THE BIG 3 QUESTIONS

Yes, I realize it’s February, but that won’t stop me from continuing to give you some advice on helping you reach your health and fitness goals for 2016.  It’s never too early (or too late!) to take a moment to reflect on your actions so far this year and ask yourself “Is what I’m doing working?”

You’ve made it through the Super Bowl parties and the Valentine’s Day chocolate… so you have no excuse for not getting even more focused.  But the question I have is “On what?” – What are you focused on?  What is your goal?  How specific are you about what you want to achieve?  This is why it’s always good to go back and ask yourself the big 3 questions:

• WHERE ARE YOU NOW?
• WHERE DO YOU WANT TO BE?
• WHAT IS YOUR ACTION PLAN TO GET THERE?

If your goal is general, so will the results you get from your plan.  How dialed in are your goals?  How specific can you be about what you are trying to achieve? The first step to knowing how to get to where you want to be is to take a clear look at where you are at right now.

WHERE ARE YOU NOW?

Regardless of where you’d like to head, the first thing you need to do is understand where you are right now.  If you do want to lose weight, gain muscle and drop fat, you must first start with where your body is at right now.  I know that can be hard for a lot of people.  Discouraging even.  But you have to bite the bullet and find out.  How much do you weigh?  What does your body look like in a sports bra or shorts?  If this is a painful exercise for you, then it might be good for you– Yes, I said, “Good!”

I say that because sometimes pain can drive us to make a decision.   To decide today that this is it, I’m not going down this road any longer and I am going to make the changes I need to move forward.  Sometimes we have to hit bottom before we can bounce back up.   But you have to be willing to really look at your starting point.  When it comes to getting fit, at a minimum, you must get on the scale.  But I’d ask you to go even further and find out more about your body composition – find out what your body fat percentage is and what your Body Mass Index (BMI) is … get real with where you are.  Only then can you begin to understand that you will most likely have to slowly, gradually, work your way up to moving more and eating less.  Small changes will keep you on track – too big of a change or too many at one time will be unsustainable.  But knowing where you are is the first thing before we go to the next step…

WHERE DO YOU WANT TO BE?

I want you to think of the idea of “where do you want to be” as if you are (literally) going somewhere… like it’s a trip, an adventure, a journey.  Where do you want to be with your body?  With your career?  With your life?  Do you want to lose some weight?  How much?  And what type of weight do you want to lose?  I assume you want to drop body fat, not precious, calorie-burning lean muscle.  So what do you want to lose?  When do you want to lose it by?  What is your time frame?  Give yourself some emotional boosters, by visualizing yourself achieving it.  Take 5 minutes to write this stuff down and get detailed about it.  Get emotional!  Listen to music that is going to allow you to really get deep with how unhappy you are with where you are and then allow yourself to feel how incredibly happy and pumped up you will be when you achieve that goal.  Now all the emotions and visualizations won’t do anything for you unless you take action, so…

WHAT IS YOUR ACTION PLAN TO GET THERE?

Goals are great, but you’ve got to take action to get there.  And here is a little advice: start small.  Many of us got to where we are today one pound at a time, with little (bad) habits.  And just as the weight crept on, we can whittle it away with small habits that will move us in the other direction.

It’s really important here to take these small steps and do them consistently.  If you need to drop 20 lbs., start with focusing on losing the first 5.   Focus on 1 or 2 simple habits that need changing, and that will have the biggest effect.   For example, maybe you start by just slowing down when you eat, or start eating foods that are less processed…or here is a big one:  stop drinking your calories.  Pick something that you know you can achieve and use that first victory as your first building block to success.

We are looking for action.  Things you can do.  Eat less. Move more.  Park further away.  Go for a 20 minute walk every night.  Don’t eat after 7pm.  No alcohol Sunday thru Thursday.  I don’t know exactly what it is that YOU need to do, but for goodness sake — pick something and DO IT!

This a great starting point for you.  These 3 big questions should be asked every time you reach a goal and are motivated to move forward.  These questions are a great way to “check in” with yourself each week (or month) to see how you are progressing.

And If it’s not working… well, that’s next week’s blog.  Join me then.

Phil Dozois, Owner, Breathru Fitness