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Tuesday, January 3, 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Happy New Year Everyone!!


My goal for this blog is to help connect with friends and family of CrossFit Sugar Land.  Since opening the gym last year, it has been one of my goals to help put out the knowledge I have gathered through work, personal experiences, and failures together for everyone to be able to use as a tool to help them be successful.  I want to  be able to post diet tips, recipes, exercises, and anything else that might pop up over time that could be helpful to anyone looking to turn their life into what they expect it to be.  If there is one thing I've learned over time is this: We all have very different goals and expectations for ourselves, but it is when we hit those goals, that we feel the best!!

On that note, I'd like to start this first blog by talking about a huge topic for this time of year... NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS!!!

Now is the time to get that fresh start we've all been looking for, RIGHT? So, how do we capitalize on this surge of ambition the new year has brought upon us?  To do this, you have to look at your resolution for what it really is... a GOAL.

It doesn't matter how big or small your goals may be, you need to take a little time and actually come up with a plan to meet them.  I can't count how many times I've sat down with someone when I was working as a nutritional consultant and they had no idea what their goal really was or how to they could accomplish it.  If you start with a goal that is too high or too low, all you're doing is setting yourself to end up exactly where you started.  Same thing goes for not establishing what that goal actually is.  To get this New Year started off right, let's put together a list steps that will make your resolution happen this year!!

Step #1- Understand Your Goal/Resolution

There is no point in saying you want to; lose weight, go to the gym, not eat carbs, quit smoking, or anything else we've all sworn off this year if you don't have an actual goal to hit inside of that resolution.  Going to the gym is the resolution, what you need to do is place a goal with that resolution to make it something you can actually accomplish.  Ex. If your resolution is to go to the gym, a great goal to place with that would be the number of days a week you are going to go.  Going to the gym is just an arbitrary thing.  You can accomplish going to the gym for a day, a week, month or year.  If you give yourself a specific number, you can automatically give yourself  a measurement tool to keep yourself on track.  This brings us to our next step.


Step #2- Make a REALISTIC Goal

This goes both ways people!!! Too high, or too low, if you don't figure out where you really need to be, you're never going to be satisfied with the results or expectation you set for yourself.  I always had to laugh as a consultant after listening to some peoples unrealistic goals they had set for themselves.  If you have an unrealistic goal, all you're going to do is set yourself up for failure.  So, how do you prevent this from happening?  Start by being honest with yourself.  If you need to lose some weight, just  how much weight do you really need to lose?  Losing 20 lbs when you really need to lose 80 lbs may be satisfying when you lose that weight, but it isn't what brought you to the conclusion that you needed to lose weight in the first place.  It will be that extra 60 lbs that still makes you unhappy.  On the flip side of the weight game, if you are already 110 lbs female that works out 3 days a week that is trying to tighten up your belly/arms/legs or whatever it may be, losing 20 lbs isn't going to happen either.  You can't lose something you don't have to lose, so don't torture yourself with something you'll never be able to reach.  So... What's the best way to keep this from happening to you?

Step #3- Do Your HOMEWORK- Know what you are about to get yourself into.

Knowledge is POWER!!  You need to have an idea of what people can and can't do inside that category of the goal you have.  If the goal is to start CrossFit, find out how many days a week the cream of the crop CrossFitters do to workout, and then start making your way down the list to see how many days you should go when you are getting started.  This way you can make sure you aren't setting the bar too high or too low.   Same thing applies to weight loss and pretty much any other goal you can think of.  If the goal is to lose 100 lbs, figure out what a realist timeline is to hit that goal.  You aren't going to lose 100 lbs, in the same amount of time you saw someone do it on "The Biggest Loser."  Know what you can and can't do! While you're it,  make sure it is healthy.  Healthy, sustainable weight loss comes at 2, maybe 3 pounds per week,  **This doesn't  mean you might lose more in the beginning, or that you won't plateau at several points** so when you sit down to come up with your goal, keep these things in mind.  You have to have a good understanding of what it's going to take or how long it will take you to get there if you're ever going to have a shot at accomplishing what you've set out to.

Step #4- Understand What Brought You to Your Goal

It's great to say you want to do something, but if you don't know why you really want it, it will always be more difficult to dig deep when you need that extra motivation to push yourself.  It was always easy to tell who had a real chance of accomplishing their weight loss goals when I was consulting simply based on the conversation I had with clients leading up to the beginning of their programs.  Without failure, the people that did the best could always answer one question, "What brought you to this conclusion?"  It can be simple, I don't like what I see in the mirror, I have a big belly, but sometimes it's a difficult thing to actually dredge up why you are unhappy with yourself, or why you what to change something.  The one thing I know for sure is that if you actually find what brought you to this point, you'll have all the motivation you'll ever need to keep pushing though.  **Shameless CrossFit plug.... but one of the beautiful things about having your CrossFit family is that once you have that support system in place, you know you can always count on them to help you on the days you don't quite have a full tank.  Having friends and family around you all working for one common goal is fantastic thing.  We might all have our different reasons for coming to CrossFit, but when you start the WOD, we make sure we root everyone on until they finish, and we all leave with that same feeling of accomplishment as the other does!!**
 

Step #5- Break it Down!!

The best way to keep yourself on track is to break down your goals.  If you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, chances are you'll never reach it.  It's not an easy thing to sit down after making a goal and actually reaching it if you don't know how to get there, or even how to stay on track.  No one leaves on a road trip without a map or a GPS, and you would never plan a trip without knowing how much money you'll need, how you're going to get there, or where you're going to stay.  Yet, somehow, everyone says they're going to resolve to do something at this point in the year without a clue how to get there.  At this point you should: 1) know what your goal is 2) done your research on what you are doing and what is realistic and 3) know the real reasons why you want to accomplish your goal.  Now what?  It's time to map out your strategy.  Start by WRITING DOWN your goals.  It's the whole "If you build it, they will come" mentality.  Once you write down what you are trying to accomplish, it makes the goal real.  It's something you can see on the fridge everyday, or walk by in the bathroom.  If I tell myself I want to have a certain amount of clients by the end of 2012 here at CFSL, it will have a much better chance of happening if I actually take the time to map out how I'm going to get there, rather then just telling myself an arbitrary number in my head and hoping I reach it.  I'll have a much greater chance if I write down my goal, do my market research on what other gyms my size have as a realistic client load, make my marketing strategy, make sure I'm the best trainer I can be to the clients I have so they are telling the friends about their accomplishments, understand why I made the goal, and plan out month to month, week by week, how to reach the reasonable numbers I came up with.  Same thing for any other goal!!  I want to run a marathon!! Great! Why? In how long? Where??? You want to lose weight?  Terrific!!  Break it down so you can accomplish your goal.  **Goals can have SUB-Categories**  If you want to lose weight this year break it down and reward yourself when you hit smaller goals!  You can't tell yourself you want to lose 100 lbs and only be satisfied when you reach the final goal.  It's also a lot harder to stay on track if you don't have a realistic timeline to follow.  When we start breaking down our main goals into smaller sub-categories, it makes it a lot more fun and a lot easier to stay on track.  When I was helping people with large amounts of weight to lose, we had to look at it in the most realistic way possible.  Ex.  I want to lose 100 lbs.  at 2 lbs per week, we're looking at a 50 week weight loss plan.  Over that 50 weeks, we would break down smaller goals to make sure we could stay on track.  Goal #1- lose 25 lbs by week 13.  How do you reach that?  What do I do if I fall behind etc?  It's much easier to stay on track once you know you're actually on one.  If you get to week 13 and you're at 20 lbs not 25, you know you have to make up 5 lbs.  This way you aren't always focused on your big lofty goals, and you can manage you're sub-categories to keep you in the realm of reality.  On the flip side, have rewards for yourself when you hit goals.  Week 13- lost 25 lbs..CHECK!! Fantastic!!! Go treat yourself to whatever your heart desires.  Make it fun!! Some of these things aren't going to happen overnight, so you have to map it out to make sure you reach that final destination!!

 Goals can make or break your success for 2011!!  Make sure you're prepared for success!!  We were always told; "People who fail to plan, should plan to fail."  Don't let that be you this year!!

One of my goals this year is to keep my CFSL family informed with as many little tidbits of knowledge I have that might help you out.  If you have any topics you would like to cover, hit me up and let me know and I promise to get try to get it into the blog asap.

Find your inner Athlete!!

Steven Bolt
Owner/Trainer CrossFit Sugar Land

1 comment:

  1. 45 days since I joined CFSL. 12 or 13 sessions completed and I can feel and see the results.
    6 for 60 is my goal and my deadline is March 25th. I'm going there!!!!!
    Thanks Steve.

    ReplyDelete