friday::FITNESS

Consistency Counts

Fitness. It's on everyone's brain. I mean, it's January - the most popular month for exercise thanks to New Years resolutions. But what if there were some tips that would help us not fizzle out on our goals by February? Thankfully, there are.

It's so impor­tant to find a work­out that you enjoy. If you played sports in high school and miss those days of con­di­tion­ing, a boot­camp style work­out may be a good fit for you. If music moti­vates you, maybe jog­ging, walk­ing, or run­ning out­side with you iPod is bet­ter. If you pre­fer weights, you can con­cen­trate on strength train­ing. If you used to cheer or dance, there are dozens of dance work­outs avail­able. Activ­i­ties you dread are easy to dis­miss, but you will always be more con­sis­tent with things you like to do. (Con­tact me if you want to talk fur­ther about a plan that is right for you - I love helping people find their soul mate workout!)

Write it down. Sched­ule your work­outs just like you would book a meet­ing at work. If you plan to work out on your lunch break and a co-worker asks you to go to lunch, say you’ve already got an appoint­ment. You do — with your­self! Would you back out of an impor­tant meet­ing at the last minute just because you didn’t feel like it? Hope­fully not. Plan your work­outs a week in advance, write it down in your cal­en­dar, and stick to it.

Get account­abil­ity from a fit­ness pro­fes­sional. Before you argue that you don’t have enough money to hire a per­sonal trainer, what if I told you you could get help at no addi­tional cost to you? Join­ing my website makes me your FREE fit­ness and nutri­tion coach! Together, we will develop a fit­ness and nutri­tion plan that com­ple­ments your pri­or­i­ties, your goals, your sched­ule and your budget.

Con­sis­tency involves con­sis­tently chang­ing up your rou­tine. If you con­tinue to do what you’ve always done, you’ll con­tinue to get the same results. So, if you want your body to change, you’ve got to change some­thing you do. For exam­ple, I teach strength train­ing classes. I have a few peo­ple who rarely miss a week. They are extremely con­sis­tent. But some of them are still using the same weights they were using a year ago, and their bod­ies aren’t chang­ing. Few gym frus­tra­tions are worse than putting in the time to work­out with­out see­ing results. Make a com­mit­ment to change some­thing every­time you work out. Lift heav­ier. Wear weighted gloves to kick­box­ing. Run on incline. You don’t have to change your activ­ity — just make small adjust­ments to your routine.

Have a "why" that is deeper than a smaller pants size. Sure, losing weight will be good motivation for a while, but after the a few weeks, the weight doesn't come off as quickly. Instead of focusing on the scale, make the reason you work out to be a healthier mom to your children or a better partner in ministry to your spouse. Those things are closer to your heart and will motivate you much more than any number.

Happy New Year!

Let's do this,
Michelle

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