You’re asking and I’m listening! Seems all this talk about change has inquiring minds wanting to know how to start. Well, let’s talk about it…
As I stated in the beginning, this blog is to be interactive. I have lots of tips and I’ll put some down…but the real expert is YOU! You, that has started the journey to change. You, that has hit the road blocks, some small, some quite big. You, that has failed. You, that has succeeded.
Okay, the tips…you can go on and do a google search and get endless pages of tips. You’ve probably read a thousand articles giving a bazillion tips…but do you remember them? No…why…because it’s just a list of tips. How boring! So, I’ll give you tips my way…
Tips for the Mental Prep
A person does not wake up one morning and randomly decide to go do a 150 mile Ultramarathon. (Forrest Gump was a movie guys) They have to train both physically and more imporatantly, mentally. It is no different for the beginner…if they are not mentally ready, it ain’t happening.
1. Get over your fear of failure…you’re gonna fail…deal with it.
If you don’t fail, then how on earth can you improve? I’ll use myself as an example. I saw this exercise where you grab a set of weights, use them as grips, do a push up on them and then when you get to full extension you lift up one weight in a row type fashion. It just looked plain bada$$ and I was looking for new exercises to shake the routine up. I can assure you that the word “bada$$” was probably not what people watching me were thinking. I’m sure is was probably more in the relm of “Does she have any idea what she is doing?” The weights rolled, I was off balance…it was just plain ugly. But, after re-attacking the exercise over the next couple of weeks, I was rocking it out (well, at least in my mind) and it is now part of my regular routine.
2. Get the word “try” and “can’t” (yes, that included “cannot”) out of your vocabulary.
If you are in the act, are you really “trying” to do the act or are you actually “doing” the act. And if you are “doing” the act, then there is no way you “can’t” do it…because you are doing it! Follow?
As soon as you say “I’ll try” you are really saying “I’m afraid of failure, so I won’t fail if I only try”. See tip 1. When you say you are going to do it, you are saying you are going to put your best effort in to accomplish the task. That may mean you may meet the goal, surpass the goal, or…yep, you may not meet the goal. Again, see tip 1.
As far as “can’t”…unless you are dead, you can. Enough said.
3. YOU are in control of YOU!
Yes, folk this is true. No one has a gun to your head forcing the double cheeseburger/shake/pizza/name your vice down your throat. No matter how much the trainer you hired verbally “encourages” you, you still have to perform the lunges yourself. It’s not your husband/wife/dog/alarm clock’s fault that you didn’t get out of bed 30 min early to workout. These are all choices we make everyday. Be accountable to yourself and own your choices. And speaking of choices…
4. Choose to choose; stop depriving.
My husband tells me he knows when it is summer because I start asking who wants to go out for ice cream. It is one of my pleasures..and no not a guilty one. I have a kids cup size of my favorite ice cream. It’s enough to give me my fix, but not over do it. Do I have it everyday…no, not even weekly. But, when I want it I have it. It’s a choice I make. Do I over induldge here and there…oh yes, I’m far from perfect. This past week has been particularly hectic and we’ve lived off of pasta and pizza…far cry from our normal meals. When I realized this I didn’t freak out…it already happened. I just made a healthy salad for dinner and went back to our regular eating habits.
There is no right or wrong choices…just consequences (good or bad)to the choices you make. When it is time to make a choice, think ahead and honestly answer “Can I live with the consequences of my choice?”.
5. No one cares what you look like in a gym…no really, they don’t.
Ladies, this is geared more toward you. In my years of training I’ve had many females very nervous about going into the weight room for fear of someone seeing them workout. Let me assure you…no one is watching you. They are all to busy getting through their workout. Okay, I’m lying a little, people will watch you when you do something stupid; like the 130lb young gent that attempted to bench press 300lbs, only to have it immediately drop on his chest when he got it off the rack (I was impressed he was able to even do that). Yes, people will watch and that’s a good thing…two big guys saved him a trip to the ER. So, as long as you are not attempting dangerous feats, no one is watching.
Okay, we got the mind prepped up and ready to go! Now what’s the first step, you ask? Good question…there is not one first step for everyone. So, I’m going to offer up options as ways to start. It takes a couple weeks or maybe a bit longer to make the change a habit. So, my suggestion would be to make one change and do not go on to another one until the first change has become a habit.
1. Water, your BFF
It’s cheap, it’s everywhere and it’s needed to survive. Make the choice to replace your soda with water at a meal. Don’t give me the I-don’t-like-the-taste-of-plain-water-I-have-to-have-flavor line. That’s your addiction to sugar. Stick a lemon in it.
2. Move
Again, it’s a conscious choice. You’ve heard it all before…take the stairs, park far away from the enterance, do your work standing up, walk after meals, etc. Yep, all good advice. Here’s what I add, make it fun! If you’re going for a walk with the kids…chase them. Walking hills…run up one. Reward yourself…if you run up the hill you can walk down it (um, if you don’t run up the hill you have to do the consequence…run down it, or do push ups at the top). Oh and thank your body while your doing it.
The other thing I add, don’t worry about time or distance. That will come when you are in a regular routine. Just go for a walk with no set goal or go to the gym and and get familiar with the weights and machines. Do a body check and see how you are feeling. Feeling good, do a little more. Not so good, no worries…thank your body for what it did and do it again tomororw. However, keep in mind my mantra “Continue to move forward, never backward”. So, tomorrow walk an extra lap or do one more rep.
3. Eating
The problem with food, unlike other addictions is that you must have it to survive. So you can’t just completely avoid it. However, this is an area that can be tweeked, one change at a time.
Your pallet and body adapts to whatever you are feeding it. So, if it is salted/sugared processed fast food, you will crave salty/sweet processed foods. If it is unprocessed fresh foods, your will crave fresh, whole foods. When someone has a majority of their diet consisting of processed food, it is not shocking they don’t like fresh food…they can’t taste it! Their pallet is so accustomed to the tons of salt and sugar, to them fresh food has no flavor.
Needless to say this is something that will take time. The question is, where do you want to start? What choices are you willing to make? Maybe for some, creating a list of the nutritional changes you want to make is a place to start. Maybe that is too overwhelming for some. Bottom line, pick one thing you can do that will lead to a healthier lifestyle and stick with it. Eating fast food everyday…cut it down to 2 days a week, then 1 day, then monthly. Hate veggies…experiment…take one bite each time they are offered. Still eating Wonderbread…make one half a whole grain bread.
This list could go on and on and on…and I want it to…but I want it from all of you. What has worked/is working for you?
Great tips and points, thanks. One step and one day at a time.
Exactly Corina! I hope the post was helpful. If you can focus on a single change, it becomes a lot less overwhelming then to do multiple changes at once.
I’ve started doing some crazy things to incorporate fitness into my day after watching Jenna Wolf on NBC. She was showing tips like drop a jar of paperclips in your office and squat down to pick them up one at a time. By doing little things during the day I don’t even feel like I’m exercising yet I am seeing results.
One thing I do every morning is “counter push ups” while my coffee is processed in the Kurig. Here’s what I do – I put my coffee cup under the Kurig, hit start and then stand about 3 feet from counter so I can get a good angle and lean against the counter. I then push myself off the counter like a push up for about 15 reps while the cup fills. I then repeat to fill my big cup (we can discuss my addiction to that later) and do another set of counter ups. I am not strong enough to do many real pushups yet so this is a great way to get started. I can feel it in my arms and chest and it reminds me all day long that I am doing great and by feeling the twinge of muscle pain during the day it helps me make better food choices because I think, “I don’t want to ruin the work I’m doing.”
The other thing I do is squats or lunges while drying my hair.
Don’t worry if you aren’t doing an hour of a program. Take the first step and do something. Then do another.
What other tips do you guys have to include in my crazy kind of exercise?
I do the same thing! My toothbrush has a two minute timer on it, so I do squats while I brush my teeth.
Jenny I must say you truly inspire me. You have done so awesome, yes I have been following your journey and love reading about your accomplishments and struggles. The best part is you always incorporate your humor. Keep up the awesomeness.
In the past three years, I’ve had four surgeries to recover from. After the first, I was determined to get back in shape as soon as possible. I found four mothers who all wanted to prepare for a 5K. We took turns watching each other’s kids so we could all get our runs in. Two of us continued after the 5K and did a half marathon a couple months later. Then I had the second and third surgeries within three months of completing the half marathon. I was out for just over 5 months, and it was so much harder to get back in. First of all, I was far more de-conditioned than the first time, and I had months of physical therapy to get through before I was even allowed to break a sweat. I finally got back to running, but I didn’t even have time to get back to feeling really fit before the next surgery. After that surgery, it was REALLY hard to even start again. I felt like I’d been knocked back to square one so many times I’d never get to square two. I let it go. I let daily life fill every minute of my day until there was no room for exercise. Then one morning, I took out the trash. Seems simple enough, but my body was so weak from lack of exercise and from the assaults of the surgeries that I tore a disc in my back. (My back was not part of my previous health issues.) I couldn’t move. I got myself to the chiropractor by hanging on crutches, shuffling along with them and basically dragging my feet behind me. His words to me were “It’s bad. This could be surgical.” He urged me to wait one day before going to the specialist (who he was certain would immediately conclude surgery was necessary) and see if I felt better or worse the next day. If it was worse, I was to go immediately to the surgeon. Better, wait another day. I didn’t need surgery (Thank GOD) but it was two weeks, a lot of therapy and a massive back brace before I could walk without crutches. It healed, and I’m back in physical therapy. Again. The absolute hardest part for me is learning baby steps. I’m so used to being able to run as far as I want, lifting whatever weight I want… being IN SHAPE, that I don’t know how to work out without working HARD. My physical therapist has helped me with that some, but I will admit that my first run after my back injury was unsanctioned. (It was slow and easy, and I paid very close attention to my body the whole way.) I did my first “sanctioned” run on a treadmill at physical therapy yesterday. Thank you, Donna, for reminding me that the mental prep comes first. Keeping my head right would most likely have prevented my back injury, and keeping it straight now will help me get where I want to be without injuring myself again. Baby steps for sure.
I know that I absolutely love the thirty day challenges that you have placed on facebook. I have tried running and did two 5 k ‘s but runnning isn ‘t for me. You may want to put out there that walking is equally as good. I can attest to that because even at my size, I have walked two marathon’s both at Bar Harbor called the Mt Desert Island marathon. Training was hard but it was worth it. For those of us who don ‘t run, don’t underestimate your ability. Whatever exercise you do, be proud that you did it. Just remember “to thine own self be true”. Great work on your blogs. They ‘re great.
Very good point Lorraine! Jogging/running is not for every person for a variety reasons. Walking is an excellent alternative and intensity levels can be adjusted by manipulating factors such as speed and incline. Very impressed that you walked two marathons…way to go!!!!
Well I have started one step at a time. I have been walking and pushing myself a little further and faster each time. Mind you I’m not really walking distances yet, but feels good just to make myself get out there and go. I take my dog with me who is a pain in the abs (lol) to walk. Tonight I left a little later than usual, so it was getting dark and did not want to go my route this late, so I went half way and jogged on and off on the way back…feeling motivated.
Corina, that is AWESOME!!!! So, so, so proud of you! Bravo at increasing the intensity when you realized you needed to shorten your walk. Please keep us updated on your progress. This is what inspires others!