Here’s a question that was asked recently and I think it’s one that many have on their minds, especially if you haven’t undertaken structured exercise before. Now, bare in mind that pretty much throughout my life I never undertook any exercise, until my early twenties. Why? Well first of all I was always picked last for sports and then I got into the working life, where drinking was more popular than exercise – I’m not using it as an excuse but in the video games industry which I was in, it was about drinking after work and not going to the gym or taking part in sports, unless it was on a computer console. The next public relatiopns rep would be down to promote their new game and it was tradition to let the alcohol flow pretty much daily after work hours, a lot of the time even from the afternoon – now when you’ve got a hang-over pretty much every day, you’re not in the mood for working out, just as much as eating healthy when you’re hangin’ – yuk. So the snowball of fat gain and feeling sluggish begins.
So, how do you get addicted to the gym? Well, if I look at how I became a regular gym goer who enjoyed it, coming from someone who felt sick at the thought of it; my ‘tipping point’ (meaning the point that you say, ‘enough is enough, I have to do something about this’) came after being bullied once too many times. My confidence had been knocked so much that I wanted to do something about it. So, being the youngster I was, I thought of the ultimate confidence builder ‘Kung Fu’. As many of you may have read in The Lunch Box Diet, I enrolled in a local class. The great thing about doing it this way is; as long as you can overcome the fear of the first session, once you’re in, you’re normally meant to feel quite welcome. So when you go back and back again, you just improve and get fitter. Then the snowball starts rolling in the right direction. I was fortunate to have a great tutor who saw that I was a little more out of shape than the other budding Bruce Lees, so he offered to help me 1-1, free of charge in the gym, when he was exercising – nice guy! It was this moment that changed my life. Having a mentor there to be by my side made a massive difference. Modeling someone else’s performance and eating habits is the quickest way to success. So, if you’re wondering of a great way to get started, grab a friend who was in a similar situation to you are now and ask if you can jump on board. Chances are they’ll be thankful of the compliment and you asking to be their ‘health mentor’, will be something they can’t refuse.
Wait to see results
In addition, it’s also important that you push yourself through the initial periods and start seeing results before giving up. Don’t expect too much to quickly and lose interest. You’ll get addicted, when your clothes start to change and your feel different in yourself. When you’ve got more energy and are less tired. Make fitness fun and interesting. In my fitness bootcamps in Exeter, we have fun, mess around, have a laugh and people want to come back time and time again. Not only that, they want to see the same people who were there last time and everyone motivates each other. So, if you’ve been to a gym before and haven’t got results, don’t go back and do the same. Simple. Find something new, change your tactics! This will change your results.
Have a goal and track your progress
Be sure to track your progress. If you run for 10 minutes the fist time you run, make sure you do 12 the next time. If you lift 8kg weights for the first four weeks, up it to 10kg the next four weeks and write it down. When you stick within your comfort zone and prance around on the x-trainer while watching Eastenders, thinking ‘if I burn another 200 calories’ I can afford to have that curry tonight, you’re not going to get there! Work hard, but work so you get that buzz and want to come back and beat your personal best the next time around.
Visualise your end result
I’ve said it before, but use visualisation. Close your eyes and imagine you looking the best you ever have. Get the feeling of being in the skinny dress or jeans that everyone says ‘bloody hell X, you look amazing’. When you get that first comment, that’s when you’ll get addicted. You’ll get addicted to the feeling of compliments, instead of used to making up the fact that you’re happy at your weight, when you’re clealy not. You’ll get addicted to reaching targets – you’ve got to have clear targets in mind.
Well this is how I got ‘addicted’ anyway. There are plenty of other ways to get into exercise and love it, but the rule of thumb is find what you enjoy. If you don’t enjoy it, move on, there are hundreds of things you can be doing to get you fit without you moaning in the initial stages. But I’ll bet you this, once you catch the bug, the things don’t enjoy now you’ll most likely love. I’ve converted treadmill ‘haters’ into people who cry when they get an injury and can’t enter a marathon. I’ve converted sluggish office types into personal trainers themselves. It’s all about passion, and you too can get a passion for exercise. Let me tell you this, until you do, your life won’t be complete. You probably won’t have the relationships you want, be doing the job that serves you best and living your life to the max.
With that, I hope you’re raring to go!
I hope what will be a light hearted, but also useful post, today I wanted to demonstrate how easy it is to pile on the pounds over the festive period. Even if you eliminate a few of these tips, or include some of them, you’re sure to prevent some of the agony in the new year. Yes of course, it’s a time for celebrations, festive cheer and all that, but blimey, you just don’t need to:
- Say yes to everything offered to you
- Put out a 12 pack of mince pies for santa and then tell the kids that he ate them all
- Grab a handful of something everytime you pass through the living room on christmas morning
- Always be the one to offer around all the nibbles so you have your excuse to delve your mittens in first
- Secretly place a giant bar of chocolate under the tree, wrapped and named for youself, by yourself
- Stand cooking the christmas dinner, being a real chef and tasting everything, every 20 seconds
- Steal children’s treats telling them it’s bad for their teeth, and then eat them yourself
- Shout ‘let’s play eating games!’
- Fill your christmas dinner plate so everything is dripping off the edge
- Trying the toddlers portions every three seconds, saying ‘no, it’s still too hot when it’s cold’
- Pass around everything, six times just so you can get three more spuds
- Saying you didn’t like the first desert, even tho half of it has vanishsed
- Picking the crackers with the sweets in!
- Playing the ‘find all the christmas tree sweets’ and winning every time, even though there are kids around!
- Miss out on any exercise between now and new year
- Using the queen’s speech to slip out and ‘fill up again’
- Get a bike or exercise equipment as a gift and toss it to ones side
- Switch off a child using Wii Fit and put on Mario Kart!
- Get completely bladdered
- Repeat most of the above on boxing day from the left overs!
If the fear of standing on a set of scales has set in yet, or the panic of squeezing into that favourite skirt or jeans leaves you de-motivated and wondering which way to turn in 2010, you’re not alone. Millions of others in the new-year take desperate measures to lose weight and get back into shape and with so many different options out there it’s not surprising that we’re left wondering which is the best and safest avenue to take.
Sadly not everyone takes the ‘health’ issue seriously and diet pills, liposuction, tummy tucks and any number of other radical solutions will be on the agenda for some in 2010. But if you’re in search for a lifestyle change there are some excellent options out there, you just need to find the one that suits you, and one that you can maintain.
Working in gyms, especially in January, I see a massive influx of new members signing three or twelve month contracts, but the shocking reality is that more than half of these will barely last two or three weeks before losing the motivation to continue and the same can be said for some diet plans out there. Unfortunately the way in-which our body works, there’s a definite down-side to going on any eating plan that you are unable to sustain – your body, once it returns to its normal eating pattern will pile on the fat more than before, leaving most people disheartened and wondering how they will ever be at their ideal weight for any length of time. The secret is to find a routine that you can stick to where the foods you are eating are enjoyable and that you retrain the way your mind thinks about food consumption.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with eating what you enjoy. Pizzas, chocolate, fried foods – they all twang the taste buds into bliss, but when this happens too often we get into a routine, where healthy foods don’t give the same kick! So, look at it this way, we need to re-train our taste buds to enjoying the foods that were put here naturally. Some of you will be screaming ‘but I hate vegetables’, and ‘why would I want to eat natural, wholesome foods when I can satisfy myself with take-aways, crisps, cakes, and pastries’. Well, let’s have a look around our midsections and for some the answer is preventing the line of sight to our feet! For some it’s about knowing what’s wrong and ignoring it, but for others it’s pure lack of education about nutrition that leaves the nation wondering why they’re buying new clothes every few months because the others simply don’t fit!
We’re getting better – food labelling is assisting those with little know-how. Learning your carbohydrates from your proteins and fats (and their roles) is a good place to start and then probably the biggest misconception is about portion control. Chances are you will either wake up and skip or have breakfast, eat lunch mid-day and then fill your plate in the evening, because you haven’t eaten since lunch. This is where most of the problem lies, as we over eat and ‘fill’ up our tanks three times daily instead of grazing.
You fill your box daily from a list of three food groups, still eating your normal breakfast and evening meal. It’s varied, there’s no calorie counting and it’s a sustainable plan and more of a lifestyle change.
Pre planning is the key to any weight loss goal – if we don’t think ahead to what we’re going to eat then chances are we grab what we can and often this means convenience foods that are high in saturated fat, sugar and salt, a quick-fire way to put you on the slippery slope to a weight problem. Sadly once people start putting on serious volumes of weight, emotional issues can star to occur including lack of self-confidence and depression which isn’t surprising if you think you have reached the ‘no way back’ stage. This is somewhere I have been personally and the only way out is to change your eating routines, change your taste buds back to how they should be and take up exercise. Of course, you can lose weight without additional exercise, but you increase calories burned which means a quicker route to your goal.
Eating vegetables, fruits and meats in their most natural form will provide you with an exceptional amount of energy and health benefits. By spreading these throughout the day you will avoid mid-afternoon slumps in energy and boost your metabolic rate, the way in which your body burns fat. Remember, plan ahead, go for something you’re likely to sustain and you’ll be on a sure fire route to a healthier body.
It’s tough sometimes to find the confidence necessary to go for the gold so to speak. When confidence levels are low, it’s difficult to push forward through tough times and reach the other side. Sometimes, it’s necessary to really revamp your life; other times, you merely need some quick ways to boost confidence.
Tip 1
Consider this. Is it possible that there are no mistakes in life but merely moments of opportunity for learning? It’s one thing to make bad choices when we know the likely poor outcome (drinking and driving for example), but it’s another to take a chance on pursuing a dream with the knowledge that whatever the outcome, we’ll grow from it and have a better chance next time.
Thomas Edison once said “I’ve not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
And of course, we all know how things turned out for Mr. Edison, right?
Tip 2
You may not know where you’ll be in five years if you take a chance and pursue your passions, but you know where you’ll be if you continue down the rut you’re in right now. Staying motionless in a world that moves will never lead you to the success that you desire.
Once you realize that you have nothing to lose by working towards improving your life, you’ll have the entire boost in confidence that you need to make that leap of faith. Take your great ideas to the boss, pursue that other job, write that book, audition for that part, go back to school… whatever! Just keep moving forward and climb out of that rut.
Tip 3
If you’re pursuing your passions, you can’t lose. It simply won’t happen. That’s not to say that there won’t be times of disappointment or hurdles to overcome. There will be. That’s life whether you’re pursuing your passions or busting your tail trying to make someone else’s dreams come true (i.e. the boss).
The difference is that when the passion is yours, it will drive you to overcome the difficulties. Your passion, your desire, will be strong enough to make you wipe the dirt off your scraped knees and give that hurdle another go!
Tip 4
Realize that the nay-sayers in your life are quite often lacking their own self confidence. How can anybody who won’t take chances encourage someone else to take a chance? These people don’t do anything to boost your confidence levels.
Talk to the risk takers instead. Talk to people who have overcome adversity to follow their dreams and have succeeded. They’ll give you straight talk about how you can make the necessary changes in your life and boost your confidence levels ten fold! The other folks? Try to inspire them!
In the end, you may be in a situation where you’re not sure which direction to turn in order to improve your life. What are your passions? What could make your life better?
For more of my motivation tips get hold of my ebook called Creating Your Gorgeous Life www.lifemotivationtips.com
Recent Comments