The best way to jump-start is to start. Yes seems simple but can be super hard. The biggest reason it’s so hard to do is your mind guilt trips you. So you play the start tomorrow game. Tomorrow comes and you start the next day. A week has passed and then before you know it a month, and then a year….You are still at the same weight or worse you are at the same weight. So don’t start later, start now.
The Time is Now for a Workout
So if you are contemplating if you should start today, that answer is wrong it’s called start now. You can really do a number on your psyche by literally listing everything wrong you ate. Even if it’s 7pm you still have time to make better decisions. Own your guilt. Know you made a bad choice in what you consumed and literally make the very next decision better.
Reset in your Workouts
So instead of harping on the Snickers you ate, the next thing you consume could be a piece of fruit and some water. It’s really that simple. Don’t go and eat that donut after the Snickers and then say oh well what’s done is done. You are in control of what you eat. Trust me you want to master this now, before the holidays come in and by New Years you will be defeated making another New Year’s Resolution.
Here are a few tips in getting started right away:
- Own your food-write it down. You can use a notebook or an app but write it down. The more you own it and can see what damages you are doing the better at fixing it.
- Change what you are consuming right away. Replace, replace, replace. If you really love something so bad you feel that you must have it, than replace it with a much healthier version. For some it may be taking a king size to a bite size and truly sticking to the smaller size. Or it could be finding healthier ingredients to achieve the same purpose. I have a sweet tooth so to combat that especially with things like ice-cream I choose Halo Top and add fresh fruit instead of chocolate candies and syrups, and only scoop out enough for a cup. The replacement is to calm the sweet tooth but not having to eat all of the small pint in one sitting. Also not eating out of the Halo Top container helps me control the portion.
- Switch up your workouts. I used to only rely on cardio, and cardio is good but adding weights and resistance is good too. Variety also is necessary to achieve any goal. Your body will get used to the same ole thing and if you switch it up, it tricks the body into performing at its best. This is why you see people talk about leg day vs arms. It’s all in the switch up.
- Get good music. Yes music is life. After while even with the shuffle feature you have to be able to make multiple changes to your workout music to get in done.
- Wear form fitting clothes when you work out even if you can’t wear tighter clothes in real life. When I first started Weight Watchers they instructed or at least my coach told us to wear form-fitting or tighter clothes. The reason, you see every lump and bump. If that don’t motivate you, nothing will. Wearing bigger clothes only makes you look that much more bigger. You can’t hide under baggy clothes. So for the first few weeks I looked horrible but I was out of the plus size clothes that were drowning me anyway. After time of wearing the clothes got so big I almost lost my pants at work and had to make a makeshift belt. That gave me a boost that was unbelievable and I kept on going.
- Get an accountability partner. Mine is my girl Kyla. She is a beast when it comes to working out. I hope to be like her when I grow up. In all seriousness, she literally pushes me because as she posts her videos and we video chat each other it reinforces the idea that for me to push past an excuse.
- Get Consistent-make the choice to love yourself enough to do it. It may seem small but do it. You are important for you not to fit in clothes, not just to look better, but because the world needs less of you in a better way. Every time I left my Weight Watchers meetings, my coach would say, see less of you next week. It wasn’t encouraging us to not come, it was encouraging us to bring less of ourselves the next week. The classes have ended but I still have another fitness coach that comes and weighs me weekly. This accountability is crucial for me to maintain.
- Know you can build in cheat days. This is good so you don’t diet. I am not for full dieting. I am for healthier lifestyle changes. At this point I know how many points I am eating for most of my items but I also know that every now and again I got to eat a little something I enjoy but just in smaller portions. I realized that some people will throw caution to the wind when they have cheat days. You can have in moderation what you want.
- Start now-I will keep saying this but the time to start is now. For me now it’s almost the end of my day, I have been eating the things I needed to but let’s say I hadn’t. At dinner I can control what I ate, start with that since that would be my next meal. Not stop at McDonald’s on my way home, get fries and start tomorrow. Just make a change now!
- Change what you have around you. Eating healthy is expensive. I would be lying if I said it wasn’t. Anyone could get me a 4 for $4 and be in hamburger heaven at Wendy’s. Instead go to Fresh Grocer or any other grocery store and spend 20 on fresh veggies, fruit, etc. I am always having to buy more to get more out of what I eat. However the benefits out weights my debit card swipes. If I add up my Starbucks trips over the years I could have been in model shape by now.
- Cut the excuse. I can say it’s easier for me to work out during my lunch time because my gym is attached to my job. However when that wasn’t an option I could use YouTube or my kids as weights. Yes, you have to be creative but if you want to look different from its time to get moving and make it count. So if that means waiting for your family to go down to get down and get that work out in, do it. If that means getting up at the crack of dawn, get it done. Especially for those making excuses before the Winter comes. All the fresh Fall air and not one workout will be done and then Winter comes and it’s too cold. You will always have an excuse if that’s all you accept from yourself. It’s too cold, too hot, your too tired, you don’t have time, you need a partner, you can’t do some of the workouts, you are too big, can’t do big gyms, can’t do little gyms, how about accepting that the only word that is lost in translation is YOU. You can be your biggest cheerleader or your biggest hindrance. Choose wisely
SO today, right now, make a decision. It only takes one step towards bigger steps. It takes some moving things around but you can do it. The sad part is if you learned how to eat better even if you didn’t work out, you would lose the weight you wanted to. I mean not just changing a few things in your diet, but literally controlling how much or what you put in your mouth would change your life. I mean that in all ways….. Change RIGHT NOW!! Weight loss is more than just working out it’s a mindset change. It’s a lifestyle change.
