New Year, New Results

Do you or someone you know have fitness goals for the new year? Approx. 80% of "New Year's Resolutions" are health & fitness related. And of those, 90% have been abandoned within 6 weeks! Want to know why? Two reasons: 1) Lack of specific, measurable goals. 2) Lack of motivation and accountability.

Lack of specific, measurable goals

Many people's resolutions sound something like this, "This year I'want to get back in shape". Or, "to lose some weight." Those aren't goals. Those are prayers - without the necessary faith to launch them. If the goal is to "lose some weight", how do you know when you've attained it? Losing 6 ounces is "losing some weight", but its an accomplishment I wouldn't be boasting all around town about.

How about this for a resolution: "My goal for 2011 is to lose 30 pounds, reduce my overall percentage of bodyfat by 10% and reduce my resting heart rate by 15 beats per minute." How about them apples? Specific + easily measurable.

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Think about that final goal for a second. "Reducing my resting heart rate by 15 beats per minute". The heart is a muscle. And just like any other muscle, it has a limited life expectancy. BY FAR the vast majority of us will die b/c our hearts fail. Morbid, perhaps, but it's just statistics. Heart failure will do us most in. Imagine if you were to reduce your resting heart rate by just 15 beats a minute. (Which isn't very hard to do, by the way.) That's 15 beats a minute; 60 minutes to an hour; 24 hours to a day; 7 days to a week; 4 weeks to a month; 12 months to a year; 10 years to a decade; (approx.) 8 decades to a lifetime. Just consider know how many YEARS you'd be adding to the backend of your life by investing a mere 2 hours a week now. Years to enjoy grand children, travel the world, gaze into the eyes of your loved one. Yet most people will not invest the time. Its a mystery I'll never understand.
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Lack of motivation and accountability

Where accountability lacks, so do results. Its true in all walks of life, not just fitness. For most people; if a report is due 10am on Tuesday, it gets done and turned in b/c there's someone (a boss, a teacher) in a position of authority with the ability to inflict consequences for non-performance.

When it comes to conditioning the body,...no such person. Its tough getting out of bed at 5am and hitting the gym. It takes a level of motivation most don't possess. Its tough getting off that comfortable sofa, turning the game off, and putting in a mile + 50 pushups + 50 crunches.

They key is to GET STARTED. Its a funny thing with exercise - once you've stopped, its hard to start; but once you've started, its hard to stop. I've found this true over the years, and so have you. Its the initial motivation to just get going that's the hard part. If you can muscle through that first handful of weeks, keeping it going is relatively easy.

Its the theory of "the big Mo" (can you name that book??) Mo = momentum. Pastor of our church, Mark Cowart (www.churchforallnations.com), has an amazing saying: When setting still, a freight train can be held in place by a one-inch square block of cement. But. Once up to speed that same train will go through a similar block of cement ten-feet square.

And nothing motivates like success. Once you've dropped a pant size, once you look in the mirror and notice chin #14 is gone, once your honey starts making comments about your backside that you haven't heard in a decade,...then keeping up with the workouts is easy. But those things don't happen right away. They come with time. I know many if not most of our clients say they would not be working out at all were it not for the motivation and accountability of having a trainer or belonging to one of our small-group classes.

If you've made a resolution. Or if you didn't b/c you've tried and failed in years past. Get in touch with your local Achieve Fitness USA and set up an interview. This can be done, it can be affordable, its really not that hard. You'll look better, feel better, have more energy and stamina, libido comes to life and you'll fit in clothes that have been hanging in the back of the closet for 5 years. Plus -whether they're here yet or not- you owe it to your grandchildren.