Ask a Trainer: How to eat an elephant

Can you imagine eating an entire elephant by yourself? How do you do it? It’s certainly too big to eat by yourself, right?! However, every Jan. 1 countless people set out to eat a proverbial elephant called a New Year’s Resolution. What was yours? Are you still actively engaged with it or has it become a distant memory? If you’re like most people, your New Year’s Resolution has already fallen by the wayside and stored away in your memory to begin again next Jan. 1. In fact, a study by the University of Scranton reported that only 46 percent of people who make resolutions keep them past six months and only 8 percent acheieve them each year. Why are these numbers so low?

One main reason for so few success stories is the vague nature of many people’s resolutions. The top resolution for 2015 is to lose weight, which is a great goal, but not specific enough. If you’ve read Stephen R. Covey’s, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” you’re familiar with the habit, “Begin with the End in Mind” where you must envision your end goal: what it looks like, what it feels like and by when you will have achieved it. In order to have a vivid picture in your head of what that end goal looks and feels like, the goal has to be specific enough for you to envision it: “I am going to lose 15 pounds by March 15, 2015.” Now you’re one step closer!

Now that you’ve defined your end goal, we need to work backwards from that goal to define small incremental goals that are attainable each day. This is where many plans can become derailed as people try to adopt major changes in their diet and exercise plan all at once. A personal trainer can help a great deal with putting together an incremental exercise plan to help reach weight loss goals. They can also help with accountability and motivation when discouragement rears its ugly head. If you have questions on where to get started you can email our trainers at [email protected]

Make small changes to your diet, like resolving to eat two or three vegetables with dinner, instead of one, or trading in soda for green tea. Get to the gym three times per week and work your way up to four or five days of activity over the course of three to four weeks. Find a friend to exercise with and hold each other accountable. Exercising with a friend is always more fun. Small, achieveable goals each day will help you become part of the small group of people who, each year, achieve their New Year’s Resolution. If you’re part of the majority who has let that resolution slip away this year, with six months and a week left in 2015, you can still be in the 46 percent of the people who stick to their resolution for more than six months just by picking it up again now!

When I would get frustrated with a project or a task, my dad would always remind me of the saying, “Inch by inch, life’s a cinch. Yard by yard, life is hard.” Which, incidentally, is similar to how you eat an elephant: one bite at a time…and, if your New Year’s Resolution was to lose weight, not all in one sitting!

Patrick McGaha Jr., member experience manager at Anytime Fitness, Winter Park, is dedicated to building a welcoming environment in the club, conducive to helping members and clients reach their health fitness goals. To get your fitness and nutrition related questions answered by a certified personal trainer, or for a free personal training session, call us at 321-972-5833 or email [email protected]