A new leaf for July!

Welcome to July!  It’s a new month and who knows what it will hold?  There are certainly plenty of things we can’t control, but we can set some reasonable fitness goals.  Please note that I said “reasonable.”  We are not going to lose 100 pounds this month or go from couch to marathon.  Here are some examples of how to determine reasonable fitness goals for various aspirations.

“I want to lose weight.”  A reasonable goal for a month is five to ten pounds.  Losing more than that in a month requires some unhealthy behaviors that at best are not sustainable and at worst put the rest of our wellbeing at risk.

“I want to exercise more.”  If we have been lying around for the last long time, we start small so we can crush the goal and use the success to spur us on.  It is almost always best to begin with cardio because cardio gives us the tools to adapt to weight training.  I like to encourage people to do just a little cardio every day because then it is a habit.  We start with a half hour of walking and even that can be broken in half or in thirds.  By the end of the month, we should be able to do that half hour a day.  If we are already doing cardio, we can add time or intensity (go longer or faster), or we can branch out into weight training once or twice a week, which should be habitual by August.

“I want to eat healthy.”  There are several ways to approach this one.  One I like is to remove the crap.  We all have a kryptonite food that tends to sabotage our best efforts.  It is time to end that relationship for good, dear ones.  That is one abusive partner, baby.  Dump sugar’s butt (or toss the chips to the curb, or kiss the margaritas good bye, or whatever else we need to do).  The other approach I like is to make sure we add the good stuff.  There are approximately ten gazillion different diets out there, but I can tell you for sure that science supports at least these two things:  eat veggies and drink lots of water.  By the end of the month, we should have established new and better patterns, either by adding or subtracting.

If you would like more specific goals tailored to your very own unique self, give me a poke and we’ll talk.