I have been active for many years. I was a varsity athlete while competing in high schools, and continuing my time to doing a variety of 5ks, half-marathons, and Triathlons. There is no doubt that exercising is a really important aspect to my overall physical and mental health. Over-time I’ve realized there are several things that are important to me, and how I progress towards my goals. This includes multiple disciplines of distance racing and keeping enough strength to lift another human being.
In doing a general search you find these are the most common resolutions:
Weight-loss
Save More Money
Learn a new hobby or skill
The new year is a great time to focus on the new habit or hobby and incorporate it into your daily life. These top three help improve cognition, quality of life, and also mental outlets for those who are in a normal work grind. If you know where you are focused with your goals, you find ways to get between these points with the best possible outcome.
I am not as fast as I used to be, but I have become stronger, more physically dense, more specific for my exercises. I’ve learned more about myself and how I spend the time in getting more physically fit and ready with dropping weight, gaining strength, and becoming faster. The most important part of exercising is start small, give yourself plenty of recovery, and do it again.
I would like to mention that at the beginning of the calendar year, the most common New Year’s Resolution is to drop weight. Honestly, the fastest way to drop weight is in the kitchen, and we are going to get to that soon. Otherwise, we have some ways to becoming healthier. The most important thing you can ever do to drop weight is….
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Drink Water
Yes, I’ve said it, increasing water consumption is an absolute must. Drink water over juices, drink juices as an alternative to soda, and drink soda as an alternative to alcohol. Work backwards if you are trying to cut back on the consumption of these types or if you have a dependency. It will improve your cognition, your muscle recovery, and the absorption of food into your body.
Water is also good for those of you who have a food impulse problem (like myself) where you consume water as soon as you get a thirst for something sweet or savory. It is filling into your stomach and helps with digestion of any foods. If you drink at least a cup of water before your meal, you will satiate hunger in times of a sweet tooth.
The other reason to drink water is that it helps improve overall caloric burn in your body. Its pH balance of 7.0 brings your body back into the most neutral state, and maintains your hydration levels. The Mayo Clinic mentions how important it is to keep your body’s function to survive.
With increased hydration and consuming extra water also prevents you from drinking in your caloric intake. You would be surprised how quickly you can drop weight because you are first focusing on what you consume. As a motive here for you: I dare you to drink water only for 30 days. I’m okay with you drinking coffee or tea (with no additional milk or sugar) and water for 30 days and tell me what your results.
Build-Up to Time and Health
In exercise, it is important to take things within incremental changes. Since I’ve been an athlete of necessity, I will exercise at times where I will build up to a certain event, and schedule out in weeks or months. With enough water, running, and lifting, I will drop 10 pounds in about 5-8 weeks. Sometimes I can drop it because I’ve done this before and know my own discipline levels.
The hardest part of getting into the exercise is the very beginning. You will feel tired, sore, and will want to give up. This is the most likely period of giving up because your body the time to recover and switch your exercises. If you are approaching your exercises to incorporate your entire body, break it down into different sections: cardio, legs, shoulders, back, and chest. Working different zones allows your body to recover easier from the previous workout, and warming up your body will help in the recovery process.
My goal in the past several years is to squat twice my body weight, deadlift the same, bench-press over 250 pounds, and run 3 miles less than 27 minutes. These goals are quite lofty even at my current age. I might be a good healthy age to achieve these goals, but I am still in the top 25% of American males in my running ability, and in the top 10% for my overall fitness level. This is not a means of bragging, but I recognize that others are still more successful than me in overall ability.
With that said, I did not get here over night. I made hard choices for water when beer might taste good. I woke up early so I could start with a workout instead of sleeping an extra 30 minutes. So, are you disciplined enough to achieve your goal? My results will vary from yours and will show differently.
Have a Goal in Mind
Goal setting and breaking them down into steps will make your resolutions stick, and improve your quality of life. If your goal in the next year is to lose weight, please rethink this. Consider doing a 5k if you plan on losing weight. You will work for the goal and pay for a race in advance, because you will have something to work towards. For those of you that haven’t exercised for years, I would highly recommend talking to your doctor and a personal trainer as you want to achieve this goal.
Remember when I briefly spoke about making SMART goals in New Year New You? Go back to this short article and read back into this primer and see what it means to make your goals and how to get to your desired result. If this is how you got here, then read on.
Break-down the end goal in mind, if you’re thinking of losing weight, consider signing up for a 5k halfway through the year, and look at the scale in a month. You do not see results overnight. Six-pack abs at 7% body fat do not appear quickly. Make your choices now before you think about starting the New Year.
You will find the time to do it, you will find the small goals, and find that you are more resilient as a person because you know the meaning of hard work. For example, my wife has never run in a 5k, but she had a goal of running one mile without stopping or walking. She is NOT a runner, but found a Couch to 5k program that allowed her to do a run/walk program, interval training, and some strength exercises. After the program, she was able to complete her overall goal. Yes, the benefit of all of that hard-work was weight loss.
Do not cheat yourself in health goals. Different fads, diets, health tricks do not always hit the right spot. We are here because we have a focus in mind, and we want to reach that perspective as healthy as possible. When you work with a particular diet, you are restricting yourself in some way that might not be the best alternative to your overall health.
Make Healthy Changes With Your Food
There is an adage among body-builders, and that is, “Abs are made in the kitchen.” These rings very true because your overall diet and fat burn occur when you feed yourself the most well-balanced meal. These men and women who compete are amazing with their ability to determine their personal size, specific workouts, and diets tailored for the day. Everything is calculated. They cannot afford to make mistakes like eating a red velvet cake as a dessert when it is not in their sites.
Change your views and start cooking at home more. Create meals that are easy and well-balanced. Pre-cook your meals if you have a very busy work schedule. Remember that with your food, you are taking an investment into yourself and for a healthier outcome. It will help your overall budget, you’ll be healthier, and by cooking at home, you prevent any unnecessary waste or excess food.
Your food intake and diet towards that toned beach-body is all about how disciplined you are in what you consume. It may include the temptation to buy that pizza or going out to eat in that restaurant. These challenges will push your limits and how you spend it with your friends. Keep your social life, but understand the goals and focus in mind if you wanted to change your diet to a healthier, leaner one.
Do Not Skip Your Workouts
The best part of being home is the ease and convenience. I enjoy home because I have what I want and need right here. I feel satisfaction and the need to make myself better. It’s also a haven for me to find the need to stress my body and mind in ways to stretch them in a comfortable spot.
This is why I have invested into my own home gym. I have accumulated the things I have needed over time and realize there are a few things that I cannot be without. I bit the bullet and did a lot of research for my very first weight set in my local area. This was many years ago before COVID hit us, and I was able to strike gold with paying almost $120 on 300 pounds. At this point of writing, you will be extremely fortunate if you can find weights that are under $1 per pound.
Technically I first bought myself a treadmill, then the weight set. New England winters are not favorable to us with the great deal of snow and ice. It does create a different mentality of our drive and ability to follow- through in training when we are having to go over these roads and trails.
The best part of not skipping the workout is the fact that you feel much better about your decision afterwards. You will feel the endorphin rush into your body and mind, and it will make you feel much better afterwards. The best part of this “runners high” is that your focus will change to fin ding how you can continue with achieving results in all aspects of your daily life. Work stress will go down and your general happy chemicals will make you feel that much better.
In Conclusion
With the different resolutions people make for themselves, it starts with a small step and making progress. In our case, especially those who are exercise-challenged, making the resolution to learn, understand, and apply fitness into your life is a great way to incorporate a brand-new lifestyle into your resolution.
In the end, we really want you to focus on your new goals, because we become better as human beings. What do you find the most difficult challenge of changing yourself? What have you learned from success, and have you used any of these steps? Comment below, or on our other pages if you’ve used any of these techniques to improve yourself.
If you have other techniques that you’ve used for success, we would like to hear from you! We would like to improve on what we have and make every opportunity better for the next person.
