Set Your Goals
Are you trying to lose fat? Gain muscle? Maintain weight? Or just eat healthier? What ever your goal is keep it in mind and start structuring your eating and exercise program around it. What ever your diet may be for your goal its a great idea to figure out the calories you need to eat per day and also what you macros need to be. Here is a link to a calorie calculator that will let you know exactly what you need to eat calorie wise and what your macros need to be. This site was actually just introduced to me and I personally absolutely love it. Also, take your body measurements down as well as your weight so you can compare the results every few months or so.
Track Your Progress
One of the most important things you can do for yourself is track your progress!!! Track everything you eat, the exercises you do, the calories you burn, and even how much you sleep. I can not express how important tracking is. I like to use a website called My Fitness Pal to track my progress. I configure the calories I need to eat daily for my goals, track my exercises, and also give and receive support out to other members on the site. Also, keep a workout log. I created an excel spreadsheet with all the lifts I do that way I can go back to previous weeks and know what I have to do to keep gaining.
Start Small and Experiment
This is where I think that the majority of people fail. They have their goal in mind, they know how many calories they need to eat and what their macros are, but they expect results over night. The truth is before you can expect any results your body is going to need to adapt to the change you are putting it through. Typically most people even gain a few pounds during the first few weeks because of the body retaining water and also being swollen from working out. Here is a great article on a more detailed reasoning of the process. If after a month you are not seeing results then re-evaluate your calorie intake and adjust your macros according too. Always remember even though the scale doesn't show weight loss it doesn't mean your not losing fat. To be honest I feel the scale causes more harm then anything. So many people fall victim to weighing them self every day and get frustrated with the weight fluctuation then give up, especially if they drop tons of weight every week for the first month and then only a few pounds or so the following weeks.. I recommend weighing your self once or twice a month but also keeping track of your body measurements to get he best accurate results!
Set your goal in small increments. If you have 100 pounds to lose, set your goal in 10 pound increments. Tell yourself that every 10 pounds you lose you can reward yourself with a day off and eat some food you have been missing. This method will be more rewarding and keep you engaged longer on achieving your goal.
Big thanks for taking the time and reading my blog. Please feel free to follow me the other forms of social media, links are to the right. If you have any questions or need some advice please feel free to message me or comment on the page.
Set your goal in small increments. If you have 100 pounds to lose, set your goal in 10 pound increments. Tell yourself that every 10 pounds you lose you can reward yourself with a day off and eat some food you have been missing. This method will be more rewarding and keep you engaged longer on achieving your goal.
Don't Get Discouraged
Point blank, there are going to be days were you fall off the wagon and indulge in the sweet deliciousness of junk food. ITS OK! If this never happens to you, you are not human my friend. When it happens, accept it and move on. There is no need to bring yourself down for having pizza for dinner or eating some greasy fast food, or maybe even downing a family sized bagged of BBQ chips. The negativity is whats going to cause you to fail completely and give up. Stay positive and use any frustration or anger you have and kick it into gear for your next workout.
If you step on the scale and don't see any changes or maybe even a slight gain, that is ok as well! Fist evaluate whats going on. Take some measurements to determine the gain. If your diet and exercise is still spot on chances are you gained muscle. Take a picture of yourself and compare it to the first picture you took when you started your journey. After comparing your results let it sink in how far you have come along and its not worth giving up.
Changing your lifestyle into the world of fitness is not easy. At least once a month you will feel like you have not gotten anywhere and your just wasting time. But let your and goals progress sink in of what you accomplished so far. Worse case scenario if you have not accomplished must, at least you know your living a more active and healthy life style. That alone should be enough motivation to keep going. So what if you cant run a 6 minute mile, or bench 200+ pounds, or even get through a 1 mile walk. YOU are living a more healthier lifestyle and that alone is a huge win!
Big thanks for taking the time and reading my blog. Please feel free to follow me the other forms of social media, links are to the right. If you have any questions or need some advice please feel free to message me or comment on the page.
