The importance of a support system

"The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; the optimist, the opportunity in every difficulty."
~ L.P. Jacks


In last month's entry I spoke about motivation and how to stay motivated to achieve your desired results. Another major part that deserves its own posting is what I will be talking about here and that's having a good positive support system.

A lot of people fall into food and fitness traps because of a lack of a positive support system. Spouses, friends and of course family are all big parts of the equation in helping you to reach your goals. Lack of positive support and positive feedback leads to thoughts of "why am I doing all this for?", etc. and that is just not productive nor is it fair to you. Too many times people get to working out and dieting for other people and looking for acceptance, positive remarks, etc. It has to always begin and end with you, it is your body and health after all and no one, no matter how well intentioned can do it for you.

Studies show that a big reason for failure in diets and workouts, etc. is that spouses don't participate or get behind it because of insecurities, laziness, etc. Also, the spouse asks you to cook for them and of course, if they are eating non-diet food and you are cooking, well then you feel obligated to eat the same food, don't you? Now I'm not saying to not cook for your spouse! But, I want you to understand that this will be a temptation trigger that you will have to watch out for. Another failure reason is well intentioned family and friends who tempt you by inviting you out to places they know you will have a hard time fighting temptation at or home cooking of food items that are favorites. There will come a time when these temptations will be less but in the beginning it is up to you to let your friends, spouses and family know that you will need their help to fight temptation and to help you stay on track. Let them know that you are serious about your health and need their help keeping you focused and on track. Having the right support at the beginning is very important. It can be the difference between success and failure.

Most people have at least one person that they can count on in their support system and if you can't find that one person that will help you like you know you will need then it makes sense to invest in yourself with a good nurturing personal trainer and / or with a diet center like Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, etc. or both! Most good trainers can help you with not only all your fitness needs but with your diet needs as well.

It took a lot of factors and time to get you to this point of where you are unhappy with your body, fitness and health and using the same support systems and dieting / exercising methods will take a different approach from not only yourself but those around you. You owe it to yourself and your loved ones to reach out to them in helping you along this journey because you will need every weapon and advantage you can give yourself to get yourself to where you want to be. It can be a very fulfilling and satisfying experience for everyone involved if they can help you reach your goals and you all may learn a lot about each other along the way. Positivity is the goal. Positivity of self. Positivity of mind. Positivity of health, fitness and body. You can do it. You just have to believe and get started!

The enemy within - staying motivated

"Believe it is possible to solve your problem. Tremendous things happen to the believer. So believe the answer will come. It will."
~ Norman Vincent Peale

Getting motivated to begin working out is pretty easy for most people. They just look in the mirror, take note of their health or feel their clothes tight on them and decide that its time to do what they know they should've been doing all along. So, what happens to unmotivate someone from that mindset?

In large part what happens is that people come into their decisions from a desperate point of view, they are looking for change at any cost. It's why the diet and diet supplement industries are both multi-billion dollar industries. These industries provide a well needed service but also literally bank on their customers being repeat customers. They know a large portion of their customers are those desperate customers trying out their diets and supplements and know that most customers will fail but still come back to give it another try.

Going into working out from the desperate mindset also sets you up for unrealistic expectations which is another major motivation killer. People watch shows like The Biggest Loser and see people dropping double digit numbers and fail to realize that this isn't normal or even safe. It's a TV show designed to motivate, etc. but at the same time, the contestants are under constant medical supervision and are putting in 8 hour workout days. That is how they get those large numbers. The average person cannot put in that type of time and shouldn't. Then there are ads touting big results and showing before and after pictures and although the ads say that these results are not typical, advertisers know that the pictures will speak more than the small print that says these results aren't typical.

Chances are you will begin or have begun a workout routine under the conditions I said, its just human nature so nothing wrong with that. How do you stay motivated though when you don't see the large number drops that you thought you'd have or when your body isn't responding and changing as fast as you expected? Well first, I would say that what you need to do is realize that the keyword in working out is WORK. There's no getting around it, to get your body back to where it was or where you want it to be will take work. You must learn to discipline yourself for this task just like anything else. The best way to do that is to set small attainable goals for yourself. This way as you reach your goal, you can set another one. This can be setting a goal of losing 2 pounds this week. A 2 pound weight loss doesn't sound like much but do that right and you will have dropped 8 pounds in 1 month. 16 pounds in 2 months, 24 pounds in 3 months, etc. Think about it. When was the last time you did that? It's all about consistency, determination and small attainable goals.

Doing these small attainable goals will help keep you motivated and seeing results. These small goals will help you reach the big picture goals that you might have not reached if you had just tried to focus on the big picture results. Consistency and self-discipline will get you there. Of course, it helps to also have support but I will tackle that aspect in next month's entry. You can do more than you think, you just have to adjust your view and fine tune your focus into something more tangible and the results you will get will do the rest.

You are never too old or out of shape to exercise!

"As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Think you are too old to exercise? You're wrong! Think you're too out of shape to exercise? You're dead wrong and that's exactly what you're doing to yourself. Leading yourself to an early grave. These roadblocks you are putting before yourself are only mental, you can never be too old or out of shape to try to improve your health. In fact, you owe it to yourself, your spouse, children, grandchildren, friends, etc.

I've trained people of all ages, from obese children to senior citizens, including seniors with health problems and through proper exercise and changes in diet, I've seen some dramatic improvements in my clients weight, fitness and health.

Is it hard to get started the older you are? It sure is but it's like anything else. It's about getting into a routine and being determined to make yourself happy and satisfied with your health and weight.

Is it harder to lose weight the older you are? It is because your metabolism begins slowing down at 30 and progressively slows down over the years, even more so if you lead a sedentary lifestyle. BUT you can get that metabolism working again in your favor through exercise! It can be done, I've seen it done firsthand through my clients. It's up to you to take that first step though. Stop saying you will do it only to continually keep putting it off and get to doing it. You owe it to yourself! You've put others before you throughout the years, now it's the time to put yourself and your health first. You can do it. Just take that first step.

You don't need a gym to workout! Workout from home!

"Do or do not. There is no try."
~Yoda

Since we just got through the month of January, I'm sure you've seen all the latest commercials and ads from gyms advertising their winter sales. The gyms know that January is the best time of year to capitalize on everyone making their new year's resolutions to get in shape and indeed, they rack up the memberships in January. Go to a gym in January, its packed. Go in February, its less so. Go in March and its just the regulars and a disciplined few that have stuck to their resolutions. Go in April and its the same and so on. You get the idea.

No doubt about it, going to a gym sounds like a great idea and is IF you stick to it. Just like anything else, you have to stick to it to see results. The problem with gyms that I hear from a lot of my clients are among others:

-you're too tired to go after work, you just want to go home
-you don't want to deal with traffic
-it's too far from home
-you're too embarrassed to go to a gym
-you don't know what to do at a gym
-you don't like being around so many people

Those are just some of the more common reasons people have. They all have a lot of validity to them as well. BUT you know what? You don't need a gym to workout and get yourself in shape. You can go running, swimming or you can workout from home! Yes, you can workout from home. No fancy equipment needed, in fact you can get a good workout without any equipment at all. Especially when you're just getting into the swing of it and starting out. I train people in their homes and even though I bring equipment to them if they don't have it, the first month of workouts usually are done with bodyweight exercises and calisthenics types of activities for cardio. For a lot of people, moving their bodyweight in an exercise manner is enough when all they're used to is moving their bodyweight from work to the couch to watch some TV. Nothing is better than working out at home and being able to take a nice long bath or shower right after in the comfort of your own home and then sit down to relax for the night knowing that you got a good workout in and got yourself one step closer to where you want your body to be.

The problems with gyms (unless you pay for the personal trainers) and training at home is the self-discipline needed to make yourself do exercise and to continue to do it. Most people lack the self-discipline to do what they know they need to do which is why they need to be doing it in the first place! If you can motivate yourself, then great! If you find it hard though, then training with a partner is the way to go. It holds you accountable to someone else who will hold you accountable to yourself. You'll know that you can't just take the day off with your partner coming over to workout with you. Of course, if your partner is not very motivated then you're back to square one. Also, its important that one of you know what to do in putting together a workout. While at first any exercise is good exercise, your body will adapt faster than you think and you'll need to know how to tweak the workouts as your body gets more fit to keep upping the ante and getting results. Contrary to what some believe, just adding more and more reps to exercises is not the way to go. When it comes to exercising, there will come a point of diminishing returns where you are overtraining your body and you will reach a roadblock. A proper workout schedule and program can prevent this from happening. Stress, lack of sleep, etc. can contribute to overtraining though, knowing how to get through that is important. Having a good workout partner if you need someone to hold you accountable or if you intend to do it on your own, making yourself knowledgeable on exercising and dieting can be very beneficial. You can subscribe to magazines like Men's Health or Women's Health for exercise and diet tips to learn more about exercise and dieting right.

I hope I've helped open your eyes to the possibilities that you have before you and removed some of the excuses you've put before yourself that have prevented you from getting your body and health where you want it to be. Remember that quote from up above! :)

Its that time of year to make those pesky resolutions!

"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult"
~ Seneca the Younger (4 BC to AD) philosopher, statesman and dramatist

It's that annual time of year that some of us dread, some of us look forward to and there's even those of us that don't bother with it - New Year's Resolutions time! All together now! Whoohoo! Groan! Mutter. Mutter.

Most of us have been guilty of all 3 behaviors. We make resolutions and don't follow them or break them weeks, months and for some - days or even hours later! It all starts with good intentions but we know the road to hell is sometimes paved with good intentions. Intentions followed by inaction will just lead to that all familiar road of frustration and disappointment that led us to doing the resolution in the first place! It's a good thing to set resolutions (goals), it gives you a roadmap to fixing a bad habit, character/personality flaw, etc. that you are probably more aware of than you'd like to admit. Setting a goal helps you face the thing that you need to fix and helps focus you on what steps you need to do to reach your goal. The problems a lot of people make is setting too big of a goal or setting them in too short or long of a timeframe. When setting a goal, its important to make small attainable goals that take you where you want to be. These smaller goals not only give you easier goals to reach for but also gives you small successes along the way to your overall goal. This progressive way of reaching your goals is efficient, motivating and best of all, seems rather simple. Sometimes simple is better.

So, lets say instead of saying that your goal is to lose 30 pounds this year, say that you want to lose 30 pounds this year and that you will lose 2.5 pounds a month to get there. With saying that you only want to lose 30 pounds, you're leaving the time-frame too open-ended since you are giving yourself a whole year to reach that goal. What will most do? You got it, put it off. Next thing they know, its November and it's too late with all that good holiday food ahead. So, you tell yourself "too late now, might as well start with the new year! That'll be my new year's resolution!". And so the cycle of frustration and disappointment continues and the clock ticks away. Sound familiar? Telling yourself you only have to lose 2.5 pounds a month sure sounds attainable doesn't it? Guess what? After 12 months, you'll have reached your 30 pound weight loss goal! ;)

Now repeat after me - I will set my goals but this time I will make small attainable goals to reach my bigger goal! I will get to where I want to be. I will because I have the roadmap and that gives me confidence that I will do it. Nothing will stop me from changing what I want to change and achieving what I want to achieve.

I'm proud of you. I have a good feeling that you will do what you need to do. Whenever you need a reminder or a motivation boost, come visit and read this entry. It'll be here waiting to motivate you all year long. :)