The Glycemic Index Diet for Dummies - Meri Raffetto [141]
Starting with small steps
I know many people get really motivated when they start a weight-loss program and want to jump in full force. However, when you do this with exercise, your efforts can backfire for several reasons:
You end up with extreme muscle pain from working out too much when you're unconditioned.
Exercise takes up more time than is realistic for your life.
You don't enjoy the activity you're doing, and it becomes less interesting the next time around.
The idea of exercising becomes overwhelming because you're doing too much too soon.
If you're an exercising newbie, the better approach is to start small. Doing so gives you time to ease your body into the activity, especially if you were living a sedentary lifestyle before. You may not get the most amazing results right away, but by starting small and building on your exercise, you'll be more likely to stick with it.
Taking baby steps when it comes to exercising also helps you find a realistic schedule that works in your day-to-day life. Exercising four hours a day probably won't work in the real world, but maybe squeezing in 15 minutes two or three times a day will.
Making exercise a priority
Exercising requires some focus and rearranging of your priorities. It's easy to want the numerous health benefits that come with exercise (all of which are described earlier in this chapter), but managing your time isn't quite as easy. That takes a little planning, and people often don't make a plan for how they'll incorporate new changes into their lives.
As I'm sure you know, you can read all the information you want, but if you don't give yourself a plan and time to do the activities necessary, you won't see a whole lot of results from your exercising efforts. The next sections help you figure out how to prioritize exercise.
Developing a plan that's practical for you
If you're like most folks, your days are probably so packed that health goals such as "exercise more" are the things you squeeze in if and when you have the time. For many individuals, exercise is the first thing to put off until another day. Yet it doesn't have to be that way.
Following are a few strategies to help you create a plan that prioritizes exercise in a realic, manageable way:
Find some time. One of the biggest hurdles of starting an exercise program is finding the time to do it. After all, your days are already filled up, right? Take a few minutes to examine your schedule. Look for 20- to 30-minute time increments (or possibly more depending on the type of exercise you enjoy). Think about when your exercise will work best. Can you squeeze in a swim on your lunch break? Hit the gym in the morning? Go for a walk in the evening?
Schedule it. Even when you find the time to exercise, you can still put it off all too easily or just let something else take priority. But what if you treated exercise like a hair appointment? Make that appointment with yourself and keep it just like you would if it were a hair appointment.
Track it. Keep track of your exercise so you can see just how much you're doing and make sure you're fitting it in. Take a wall calendar and simply mark an S for weight-bearing activity (also known as strength training) and a C for cardio activity, followed by the amount of time you spent doing the activity. If you're not seeing results, this log gives you a useful tool for gauging how to change your routine; if you're reaching your goals, then it gives you something to celebrate.
Committing to a minimum amount of exercise each day
Sometimes you'll have troubles prioritizing exercise, or else you'll find that no matter how hard you try, you just can't keep that appointment with yourself. So you start missing a day here and there. Pretty soon that one day turns into a