January definitely kicks off the season of health, and initially creates a strong level of motivation.
The challenge is that come February, motivation starts fading fast and results become stagnant.
By mid February your health momentum has stopped and your progress backslide begins.
This is the exact story millions of people live with every new year, ready to make a real health change only to see their efforts and progress squashed.
This is the exact reason why I’m writing this blog.
The scenario I just shared will NOT be you this year!
This is the year YOU reprogram your metabolism and achieve permanently results!
I’ve coached thousands of people at this exact space where you now sit—the moment the motivation fades and you choose to continue making your health a priority or the moment when you begin to lose ground and backslide.
Life begins to push back, focus is lost, priorities shift, and within a few weeks/months your results have disappeared and you’re left scratching your head wondering how it turned so fast.
I’m sharing this with you because this is reality, and you get to decide what happens next with your health.
To keep progressing with your health there are 3 necessary steps you must take to create a solid foundation for reprogramming your metabolism.
These steps will keep your results flowing, and help you evolve your plan into a way of life with your family and friends.
So lets get to it, starting with step one:
Step 1 – Reprogram
Think of a temperature-controlled room. It has a thermostat that maintains the temperature of the room. Let’s say the temperature is set at seventy degrees. If the room goes above seventy degrees, the thermostat triggers the air conditioner to switch on and cool the room, and if the room goes below seventy degrees, the thermostat triggers the heater to turn on and heat the room. Just like the room has a temperature control system, your body has a weight control system, and they work almost identically.
As you made your run, you burst through your set point, lowered it, and now sit at a new weight. Your next step is to keep your momentum flowing long enough to actually reprogram your set point and metabolism to your new weight.
Here’s your best strategy to make sure your results and new weight are here to stay:
- Stay Consistent for at Least 2 Months – It sounds so simple, but after you make a push and run, it’s easy to take a breath and begin to backslide. This is why your Thrive phase is so important, because it actually reprograms your metabolism. In this phase, you need to hold your new weight for at least two months. It takes about that amount of time for your body to recalibrate. You can of course keep dropping weight, inches, and body fat if you have more to lose—just remember, every step of progress forward needs to be followed by consistency for your results to stick.
Step 2 – Diversify
Imagine eating chicken every meal for the rest of your life or walking on the treadmill as your only exercise. I think we both know that would get boring really quick. When you make your run it’s easy to suck things up and push through because you have an end in site. The problem with that logic is once the run is over you will rapidly regress. To prevent that it’s crucial you diversify by focusing on three things:
- New Foods – each week add a new protein, fat, carb or free food to your plan, just to try it. This will keep your meals exciting, simply adding cinnamon to your oatmeal makes a boring meal seem exciting, go figure!
- New Exercises – every month add a new strength training routine, cardio movement, exercise class or try a new sport. Just have fun and experiment with something new and different.
- New Goals – The fastest way to lose momentum is to achieve a goal and not have a new goal in place. My client Lucy made her 8 Week Run, dropped 30 pounds and had a feeling like “what’s next”? She quickly created a new goal, which was to do a Spartan Race (cool outdoor obstacle course). She now had something to strive for, train for and the little extra juice she needed to stay on plan. So make sure you have new goals in place once you achieve your original goal, because you will achieve it and it’s crucial you have a vision of what’s next.
- Eat Meals Together – The example I shared about my family growing up should never be the case. I know we all live busy lives, so eating meals together does not necessarily mean sitting down together at the table to eat dinner (if you can do that with your family, though, all the better—great bonding time!). Eating meals together means making one type of meal so the entire family can eat it, whether it’s fresh or as leftovers. This makes cooking, grocery shopping, and the overall eating experience so much simpler.
- Exercise Together – You can see the pic of Hunter and me at soccer practice training together. That’s the entire point of making your health a part of your world whether it’s with your family or friends. A few great examples are how Abbi, H and I will go for a family hike, or we hit Sky Zone to play some indoor trampoline dodge ball (seriously one of Hunter’s and my top sports in the world), or Abbi and Hunter take on an obstacle course in our basement (or at the park), or we all have an intense ping- pong battle in our living room, we find ways to stay active and exercise together as a family.
- Live Health Together – This concept goes hand in hand with eating your meals and exercising together. It basically means living your health as a community. It’s really as simple as joining a walking group, or sharing a recipe with a friend, or having a monthly clean cooking night in your neighborhood. These are just a few examples of how to live healthy together with your family and your friends, and the cool thing is, the more you do it, the more ideas will evolve and your initial spark of health will inspire your family, your friends, and your community.
Step 3 – Energize
Growing up, I watched my mom and sister Laurie eat their low- calorie, cardboard-looking “diet” foods at dinner while my dad, my other sister Chris, and I were eating “normal” food. In the 1980s, this is what dieters thought they had to do. Eat less food, fewer carbohydrates, and no fat—basically starve themselves. My mom, who worked a full-time job as a nurse and had three children and a husband, came home exhausted each night and then needed to make two dinners, all because she thought that was the only way to not gain weight. I remember those nights like they were yesterday, wondering why it had to be like that. I hated seeing how hard it was for my mom.
Families shouldn’t need to eat separately, parents shouldn’t need to make two separate dinners, and families should be able to rock their health together. Your Energize step is all about making your plan a permanent part of your world and truly including your family and friends.
Here are 3 starting concepts to take on to rock your Energize step:
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