Well, it’s that time of year again. After the presents are unwrapped and the ornaments put away, we get down to the business of removing those holiday pounds through that ever popular New Year’s Resolution. We say it with conviction. Some of us even write it down lest we forget 5 days in what we promised ourselves. “This year, I swear, I am going to go on a diet and start exercising to lose this weight.”
But after so many years of the same resolution that never comes to fruition, you start to sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher, even to yourself. “Wah, wah, wah, wah wah.” After countless fad diets, and a fortune in gym memberships and exercise equipment (all neatly tucked away in one corner of your bedroom) you are still the same weight, or you’ve even expanded a bit and you feel like you are climbing a mountain where the harder you climb, the further away the summit gets.
But it can be done. You can make the resolution this year and actually stick to it. You can achieve your weight loss and fitness goals by following these rules. We will call them the 10 commandments of achieving your New Year’s Resolution.
1. BELIEVE YOU CAN DO IT. How many times have you said to yourself, “I’ll never be thin again,” or “I’ll never have the body I had in high school,”? If you don’t believe you can achieve a goal then you might as well not even set it because you’ve already defeated yourself. You must get your mind right. You must say to yourself, “Yes I absolutely can and will lose this weight.” And then you have to believe it.
2. SET A REALISTIC EXPECTATION. Whether you have 20 pounds to lose or 200 pounds to lose, you must realize your limitations. First of all, it is not healthy to drop 200 pounds in a few months. If you are considering some kind of gastric bypass or lap band surgery, please reconsider. There are ways to steadily drop weight and be healthy at the same time. You must educate yourself on what is good for you and realistic.
3. DON’T BUY INTO ALL THE FAD DIET/EXERCISE HYPE. If 50% of your body weight is from fat, you aren’t going to get a six pack in 6 weeks using the Bender Ball. It’s not that all of the ads for exercise equipment or workout videos are bologna, but you must be able to weed out the hype from actual factual statements. You may lose 10 pounds in 10 days like the diet ad says, but most of it will be water weight and as soon as you start eating normally again, you will put most if not all of that weight back on. Education is the key in building and maintaining a weight loss program.
4. MAKE IT A PRIORITY. As a trainer, I’ve heard every excuse in the book for missing a session. “My sister’s boyfriend’s cousin has just gone into labor.” “I have cramps.” I hurt my pinky toe at the last session and I’m giving it time to heal.” Or my very favorite, “I’m just having a bad morning and don’t feel like it.” If your sisters boyfriend’s cousin just went into labor, you have an hour before she pops that kid out. Get your butt to the gym. Exercise is good for cramps because it helps your blood circulate more freely thus relieving menstrual symptoms. Get your butt to the gym. If you are injured, you may have a valid excuse for staying out of the gym. But you better really be hurt. Muscle soreness comes with the territory and is not an excuse. A blister from running on the treadmill, not an excuse. Strap a bandaid on it and get your butt to the gym. And as for my favorite one, exercise relieves stress and tension and helps you take your mind off of everything else that’s going on. If you are having a bad day, that’s an excuse to go to the gym, not an excuse to skip it. Get there. No excuses. Just get there.
5. MAKE A PLAN. I plan to lose weight is not a plan. Surround yourself with people who know what they are talking about when it comes to fitness and nutrition. Believe me. You will get all the bad advice you can handle so you better have some folks around you who actually know what they are talking about. Get help from a trainer, nutritionist or fitness coach. If you don’t know anyone like that, ask your doctor. Ask a friend. Look in the yellow pages. Find the help you need because you will not be able to master it alone. A trainer can get you on an exercise schedule of cardio and weight training. And most are also proficient in nutrional guidelines to follow. If not, they know someone who is. Sit down with them and make your plan for success.
6. WORK YOUR PLAN. Once you’ve got a support system in place and they’ve helped you devise a plan, WORK IT. No excuses. If your plan says you do cardio every morning 5 days a week then your hiney better be on that treadmill 5 days a week. This commandment goes hand in hand with the fourth one. You must prioritize your life for your plan to be effective. If you don’t work it, then all your efforts thus far will be in vain.
7. DON’T THINK THERE IS AN EASY WAY. You didn’t put on all the extra weight in 3 weeks and it’s not coming off in 3 weeks. I don’t care what the TV says. It’s going to hurt and it’s going to be hard and there are days you will want to quit. Set your resolve, make it priority and power through the tough stuff. Or remain fat. There are no other options.
8. IDENTIFY THE HATERS. It is important for you to understand that there are certain people in the world, even those who love you, who will try to sabotage your success. We all know someone who is just negative and that person will say to you, “you’ll never lose that weight. It’s impossible.” They will poopoo every part of your plan and even when you begin to achieve your goals and those people begin to notice a difference in you, they will have something negative to say. “Oh you are getting too skinny,” or “you’ll never be able to keep it off.” These people are the enemy. I don’t care if it’s your mother, your brother, your husband or your very best friend in the entire wide world, you must resist the urge to believe what they tell you. Some are jealous and most just don’t know what in the hell they are talking about. Just smile and nod and head to your training session secure in the knowledge that jealously is the best form of flattery.
8. MAKE IT A LIFESTYLE. I used to hate that phrase, “lifestyle change.” The thing is, that is exactly what you have to do. You have to change the way you eat, the way you exercise, and most importantly, the value you put on your well-being. You must change the way you look at yourself in the mirror. You cannot settle and you cannot except failure from yourself. And you must do this forever. Once you’ve achieved the goal you set for yourself, you can’t revert back to hoho’s for breakfast. Everything must change.
9. DON’T SETTLE. So many times, I see people begin to achieve success and they decide when they are halfway there that its good enough and then they head right back down the path that lead them to obesity in the first place. As mentioned in the 8th commandment, you must change everything, or you are settling for nothing. Because if you revert back down that wrong road, everything you did to get even half way will negate itself.
10. REWARD YOURSELF. Don’t think that you are doomed to a life of lettuce leaves and endless hours on the elliptical machine. As you reach the pinnacles of your goals, reward yourself a little. Eat something bad once in a while, take a few days off from training to have a mini vacation. Work toward your rewards and use them to pull you along. Remember the ultimate reward will be looking and feeling better and knowing in your mind that you achieved what you set out to achieve. No excuses.
Julie Riggs MED RD LD
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