A friend I’ve known since school made a resolution to walk for at least an hour every single day this year. Less than two weeks into 2016, he’s already started skipping a day here and there. A colleague made a resolution to drink at least two bottles of water every day, but recently confessed that apart from the two mugs of hot water she drinks at work she hasn’t been able to stick to her goal. Another friend told me that she had started working out in the morning, doing some floor exercises and a little bit of skipping, but a week later she was back to her old routine and has now completely given up on her resolution already.
The problem here is that we make much too ambitious starts and can never keep up. We want instant results especially where weight loss in concerned and that’s where the crux of the problems lies. What most of us don’t realize is that weight loss and maintaining a healthy weight are long-term lifestyle choices, one that rewards you slowly and persistently. We need to start with achievable goals and keep at it till it becomes a habit. That’s the only way to lose weight and keep it off.
This year, my resolution has been to exercise every single day, but it could be anything from walking for 30 minutes and an hour at the gym to dancing to a song or hula hooping for 15 minutes. It doesn’t matter what I do as long as I do something that gets my heart pumping. The plus side of being totally random and not having a fixed goal, like walking every single day or heading to the gym at a fixed hour, is that you are free to do whatever you want and that way you’ll be more likely to not give up on fitness easily.
If you oversleep and skip on your gym routine, you have the option of, let’s say, walking to work. Or if you are late for work and take the bus or drive, then you can compensate for it by going for a stroll during your lunch break, and if you can’t do that, you can still come back home and do some light exercises before dinner. When you have so many options, you will do something or the other. I can vouch that this will work because you’re not constrained by time and there’s no chance of monotony since you’ll be changing your workout plan as per your mood and convenience.
However, being random isn’t totally random. You have to plan first. Make a list of the things you want to do as a part of your exercise regime and choose one of those things every single day. I have a list of five things – gym for an hour, walk to work and back, floor exercises for half an hour, the seven minute workout, hula-hooping and skipping. The same applies for my diet goals. I have an either or policy here – either I drink two liters of water or I compensate by drinking hot lemon with honey or some green tea, either I have some fruits or I nibble on some almonds and walnuts, either I have salads and vegetables for dinner or I have roti and dal. Everything has an alternative and that way there’s very less chance of failure.
I weighed 74 kilos and with a lot of hard work and determination reduced my weight to 63 kilos. I now weigh 51 kilos but dropping down to this healthy weight from 63 has been more a case of alternatives and thus sticking to a healthy lifestyle than persistence of a single goal. The compensation policy works because of its flexibility that makes it more likely for you to follow through on your fitness plan.
When you set achievable and realistic goals for weight loss, you will lose those stubborn kilos quite easily. What you also need to understand, and probably come to terms with, is that weight loss is anything but instantaneous. With that understanding work towards making fitness a habit. But as they say, if you want to cultivate a new habit you have to keep at it for at least 21 days. Even with the random exercise and diet plan, try it out for 21 days and see how fitness becomes a part of your lifestyle.
The writer dropped down to 51 kilos from a staggering 74 kilos and now works extra hard to maintain her fit figure.
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