First, to my overwight people, I want to commend you for reading this with the mindset to better your health and well-being. Not everyone is born in perfect shape and it takes a strong-willed person to want to change their physical makeup. Carrying extra weight can be mentally, physically and emotionally challenging. You have the need to beat yourself up for being the weight you are but end up still partaking in your bad habits that led you to where you are. Lose-lose right? Take the following 5 tips into consideration and remember to take it ONE DAY AT A TIME!
Don’t be hard on yourself: You didn’t put on all this weight overnight and you sure won’t be taking it off overnight. Come to terms with this truth and remind yourself DAILY! Don’t compare yourself to other people in the gym, in magazines or on the TV. You are not them and your body is not their body. Focus on what you want to accomplish and get excited about the process instead of disheartened. Don’t start this journey with a guilty mentality. Begin with a mentality of growth and advancement. Telling yourself that you want to lose weight because you are fed up with how you look is not the right approach. That is self-loathing! Envision a stronger and healthier you and know that true strength is built over time and not in 24 hours.
You are building a new skill set: It takes deliberate and consistent practice to build a new skill set and become good at it. The athletes of today train often and train hard. They didn’t all start out where they are now. It took time, failure, dedication, mistakes, discouragement and faith to get to where they are. It’s going to hurt, it’s going to break your spirit but if you keep going you will get stronger. Then the next challenge will come and you will beat that too! Don’t deny yourself the opportunity to see what you can become! Don’t be afraid to fall a few steps back after what felt like 5 steps forward. It is an inevitable part of your journey. C’est La Vie!
Start with something fun: Don’t head straight to the weights rack or the treadmill. Start with something that is fun and easy on your joints. Dancing, water aerobics and obviously jumping rope are a few great ones to try. Don’t want to venture out of the house just yet? There are lots of great videos on YouTube and you can reach out to our Bernadette Henry for tips on jumping rope for beginners.
Focus on what you are capable of right now: Just start! Don’t start to have the same intensity as someone else who has been working out for months or years. Do what you can. If its 10 minutes of jump rope then 10 is your max. If it’s a 30-minute walk or just once around the block, then do that. Dance to a couple of songs on dance central or on YouTube. Wake up tomorrow and you can’t do anything? Walk once around the block! Stretch for ten minutes. Do a couple laps of your staircase. Keep moving until your body and mind crave a little more.
DON’T JOIN THE GYM if you don’t want to: The gym is the last place you want to be when you are learning how to navigate your physical self. Who wants to be surrounded by images that will only lead us to body shame ourselves and not put 100 percent into what we are doing for fear of judgement? Start at home, grab some soup cans and grab a jump rope and make your own little circuit until your confidence builds.
Want to know more about a workout that you can do at home? Try jump rope. Here are something things to know before you start:
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