As you can imagine, when a new client calls me to inquire about personal training, the first thing they always say is “I need help to lose weight”. Of course this makes sense, as weight loss is the most common reason people hire a trainer. But for once, just once, I’d love to hear someone say “I need help because I need to exercise and eat better”. Too many of us, too many of my clients, obsess constantly about losing weight, and yet have not put enough thought into what needs to be done first- exercising and eating well. When people only care about losing weight, and not about being healthy, they are putting the horse before the cart.
In order to be successful at losing weight and maintaining weight loss, the FIRST thing you need to do is embrace the fact that you are going to have to exercise consistently and eat well. Instead of obsessing about your weight and waiting for some miracle to happen, or waiting until the trainer tells you what to do, how about putting your mental energies into planning your exercise and eating regimens?
- Evaluate your schedule to find times to exercise.
- Create a shopping menu that features healthy foods.
- Purge your home of unhealthy foods and trigger foods.
- Find an exercise partner.
- Talk to your family about your desire to get healthier through exercise and healthy eating.
Once you do this, you can then move ahead and begin to incorporate the healthy lifestyle changes you planned for. Once you begin to embrace exercise and eating well, your trainer will help you fine tune and develop these goals. Expecting the trainer to “motivate” you and “get you started” is not realistic- this is your job. Once you have done these things- guess what! YOU WILL LOSE WEIGHT! Now, the cart IS before the horse. You are on the road to reaching your goals of good health AND, weight loss as a RESULT of a healthy lifestyle, NOT as the sole REASON for a healthy lifestyle.