Castle Personal Training
Castle Personal Training is a Corstorphine, Edinburgh based company who specialise in weightloss/toning and Pre and Post Natal exercise.
Blog 27-12-12 The secret to succeeding in the New Year
Hi guys,
I was reading a thread on bodybuilding.com in which the original poster asked “Do you train? or do you just work-out?”
The idea being that if you “train” for something you have more chance of succeeding than if you just treat it as a work-out because “training” implies there is a goal whereas working out is something you just do every so often.
Personally I could not agree more with the above. You could argue that calling it working-out or training doesn’t make a difference, and it probably doesn’t, but GOALS ARE EVERYTHING when it comes to exercise.
When the New Years resolutions are made in a few days time most people will say “I want to lose weight this year” or “I want to be healthier this year”. But these phrases don’t mean anything if the one uttering them does not actually set him/herself a goal.
How much weight do you want to lose? When do you want to lose it by? How would you measure “being healthier”?; Would you give up takeaways? Would you stop smoking? Would you have an extra piece of fruit a day?. All 3 could mean “being healthier” but if you don’t say what you mean you’re not saying anything.
In fitness, dieting and life in general; If you don’t set goals you won’t get anywhere. And if you fail with something at the start of the year you’ll probably only give it a half-hearted attempt later in the year which will also fail and so you’ll have wasted 2013.
How many people do you know that make the same resolutions each year??? Have a look on Facebook and count the Nr of resolutions broken by your friends within the first 2 months. Most of them will fail because they are not really setting any goals.
Instead of saying “I want to lose weight this year” say “I’m going to lose 10Kg by May!” This all of a sudden becomes a real target.
You can now start planning how you’re going to get this done;
10Kg by May means you only have to lose 2Kg a month, so slightly more than 1 lbs (That’s in old English) a week. We know that approximately 3500 calories is 1 pound of fat. So you need to either cut your calorie intake by 500 a day or you have to burn up 500 calories more per day by increasing your activity level (In other words; working out). See how manageable this weightloss malarky is all of a sudden? This should be a doddle if you go about it properly.
Here’s a bit of a stinker; It’s not easy to burn off an additional 500 calories a day, 7 days a week for a full 5 months. So exercise alone is not really the best way to get the job done. You will have to look at your eating habits as well. (Obviously this means that if you’re working with a Personal Trainer, you want to pick one that can help you out with easy to follow and complete nutritional guidance. Why pay someone good money to help you achieve your goals if they’re not going to help you with all of it?)
Anyway, I digress.
To get back on topic. You can now plan your exercise and calculate how many calories you’ll be burning. You can then plan your food intake around that and…..
As I showed above; Goals are everything. If you have goals and targets you can plan and succeed.
You have to be specific in what you want to achieve; “Lose 10KG by the end of May” works, “Lose weight this year” won’t work.
You have to be able to measure your goals “I want to be healthier” does not work as you can’t compare it to anything.
“I want to learn how to cook healthy and eat healthier” works. “I want to run a 10K in May”, works! Even if you say; “I want to go from 1 takeaway a week to 1 takeaway a forthnight” that’s fine as this also works!.
You have to be realistic. “I want to lose 30Lbs in a month” just doesn’t work. I could get you to lose the weight but you’d be miserable, and you’d look it, and it would fly straight back on the month after. Be fair to yourself, give yourself a chance.
This goes for all the goals you can possibly set. Do you want to run a marathon? Great! Set a date, be realistic, and plan your training! Want to gain more muscle? Superb! How much and when by? Then plan your food intake and train!
If you don’t know exactly how to go about it, get in touch with your Personal Trainer. A good Personal Trainer will be able to plan your food intake and fitness regime for you.
So instead of making a vague resolution and failing (again) this year, be precise, set yourself a goal and succeed.
Your friend,
Peter
Credit where it’s due “Set your goals big and small” from, the tremendous, “Kouhl online magazine“ website. Take some time to read the editorials by, the very talented, Nadine Abou el Atta, it’s well worth of a bit of your time.
Job done stamp and NY resolutions are by Stuart Miles, I have used his work before and it can be found on www.freedigitalphotos.net
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