Tag Archive for: #wonderfullyfit

Weight Loss Advice

Jump Start the Scale With These 7 Easy Tips For Weight Loss

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If your scale needs a jump start to get moving down then you will find these 7 easy tips for weight loss just the thing you need.

You might be doing a lot of things right already, use these tips to bring everything together and get better results.

weight loss

1. Keep a food journal.

This is a great way to get accountable and research shows it can double your weight loss.

2. Look for opportunities to move more.

If finding a half hour block to exercise is tough then commit to taking the stairs, walking around the parking lot or doing a set of deep knee bends when you are getting ready in the morning.

3. Shift your carbs out of the evening.

You might be sabotaging your weight loss every night by eating carbohydrates before bed. These food cause a spike in insulin which can prevent fat burning while you sleep.

4. Replace those carbs with a protein or veggie snack.

Snacks that are protein or vegetable based do not cause a strong rise in insulin and make better late night snacks.

5. Eat mindfully.

Mindless eating can account for hundreds of “unseen” calories. When you eat remove your distractions by turning off the TV and computer.

6. Don’t drink your calories.

Calories from drinks add little nutritional value, do not fill you up and pack on the pounds.

7. Eat a salad with lunch and dinner.

A simple side salad can fill you up, add fiber to your diet and keep your digestive system running smoothly.

 

Workout Routines

Finding The Right Workout Routines To Build Muscle

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There are 3 golden rules to building muscle. Eat right, sleep right and exercise right. And most focus in the body building world is on the exercise rule. Finding the right workout routines to build muscle consumes so much time of amateur muscle builders’.

The truth is that equal focus must be put on your diet and rest, but that discussion can be left for a different article. This article will stay true to its title and help you find the right workout routines to build muscle.

muscle

If you’re eating right and sleeping right, almost any exercise routine should show results and help you put on considerable amounts of muscle. However, there are certain prerequisites that all work out routines must satisfy before you can put on muscle and get the maximum out of your gym time. Most important is the intensity with which you train which is affected by your rep and set number, your work out speed, your break length, and the weights you lift. For workout routines to build muscle, ensure that these following criteria are satisfied.

There are all sorts of myths out there like, high reps and low weight is for burning while high weight and low reps is for gaining, and work out longer and you will gain more muscle and so many more. One article isn’t enough for me to give you all the information you need to know about these myths and why they are nonsense, however, I will tell you how to go about doing things.

First of all make sure that the routine you’re doing isn’t overworking your muscles. Your muscles need a lot of time and energy to heal and grow, and working out for too long will drain them and cause muscle fatigue which is not what you want. So keep your work outs short and frequent with sufficient breaks in between.

To get the most out of these short gym sessions, keep your rest periods at a minimum and push beyond your limits. You can vary your rep and set range but for maximum muscle gains it has been found that a rep range of 8-12 is best.

When it comes to the weight go as heavy as you can, and try to find yourself a gym partner to help you with this. Also work out routines to build muscle come in all forms. Some maybe full body work outs while other’s are split body. Don’t focus on just one of these. Keep switching every few weeks so that your body doesn’t reach a plateau.

Keep your work outs intense, push heavy weight, take fewer breaks and switch your routines to keep your body guessing. Do all this along with the right type of diet and rest and your workout routines to build muscle will work better than they ever have before.

Wonderfully Fit

Eating What You Want To Lose More Weight

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This may seem ridiculous, but the fact of the matter is that you shouldn’t ban yourself from eating the foods that you want to eat if you are attempting to lose weight. Sure, you can ultimately work toward seeking out healthier alternatives, but banning these foods entirely is very dangerous.

When we put these stressful limitations on ourselves, a lot of the time it is far more than our psyche can handle and we end up not only craving these foods, but binge on them, which is far more unhealthy than allowing yourself a moderate portion of the food you are craving in a safe and controlled environment!

eating

Instead of torturing yourself by eating things you don’t want when you know very well that what you are craving is something else, you should find a compromise that you can live with, for example, if you have an addiction to fast food, rather than eating it every single day a week, perhaps you can cut down your fast food intake to once per week rather than trying to cut it out entirely. That way you are still getting what you want without going overboard in a way that is far more unhealthy and detrimental to your health.

It is highly recommended that you begin to actively seek out healthier alternatives to unhealthy foods, but sometimes nothing will ever really beat the thing that you are craving. There are times when it is okay to eat an unhealthy food in moderation. It is still your life; you should be allowed to do what makes you the most happy. As long as you are being responsible and only doing so in a way that is not going to take back all the progress you are trying to make, you shouldn’t put too many restrictions and limitations on yourself.

Your body will punish you for it and you may end up doing something even more unhealthy than you would should you have just given in to a craving. That being said, always make sure that what you are eating is done in moderation. If you are drinking enough water throughout the day, you will probably find that your appetite is not quite as voracious as it used to be. Drinking water is a good appetite suppressant, and it can help you in your efforts at portion control and staving away cravings for foods that you know to be unhealthy for you.

If you are going to break the rules, do it right by making a new rule. Eat whatever you want! Just do it in moderation. Make smart and healthy choices. Don’t do things that you will ultimately regret, and have little bites of things you know will be bad for you. Provided you are not physically suffering, say, a diabetic eating a big slice of cake that is laden with sugar, then you shouldn’t put too many restrictions on yourself and your diet. The best way to create a foolproof diet plan is to make sure you are accounting for everything; including your happiness!

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Reasons Why New Year’s Fitness and Weight Loss Resolutions Fail

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Every year millions, if not billions of people make New Year’s Resolutions to eat right, get fit & lose weight – and most have abandoned them by March 31st at the latest.

Here are the top reasons for their failure and how YOU can avoid making these same mistakes year after year.

resolutions

1) Fitness, Health & Nutritional Habits

Before you even set your fitness goals or weight loss goals for the new year, you first need to understand how you got into the shape you’re currently in. Unless you have a chronic condition or have suffered a major accident, you’re not a victim of anything – and no one else caused you to be out of shape or overweight.

It’s imperative that you understand it’s your personal habits that led you to your current state. You made choices all along the way, and the choices you made over and over became your default – your habits. Your habits led to your current lifestyle – what you eat, how much and how often you exercise, and what body-weight and fat percentage you’re willing to carry around with you every day.

That’s the bad news, so now here’s the good news: YOU created those habits, and YOU can change them starting right now, today! Changing your exercise habits or nutritional habits starts with small choices – and over time those choices add up. Plus, when repeated over and over they become your new habits. Yes, this means you need to put a little more thought into routine daily tasks. But you’re not satisfied with your current state of health, your fitness or your current body fat levels or you wouldn’t be making these New Year’s Resolutions. So put in that extra thought and make the choices that help you keep these promises to yourself!

2) Not MAKING Time To Exercise

When it comes to working out you don’t take the time – you MAKE the time. One of the few universal values we all share is that we all have the same 168 hours per week, and we all get to choose what we do with those 168 hours. Think of people Like Donald Trump, Richard Branson, Tony Robbins, Louise L. Hay or Les Brown and all they accomplish in any given week – yet they only have the same number of hours that week as you do. The busiest and laziest people you know have 168 hours a week too.

The only difference between them and you is priorities – you use your time in proportion to the importance you give each activity. So if getting in shape, being healthy and weight loss are sufficiently important to you you WILL make the time for sufficient exercise to accomplish your goal of getting back in shape and staying in shape.

Don’t try to tell me you don’t have enough time – we all have the same amount of time, and you already know people in your situation who have time to hit the gym, go for a run or take exercise classes, don’t you? What you really mean is your current activities already fill your schedule, right?

And that’s the biggest reason exercise resolutions get broken year after year – trying to fit 3 – 5 workouts a week into an already over-crowded schedule. It’s like trying to pour another cup of water into a full glass – it won’t go in, but instead will make a mess, right? And that’s what happens when people try to add in exercise time to a full schedule – it makes a mess of their week.

So how do you solve this one? Simple. Decide what to take out of your schedule to make time to exercise. Look for the obvious time-hogs first: watching television, spending too much time on the Internet, playing computer games, hitting the bars and clubs, etc. Everyone I know spends time at at least one of those four, and I assume the same can be said about you, right? So now you have to decide where you’ll trim the time for 3 or more exercise sessions per week.

Remember, the decisions need to be made based on your priorities – is your health more important to you than those reality shows, time on Facebook and Google+, beating the next level of WOW or knocking back a few drinks at the bar quite so often? For best results, don’t eliminate anything you truly love to do, or you’ll harbor resentment towards your workouts and your own subconscious will sabotage your workouts.

Instead, cut out what you really don’t care about and if you need to make more time still then trim back the activities you enjoy just enough to free up the time you need. Taking just 20 minutes a day from each of 3 leisure pastimes gives you that hour a day, as does skipping a single TV show a day. You already have the time… Now just free up enough of it for your exercising – and decide in advance where the time’s coming from so there’s no conflict each week.

3) Not Setting A Realistic Pace

Let’s look at a common pair of weight loss and fitness goals: losing 20 pounds of body fat next year and adding 20 pounds of muscle next year. Either one can make a major change in your health and body image while boosting your self-confidence and energy levels. The biggest problem is far too many people suddenly jump into the gym and start lifting weights life a fiend to build muscle fast, or drastically cut their calorie intake thinking they need to drop all 20 pounds in the first month or two. If you did either of these last year, how did you measure up at the start of this year? If you’re like most people, you were even further from your goals this year than last.

The issue here isn’t your goals – both are reasonably achievable. The issue is a sudden change in your diet and/or exercise routine. Why the rush? In most cases it took years to get to the shape you’re currently in, so don’t try to change it overnight! To lose 20 pounds next year, start with a single small change to a healthier diet each week. To add 20 pounds of muscle, start light with the 7 compound exercises and add 1 more rep to each set each week and add 1 new exercise a month.

Even if you didn’t start to see any weight loss or muscle gain in the first 7 months, you’d still only need to drop 1 pound of fat or gain 1 pound of muscle per week from August on to still meet your goals for the year. Put another way, gaining or losing just 1/2 a pound a week throughout the year would be 26 pounds for the year – you’d have surpassed your goal by 30%. Getting and keeping a healthy lifestyle is a life-long pursuit, so remember that health, fitness and weight maintenance are marathons, not sprints.

4) Not Setting Reasonable Goals

Sure, every woman at some point wants to be a size 0 and every guy wants to become a Herculean champion. But for most people that’s just not going to happen no matter what they do. We’re all born with pre-set genetics that, to one extent or another, predetermine what our ultimate limits are. But the good news is everyone can still do an awful lot to improve themselves before hitting those top limits – in fact, very few people, including pro athletes, never reach the point where they find out what their limits are.

So set reasonable goals, based on where you’re at now. If you’re planning to lose weight, find out what your body fat levels are and plan to lose 10% or 25% of that over the year. Notice I didn’t say a percentage of your weight, but a percentage of your body fat. This is important because your body has a lot of weight it needs – muscles, organs, skeletal bones, blood, brain and the like.

So for example if you have 30% body fat and you weigh 250 pounds, your fat weighs 75 pounds and your goal would be to lose 7.5 to 19 pounds over the year. If you weigh 120 pounds with 30% body fat, your fat weighs 36 pounds and your goal would be to burn off 3.6 to 9 pounds.

If you’re lifting weights to build muscle or build strength, the idea is even simpler. Don’t say ‘I want to gain X pounds of lean muscle’ or ‘I want to squat/dead-lift/bench X pounds’. Instead, aim for the best gains you can safely and reasonably achieve. The best you can do with no drugs, proper form, strict lifting without using momentum, etc.

To build the muscle, try to add 1 rep to each set each week while increasing the weight you’re using once a month. To build strength, add a bit more weight to each of your work sets any time you can while still maintaining proper form. Either way, don’t get hung up on the weight being used or drawn into comparisons with others – focus just on your personal progress as the year progresses.

5) Not Enough Self-Confidence

When one sets realistic goals to build muscles or lose weight and truly believes they can achieve and over-reach those goals it’s easier for them to stay on track. For others, though, it’s common for them to seek refuge in the ‘knowledge’ that they couldn’t reach their goals no matter what they did. How often have you heard someone say “I’ve tried everything and nothing works!”? The truth is NO ONE has tried EVERYTHING.

Overcoming this one is tougher since your self-talk programs your subconscious, which in turn controls your urges and confidence. If you’re one of these people, find an accountability coach such as a weight loss coach or a personal trainer. Knowing they’ll give you a hard time if you miss a session, that they’ll be expecting you to show up and that you’ll be paying for their time whether you show up or not will greatly increase the chances you’ll stay on track.

Another option is to find someone with similar goals to lose weight or build muscle and keep each other on track. You’ll still need some self-discipline to show up when they don’t – don’t use their actions as permission to slack off yourself! And be prepared to replace your partner, or add in another person, if you find they’re not as committed as you are – no one but YOU should be setting your pace or be in charge of your results.

Wonderfully Fit

Dieting Tips and Tricks to Help You Lose Weight and Keep it Off

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Dieting can be one of the most difficult things for us to do, which is why it should be something that we are able to make as easy as possible. We all want to lose weight at times, and integrating certain strategies can allow you to become far more successful in your weight loss journey.

If you want to lose weight and keep it off, first of all you are going to have to stop using the word dieting. No, you are not changing your food habits and choices temporarily to achieve a result that will quickly become corrupted by falling back into the same old bad habits.

dieting

Instead, you are making a lifestyle change that you should implement now and maintain for the rest of your life. Don’t consider going on a diet to be a novel thing you do so that you can go back to a bad habit of unhealthy eating. Doing so is like asking for a whole slew of health problems further on down the line.

Instead, you should plan to change your life. Make a firm commitment to yourself and your health to make good and mindful choices about what you put into your body. And then research so you are able to succeed in doing so.

There are tips and tricks that can help you to begin formulating good habits that may end up helping you to lose the weight you want to lose. For example, instead of using large plates, you can use smaller ones in order to trick your brain into believing there is more food there. Make sure the foods you eat are high in fiber so that you are binding up excess waste and eliminating it with ease.

These fiber rich foods are often low in calories, such as fruits and vegetables, so you can eat as much of them as you want to. However, you should exercise caution when it comes to eating fruit. They still have natural sugars in them that can sometimes accumulate, especially if you are using them for juicing without consuming their fibers as well.

Something else many people don’t consider is alcohol intake. Alcohol is actually full of sugar and can dehydrate you, making it harder for you to lose weight and keep it off. Not only that, but it isn’t that great for the body in general.

Alcoholic beverages are high in calories and will make it hard to lose weight over the long term.
Keeping these tips and tricks in mind will ensure that you are making smart and healthy choices that start now but can last you the rest of your life. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you only need to eat healthy foods once your body starts to show that you have been eating poorly. No. the fact of the matter is that you want to be as healthy as possible, and if you aren’t then you will regret it. All bad choices tend to catch up, so make sure you are paving the way to a diet that is foolproof!

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5 Tips to Stay Motivated and Keep It

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Losing weight and becoming more fit is a couple of the most common New Year’s resolutions. New Years resolutions are talked about a lot. They are a great if you can stick to them. The key is sticking to them. Most people make them but don’t stick to them.

On average about 80% of New Years resolutions are not met. Why? For a couple of reasons. Being overambitious, not making a plan and going on willpower alone. The old statement is true, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

motivation

Plan to succeed with these 5 tips to help you stay motivated and meet your New Years resolution goals.

1) Show yourself some mercy

When attempting to make positive changes in your life you will at some point have a setback. When you have setbacks don’t get down on yourself. Don’t let a setback cause you to stop you from meeting your goals. Use the setback as motivation to push even harder than before.

2) Stop Making Excuses

Humans can be very resilient creatures. Look at the great shape professional athletes are in when they push themselves. The more you push yourself, the better results you will get. But a lot of people love to make excuses for why they can’t workout.

The most common excuse is “I don’t have time” or “I’m too busy”. Really? You don’t have 10 minutes? You can construct a quality workout that lasts 10 to 20 minutes around your schedule. The key is to get your heart rate up to burn calories and get your metabolism going.

3) Find Inspiration

Visit and talk to individuals that have already achieved success. You can learn a lot from people that have done what you are trying to do.

4) Keep an Eye on your Progress

Checking your progress is very important. You need to check your progress to see where you are doing good and also more importantly see what you need to improve on. You will only get better if you do this.

5) Keep Yourself Accountable

This is one of the most important things you can do to ensure your success when working on a New Years resolution. When you have an accountability partner to keep you accountable, you have someone to call you on your excuses and challenge you to do better.

An accountability partner will push you on days when you don’t want to work out. They will help you become a better person. A good kick in the rear from your accountability partner will definitely help you stay motivated. Having an accountability partner will help you get over the temptation to try to go on willpower. Doing that will get you in trouble, ten times out of ten.

If you are wanting to start the New Year healthier make a realistic New Years resolution. Use the tips mentioned to help keep your New Year’s resolutions and stay motivated. Get out and do what is necessary to meet your goals.

Wonderfully Fit

Eating More to Lose Weight

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Many people would be shocked to realize that eating more frequently is actually one of the greatest and most effective ways to lose weight. When we are stuck in a routine where we only eat food once or twice a day, our bodies begin to feel starved and they slow down the metabolism.

That makes it far more difficult for us to burn calories and lose fat. When we are not following a structured routine that gives our bodies predictable sources of nutrients, they have a tendency to try to hold on to the little nourishment they receive in order to keep us alive.

weight

Not only that, but eating regularly is beneficial to the metabolism. It keeps it fired up and ready to burn off any of the excessive fat we may have stored in our bodies. It is very important that we never skip eating breakfast, because breakfast truly is one of the most important meals of the day. It is what kick starts our metabolism and provides us with the energy that we need to make it through the rest of the day. And everything we eat has a consequence, so avoiding sugary foods like cereals and granola bars is probably the most beneficial, especially if weight loss is your ultimate goal.

Eating regularly is probably the opposite of what people who are dieting want to do. Most diet books have a tendency to make us want to count calories and cut out as many of them as possible in order to create a big enough deficit for drastic weight loss. But that is not the real solution. In fact, putting yourself into starvation mode that way can often cause long-term health consequences that actually make it nearly impossible to lose weight as you age, and then you will be really miserable with yourself.

Instead of only eating one or two meals per day, or worse, limiting your food intake to extreme levels, you should make sure that you are eating several meals. Simply cutting down your portion sizes and allowing yourself to eat small meals, about five per day, is one of the best ways to make sure that you are making your metabolism work for you rather than against you.

Another benefit of eating small, regular meals is that you will have less cravings for food throughout the day, which means you will not be prone to eating quick and convenient things that are bad for you. Rather than eating foods that are sabotaging your weight loss efforts, you can be making the conscious choice to eat more frequently so that you are not putting your body into starvation mode and causing your body further problems later on down the line.

Each of us has the power to change our lives for the better, and if we are making mindful choices that are good for our bodies, then we can be proud to know that we are creating a foolproof diet plan that will benefit us for years to come!

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Five Steps To Achieve Your New Year’s Resolutions

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What are your New Year’s Resolutions this year? To lose weight, buy a new house or car, further your education, or maybe meet that special someone? Whatever your New Years Resolutions are, you will be much more likely to achieve them if you set a system in place that you can follow on a daily basis.

Big dreams don’t manifest into reality overnight, but by taking small steps toward these dreams every day, little by little parts of the dream become reality.

Set Reasonable Goals

Every year you should begin by setting reasonable and specific goals. For example, if weight loss is a goal for you, you should start off by assessing how much weight you need to lose, and then setting a reasonable goal for the year, one that can actually be achieved. For example, given that it is healthy to lose a maximum of ten pounds per a month, no yearly goal should be set to lose more than one hundred and twenty pounds in any given year

. You should also set a specific amount of weight to be lost, although one hundred and twenty pounds is the maximum amount that can be loss, perhaps you want to lose only fifty, or twenty. A specific amount should be specified, don’t just have a vague, unspecified goal to lose weight vague.

The same is true for any other goal that you might set; you have to take into account, the time that you have to achieve your goal and the resources available to you in the pursuit of your goal. When you truly consider the time and resources at your disposal, you should be able to set a reasonable and specific goal in any area.

Break the Larger Goal into Smaller Ones

OK so, you’ve established your reasonable and specific goals for the year. Where do you go from there? Once the annual goals are set, next comes the process of breaking those larger goals down into smaller more manageable ones. Suppose a goal is to return back to school to further your education. A smaller goal, to be set for the first quarter of the year (January through March), could be collecting information on schools in your area that interest you and researching the various program offered at these schools.

It is very important to break the larger goal down into a series of smaller ones so that will progressively further the larger goal. If you set out a series of steps that need to be taken to reach the larger goal, the goal will seem less overwhelming, and much more manageable. Since this is a resolution for the year, it may be appropriate to break down the larger goal into twelve smaller goals for each month of the year. This is just a guideline; your goal may require more or fewer steps depending upon what the goal is.

Set Milestones

While you are setting goals it can’t hurt to also set milestones. Milestones are in between the larger goal that you’ve set for the year, and the smaller goals you have set for a shorter period of time. A milestone is an event that marks significant progress toward the goal. For example, if your goal is to lose fifty pounds, a significant milestone toward that goal could be twenty-five pounds. (Because you are half way there.) If you’re goal is to go back to school, as significant milestone might be completing all of your research and finally deciding upon a school and completing the admissions application. A milestone is a significant accomplishment that occurs on the way to your goal. You can revise your milestones (and for that matter your smaller goals) along the way. But what is important is always having some kind of plan in place. A plan that moves you along toward the goal.

Do at least Five to Ten Small Things Each Day to Achieve the Goal

This is probably the most important advice of all. Take small steps every day toward your goal. This is where goals are made or broken- in your daily routine! It is so easy to begin the New Year in full force, rushing toward your goals with such ambition and zeal! But then life happens. Other responsibilities get in the way-. Before you know it, you missed five gym workouts in a row and you are gaining weight because of it, or working late has prevented you from researching schools.

A slump in the housing market is hampering your house hunting or a glitch in your car loan approval process has gotten you frustrated! Once several days or weeks are missed, it is normal to become frustrated, and to want to abandon the goal all together! THIS YOU MUST NOT DO! It is human to fall off the wagon, but is even more important to get back on! Don’t waste time and energy putting your self down for opportunities missed. Just know that this is all apart of the process. Things do occur that get in the way of steady progress toward our goals. But these things can be easily overcome, if we get back on track as soon as possible and return to the daily habit of taking at least five small steps toward the goal every day.

Reflect Upon Progress

This is easy to do if you write down the small steps you take toward your goal every day. At the end of the week, or month, or whatever time period you are comfortable with, take a look at all of the work you have done toward the achievement of your goal. Evaluate the good decisions as well as the missteps. Perhaps you found the perfect house, made a bid on it, but lost it in a bidding war. Don’t be discouraged. Often times we can turn life’s disappointments into opportunities so long as we are willing to keep a positive attitude and learn from them. Stay focused and keep directing your positive energy to the achievement of your goals. Before you know it you will be reaching those significant milestones that you set earlier.

Reward Yourself for Reaching Milestones

This is very important! Celebrate each significant milestone you reach, don’t wait until you achieve the larger goal, milestones along the way are very important! Sometimes what ends up being even more important than the goal we set, is the journey that takes us there, the friends we meet along the way, and the growth we experience as a result of our efforts. Be sure to celebrate all of this! Following the five simple steps above, you just might even achieve your New Years Resolution before the years end. Wouldn’t that be cause for celebration? Even if you don’t, you will have learned so much just from the effort; enough to take you well into the next year’s resolutions successfully!

Wonderfully Fit

Finding the Routine that Works Best for You

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Some people struggle with routine while others thrive on it. When you are embarking upon a large lifestyle change, then being able to allow yourself the time out of your day to thrive is one of the most crucial elements of success.

It can feel impossible at times to stick to a specific schedule, especially if you are particularly scatter-brained. However, everybody can fall into a good routine, and one that will truly allow you a chance to thrive.

routine

If you struggle with creating a routine but would like to, there are some simple steps that you can take to make the transition from chaos into structure a little bit more manageable. First of all, don’t push yourself too hard. When you need to make lifestyle changes, do so gradually rather than attempting to make a lot of changes at once. One of the worst things you can do is to overload yourself with tasks and structure you aren’t ready for. Slow and steady wins the race, so begin by introducing new tasks slowly until they have become a second nature, then add in the next.

It can help to have an idea of what you want your day to look like. Take some time to visualize your goals and think about what it is that you hope to accomplish. Break it down into chunks and slowly integrate small tasks that will help you to get where you want to go. Once you have visualized your ultimate goal, then you will benefit from writing down the tasks that you need to achieve to get there, starting at the top and trickling down to the most trivial seeming of details.

The small details are where you are going to want to begin. You can add in one of these tasks every day to ensure that you are getting the most of your time. Write out a schedule for yourself and stick with it. It is especially important to begin with getting a good night’s rest and waking up at a similar time every day. Routines help the mind stay focused, and without focus, any goals will be hard to obtain.

If you are hoping to get yourself on a good routine to help to encourage your weight loss, then it is important for you to include time in the morning for you to either visualize your goals or to actually begin to exercise. You should make sure you have a great morning routine if nothing else, because how you feel in the morning can set the course for the rest of the day. Wake up at a good time, drink a glass of water, exercise, and prepare a healthy meal. All of these things are incredibly important on any weight loss journey!

Overall, developing a routine is easier than you might think. Don’t overthink it and don’t overload yourself with stimulating activities that you aren’t used to. Go slow and set your own pace, and you will quickly be on your way to developing a routine that is foolproof!

Wonderfully Fit Personal Training

The New You in the New Year

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How many times have you told yourself that this year you’re going to finally lose that weight or quit smoking or look for a better job? How often do you carry over your New Year’s resolutions from one year to the next? If you’re like most people, you come up with a long wish list of things you want to improve and try your best to make them happen during the year.

The problem is that not even a month goes by before you’ve already forgotten about most of your goals and are back to your old habits again. There are a few simple things you can do though, to help you stick to your plan.

year

Be Realistic

One of the biggest reasons we fail to accomplish our New Year’s resolutions is that we tend to set unrealistic goals. Wanting to lose 100 pounds and make more money and get organized and quit smoking all at the same time probably isn’t going to be very effective. To help you stick to your goals, you should pick one or two really important things you want to work on and focus exclusively on those, instead of trying to completely reinvent yourself in one year.

Also, be sure that your goal is actually attainable. If you have a heart condition and are in terrible physical shape and your goal is to climb Mount Everest before the end of the year, you may be in for some serious disappointment. This is not to say that you can’t set goals that really challenge you physically and mentally. It is simply important to be honest with yourself in regards to what you can and can’t accomplish. The last thing you want to do is set yourself up for failure.

Be Specific 

The next big problem is that most of our goals aren’t specific enough. While it may be okay to write “lose weight” on your New Year’s resolution list, this doesn’t tell you anything about how much weight or how you’re going to lose this weight. In order to make your resolution more effective, you need to be specific about what you want to accomplish. A better resolution may be “to lose 1 pound a month throughout the year,” or “to go to the gym at least twice a week before work.” The more specific you are about your goal, the more solidified it will be in your mind.

Be Task Oriented

It’s great to want to lose weight, but how are you going to accomplish it? I can almost guarantee you that the weight’s not just going to melt off of you on its own. So, what do you need to do to make this goal a reality? For each resolution you have on your list, write at least ten action items that you must do to accomplish your goal. Here is a sample list to help you get started.

Resolution: “Lose 1 pound a month throughout the year”

Be Strong

One of the reasons people fail with their resolutions is that they don’t adequately foresee the obstacles they may face along the way.

Be Forgiving

You won’t always hit your mark on the first try. As soon as you realize that you’ll most likely have some good days along with some bad days, you can stop beating yourself up when you’re in a slump. Forgive yourself when you stray off the path and find ways to encourage yourself to get right back on. Blaming or feeling negatively towards yourself will only make matters worse and make it harder to finish what you so boldly started. Instead, figure out what got in your way and come up with a revised plan of action to achieve your goal.

Be Happy!

This is the most important thing to remember. All that we do in life is in vain if we’re not happy. If you’re absolutely miserable doing your resolution, you’ll not only find it more difficult to stick to, you’ll also build up more resentment towards it. This in turn, will make you even less likely to ever finish the goal. Of course, some times we have to do something for health reasons that may seem terrible in the short term, but that will bring happiness at a later time. I believe strongly that to accomplish anything in this world, you have to have the right attitude. Life is short and you should choose resolutions that will enhance your life by making you healthier and happier.

As the Vulcan saying goes, “Live long and prosper.”