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When it comes to fitness, most of us know what it feels like to get off track.
The skinny jeans start feeling painfully skinny. Suddenly, you’re at a crossroads: risk the chance of seeing a button go flying or buy bigger pants?
It happened to me. Nine years ago, I found myself 30 pounds heavier than I meant to be. I had no idea where to start.
Maybe that’s how you feel today.
As Mr. Right and I have been cleaning up our finances using the Snowball Method, I wondered: Could this snowball theory work for fitness too? Could a person dump extra pounds like we dumped our debt?
If you’ve been feeling physically gross and out of shape, join me for a new kind of snowball.
For starters: Ignore fad diets and hype. Here is something I know to be true: if you eat properly and workout, you will lose weight. I lost 30 pounds – and kept it off, for the most part. I started small. Which leads me to:
Make a list of baby steps. What is your final goal? It could be to lose 30 pounds, or maybe you want to have shapely buns for the first time in your life. Let that goal be at the end of your snowball fitness list. What are the steps in between? This will take some thought. Some examples:
- Drink coffee black (without creamer)
- Have one beer (or chai tea or juice box) per day instead of two.
- Quit drinking soda
- Quit eating candy at work (a problem for me)
- Just say “no” to the kids’ Halloween candy (a problem for me at home)
- Bring a serving of veggies to work everyday
- Swap your Ranch dip for hummus
- Don’t eat fast food
- Eat 5 to 9 servings of fruits and veggies per day
- Workout 10 minutes each morning
- Do 20 squats per day
- Attend cardio kickboxing every Tuesday
and so on.
Create a list or spreadsheet. Organize your baby steps in easy-to-hard order, with your goal at the end.
Get the ball rolling. Start with your first baby step. Let the habit form – I’d recommend trying to stick with it for at least a week. If you get to the next step and find yourself reverting back from the first – stop. Get that one habit in hand. Start walking.
Build momentum. Think about the things you already do – how can you make them healthier? Can you start cooking healthy meals at home rather than going out to eat? Can you make veggies and fruit the main course of your meal instead of a side?
Consider your lifestyle. My fitness has taken a back seat since starting this blog for obvious reasons – I have less “me” time and more work to fill it with. But there are some not so obvious reasons, too. One is that I need to go somewhere in order to work during my lunch hour. I’m drinking more chai and eating more potato chips at cafes offering free wi-fi than ever before. This week, I’ve decided to do my work at the local library. Stupidity calories solved.
Know what you eat. You could start a food diary, but who has the time? Instead, try a fake food diary. Before you eat something (even a bite-size Snickers) ask yourself if you’d feel good writing that in your fake food diary. If you would, by all means, enjoy. If not – skip it.
Care about the looks you can control. Its easy to get lax about weight loss because it takes a long time to reach the final goal. Fix things that give you immediate results. Shave your legs, pluck your eyebrows, dab on a little eye makeup. The snowball method is all about feeling good and watching your success build.
Reclaim your health, one ignored Snickers at a time.
See also:
Project: Find a 10 Minute Workout
5 Fitness Tips for Lazy People
A Little Guide to Keeping it Tiny
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