STAYING ON TRACK?

It’s time to address staying on track with your weight loss plan as this is the time of year when most people fall off track and start to neglect their health again.

If you’re not one of these people, then this article will simply help you be proactive and ensure that you get the most of your time.

Grab a piece of paper and a pen. This will be a quick exercise you can run through to make you aware of some things that you would not otherwise realize. The end goal is a game plan that keeps chipping away at your problem areas that are causing you so much grief.

Step 1

On your piece of paper, make two columns and label the headers as “What I liked this past month” and “What I didn’t like this past month”.

Now write down everything you liked and didn’t like about your exercise plan, as well as your nutrition plan.

Some ideas to think about include:

• Your weakest and strongest areas
• Exercises that you avoided the most
• Exercises that you enjoyed the most
• Foods that caused you to overeat
• Healthy foods you enjoyed the most

Good job, with this list you are now one step closer to coming to realization your weaknesses and strengths and areas you need to continue to improve on. But let’s take this further.

Step 2

Now take another piece of paper out and make two columns again. This time label the columns “What kept me back” and “What encouraged me to stay on track”.

This time you will need to think about stumbling blocks like:

• Not having enough sleep
• Having work or family get in the way
• Causes of you having low or high energy
• Causes of you having low or high motivation
• Any injuries or colds

The picture should be getting clearer for you on the causes of anything that has been keeping you back, as well as things that have been really pushing you through even on those days when you had to drag your butt to the gym.

We’re almost done, but let’s take it even one more level deep, this one will be the game changer!

Step 3

This time we’re going to do an exercise to allow you to focus on the positive. On another piece of paper write down some notes on:

• What body part you can improve on this month and exercises/workouts to help you achieve them
• Ways on improving your nutrition plan, what groceries you can buy to compliment your healthy diet
• Ways to keep your motivation level high, whether it be more sleep, better nutrition or better time management
• Nutritional supplements which can help you stay on track and achieve your goals

Conclusion: Staying on Track

The three steps will help you continue to challenge yourself and allow you to keep getting better no matter what age, sex or level of experience working out. Whatever you do, don’t skim right through them. Coming away with just one realization will make a huge impact on your training results and overall health.

WEIGHT LOSS JOURNALS AND VISUAL CUES

Step 1: Visual images can help you reach your weight loss goals and can be powerful tools in helping you reach your goals. There are lots of creative ways to use this motivation technique, such as posting an image of your goal where you’ll see it most—in your car, on a bathroom mirror, on the back of your cell phone, or on the refrigerator.

You can use visual images of your goals or you can use words, thoughts and feelings. Ideally you can use all of these elements to unleash the most powerful potential of imagery. Scientific studies show that the more senses you add to your imagery, the more powerful the results will be. The reason these techniques are so powerful is that they tap into both the left and right parts of your brain. For people who have trouble seeing things with their eyes closed, just use all the other senses to imagine what you want to create.

Visualize your goals as you work toward achieving them each day. Using visual techniques will help relax your mind, boost your self-esteem and draw you toward your goal faster.

Step 2: Write your goals into a calendar. Part of the reason people don't achieve their goals is their inability to put time and effort into achieving them. Hang the calendar near your desk in your home office or in a location where you can easily see the calendar and mark off milestones as you accomplish them.

Keep track of accomplishments each week. Reward yourself for sticking to goals each week. Decide upon a reward system that works for you. Reward yourself for each goal marked off or for each five marked off. You get to choose. Soon you will enjoy the feeling of simply marking off accomplished tasks.

These are good ways to constantly remind yourself of the commitment you’ve made. Studies show that people who keep food journals and use visual cues lose more weight and keep more of that weight off in the long run. The National Weight Control Registry–an ongoing research project tracking more than 3,000 people who’ve lost an average of 66 pounds and kept it off for five years–found that using these tips is the one strategy used by the majority of successful dieters. In fact, in a study of 1,685 dieters conducted by a health insurance company, the best predictor of weight loss throughout the first year was the number of food records kept per week. Another study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that dieters who tracked their food intake in a "food diary" lost twice as much weight as those who didn't track their food.

SETTING WEIGHT LOSS GOALS: THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING

The holidays are over and we find ourselves setting goals for the new year. The people who succeed at permanent weight loss are the ones who have chosen their goals wisely and pursued them vigorously.

But how do you know if the goals you set are "wise"—i.e., the right goals for you? Setting goals that don’t suit you can be the root of much avoidable suffering. You can determine whether your goals are helping you or hurting you in three easy steps:

Step 1: Take a close look at the words that express your goals.
Take a moment to read over your goals. If you keep them written in your head, jot them down on paper quickly before you read further. Done? Now look through your goals for any of the following words: NO, NOT, NEVER, STOP, LOSE, REDUCE, LIMIT, or QUIT. If these negative words (or similar ones) play an important role in the way you have stated your goals, you may be setting yourself up for problems. Here’s why.

Words are very powerful! They focus your attention in one area while other possibilities fade away. When words are negative (like those above), their results are negative. When you say, for example, that you will "Stop eating chocolate," what are you really doing? You are focusing your attention on the very thing you want to avoid—chocolate. IF going without something you want when it is always on your mind were easy, this might work. But, we all know that "out of sight, out of mind, out of reach" works a lot better.

Step 2: Do your goals deprive you of something you want (or think you want)?
If so, you’re just setting yourself up for feelings of deprivation, resentment, and rebelliousness. How many times have you gone a day, a week, or even longer without caving in to a food on your forbidden list, only to find yourself binging on it later, as if out of sheer spite? Contrary to belief, making something off-limits isn’t the best way to maintain control. It'll get that 2-year-old inside us really geared up to do battle.

Step 3: Do your goals set you up for failure?
Framing your goals in negative terms creates an all-or-nothing situation, where even one small slip means failure. And we all know where this leads—"Well, I’ve already blown it, I might as well enjoy it and start over tomorrow," which turns into next week, next month, or next year. Soon you feel like you can’t control your own behavior, but aren’t sure what to do about it. It all starts with the words.

The great thing about having the capacity for language is that we can use words to help ourselves want what it is best for us to have.

Framing your goals in positive terms makes reaching them that much easier. Positive words allow you to:

• Focus on what you really want, and on what is helpful and achievable. This creates positive energy and momentum instead of feelings of deprivation and resentment.
• Adjust your plans when you have the inevitable slip-up or bad day. Instead of giving up when you mess up, you can make small changes to balance things out.
• Check with yourself before you act. Ask yourself if what you are about to eat will help you reach your goals.
• Have true freedom of choice, rather than forcing yourself to rely on will power alone. We just aren’t designed to white-knuckle our way through life, always resisting what we think we really want.

So, go through your goals with a fine-toothed comb, and make sure they are positive. Focus on what you DO want to do and what you WILL accomplish—not just on how many pounds you want to lose. Keep track of your calories as a necessary tactical measure, but don’t confuse going over on any given day with "failure." There’s more going on than what happens on any single day, and well-framed goals can help you keep that in view.