Over the years I have learned a lot about exercise and nutrition by personal experience, trial and error, and wide reading and I would like to share with you what I have learned along the way. Following these suggestions will help you advance towards your goals. But remember, even the best plan is useless if you don’t stick to it.
- Have a goal and remind yourself daily what it is. As the old adage goes “fail to plan, plan to fail” a body transformation is all about planning. Planning your nutrition, workouts, water intake, etc Think of it like taking a trip to a place that you have never been to before, you don’t just get in the car and start driving around (let’s pretend it is 2003 and you don’t have a smartphone with GPS) you get a map and plan your journey, that’s what a goal is, your end destination. Once you have visualized your goal and you know what you want to achieve, write it down and put it in a conspicuous place. I put mine on a 3X5 index card and tape it to my bathroom mirror. One other word about goal setting, your goal should be specific and obtainable. Your goal should also be achievable within a reasonable amount of time. I remember being 18 years old and thinking if I really work out hard I could look like Arnold Schwarzenegger in six months, um… not going to happen. Losing a pound of body fat by next week, or dropping a dress size is achievable and you should commit to your goals. You should set goals short term, about a month or two, medium term about six months, and long term 1-3 years.
- Do not weigh yourself every day. Once a week is fine, but make sure you do so first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. Your weight will fluctuate greatly due to water retention caused by sodium consumption. A more useful gage of progress is the mirror. When you start seeing results in the mirror this will be more significant than a number on the scale. Keep track of your progress using a progress log. You might also want to take transformation pictures along the way. Sometimes we forget what we looked like when we started, and it is very motivating to see the changes over a period of time.
- Enjoy the process. A total body transformation should be a long-term goal, it is a marathon not a sprint. Do not expect to look like a fitness model in the next few months, your transformation is about you, not someone else. Each of us was created by God to be exceptional, and we have unique genetics, as a result your body will respond to diet and exercise differently. You are going to have to experiment along the way to figure out what works best for you. That is why your transformation will be both art and science. Remember if the journey were easy you would see a lot less obese people, transforming your physical appearance will require you to reprogram your brain as well, it will be difficult, but nothing worth having ever comes easy. Remember if Christ put transforming your body on your heart, then he has already equipped you to face this challenge.
- You will mess up. You will have those days in which you don’t feel like exercising or sticking to your nutritional plan, the key is to pick yourself up, and start again where you left off. One bad day of eating is not going to send you back to square one, but you should try to understand why you did what you did. In other words try to figure out your “triggers” and have a plan in place for when you are in that situation again. For example, if someone at your workplace brings cookies to work every Friday and you find yourself compelled to eat as many as you can, put a plan in place to deal with this trigger. You could have a protein shake, eat an apple or munch on some almonds to help you weather the storm.
- Drink water and lots of it. Water will help you keep hydrated but it will also help in fat loss by keeping you feeling full and by assisting in the metabolic processes associated with burning fat. Water consumption is also important to keep your body functioning properly and helps eliminate toxins.
- Give yourself a reward for staying on track. You will need to have a psychological release from the calorie restriction and healthy eating, plan on a cheat meal as a “pat on the back” for a job well done. Your cheat meal will depend on you, in terms of how long you can diet before needing one, I would start by having no more than two cheats a week. The key here is to plan them and to not go overboard. You want to satisfy your sweet tooth or craving for a cheeseburger, but not eat the entire value menu. Your will power or commitment to your goals will be strengthened over time just like your muscles. In the beginning you will not have very much of it, but as you experience success in your transformation journey you will notice that it will become easier to say no to those temptations. This is your mind growing stronger!
- Diet alone is not enough. You must exercise, and preferably incorporate some kind of resistance training. There are several reasons for this, the first being it is important for overall health. I am sure you have heard the expression “use it or lose it” and that is exactly what happens with our muscles, if they are not used they become weaker, and unfortunately the older we get the quicker this happens. Muscles are what give shape to our bodies, if you are looking for that lean and sculpted look than weight resistance training is exactly what the doctor ordered, don’t worry training with weights or other forms of resistance such as exercise bands and your own body weight will not make you big and bulky like a bodybuilder, instead you will find this kind of training will tone your muscles and make them stronger. Have you ever heard of skinny fat? This is what happens when people are not necessarily overweight, but carry a high percentage of bodyfat without discernible muscle tone. In addition weight resistance training will help you burn more overall calories throughout the day. It will do this by using energy to perform the exercises but the benefits will continue long after you have put the weights down due to the “afterburner effect.” This means that your body will continue to burn calories after the workout, in fact weight training has shown to be much more efficient at burning body fat than long drawn out cardio vascular workouts. Lastly, think of muscles as the body’s engine. Like a car, your body needs fuel to run just like an engine needs gas, the larger the engine the more fuel is consumed. Therefore the more muscle you have as a total percentage of your body, the more calories you will burn, even in a resting state!
- The best diet and exercise program is the one you will stick with.
