Where to Start and How to Progress with Your Exercise Program

Often times when we decide that it is time to make a change in our lives and to start living healthier, we go all in. Go on a strict diet, start an intense exercise program and change the way we live; which is great! Until we start getting irritable because we are not eating the food we enjoy and we are so sore everyday from our intense, daily workouts and the number on the scale isn't moving as quickly as we'd like it to. Once this starts to happen, we start to lose some of that motivation that got us started. 

All of this happens when we do not choose the right starting point for our exercise program. It does not matter how much weight we want to lose and how healthy we want to be, it does not happen overnight. Lifestyle changes take time and no matter how bad we want the weight to come off, it will only come off as quickly as our body lets us. So, instead of starting out all out, start making small, daily changes that we will keep and where we will start to feel better about ourselves and see the changes happening. 

A single exercise session, or one healthy meal will not allow you to see the results that you want in the long run. However, starting and maintaining an exercise program as well as making changes to your diet will make you feel better, start to see changes and have a much more positive attitude. Praise yourself every time you make a healthy change or complete a workout that has you feeling energized and motivated. 

Track your progress. But, tracking progress can be different for every person. Whether this means you track every time you workout to ensure you are exercising a certain amount of days per week, or tracking to make sure you eat a certain number of fruits and vegetables each day. Whatever health goal is most important to you, keep track of it. Show yourself that by starting slow and being dedicated, you can make the necessary changes and start feeling better about yourself and about your life. 

When you start feeling like you have a good program, and you have stuck with it, then it is time to step it up a notch. Chang up your workout routine by increasing the amount of reps you perform or add some different exercises that you have not tried before.