How to Achieve Your Fitness Goals: It's Not Too Late!

Didn't get to keep your fitness resolutions? Sure, the first quarter of the year has passed, but it doesn't mean you can't press restart and get in shape. Edsel Segovia, our Resident Fitness Coach, share some useful tips to help you get started. 

Have a clear and defined goal

How much weight do you want to lose? Is it 5 lbs? 10 lbs?How much muscle do you want to gain? 1 pound? 2 pounds? How about around the waist? Do you just want to lose all the fat around your waist or start with an inch? The acronym SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timed) gets thrown around a lot in different circles and having to apply towards you fitness goals shouldn’t be an exception.

Consult a coach

With the ubiquity of gyms nowadays, it’s almost hard not to run into a someone who works as a coach at a local gym. Try to set-up an appointment and discuss with them your goals. They’re the best people to consult because they have a lot of hands-on experience in screening people for injuries and imbalances before putting them through a training program.

Place exercise in your schedule

With the advent of smartphones, there’s almost an app for everything you need. The calendar app on your smartphone ensures that your life is organized, and you don’t miss a thing. If that appointment with a prospect client is on your calendar, so should be your training appointment. If it’s in your calendar, there’s a big chance you’d want it ticked off.

Improve your nutrition knowledge

So many diets are being suggested by our peers but we never truly take the time to do further reading. There are a lot of resources and apps that can be downloaded to learn more about nutrition. 

Invite friends to train with you

Friends are the best people to start a new endeavor with. Especially when it comes to exercising. Exercise should be fun and having friends to do it with, helps with the extra motivation.

Mix it up a bit

During the course of your training, you might experience some setbacks (A missed week or some weight gain) that might discourage you. Try to switch things up to break the monotony. That may be the key to finding your sweet spot and make yourself continue to progress.

Keep a training diary

Training diaries keep you on the ball. When you have specific targets in your fitness journey, your subconscious will drive you to accomplish them.Again going back to having SMART goals. If you’re scheduled to lose 4 pounds by May and you’ve only lost 3, you know something needs tweaking. Whether it’s your eating plan, your training program, stress, etc. At least you’ll have an idea what to tweak.

Prepare your own food

Eating out is the worst thing to do when you have a fitness goal. Restaurants are known to source the cheapest ingredients to drive down the cost of their food. Especially fast-food joints. So there’s no guarantee about the quality of their food after its prepared. Besides, when you’re cooking at home, aren’t you conscious about how much salt goes into your food? Well, you have no control over that if you eat out. Start small by preparing a sandwich and a fruit to bring to work. These tiny efforts will pay off at the end of the year and will save you money too.

Eat more vegetables

Our grandparents said it. Our folks said it. They were right after all. There’s nothing like absorbing the most natural vitamins and minerals present in vegetables. Aside from that, you get the benefit of having a ton of fiber that helps maintain a healthy colon and accelerating fat burn.

Recover properly

Rest is often overlooked when approaching a fitness goal. People think going hard is always the solution. I beg to differ. Muscles don’t grow during the workout session. They recover and regenerate after the workout. Fat doesn’t burn during the workout. Your body burns them when you’re deep in your slumber. Learn to listen to your body. Only through consistency will you truly understand how your own body works.

If you notice, the last things on the list are all related with food. We Filipinos love to eat. And we use this excuse most of the time to reward ourselves for putting in the extra effort. All that grunting and pushing will go down the drain if you’re ingesting more calories than you’re using up. It’s all about balance and the ability to self-regulate. By adopting these new habits, by the end of 2019 you can give yourself a pat on the back and reward yourself with some holiday ham.