How to Get the Weight Loss Ball Rolling
From SparkPeople.com:
The media associates a fast break with Magic Johnson and basketball. But a nutritional fast break is much different; except that both can lead to a slam dunk. A Spark Diet Fast Break is a quick, easy goal that you focus on and track for two weeks, before any other heavy work is done. Why is this so important? Unlike almost every diet out there, it encourages you to start very small.
Starting small helps you to avoid burnout, something many diets can cause. To prove it, here’s a statistic for you – 95% of those who go on a diet gain any weight they lost back within a year. Many even gain more weight than before they started.
Your Fast Break can help you gain a healthy habit and reach your calorie and exercise goals at the same time. For example, consider two typical Fast Breaks. Eating a fruit and veggie each day will take you that much closer to reaching your tracked nutrient goals. Exercising just 10 minutes per day can add up to a strong foundation for a developing exercise program. These are just two examples of how a Fast Break can get the momentum rolling.
By starting with just one or a few goals, you can easily ingrain a new habit into your life. Take brushing your teeth for example. Here’s an activity that takes 5-10 minutes (depending on how many times you brush) every single day for years on end. Ever get burned out? Doubtful. Why? Because it was a small thing that caught on with repetition.
The Spark Diet is designed to avoid burnout and instead create lifelong habits to keep weight off permanently. So by starting small with a fast break, you get off on the right foot and achieve a small win on your way to many more. And keep in mind; fast breaks do not have to be complicated or overzealous. Here are some examples of possible fast breaks:
- Drinking 8 cups of water
- Eating a fruit and/or vegetable every day
- Not eating 2 hours before bed
- No soda or coffee
- Eat breakfast every morning
- No candy or potato chips
posted by JC @ 2:03 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
This is an idea I've been working into my fitness goals. I used to jog 6 miles every night. When I began my master's thesis work, however, I completely fell out of the habit and gained weight. Now, a few years later, I've been working on getting back to it. I had been successfully doing about 30 minutes of cardio 3 times a week, but then my company downsized and I was forced to live out of a hotel for a couple of months when I moved to where my new job was. At that time, I had dropped about 30 pounds, but the small hotel room and stress of moving again disrupted my redeveloping fitness habit.
At present, I'm trying to come home from work and transition from job to home by stretching. Following the stretching, I begin my cardio work. As I mentioned in another response, I'm developing a routine based on my former martial arts training. It's not quite as frenetic as a cardio kickboxing routine. Rather than rapid little movements, I utilize solid punches and kicks moving through a wide range of motion. I also use a lot of combo work. Rather than doing lots of little, fast punches trying to get my heart rate up, I'll do something like an outer block - punch - front kick - roundhouse combo. I keep in time to some pretty hardcore music like Rammstein, KMFDM, and a lot of J-rock, but it's not super-fast hopping about to techno beats or anything.
I find that using solid combination moves through a broad range of motion results in greater physical demands that get my heart rate up, rather than relying on a series of rapid movements with only the arms or legs that can result in your heart rate dropping quickly the moment you stop. The idea is it's not just the pace of motion that gets your heart rate up, but the physical demand placed on your body to do repeated, solid movements that rely on using your whole body and muscular system with increased demands to raise your heart rate. For example, instead of doing quick but wimpy little side kicks where I'm flailing my leg... I use a good form and put some power behind it. (Don't overdo it, though. If you're not actually hitting something like a bag, fully extending your arms and legs can result in injury.) I don't just lift my leg with my hips and quads.. I SQUEEEEEZE my abs and get my whole body behind the kick. Even though it's not quite as fast as lots of leg-flailing, it gets my heart rate up even more because it's a total-body demand.
Of course, if you're getting back to a routine like myself, this can be a tough thing to do for 30 minutes... especially on days you don't want to work out (i.e., Mondays). Rather than doing a half-hearted workout for 30 minutes, I've decided to focus on giving a solid effort for 20 minutes at present. If I feel good at the end, I'll keep going for another 5 or 10 minutes. If I can go 30 minutes on a good day, great! But if not, that 20 minutes is my present "core goal." As my body adapts to the demand of the workout, I will increase the time until I'm doing at least 30 minutes of solid effort.
But, in developing the habit, I figure 20 minutes of solid effort that will build a habit for a lifetime is better than jumping into 30 minutes of mindless activity for the sheer sake of it being 30 minutes.... which I may decide to skip if there's housework to be done or something. Even though it's only a 10-minute difference, starting back with a 20-minute routine makes the time you set aside for working out seem more manageable.. like you can work it in to almost anything. As the habit takes hold, and you really look forward to working out, you'll incorporate the time for your workouts more.. like spending less time watching "a little TV" when you get home from work (it used to be a little Playstation time in my case). For many, their fitness routine eventually becomes their transition activity.
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