Conquer Fitness Defeat

"Progress is impossible without change and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything."

I'm sure George Bernard Shaw wasn't referring to fitness when he wrote these words, but they certainly describe to a tee how our inability or refusal to change our attitudes and actions can get in our way of reaching our fitness goals.

You know who you are the women who want to shed some pounds but can't go a day without your double whipped cream mocha latte with caramel on top, and the men who say you want to lose your love handles but would rather sit on the couch watching TV than go for an evening walk.

Understand change

How do we break our cycle of defeat? One key aspect is understanding change. When you're overweight or not in the best shape, you must be absolutely willing to embrace certain changes in your life, starting with a change in diet. "No food tastes better than being in shape feels," is a great perspective to h ave when adopting a new diet. Be willing to say "yes" to some foods and "no" and "sometimes" to others.
When it comes to diet, the best change you can make is to avoid starvation, deprivation, and eating cardboard-like foods. Instead, make dietary changes that place you in control of buying, preparing, and consuming healthy chow. It's also important to learn the nutritional profile of foods and to hone your judgment of what each one does to your body. In addition, you'll need to discipline yourself to manage portion sizes and emotional or impulsive eating.

It's a combined effort

Now while you can lose weight just by following dietary changes, you get the most successful and sustainable results when you combine healthy eating with regular exercise.

As many of you are aware, this is usually easier said than done. Work, family, and laziness all make sticking to a routine difficult. One of the best things you can do to make this process a little easier is to prepare yourself mentally. Acknowledge that there will be time constraints, that you'l l have to push yourself to develop new habits, and that you might become bored and lazy in the process.

Mental preparation is important because it gives you the opportunity to think of solutions before you even encounter the problems. Solutions such as ways to keep yourself motivated; a fitness journal for tracking your goals; having a workout buddy; and when, where, and how you'll exercise will help you deal with work, family, laziness, inconsistency, and other issues when they materialize.

Contradictions between our fitness goals and our willingness to change in order to achieve those goals are not uncommon. However, if you're ready to make lifestyle changes and plan how you'll handle these changes, you'll greatly improve your capacity of getting healthy and fit and staying that way.

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