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Ok, now that I got my daily complaining out of the way, Nishy wanted to know what motivates me and keeps me on track. The 1st answer is that I have to be on stage in a bikini, high heels, alot of self-tanner, and and big smile. Oh yes, and pitted against a bunch of hard bodies on stage helps too. But behind the obvious reason, I always wanted those perfect abs, arms, sexy legs, etc. Who doesn't, right?
Motivation 1: Identifying Fitness Idols.
I figured out that the folks who know the most about bodysculpting are bodybuilders. They are the extreme example of discipline, diet, exercise, and nutrition. While we may not all want to look like them, no one can deny that they are walking & talking experts in this field. So, I googled "bodybuilding" and landed on www.bodybuilding.com. Anyone who wants the visual motivation can easily start with this site.... there's a big section on women in this lifestyle and they come in all shapes. I scrutinized the figure girls because while they were rock hard, they looked very feminine with great hair, smiles, posture, heels... gottta love the clear heels LOL. I love Monica Beckham, Jennifer Nicole Lee, Jamie Eason, and a few others in my top friends list. Normal women, full lives with family and careers, and rockin' bodies. I found a couple around my height so I could really see and follow what girls like me were doing to look good. Personally, it's difficult for me to relate to someone who is 5'11" because I'll never be her height/weight ratio.
Motivation 2: Working towards a Firm Goal
I have the attention span of a fly. You can imagine how long a diet lasts or an exercise program lasts for me. I knew that if I didn't have a firm goal at the end of this hard work I would just stop or relax when I felt that I "looked good enough". So, I signed up/paid to compete in the Bikini and Fitness model catagories of a physique show that was 5 months out. Now I'm screwed, can't back out now! For others, the firm goal may be a class reunion, wedding, paid photoshoot, etc. I like the idea of paying for a bikini photoshoot with a very good photographer to nail your commitment down. If you are serious about wanting to get in "picture shape", put your money where your mind is. I calculated to lose 2-3 lbs a month so that I could commit to a realistic time table.
Motivation 3: Keeping track of your eating.
If you are not accountable then it's easy to forget what you ate a few hours ago. Write everything that you are eating for at least two weeks, including quantity. Determine the calorie content of everything by looking it up at www.calorie-count.com and document this in your excel worksheet. Add everything up per day. Once your real diet is down on paper you can easily see where there is room for improvement.
How much should you be eating every day? I used this online calculator to figure out my resting metabolic rate: http://www.bodybuilding.co
Motivation 4: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
So now you have a goal in front of you so it's time to create a plan to get there. I created an excel worksheet to calculate the weight loss so first I took my current weight minus the goal weight (let's say 15 lbs for example). Then divide 15 by the number of weeks until the goal day (20 weeks). This equals a 0.75 lbs weight loss per week. In excel, make column A the dates of every Monday until the goal and next to it Column B put the corresponding goal weight. Then do your weekly weigh-ins and put your actual weight next to it to see your progress.
Little goals are alot easier to digest and this helps keep track of your progress.
Keep at this list handy and repeat each step daily. :-)
Goal Actual
1-Jan 130
8-Jan 129.25
15-Jan 128.5
22-Jan 127.75
29-Jan 127
5-Feb 126.25
12-Feb 125.5
19-Feb 124.75
26-Feb 124
4-Mar 123.25
11-Mar 122.5
18-Mar 121.75
25-Mar 121
1-Apr 120.25
8-Apr 119.5
15-Apr 118.75
22-Apr 118
29-Apr 117.25
6-May 116.5
13-May 115
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