Got Narrow Focus?
This is the third entry in this series concerning why we often fail to stick to our fitness/health programs.
Problem #3 Narrow Focus
Many of us fail with long term fitness and weight loss because we only set short term goals without the commitment to achieve the long term goal of a better quality of life, improved health, and a permanent lower body weight. Many people decide to set their goals to look good (temporarily) for a wedding or special event. It is great to set goals and achieve them but there is one problem: if you only set these short term goals, you fail to examine the bigger picture, and create a program of lifestyle you can live with. In other words, once the short term goal is reached, you will REBOUND. Putting your body through a strict diet and exercise program and then stopping that program once the special event has passed is a certain promise that your body will rebound and you will gain the weight back. Honestly, isn't that a bit like doing time in prison? Once again, by only thinking of short term results, you leave out the key element to living a healthy life: BALANCE.
I've seen more then one girlfriend go this this cycle several times. It seems so miserable. I always wonder why they just didn't keep the weight off after working so hard, only to regain. The answer is they had created programs they couldn't live with in order to get the weight off fast. Yes, if the program had been more realistic, they would have lost more slowly, but 12 months later, they wouldn't be back were they started either.
The next time you plan a weight-loss program, ask yourself, "would I rather be 40lbs lighter then I am now for 3 months, or 20 lbs lighter for the rest of my life?" Not a tough choice, huh?
Problem #3 Narrow Focus
Many of us fail with long term fitness and weight loss because we only set short term goals without the commitment to achieve the long term goal of a better quality of life, improved health, and a permanent lower body weight. Many people decide to set their goals to look good (temporarily) for a wedding or special event. It is great to set goals and achieve them but there is one problem: if you only set these short term goals, you fail to examine the bigger picture, and create a program of lifestyle you can live with. In other words, once the short term goal is reached, you will REBOUND. Putting your body through a strict diet and exercise program and then stopping that program once the special event has passed is a certain promise that your body will rebound and you will gain the weight back. Honestly, isn't that a bit like doing time in prison? Once again, by only thinking of short term results, you leave out the key element to living a healthy life: BALANCE.
I've seen more then one girlfriend go this this cycle several times. It seems so miserable. I always wonder why they just didn't keep the weight off after working so hard, only to regain. The answer is they had created programs they couldn't live with in order to get the weight off fast. Yes, if the program had been more realistic, they would have lost more slowly, but 12 months later, they wouldn't be back were they started either.
The next time you plan a weight-loss program, ask yourself, "would I rather be 40lbs lighter then I am now for 3 months, or 20 lbs lighter for the rest of my life?" Not a tough choice, huh?