BY MONIQUE BARTLETT
You’ve made it through Thanksgiving and Christmas is on the way. You’ve decided that you want to get a head start and begin a new workout routine. You need to start slowly and not get discouraged if you don’t start to achieve your fitness goals after the first week. Don’t make the mistake of getting down on yourself because you don’t see the results you want, as soon as you want. You may feel that if you really push your body, you can lose more weight in only a few workouts. However, this is not the case. What you need to remember is that if you push yourself too hard too fast, you are more likely to injure yourself and you will ruin your chances of getting back into shape.
The first thing you need to do is weigh yourself before you start to exercise so you know your starting point. Have realistic expectations, as you may not see changes immediately. It can take anywhere from two to four weeks before you see any movement on the scale. The scale is a good starting point but a truer measure of your success is the amount of inches you lose. You will notice that you see a faster change in inches, than on the scale. Just remember that any weight loss or inch loss is a big achievement!
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you can take time off from exercising. It’s important to give your body and muscles a chance to rest. Don’t feel as if this will sabotage your efforts. If you don’t rest, this can also cause you to injure yourself or cause you to burn out. Three to five days a week is all you need in order to see change. Too much exercise is just a bad as too little exercise.
Make sure you choose a type of exercise that you enjoy to do, that way you will be more motivated to do it. If you lose your motivation, get someone else to workout with you. Working out with a committed person can help keep you going even if you don’t feel as if you’re getting results fast enough. There may be days when you feel too lazy to get out of bed in the morning. When this happens, knowing that there is someone waiting for you should be enough to get out of bed. You can also share your progress and fears with each other and pick each other up when you are down.
No matter what type of workout routine you decide on, just commit to it. Get a workout buddy, take your initial weight and measurements and just get it done. Do your best and you will see results in no time.
