5 Steps to a New You in the New Year!

Ready to get healthy and fit as your New Year’s Resolution? Awesome, here’s your 5 step plan.

COMMIT.  Write down your goal (whatever it is: lose weight, get fit, be more active). 

Put it on your mirror. If you’re like me, then put it in the app that you see every morning that’s like looking in the mirror!

For me, it's my FitBit app. 

CHANGE

You didn’t get to where you are by accident. You won’t achieve long term health goals by doing the same things. CHANGE YOUR MIND. Get new information that will help you achieve your goals.

EAT WELL

Eat real, whole foods. The SAD (Standard American Diet) is a pile of falsehoods, big food influences and politics. If you were born after 1950, you don’t remember a time when this nation ate the way it should. 

Ignore the food pyramid or MyPlate – eat real, organic veggies and grass fed beef or free range chicken. Don’t be afraid of fat, you need it to burn calories, absorb and process vitamins and for good brain function (especially cholesterol!)

PARTNER

Find someone you can partner with to be accountable for your commitments – and also as someone to encourage you and work with you towards that goal!

GET MOVING

Don’t wait, get moving. You can start just by getting 10-15 minutes of walking/movement a day. 

Work your way up to 30 minutes in five minute increments. That’s your baseline. Don’t anticipate weight loss (likely you won’t lose any) but look for some cardiovascular endurance and general strengthening. Hit some stairs along that route too. After that, come back here and you’ll find available programs that will help you meet your fitness goals.

YOU CAN DO IT.  You were designed for greatness. Engage.

Yours,

Phillip

Want help? Contact me @NoGuiltFitness (http://twitter.com/noguiltfitness) or on Facebook http://facebook.com/noguiltfitness

Seven Strategies to Get Your Steps

Are you a FitBit, WiThings, Misfit, Garmin or other tracker user? Need to get your steps but the weather (cold, snow, rain) has you hemmed in? Here are some tips for getting your 10,000 steps for the day in.

1. Hit the steps! Whether at home or at the office, sneaking in 10-15 minutes for some step work will get your step count up.
   Bonus: Going up steps burns 3x the calories as walking on a flat surface.
2. In addition to a step session - include more steps as part of your daily routine - SKIP the elevator!
3. When you're going to the water cooler, take the long way. I've got a break area right near my desk, I'll take a 1-2 minute walk around the floor to get to the water cooler 15 feet from my desk.
4. Walk the floor plan. Even if you're stuck at home, take some laps around the floor plan of your house. If you've got steps (as I do - though I miss my old house where I had three floors instead of only two) that's even better!
5. Walk the parking garage. Sure, you can always take the steps up to your car (that you parked on the top floor) but if you want even more steps in a sheltered environment, walk the garage as if you were a vehicle. That'll get your motor revving! 
6. Got a treadmill at work or home? Hit the treads baby. Sure, it's as boring as watching paint dry, but if you need something to keep you occupied, then load a great podcast or audiobook!
7. Run in place. it doesn't take much time to rack up 1k steps just running in place. (I prefer this to a treadmill actually). So, pop on something you like (or not - maybe just a good metronome to keep you on pace) and go for it!

There you go, seven strategies to get your steps when you're locked inside or seeking shelter.

BONUS!

OK, now for the bonus for everyone that's read this far.  Want to get steps and really crank up your metabolism too? Do body weight exercises instead of just steps!

Here's a variety for you:

• Squats
• Lunges
• Side Lunges
• Step-ups
• Push-ups (yup, your tracker will count the up and down movements)
• Side to Side ski-jumps
• Jumping jacks
• Mummy kicks
• Heisman's (or the ones I like better 1-2-3 Heisman's)

Love your FitBit, Get Your Steps, But NOT Because You'll Loose Weight

If you look at my timeline, you'll see that I use RunKeeper to track my morning cool down walk, and I have a FitBit that keeps track of my steps. But I DON'T walk to loose weight, and neither should you.

A recent study (here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25353081) shows that if you're walking as exercise without changing your diet (as in: what you eat every day), you will increase your aerobic conditioning, but you're more likely to gain weight than loose it.

So why walk?

Walking (or 30-60 minutes of movement a day) is an indicator for longevity. Those who move more have a tendency to live longer. No, it's not hard and fast, it correlates but it doesn't necessarily cause longer life.  The likelihood is that more physically active people have a tendency to take better care of themselves in general. 

So, long slow cardio? Basically, not good for weight loss.

What should you do? Weights, body weight exercises and interval training.  Well, at least if you want to loose weight anyway. 

If you want to gain weight, then keep hitting that elliptical, walking, or going out for a "run" (which, BTW, if you're at 10 minutes a mile, you can get more benefit if you actually just walk because you won't pound your knees and other joints as much).

Of course, I'll end this as I end many conversations about fitness - you can't out exercise a bad diet. Food choices, even putting calories aside, make a huge difference in your health.

Oh, and BTW, just counting calories doesn't work either - but I'll explain that in a different post.

Till then, #BeFierce have #NoGuilt and #BringtheFit

Shalom,

Phillip