How to set and achieve our fitness goals for 2010

Posted on Friday, January 29, 2010 by CoachBecky It's still January, but some of us may already be losing a bit of focus on our fitness goals for 2010. In this video, Boomer fitness specialist Becky Williamson shares smart strategies to help us set and achieve our fitness goals this year.

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anir

anir said to CoachBecky

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new!

Hi Becky,

Hope to be one of the persons to make you, and of course myself, proud. You have rekindled my enthusiasm.

My new years resolution on losing weight has gone out the window. Diet shot! Video on exercise which I paid a lot of money for, siting next to my DVD player. I know it's never too late to reve up again and this might just do it. My daughter's upcoming wedding in July, the first of my five children getting married, is my maine reason for getting into shape this year, gotta look good on those wedding pictures and feel good on the dance floor.

Here goes:

Height: 5 feet 6 inches

Starting weight: 212 pounds

Activity level: I walk to work 4 to 5 times a week. It's only a ten minute walk. I walk up the stairs at work. It is sometimes a five flight climb. Depends on which floor I am working. That's it. Pretty meager. Used to swim. Haven't fit it in lately, maybe it's because I feel too fat...

Goal: Loose 60 pounds by the 23rd of July of this year, my daughter's wedding day.

Attainable? Realistic? I have lost it before with exercise and better eating habits. Is it realistic this time around? Not sure.

Ways to attain my goal:

Better eating habits. I still have all my 'Simply For Life' recipies, weight control clinics, with which I had lost weight before. They include meals I can easily make ahead of time, I hate to cook, and freeze. You get to eat a lot of vegetables and healthy snacks three times a day. It worked for me before. I felt great after having lost the weight and during the whole process. A friend of mine is presently starting this regime. I will be talking to her more often. Hope we can help each to stay focused on the eating thing.

Exercise is the maine thing that will help me loose weight while toning my body. I spent a lot of money on those DVDs. I tried the first one for three days, and I really do enjoy doing these exercises. The music is good and the moves make you sweat without being too complicated or puting too much stress on my body. I have done weight training before where I had someone showing me how not to overdo it. Motivation is what is missing. Even if I have to stay on the learning part of these videos for three weeks, I will do it to attain my goal.

If not, I have a treadmill gathering dust and cat hair. It can easily be folded out and used. Maybe I can focus on doing that 5 km run I have done 3 times so far. It is usually held on the third Sunday in June. I have ample time to train for it. Or should I stick to one focus at a time?

Am I missing something. My printer is out of wack, I will be rewriting my goals and exercises by hand and will post it on my refrigerator and on the wall above my computer as well . It is done! Ha to do it right away.

Hope this works

anir

CoachBeck…

CoachBecky said to anir

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new!

Hi Anir,

I'm glad I was able to rekindle your enthusiasm!

My comments:

-Your weight loss goal for 7/23 is a bit lofty. It's completely attainable, but not reasonable for you, in my opinion. I'd aim for a 45 lb weight loss goal by 7/23, and the full 60 pounds by 9/15. We can have you lose weight faster, but usually you're doing things y ou can't sustain. My experience is that sustainable change leads to better weight maintenance, because you've made changes over time you can stick with for life.

-Eating habits: Plan your food. Shop for it. Make stuff ahead of time. Concentrate most meals around lean protein (3-4 oz.) and produce. Snack on low fat dairy (low sugar/no sugar yogurt w/fruit, small servings of nuts). Quite honestly, your food changes will dictate your weight loss success more than exercise. Yep, that's right. You can't out train a lousy diet. Think about it---there are a lot of heavy people at the gym (who stay heavy). It's what they're eating. Their exercise program is probably lacking, too, but nutrition is 80% of the answer.

Exercise: Dust off and vacuum that treadmill! Get on it. Schedule it. Plan to get sweaty. If you can hold an animated conversation while you are on the treadmill or doing a DVD, you're not working hard enough. Of course, work up to higher exertion levels, but still make it a WORKOUT! Although it sounds crazy to most women, I will tell you to consider strength training. It uses calories and it develops more muscle. Muscle burns calories. Hire a trainer for just a few sessions to show you what to do. You don't need an hour at the gym to develop your muscles. Twenty minutes at home 3 times a week will do it if you plan the workout right.

Become a writer. Write down what you eat. Log your workouts (what you did, time, and intensity). This keeps you focused on your goals, and also provides a reference for later on when you can see how far you've come!

Best of luck!

Coach b

anir

anir said to CoachBecky

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new!

Thanks for the great advice. Will do. Just don't want to overdo the treadmill as I have had knee problems in the past. I will start with a walk/run regime. Strength exercises will be added. I also have a few hand held weights and know how to use them.

anir

Tamara

Tamara said to CoachBecky

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new!

Hi Coach!

Hoping you can give me some advice. Diet wise, I know exactly what to do to lose weight. I've been sticking to my own version of the South Beach diet and have managed to lose about 20 pounds since the end of August. I'm hoping to drop another 20 before summer.

My biggest issue is exercise...I used to run, but with two degenerating discs in my back and bad knees, it's not possible. I walk whenever possible. I try to get to the gym, but my work schedule makes it almost impossible...I'm trying out a 24 hour gym on a trial basis and for the past couple of days have been going at 3:30 a.m. I have a feeling this will be difficult to maintain.

Can you suggest a quick, total body workout for a 50 year old woman with a bad back and bad knees?

Thanks!

CoachBeck…

CoachBecky said to Tamara

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new!

Hi tamara,

Congrats on the 20 lb weight loss. That's awesome. I hesitate to suggest a workout due to your limitations w/out knowing you a little better. The safest thing I can tell you without knowing more about your abilities or limitations is to use the stationary bike at the gym. Once you've been cycling regularly, transition to high intensity intervals on the bike. This will shorten you workout and increase your calorie burn. If you adjust the fly wheel tension, and properly adjust the seat, your knees should be fine. Ultimately, if you were my client and you were on a really limited schedule with the physical limitations you describe, I would have you working up to the interval training I've described, as well as a 15 minute strength training routine. The strength training portion would be what would give you a "full body" aspect to the routine. You can do a cardio routine that is also a full body workout (see my vacation cardio video here on the VN site somewhere), but I suspect it wouldn't be something you should try at this point.

Although you didn't ask for advice about this (bear with me, I give unsolicited advice all the time!!), I'd really like to see you strengthen your back and knees. Sometimes this is the first thing to do in order to be able to better tolerate full body exercises. There is a video here on VN about strengthening your knees. Please watch it. The exercises are simple.

Coach Becky

Tamara

Tamara said to CoachBecky

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new!

Thank you so much! I actually did watch the back and knees video at work today, and managed to do some of them on the job!

I will definitely give the stationary bike a whirl...,my back doctor said no exercises that required jumping so this should be perfect. This weekend, I am going to go through all of your videos!

My goals, I believe, are realistic. I know it's pretty unlikely that I will be that size 6 runner again, as I was in my 20's and early 30's...but I think I can be a healthy woman of 50, gearing for 150 pounds at 5'7...maybe 145 if I'm lucky!

CoachBeck…

CoachBecky said to Tamara

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new!

Choose to be lucky :-).

Lynnette

Lynnette said to CoachBecky

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new!

Hi Coach Becky... i exercise a lot! Personal training Mondays and Thursdays, spinning, saturday, sunday, and 1/2 hour on Thursdays. My problem is my diet. i am not keen on meat, maybe a little chicken here and there, tuna, fish, but get bored easily. I love carbs and sweets. Actually i think the carbs trigger the sweet tooth. Today i made brown rice w/vegetables in the rice cooker and had a fish salad with it. Tomorrow i will take the same for lunch. My daily diet according to my trainer should be like this: protein shake in the morning with fat free milk, protein powder and oatmeal, she wants me to mix it with water but it is too blah. At 10 i am supposed to have a 1/2 a turkey sandwich but i have an apple. At noon is the problem...fish and salad, yiak, then at 3 another snack - maybe jello, and at 6-7 dinner composed of chicken breast and salad and at 9ish another protein shake. I HATE THAT DIET! Can u help me? I was on vacation for Xmas and the whole exercise diet routine died, i just started back on the 18th. I need to lose 20 lbs. I am 59 and do not use hormones, my system is shot.

CoachBeck…

CoachBecky said to Lynnette

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Hi Lynette,

A few questions:

-What do you hate about what you're eating?

-Are you having a protein shake AND oatmeal w/protein powder at breakfast?

-What don't you like about your lunch (fish and salad)?

-How many calories and grams of protein in the shake?

Lynnette

Lynnette said to CoachBecky

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new!

i do not like eating the same thing always.

i put the oatmeal in the shake at breakfast, it makes me regular

I hate animal protein, i can have it a little bit but not always. I could easily be a vegetarian.

the shake powder has about 150, plus the milk, etc. i guess about 250 cals per shake.

CoachBeck…

CoachBecky said to Lynnette

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new!

Okay. So, a few things come to mind.

-You're eating small meals regularly, which is excellent. Do NOT change this!

-What you might want to change are some quantities, as I think you still may be too high in calories.

-Consider eating some snacks that have a little protein. Perhaps string cheese, low fat cottage cheese, or hummus w/some veggies? Jello doesn't have a lot of nutrition in it, so I'd like to see you try some afternoon snacks like the ones I've suggested if they're palatable to you.

-If you can do w/out the protein shake at night, leave it out. A small non-fat low or no sugar yogurt should tied you over until morning and will cost you fewer calories. Personally, I can't handle plain yogurt, so I add some fruit or low sugar jam to mine. I also eat Greek yogurt, which gives you more protein per serving. You might do this in place of a protein shake now and then for variety and fewer calories.

Here an idea: Consider on some days moving the turkey sandwich to lunch (and eat a whole sandwich), and add a fruit or veggie with it. For the snack that day, have some low fat yogurt (plain w/fruit in it, or a tsp. of low sugar jam) and a few almonds. This will give you some variety, and allow you to eat protein you seem to like (turkey). It will also give you a break from the salad (a perfectly good meal idea--but it sounds like you need some changes).

-I think you're bored with your food ;-). Life is too short for this. Look for some fun vegetarian recipes that are high in fiber and low in fat. Maybe something with beans in it? Perhaps tofu? Just a couple of new lunches or dinner or snacks each week, and you'll have a new lease on life!

Coach Becky

Lynnette

Lynnette said to CoachBecky

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new!

My personal trainer is against dairy. You mention cheese to her and she gives u dirty looks. She is the one insisting on the shake at night. I usually do not have it. So her way of eating/training seems strange to me. But she is good at what she does. I go to Subway a lot for lunch and do the turkey and swiss w/lots of vegs. I know swiss is not a good thing, but one has to live a little. I was sick for 2 days so i hardly ate. My stomach was not accepting any food at all. Thanks for your help!

CoachBeck…

CoachBecky said to Lynnette

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new!

I've heard of trainers being against dairy. As you can tell, I'm not one of them :-). I'd have a client back down on grain based carbs a bit before I'd pull out low fat dairy----but there are as many opinions out there as there are trainers and nutritionists. You'll need to find what works best for you.

Best of luck!

Coach B

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