“Move more than you eat” --Liz Sanderson, my mother, sums up her health plan in those five words. It’s simple and it works.
It is about that time of year again. That time of year that people who made the new years resolution to “get healthy” or “get fit” start to really fizzle out. They had a great January, lost a few pounds, got cocky, skipped a couple days here and there the first half of February, had a super “busy” 3rd week in Feb., and then gained the weight back that they had lost.
The problem was: too much too soon. Started falling off of the strict diet that was set and then did not have the energy to go to the gym? Guess what... Restart! Do not wait until next year or summer or whenever to restart your fitness goals. Start right now by drinking a bottle of water.
A client that I trained in the past was very concerned that he would become diabetic. His doctor had already warned him that he needed a knee surgery and was unable to be as active as he used to be, and he exclaimed to me, “I have to lose 40-50 pounds or I am going to become diabetic.”
Well, you cannot lose 40 pounds without losing one pound. A better way to restate that is: “What you need is a healthy foundation.” You don’t need to lose weight you need to transfer some of the stored potential energy (body fat) into kinetic energy (movement). The amount of weight you lose in a given time period is a poor indication of how healthy you are. Judge your health by how you feel. If you are a numbers person, set a goal more along the lines of what you CAN DO, not what you CAN LOSE. “I’m going to be able to walk around the lake twice.” “I’m going to be able to jog around the lake once.” “I’m going to do 10 push-ups in a row.” There are plenty of goals you can set that have a positive end goal of what you are capable of.
And remember again what mama said, “Move more than you eat.”
-Noah Sanderson