Setting Realistic New Year’s Goals
It’s back. It’s the time when people in Irvine, CA start working on their New Year’s goals they set at the stroke of midnight on December 31st. They may be struggling to keep them in the first few weeks or even decide to give up. Frequently, the reason is that they aren’t realistic and are trying to change too much too quickly. If you’re 100 pounds overweight, don’t expect to lose it in a month. Instead, focus on losing two pounds a week. You can celebrate next New Year’s Eve at your ideal weight. Even if you exercised six hours a day and starved yourself, you couldn’t lose that much weight in a month.
Make sure your goal is healthy.
Being realistic also means making beneficial goals and healthily achieving them. Exercises that build muscles cause microtears in the muscles. The magic occurs during recovery. The scar tissue makes them larger and stronger. Intense powerlifting three hours a day, every day, doesn’t give your muscles a chance to heal. Instead, it continues to tear down the muscle and causes you to lose strength rather than gain it. Starvation diets may help you lose weight, but you can’t starve yourself forever and be healthy. Your body goes into starvation mode and slows your metabolism. That makes it even harder to shed those pounds.
Realistic goals can be broken down into smaller goals that are quicker to achieve.
Part of goal setting and achieving those goals requires constant motivation. If your goal is to lose 40 or more pounds, it’s easy to become overwhelmed and lose motivation. You can feel the rush of success if you break your goal down into smaller ones. Break your goal down to losing two pounds a week. Then determine how long that will take you to achieve. If you want to lose 30 pounds, your mini goal will be losing two pounds a week for 15 weeks.
Remember that you can’t change some things.
No matter how dedicated to exercise and diet, if you’re big-boned, you’ll never look tiny. If you’re tall, you’ll never be petite. You can’t change your bone structure. If you’re overweight, you can lose weight, but you’ll always be big-boned or small-framed. Working out to build muscles won’t make you taller. Always focus on the things you can change and accept those things you can’t.
- It takes a deficit of 3500 calories to lose a pound. You can lose a pound a week by reducing your calories consumed by 500 or increasing the calories burned daily.
- If you have a goal of exercising regularly, take it easy initially, especially if you’ve lived a sedentary lifestyle. Learn the proper form and prepare your body by increasing intensity slowly before you start pushing yourself.
- Track your goal. Write the goals down, break them into smaller ones with deadlines, and track those goals daily. If your goal is muscle building, take your measurements and track the weight you lift or the number of repetitions.
- The best motivation to stick with a goal is realistic expectations. If you continuously fail, you’ll quit trying. Even if you don’t reach a goal in one week, the real failure is to quit.
For more information, contact us today at Next Level Fitness
One way of improving your chances of consistent workouts is using the buddy system. It offers many benefits. One is accountability. That’s also one reason trainers help so much. You commit to an exercise program with another person at a specific time, so you go, knowing they’ll be there waiting for you. It’s the same as you do when you work with a trainer. Knowing someone else is tracking your progress keeps you accountable. One study found that people kept their workout schedule better if they were phoned every two weeks to check their progress.
When you’re trying to stay fit, traveling makes it more difficult. It may feel impossible whether you’re flying or driving. It disrupts your schedule. You aren’t close to your gym or have the convenience of controlling what you eat by making it yourself. It’s easy to fall off your diet or skip exercising. It takes extra planning to ensure you stick with your routine. Here are some ways to help you reach your goals when traveling for business or pleasure.
Why would you want to turn working out into a habit? Habits, whether good or bad, are hard to break. If you’ve ever moved to a different part of town, you may have driven to your old address on the way home. It comes from years of doing it until it became a habit. You do it without thinking, like brushing your teeth in the morning or making coffee. Link exercising with something you do every day. Develop a habit of walking for half an hour after dinner or exercising right after you get up in the morning.
If you live in Irvine, CA, you may know about National Avocado Day on July 31, but you probably never celebrated with a friend and family get-together. It’s a day to acknowledge all the healthy benefits of avocados. It’s important since many people who are trying to lose weight or those with diabetes often avoid avocados because they’re high in calories and fat. It’s life-changing for those with diabetes. The good news is that avocados are healthy and even beneficial for everyone.
Weightlifting isn’t just to build bulging muscles. It can help you lose weight as you achieve a lean, toned appearance. When beginners start, trainers will ask for their goals. Some people want to build muscles, while others want to build strength. Adjusting your style to your goal isn’t necessary when you first start since you’ll do both, but as you get fitter, it’s important to differentiate. You don’t have to lift heavy weights to get results, you do have to be consistent.
With all the time people spend at the beach in Irvine, CA, looking good in a swimsuit is a top priority for many. You need a stronger core to accomplish that. Using the right exercises can help. Strong core muscles do more than help you look great in a swimsuit. They affect your entire body. They improve posture, prevent back pain, aid digestion, and prevent headaches. Core muscles include the muscles of the pelvis, hips, back, and abs. They’re involved in every movement you make and keep you balanced and steady.
Make your meals more nutritious by using these healthy eating hacks. You can create new dishes in the kitchen, choose healthier menu options when eating out, or have healthier options ready when you want a snack. Instead of junk food, buy a melon. You can choose watermelon or cantaloupe. Peel it, cut it into bite-size pieces, and store it for quick snacks or a healthy dessert. Wash grapes and have them ready or freeze them for a cooling snack on a hot summer day.
Reduced mobility can be severe, where you’re bedridden, or painful, but not as debilitating, such as a sprained ankle. If you work with a physical therapist, they’ll provide the exercises for the injured area, but you’re responsible for the rest of your body. You can do many exercises to maintain your present fitness level or even improve it. Always check with your healthcare professional before starting or continuing any fitness program.
There’s no perfect playlist to help boost motivation. It’s all personalized and depends on your preference and the type of workout you’re doing. If you’re pushing hard to conquer an intense workout, your choice of music will be different than a playlist to calm your mind when you do yoga or meditation. If you love old-school rock or gangster rap, there are plenty of songs ready to push you through to the finish. Studies show that music can get you pumped, so get your best playlist put together, put on your gym clothes, and go to the gym or for a run.