This New Year, Get Ahead By Scaling Back
Scale back on sitting. Add an hour each day of an activity that you enjoy. Give yourself the gift of self-motivation by making an effort to be a little more active today than you were yesterday. The more active you become, the better you will feel. You’ll soon find yourself with boosted energy and more positive mindset to go out and win your day!
Scale back on vanity. When you are too focused on body image, you may get discouraged if you don’t get the results you expect. Reaching your fitness goals take time and lots of persistence. Looking good is great. Feeling good is better. Feeling good, leads to looking good — not the other way around. Once you accept this, you’ll be more likely to make healthy habits a life-style choice rather than an impulsive and unsustainable quick-fix.
Scale back on selling yourself short. Don’t underestimate the needs and demands of your body. Excessive drinking, Intense stress and lack of sleep can be the culprit in making you binge eat and avoid active things. You deserve a better you. Take control on things that you can and treat your body better.
Scale back on the cardio and use weights. Total body strength training is the best way to change your physical makeup. If you are already getting 10,000 steps/day as part of your daily routine, trade out the elliptical for a kettlebell. Muscles require more energy than fat. So, not only will a challenging, weight-based workout help to tighten and tone your entire body, you will burn more calories as a result.
Scale back on processed foods. Instead of worrying about how much sugar a banana has or how much fat in is a handful of almonds, worry about cutting out processed foods that contain empty calories. That’s really why your body gains weight. Fruits, nuts, vegetables and whole foods alike are nutrient dense, so you can eat as much as you would like of these! Not sure how “processed” something is? Think about how many “steps” your food had to go through before it wound up on your plate. The best “whole” foods have very few steps between from how it was growing, roaming, or swimming in the wild to when it winds up on your plate.
Scale back on staying stagnant. Hire a trainer or join a group class. It is scientifically proven that working out in groups or with a trainer works better than doing it on your own. If you are going to invest in something, it might as well be your health! There’s your comfort zone; then there’s where the magic happens. One day or day one? The choice is yours.