October 6, 2024

Fitness Goals: The Mental Side by Tera Busker


So much attention is focused on the physical side of goal setting, but what about the mental and emotional aspect of striving to reach a goal that’s important to you? Train and prepare your mind, as well as your body. Only then will your experience be complete…and more enjoyable!

Every day is a new day, a new week and a new chance to start working towards your goals. So, what are goals exactly? Goals are something that are within your reach that you WANT. It may take WORK to reach them, but the WANT will carry you to them.

Enjoy the journey. Sometimes we get stuck in the “work” part of the goal. It’s too hard, it’s too far away, it will take too long, and we forget about why we wanted to reach the goal in the first place. The fire that burned inside of us, the excitement, the JOY. Your goal is obviously something that you want and is going to be awesome when you reach it, so why not enjoy the journey until you get there?

Focus on the positive. You are working towards something positive, so if you stay positive and focus on how great the changes are, you will keep moving forward. If you get stuck in the negative or keep looking for the negative, you will have an awful time.

Your experience is your choice. You may struggle or have bad days, but look at those as lessons learned. You found a way that doesn’t keep you on track, so don’t go down that path again. See, negative into a positive. You are the one who is on this journey – you control how you experience it. You can make the best of it or you can make the worst of it.

 

Tera Busker is an ACE Certified Personal Trainer and owner of Fitness To Go, an exclusive In Home & Private Studio Personal Training Service based out of Roberts, WI. www.fitnesstogo.net

Choosing Health Resolutions that Stick! By Andrea D’Ambrosio, RD

How to Choose Health Resolutions You WILL Keep:

What is the point of making a resolution for living better, healthier lives if it is not maintainable? Here are my 4 best tips for weight loss and great health. All my tips are achievable and sustainable!

1. Focus on “life-long change” – Ditch all those fad diets, the hunger strikes, the elimination diets and take charge of your health with real foods that taste good! Remember that any valiant effort to lose weight that involves deprivation and/or extreme exercise is unsustainable; you will eventually default to your old habits. Strategies that are enjoyable are sustainable!

2. Fill up with Fibre: Fibre fills us up on few calories; it slows digestion, lowers cholesterol and stabilizes blood sugars. Choose whole grains (ie. oatmeal, quinoa, brown rice, barley) and b-fast cereals with more than five grams of fibre per serving. Add 1.5 Tbsp of chia seeds to cereal and yogurt to boost fibre at a meal or snack.

3. Take the stairs: Taking the stairs burns twice the number of calories as walking. Stair climbers also have greater leg strength and better aerobic capacity. Climbing just two flights of stairs daily could equate to a 6 pound weight loss per year. Similarly, if you did six flights a day, this could be a 18 pound weight loss over one year.

4. Learn to cook! We have become increasingly dependent upon processed, convenience and restaurant meals. Similarly, our taste buds have become accustomed to crave these types of high fat, salt laden and high sugar foods. Cook your own food more often to improve your dietary quality and decrease your reliance on processed foods. Your waistline will
thank you for it!

Andrea D’Ambrosio is a Registered Dietitian and owner of Dietetic Directions, a dietary counseling and education company in Waterloo, ON. (www.dieteticdirections.com). Follow her on twitter @DambrosioRD or like her page on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/andredambrosiord