STARTING A FITNESS JOURNEY

Today a friend of mine approached me and asked, if I wanted to write something for a fitness blog. I was a bit skeptical at first, mostly because I'm still trying to reach a target, I'm still learning new things everyday about nutrition and training and there are still many unanswered questions I have.

Best place to start from is the basics. Goal setting. You have your starting point, which is where you are presently. Morbidly obese, a little below average, it mostly boils down to wanting to look and/or feel differently. 

Next, there's a destination. This is about knowing when you want to get there and what you want to look like when you're there. Maybe you want to look like and feel like an athlete, a model, or a contender for Mr/Ms Olympia (:D). You already have an image. 

Next thing you have to do is write it down, and refer to it from time to time. These goals are what will keep you in line over the period, before you attain it. The truth is once you reach a particular fitness goal, you will want to reach another one, because there is no final destination. There is always, the next level.

The next thing you have to do is to work on your nutrition. 70-80% of the work you have to do towards changing your body, is changing what you put into your mouth. It will involve preparing your own meals, counting calories taken in, eating every 2-3 hours, which will add up to about 5 or 6 meals a day, depending on your workout schedule. I'm assuming you're going to be working out.

If you're going to be a couch potato, you might as well stop reading.

Each of these meals absolutely must have a moderately sized serving of carbohydrates, a large serving of proteins and a moderate serving of unsaturated fats. Depending on your goals, you could alter the ratios between carbohydrates and proteins.

Finally, you have to ditch the junk. Fried meats, cookies, candy, fries, alcohol, cream in coffee, processed sugar, you know them. You might think you like them, but they are actually what is keeping that layer of fat on your body. But its not just that, the way you cook your food could turn a nutritious meal into very high calorie junk. 

Do some research on healthier, low fat cooking techniques, there are a lot of them. And try as much as possible to avoid cheat meals, especially if your goal is fat loss. In fact, don't try, just avoid them.

The other part of the equation is exercise. Get in at least 45 minutes each of aerobics and weight training 5-6 days a week, male or female. If you want to go hard core, you can replace aerobics with high intensity interval training. It will make your heart rate better and its good for your brain. And also learn to mix it up from time to time. There are millions of exercise programs on the internet that you can do even from the comfort of your home. Some require you to invest in some.equipment, others don't. Or you could get books pen exercise routines. There are so many means available if you have the right mindset and willpower to achieve your fitness goals.

Hopefully I will share more stuff on fitness and nutrition as time goes by, but for now I will leave you with this. Keep pushing the limits, keep raising the bar. 

Writer: Joey 

Stay Healthy

The Delaterre Team