot is in a safe area, try parking at the back and walking further to your building. If you have an unhealthy addiction, get the support and help to work on quitting your addiction.
After looking over your lifestyle, you need to set specific and reasonable goals. If you’re working on food habits, try something like these goals:
- Cut out over processed drinks like soda and over processed foods like chips.
- Set a limit of how many times a week you will eat out; maybe two lunches and one dinner. Eating at home helps you stay in control of what you eat.
- For dinner try to eat the correct combinations of food. The newest eating recommendations say imagine a plate. Half of the plate should be filled with vegetables and fruits. One quarter of the plate should have lean protein. One quarter of the plate should have healthy whole grains.
If your goals are fitness related, try setting one long-term goal that is not number oriented ( a bad example would be losing ____ pounds), and two short-term goals. This might look like:
- In 6 months I am going to participate in a 5k race.
- I am going to find a work out class at my gym I enjoy and attend once a week.
- I am going to follow a running plan like the Couch to 5k running plan.
Once your goals are set, find a support system! This can be as easy as asking your spouse to encourage you. You can join an online group for your type of exercise. Try finding a friend to swap weekly goals with. If you both meet your goals 100% for the month, buy each other a low cost present.
The last part to keeping your on your fitness journey is not giving up. Everyone messes up at some point. Getting healthy is a long-term lifestyle change that is different for every person. Being healthy is not about weight loss or diets; it’s about feeding your body healthy food and not living a sedentary lifestyle. Find your way to be healthy by eating right and staying active.
