Turning Up the Heat
Congratulations on sticking it out. The challenges we have set forth in the past three weeks have been intense. Hopefully you have tried new diet and exercise ideas and you have undoubtedly learned new things about yourself. As you complete your final four challenges this week it'll be time to reward yourself for a job well done!
Eating Smarter: This week we are turning up the heat on your by raising the intensity in all four challenge areas. With regard to your eating regime we are challenging you to track EVERYTHING! That means every single bite, taste, lick or sniff of food that you take you need to write down. Doing this simple act is a proven way to stay on track with a healthy weight and eating habit. Once you stop tracking your food intake your memory begins to fail and you forget the small bites taken here and there. You start to underestimate your portion sizes, you take "days off" from your program and your "guesstimating" of your food intake starts to meltdown. All of which results with you ending up back at square one....or worst yet..."two steps forward and three steps back." With the tools we have at our fingertips there are no excuses not to track everything all the time. Pick a strategy to use of a small notepad, a diary or journal, your blackberry - I'm sure there is an APP for that - or one of our on-line programs:
Move More:If you have stayed on track for the past three weeks of this challenge you have added exercise classes, resistance training and outdoor activities to your current exercise program. This week, keeping with the theme of turning up the heat, we challenge you to increase the intensity! Don't forget this challenge is NOT about comfort and ease. This challenge asks you to push your limits. How does this relate to what we have currently asked you to do?
- Walk/Run = Shave a minute off your time when you go the distance with your outdoor exercise
- Reach for a heavier sets of weights during your resistance classes
- Choose a new, more challenging exercise within our ACE exercise library link
- Pick up the pace (or your knees) during your cardiovascular training
Building Habits:
Intensity rules this weeks challenges. Now is the time to get serious about the time of day where we find ourselves the weakest. Each one of us has a curtain time during the day where we tend to get off track. Perhaps we snack when we are not hungry due to stress, boredom or habit. For some of us it is during the mid-afternoon energy slump, for others it might be late night when the television is on or the lights are low. Or perhaps its when your out having a drink. This week we are challenging you to examine the time of day or situation where you tend to continually fall off track. Then make that "heated" effort to remove the unnecessary snacking or the compromising situation and replace it with healthier habits. Get up and talk a walk around the block, call a friend, or simply order a tall glass of water "on the rocks." Initially it will feel intense and difficult, but eventually it will lead to the creation of better long-term habits. Is it getting hot in here?
Support:
Support comes in all shapes and sizes. Throughout this challenge we have repeatedly asked you to look to others for support. This week, and moving forward, we challenge you to look within yourself for support. Make a promise to push yourself to new levels of commitment on the road to health and fitness. In this final week we urge you to write yourself a motivation note or find a quote to support you through the hard times. Make that your mantra until you need another one, then repeat the process. Take a moment to outline "in writing" where you started three weeks ago and how far you've come. Just beneath the goals you've already attained outline a few immediate goals for the future. Learning to appreciate how far you've come and focusing on where you are going will always be important and hopefully even life altering, behaviors that you create. Take a moment and share your success story with others on our testimonial page. Who knows how many people your story of success will encourage or touch.
Like we mentioned earlier; Congratulations on sticking it out. Going forward, it is up to you to take the time to work these and other new and challenging behaviors into your life. Believe us when we say that for every pennies worth of effort you put in you will receive a pounds worth of success mentally, emotionally and physically.
Allow the more intense level that you have pushed for during this last phase of the challenge become your norm. Don't ever stop moving forward and you will continually see results.
Enough said....Time to reward yourself!
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