Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

Every week, I’ll be giving you some direction for how to actually KEEP your New Year’s Resolution to lose weight or get more active. If you’re short on time, scroll down to the end and read “The Short Version” to get your weekly tips.

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Did you make a New Year’s resolution to lose weight? It’s a very popular resolution. I’m sure there are statistics to tell us how many people all over the U.S. decide to lose weight at the first of the year. The only problem is that for years, I made that resolution, but in the pit of my stomach I worried that it was going to be like last year.

No, this year is going to be different.

I would say that to myself every year as well.

It took me a long time, but I finally realized that those big New Year’s resolutions were actually part of my weight problem.

I would promise myself that I would lose weight this year. I would go on a strict diet. I would exercise until my muscles hurt. I would be diligent about everything and in the end, it would be too much. Something about restricting my diet that much and suddenly increasing my exercise would set off a survival instinct in my mind. I would become obsessed with whatever food the particular diet had restricted.

Then I would binge.

This year, if you have resolved to lose weight, please do me a favor. Don’t go on a restrictive diet. Seriously, just don’t do it. Don’t exercise yourself to exhaustion either. Really, do you think it’s going to work when it didn’t last year?

Let’s try something different.

Don’t change your eating habits just yet. Just write down EVERYTHING you eat. Don’t judge yourself when you do it. This week just write down everything you eat. If you want to do something good for yourself, ADD some veggies into your diet. Don’t take anything away from yourself, just add something healthy.

Here is a Microsoft Excel Form you can download and print up to write down your food:

• Starling Fitness » Weight Watchers Form

If you aren’t spreadsheet saavy, you can order a Starling Fitness Journal here:

• Starling Fitness » Order Your Starling Fitness Yearly Journal

Exercise?

Yeah, I want you to exercise. I want you to think about what you would have done this week. Did you have a book that you were going to follow? Did you have a plan that you wanted to torture yourself with? That’s great!

Cut it in half.

Honestly, no matter what you were planning on doing, cut that plan in half. I want it to feel hilariously easy. I want you to feel frustrated because you’re going so slow or doing so little. Next week, you can do a little more, but this week keep your workout out short, slow and EASY.

If you want to know what I did to get started, I walked 0.5 miles on the treadmill five days a week. A half mile felt like NOTHING. It was very frustrating and after a couple of days, I wanted to increase my mileage, but I didn’t. My goal was consistency. I wanted to exercise every day at the same time. Learning that consistency was WAY more important than killing myself trying to rack up the miles.

You won’t lose any weight this week.

Sorry. No massive weight losses that make the commercials so appealing. You might even gain weight, but don’t let that stop you. Next week, we’ll be doing a little more and after a week as easy as this, you’ll actually be willing to do a little more.

As always, check with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise regime.

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The Short Version:

• DO NOT change your eating regime at all, but write down EVERYTHING you eat.

• You are allowed to ADD a serving or two of vegetables every day, but you are not allowed to restrict anything in your diet.

• Start exercise slowly. SLOW, SHORT and EASY. Whatever you were thinking of doing, cut it in half. Recommended exercise: Walk 0.5 miles five days this week.

• Check with your doctor.