Stop the cycle

Why do so many of us allow guilt and irrational expectations about food & exercise rule our lives?  

I admit that I get really sick of this because it’s so very unhealthy physically, mentally and spiritually.

See if this sounds familiar…
Going from very little exercise to an intense workout EVERY day or going from little to no running straight into long distance training, fad dieting, taking supplements to lose weight, recommitting to the same old things that didn't work, etc etc...

Then failing, feeling guilty, stopping everything because of discouragement, repeat cycle over & over & over….

How about this instead:

1) Stop trying to be perfect.  

You aren't.  Deal with it.
What you’re doing when you commit to unrealistic goals is not making a TRUE change and setting yourself setting yourself up to fail.

 
2) Don’t go from nothing to all
aka having an all or nothing mentality.  Fail.

3) Stop the guilt.  

Just stop!  Eating a treat every day can be part of a healthy lifestyle.  100-400 calories of ‘treats’ into your daily calories is fine & PART of a healthy lifestyle.  It’s irrational to cut out treats altogether!  

4) Start moving more.  

EVERY time you move you’re doing something good for your body.

5) If you want to lose weight make a life long commitment to the changing of your lifestyle.  

Don’t put unrealistic expectations on yourself because if you do you WILL fail.  It's a life long commitment and there are NO shortcuts.  

You wouldn't expect your child to go from kindergarten to high school & succeed, right?  It's the same thing.  Start from the beginning & do one thing at a time.

Here are some guidelines:

-Move more every day being physically active.  This isn’t exercise, it’s just moving.  Housework, walking the dog, etc 

-Set SMART goals – Specific, Measureable, Realistic, Timely

-Calculate your daily carloric needs so you know how much to eat.
http://www.acefitness.org/acefit/healthy_living_tools_content.aspx?id=4

-It takes 3500 calories To lose 1lb.  Burn some & eat a few less.  1lb per week is perfect.  

-Eat a balanced diet.  If you don’t know what that means go here: choosemyplate.gov

-Set aside 100 – 400 of those calories for treats EVERY DAY & enjoy them.
Repeat from earlier because it's important.

-Work towards adding 3-5 days of moderate cardio exercise (walking, biking, Zumba) 20 – 60 minutes.

-Work towards adding 2 days of resistance training.  Examples are lifting weights, pilates or calesthenics (pushups, cruches, etc). 

-Take a couple of days off from exercise to physical & mental rest.  This means doing resistance on cardio days.

-Sleep more

-Drink water

-If you miss a day or eat more or whatever SO WHAT?  Were you expecting perfection again? – don’t start over, just keep moving forward. 

-By the way you do NOT have to do insane workouts, become a long distance runner or cut out food groups to be healthy.

So you can see that there's a lot to work toward over a lifetime.  It's not easy but it's a lot easier than the cylce of guilt!