As we ease our way into our official starting day of our body transformation diet and exercise program, it's time to look at some simple tips to help make that transition as easy as possible. You've already been increasing your activity through exercise and have felt how your body responds. You've probably noticed a bit of weight loss if you decided to scale back your meal and portion sizes a bit. And, you should be beginning to feel that this is becoming more and more a part of your weekly routine. If not, don't fret! We'll look at ways to help you get to that point ever faster!
1) Pick a start date
Even when slowly making changes and alterations to our diet and exercise plans it helps to pick a day when you decide to officially start your transformation into a 'better than average you'. This accomplishes a few goals: 1) it literally gives you a start date to work from, 2) allows you to track your progress over a specific period of time, and 3) gives you a chance to get into the mindset of 'OK - I'm doing this!' Mondays are always a great day to start. It's the beginning of a new week. Most of us are typically starting a new work week and many of us also had at least a portion of Sunday off where we can prepare with the items outlined below.
2) Take pictures!
This is just as scary as doing that first bodyfat reading, but it needs to get done. You'll be happy you did this now when you look back a few months down the road. You'll have the opportunity to look back and see just how much progress you've made. Once you do, you'll see that it is something to be incredibly proud of. Don't miss this opportunity! The pictures don't need to be anything dramatic, but make sure you're not all covered up with long pants, long sleeve shirt, etc. Women typically can gauge results best with photos taken in a two piece bathing suit and men can usually suffice with a pair of shorts.
3) Take a bodyfat reading
Hopefully you've already had an opportunity to do this. If not, get out your bodyfat calipers and get to it! Don't bother seriously starting without doing this - you'll honestly just be short-changing yourself. It's worth it to do this right. Don't rely on the scale, the mirror or your personal self image to tell you how what type of progress you've made. Take a baseline measurement and know for sure how you're doing. These things are very easy to use and it only takes a minute or two to complete. Once you get your baseline reading, write it down in your workout log.
4) Hop on the scale
You're going to want to couple your bodyfat percentage reading with a current scale weight so you can do the math necessary to determine just how to go about reaching your goal. After you get on the scale, write down that figure in your workout log. The math is very easy - let's look at a quick example:
Scale weight = 180 pounds
Bodyfat percentage = 19%
Determine total current fat weight: 180 x 0.19 = 34.2 pounds
This tells us that we have approximately 145.8 pounds of lean, muscular weight.
For ease of calculating, lets assume we don't realize any muscular gain during our transformation. If our goal is to get to a single digit bodyfat percentage of say 6%, we'll need to lose 25 pounds.
180 pounds - 25 pounds = 155 pounds
155 pounds - 6% (desired bodyfat percentage) = 145.7 pounds (essentially our lean, muscular weight from above)
6 months x 4.33 weeks = ~26 weeks
In our example above, to get to a 6% bodyfat percentage from a starting bodyfat percentage of 19% (a 13%(!) total loss in 6 months) we need to lose just under 1 pound per week. Easy!
As you can see, knowing these starting figures can certainly help to gain a better perspective of what needs to happen to reach your goal.
5) Clean out the cupboard
Time to get rid of the junk food! If you've got cookies, candy and other assorted snack items kicking around, give them away, throw them out or eat them all up (see #6) before you start! It's so much easier when they're not readily available at your fingertips. Of course you're going to get cravings along the way - what are you going to do if a box of your favorite snack is sitting within arms reach? It takes a lot of willpower, learned and practiced over time to overcome that urge! It's a lot easier to get there if you have to get in your car and drive to the store to get that snack, believe me!
6) Eat a crazy big, make you sick last meal before starting!
I've done this a few times and found success with it. You know you're going to be keeping things strict for a while so why not treat yourself to your favorite meal? Whatever it is, go out and overdo it! Eat so much that you feel sick. Right up to the point where it's not even appetizing anymore and you think 'I don't want to have that again for a long time!' Just like a big holiday meal where you sit down and eat so much at one point during the day that you don't eat another thing before bed. Whenever I do this, I personally find that I may or may not eat a light breakfast the next day. I can easily just eat super small portions and be full. I'm pretty much not hungry at all for most of the day. My body can't wait to digest, utilize and get rid of the enormous meal that got me here! This effect can last for 2 to 3 days after consuming that last meal. It will take this long for your body to begin clearing out the bulk left behind from this final binge. The scale weight will drop dramatically and you'll eventually get to a baseline weight that you can begin to see realistic changes from.
Make the most of it. Enjoy it. Make sure you overdo it!
It's time to prepare! Make sure you have your Must Have Items Before You Begin Your Transormation. Take your baseline readings. Take those pictures! Get mentally prepared and get started on your transformation into a Better Than Average You!
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Tuesday, October 27, 2009
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