Most people dive right into weight loss, head first. They buy all the newest equipment and programs, pick up all the fad diet books and waste money on pills and gimmicks that do little more than dehydrate you or give you the runs. As we all know, most people don't lose weight. Or they lose weight and then gain back even more. The reason behind this high failure rate is simple, you need to have a plan and most people go blindly down a path with the assumption that 'losing weight' is enough of a map to where they are going.
It's not.
When people ask me where they should start I generally direct them to caloriecount.about.com and tell them to start logging food and walking a little everyday to get active. Today I'm going to get more in depth about how to begin a weight loss program and setting yourself up to succeed.
Step 1: Buy a Notebook
I understand that while I prefer the online method of tracking food, a lot of people don't want to take the time or get that in depth with it. So I suggest a notebook to start out with. It's simple, always available and less intimidating and discouraging than seeing all the numbers and math that goes into tracking.
Now this notebook can be as elaborate as you want it to be. A small notebook would work best for someone who is going to be eating outside of the house a lot as writing down your food as soon as you finish is important. We tend to 'forget' what and how much we eat if we don't write it down right away.
I personally have a $3 college ruled spiral notebook I got from Meijers.
It's my handy-dandy NOTEBOOK!!!
Step 2: Set goals
The first things that you should write in your new notebook are your goals. As simple as this sounds, this is where most people set themselves up for failure. If I asked you what your goals are right now, your answer is probably one of the following or some variation thereof:
1. I want to lose weight.
2. I want to be healthy
3. I want to tone up
4. I want to look good.
As far as reasons to start being active go, these are good reasons. When combined with other goals they are even pretty decent, but alone they suck.
Effective goals should be SMART. And by that I mean they should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. In other words a good goal should be something like 'I will lose 20 pounds by August 31st'
This goal is specific in the amount of weight you want to lose, it's attainable (assuming you have actually have 20 pounds to lose!) it's measurable because you can track the number on the scale, it's relevant for you if your original goal was to look good, be healthy or to lose weight and it has an expiration date of August 31st.
Now that you have set a SMART product goal you need to break it down into smaller, process goals.
Your process goals should be SMART as well, but instead of being one or two goals that you work towards overall these are smaller goals that you want to work at everyday, or weekly.
Examples of process goals to work towards your product goal of losing 20 pounds by August 31st would be
1. Keep a food journal everyday.
2. Walk for 30 minutes everyday
3. Eat 1800 calories a day.
4. Lift weights 3 times a week.
These process goals are specific. They are measurable in that you can track them and see your progress. They are attainable since most everyone can do any one of those goals if they put their mind to it. They are relevant to your product goal and they are time-bound both in the frequency (everyday, 3 times a week) and by the product goals time frame.
Once you decide on your goals write your product goals on the first page of your notebook, followed by your process goals. Whenever you start to feel yourself slipping off of the wagon having your goals clearly written out somewhere always accessible will help you remember what you're working towards, the same as a map will help you figure out where you're going when you're lost in an unfamiliar place.
In part 2 I will discuss the importance of Contracts and Rewards
No comments:
Post a Comment