Wednesday, Jun. 27, 2012

Drop and give me 30: Getting started on a path to fitness

Being a Type A personality, I enjoy making definable, measurable and attainable goals.

By following these tenets, I excel at setting goals — following through, though, is a whole different story. Attempting to follow through makes me feel like Scrat the saber-tooth squirrel from Ice Age — always chasing the nut just to lose it and start over. It’s not easy — buts it’s worth it.

Goal setting is equivalent to getting directions to a final destination, such as goals about weight, a healthy diet, more family time, better sleep habits or even a goal about not making goals in the future. It’s a part of our nature to do better and to improve ourselves.

A few things that work for me are:

•Take a moment each week; write out your goals so you have a point of reference.

•Tell people about your goals; it will give you a sense of accountability and help you to succeed. I have posted my goals on Facebook, put a list on the fridge and told my friends about what I’m working on.

•Make your goal definable, so that you have a clear vision of what you are doing.

•Make your goal measureable. I suggest starting with a weekly goal. If you’re new to fitness, it may be, “I will walk three times this week for 20 minutes each time,” or “My goal is to follow my meal plan and eat my prepared food without any stops for candy for five days.” Once you can do that, you may feel fine getting something sweet. Measuring your goals will give you visible proof that you are making progress. •Make your goal realistic and attainable. I have no doubt I will not be running a full marathon. The time and dedication it takes to run that many miles is awesome. At this point in my life I know I am unable to give that goal the attention it would need. Hearing people say they want to lose large amounts of weight in a week is unrealistic. Real life is different from The Biggest Loser and it is unlikely you will lose 15 pounds in seven days. It’s OK to know your physical limitations.

We live in a world full of technology. We can access Map Quest to give us directions, Google maps to show us where we are — GPS can even tell you how fast you are going and how far you have gone.

Unfortunately, there is no magic piece of technology to make you follow through with the path you have mapped. You have to choose to do it. This is the hardest part and you have to push through whatever is holding you back and get started.

When I started spinning exercise classes, I joked in the first song, “It’s almost over.” Looking back it’s true; getting started is the most difficult part. The reward is the great sense of accomplishment after you’re finished. Just like Scrat, you will fail and the nut will be just out of reach. There will be a day when the universe conspires against you and your plan will fall apart, I guarantee it.

One of my favorite quotes came off a SoBe bottle and it’s very applicable to fitness: “Even monkeys fall from trees.”

That being said, set a goal, get started and do your very best until you make a mistake — then start again.