Look at this guy! He’s sinking in mud! Too often people aiming to get lean and fit wait for the perfect moment that will spur them into action and motivate them to new heights.
Getting started on weight loss and fitnes is not always just about basic exercise and healthy eating skills. It’s about about motivation of course. Starting is about making the decision to move from desire to action. Many people get stuck in the “I want to lose weight and get healthy but now is not the time phase.” The thought of getting organized, beginning an exercise program, and eating healthy every single day is often overwhelming This phase can last weeks, months, and even years.
If you are experiencing the “I just can’t get started blues” with weight loss and healthy living practices, then ponder the points below to help get you jump started in a smart weight loss direction.
1. I’ll Just Wait Until The Time is Right. I often hear people say that they plan to do something about their weight and fitness levels when they have more time and less stress in their lives. “I will try to lose weight in the Fall because I’ll be less busy then and the weather will be cooler for exercise.” The problem with life is that we never really are less busy or have less stress later. The problem with the waiting game is that days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months, and months turn into years. The convenient time to make a big life change often never comes. And if it does come by chance, a delayed start delays your outcome. You deprive yourself of something that is important to you so why wait? Busy times and stressors will inevitably return just like bad weather.
Truly changing your lifestyle means living a different life under any and all circumstances, not just when you have free time and no stress. Why not go for it now? The minute you do, you’ll see that not only are you closer to your destination, but you are closer to having a clear head that isn’t always thinking about what you should and should not be doing. Ironically, people who make the decision to improve their lives and adhere to a start date actually reduce the stress in their lives immediately. There’s no right time. Make the decision and set a start date!
2. The One Day Experiment. We talk so much about how losing weight requires a lifestyle change–and it does, but lifestyle change sounds so daunting. The overwhelming part is the commitment of changing behavior for life, so it may be necessary to remove the commitment aspect to take some pressure off. By removing the commitment, you will get an accurate assessment of just how challenging the behavior changes really are.
But how do you remove the “commitment” from something that seems to inherently require one?! Try a “one-day experiment.” This is where you commit to only one single day of change. For that one day, toe the line: make the healthy choices, and workout. The next day go back to your normal routine. If you feel like trying another healthy day, then do so, if not, try another one the following week. Add a second day when you feel ready. The objective is to get some momentum going by accomplishing at least one day and only progressing further as you feel comfortable.
Making a lifestyle change is not an all-or-nothing venture. Work your way towards it and appreciate that even though the goal is to live a healthy life, it is a gradual journey that is built one day at a time.
3. 5 Minute Challenge. The 5 minute challenge follows along similar lines but is specifically for someone who is having trouble getting an exercise program started. If you are having difficulty getting exercise started then commit to a single 5 minute workout. Climb on a machine or go for a walk, pick any activity of your choice, but commit only to 5 minutes. If you end up doing more than 5 minutes— great, but the goal is just to accomplish the 5 minutes.
Once you have accomplished it, try another a few days later. Then begin to add a minute to the workout each week. Even though 5 minutes may sound like nothing, you are using this tactic to overcome the biggest barrier to healthy living of all—getting started.
For those of you that are the “all or nothing A personality types” then see me so I may plant a seed in that overly cognitive high energy head. For reasons unknown to me 90% of my cliental are the “all or nothing types.” Not sure why that is, unless they have sniffed out that I used to be an A personality myself. Take the Challenge and get started.
4. Forget The A-Ha Moment Fallacy. When I encounter people who have lost large amounts of weight I often ask if they had an A-Ha! moment that precipitated their change. Usually people will say yes, but interestingly these moments are rarely major things like heart attacks, being diagnosed with diabetes, or having some other serious health problem.
In fact, serious events like these are not always effective at creating a sea change of motivation but instead can result in demoralization. After a serious medical event I have heard people say, “It is too late to change now, the damage is done.” More often A-Ha moments are day-to-day instances such as a belt or pair of pants no longer fitting, feeling sick after a day of overeating, or catching a glance of oneself in a mirror. Are these really A-Ha moments?
Why is putting the belt on one day so much more meaningful than it was the day before? Who knows, but there might be no such thing as a magical moment of readiness— where everything seems clear and all doubts and fears have vanished. Even many of the people I train and coach have expressed doubts about whether they could do it, but they moved forward in spite of the doubts. The only way to dissolve doubts is through action. Motivation does not stimulate action, it is created by action. You will feel more motivated once you see the first signs of progress and that motivation will propel you to achieve a little more, and so on.
Don’t wait for motivation to arrive at your front door. The best way to lose weight and get fit is to put it into action. Don’t wait. Put healthy living into action today!