Wednesday, August 04, 2010

101 No Excuses Fitness Tips to Get Your Butt Out the Door

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Each Wednesday, I will be posting 10 of my own favorite fitness tips as part of my 101 tips for finding a place to start, smashing down those excuses and getting your (my) butt out the door. I'm starting this week with 10 and I'll follow each week with 10 more until I hit the magic number of 101, where they will all eventually end up in their home in my Fitness section up in the tabbies up there. And they start from the very, very, very beginning. From square one. From where I started, right near that place I remember as "rock bottom." (I had one of these.) They span everything from food to fitness to motivation, so I hope you find them useful!**

Here we go:

101 NO EXCUSES Fitness Tips (to Get Your Butt Out the Door!)

Number 1. Make a plan. Have a workout plan and a food plan, all rolled up into one. (You can see what worked for me here and here.) If you don't know what that plan should be, talk to a nutritionist, a doctor, personal trainer, etc. and solicit professional help. Try to figure out a workout schedule that is something doable and something you (dare I say) like, and find an eating plan to go along with it. Do your research. Not everything works for everyone, so it might take a few tries to figure out what works for you.
2. Do not get discouraged if it takes a few tries to figure out what works for you. The important thing is that you're not waiting another single day to make changes and living your life! Every day that you're exercising and eating healthy is leading to a healthier you, even if you don't see it on the scale. (For me, what worked was a combination of 6 days cardio/3 days strength training + healthy eating, but it took some time for me to figure that out. Give it time.) DON'T GIVE UP!
3. Have a fitness goal and a date for that goal and put it on a calendar. Mine was a 5k. Having a visual on a goal helps you stay motivated. Make sure your workout plan fits into that goal. (My motto was: "I can be the fit chick running the 5k or the fat chick, it's up to me." Sounds rather crass to talk about myself that way, but it worked.)
4. In direct contradiction to #3: stop the negative self-talk. Be nice to yourself. Your performance or ability to even make it out the door depends a lot on what you're saying to yourself and about yourself to other people. If you don't start talking nice and encouraging yourself, you won't believe in yourself. Period. During the weight-loss process, you will learn to love yourself because if you're consistent, you will eventually see your hard work paying off and you will see what amazingness you're capable of. So get a head start and start loving yourself now.
5. And while you're at it, change your inner monologue to reflect your newfound positivity. Remove words like, "Can't," "Never," "Won't," and "I don't have time."
6. Stop putting yourself last. If mama's not happy, ain't no one happy. Besides, if you don't, you're teaching everyone around you it's ok to either put mama last or that it's ok for them to put themselves last because they watched you do it. We tend to make a lot of sacrifices for our families but our health should never, ever be one of them. We're no good to anyone when we're an unhappy hot mess. If you need permission to make yourself a priority, I AM GIVING IT TO YOU RIGHT NOW. (Sometimes we just need to hear it from someone else.)
7. Don't completely eliminate foods from your diet. Just remove them from your home. Go ahead and have them, but try to buy them in only one servingful if at all possible. If not, purchase, have one, then send the rest to someone's breakroom! When someone tells me I "can't" have something, I want it even more. So don't eliminate it (unless you're capable of handling that pressure and if so, awesome! I am not.) just remove its power over you by saying that you can have it when you want, but only in small portions and not every day, or at the very least, in accordance to your calorie count or eating plan.
8. And on this note, OVERHAUL YOUR ENTIRE KITCHEN PANTRY AND FRIDGE! Get rid of all the crap. Start fresh and within the guidelines of your food plan.
9. Do not allow your "downfall" foods to even enter your house. At least not for the short term. Eventually, when you can be trusted again, you can add it back in (that's my own philosophy.)
10. Write all your workouts in the coming weeks down on a calendar, in pen, aka in stone. And then share it with everyone in your world so they know that time is blocked out. And if you need to compare schedules with everyone to get that time blocked out, do it.

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Stay tuned for the next 10 which are coming next week!!

**Disclaimer: These are tips that worked *for me.* I am not an expert. Different things work for different people, so consult with your doctor before you start any workout or eating regimen.**

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My Favorite Quotes

"Decide that you want it more than you are afraid of it." - Bill Cosby



I tri because one day I didn't believe in myself. And then one day I did.



"I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of a man is to live, not to exist." - Jack London



Some people think it's holding on that makes one strong- sometimes it's letting go.



"Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History."- Laurel Thatcher Ulrich



Live life PASSIONATELY, laugh OUT LOUD, love UNCONDITIONALLY. - from my spoon rest.

"The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire." - Ferdinand Foch