Weight Is Just A Number

Setting Goals

You’ve decided it’s time to make a change. You are probably feeling a little excited, enthusiastic, and maybe a little overwhelmed. I want you to remember something throughout your journey: It is a marathon, not a sprint. This is about learning to live differently. Many clients have short term goals like:

·         Losing weight

·         Gaining weight/muscle

·         Increasing endurance

·         Increasing strength

·         Fitting a certain size of clothing

·         Looking your best for a big event

These are all reasonable goals and you should have one or more of them. But do not let your short term goals affect the big picture. Many clients strive to meet these goals, reach them, and then return to their previous lifestyle only to repeat this process again and again. This yo-yo effect is difficult and demoralizing. I want you to learn to live a healthier lifestyle. You will have different short term goals you set and reach along the way. Ultimately, the goal is to be the happiest, healthiest, best you that you can be.

One thing I tell all my clients is “weight is just a number”. Your body is going to go through many changes relatively quickly once you start exercising. You might find that week after week you are exercising, but you are not losing the amount of weight you would like. This is because you are gaining muscle (which is more dense than fat) while losing fat. Weight is good to keep an eye on but should not be your only gauge for progress. How do you feel? How do you look? Has your waist measurement changed? Has your body fat percentage decreased? Has your exercise routine increased? These are all good ways to track progress.

Assessment

Before I take my clients through any training sessions, I assess their health and fitness level.

Here is a wonderful questionnaire to make sure you are ready to begin exercising:

http://www.exrx.net/Testing/ERQ.html

After you have determined you are able to safely begin exercising, you need to assess your fitness level. This will not only give you a starting point, but also give you a point of reference to track progress. I usually take my clients through more extensive testing but these are three easy tests that can be done at home and by yourself to find out where you stand:

·         Aerobic Test

·         Muscle Strength & Endurance Test

·         Flexibility Test

You may be fitter than you thought. That’s great! You may be less fit than you thought, and that’s fine too. The point is you are aware, you have a place to start and you just completed your first work out! Record your results. You will want to keep track of all of your workouts whenever possible. This will help you track progress and remember what you have done recently.

"Truth, Lies, and Info-Mercials"

Though the title of this blog is "Easy Fitness", we all know getting in shape is a lot of work and can seem a daunting task, if not impossible, to many. I do not want to sugar-coat it or give false impressions of ease. However, getting in shape becomes much easier (dare I say fun) once armed with three weapons: Motivation, Knowledge, and Support. Paramount to the journey towards physical fitness is motivation and desire. Without it, you've lost before you've begun. Staying in shape is hard work, GETTING in shape is even harder. You have to be willing to sacrifice. You have to get completely honest with yourself. You have to be willing to get uncomfortable. You have to want it.

There is a lot of information out there about the best way to lose weight, gain muscle, tone up, run longer, etc. Some of it is legit, most of it is BS. Supplement and diet companies want you to believe that if you just take their product, or follow their diet plan you will be living in the sculpted body you always dreamed of. Info-mercials will have you believe that if you use their equipment for just 15 minutes, three times a week, you will have chiseled abs. If this was the case every gym would be a small room with a bowflex, an ab roller, and a Jenny Craig brochure. These companies make billions every year off of people that don't have the knowledge to sort the truth from the lies.

I want to reiterate: this is not easy. It makes it much easier when you have someone to bounce ideas off of, accompany you on a walk or jog, or train with you at the gym. It makes it easier knowing that you have support. Tell your friends and family your goals. This way you have people to hold you accountable, give you a pat on the back when they see all the hard work you've been doing, pick you up when you slip up. Many might decide that it's time for them to get in shape too.

The journey towards physical health and fitness is not a breeze, and it's never-ending. However, it is the best present you could give yourself and your loved ones. You'll feel better, sleep better, look better, live longer, be more energetic, have better mental acuity, etc. The list goes on. There are thousands of studies about the benefits of exercise.  The benefits FAR outweigh the effort and sacrifices. Though I have said numerous times that it isn't easy, it does become MUCH easier when equipped with the three aforementioned weapons (knowledge, motivation, and support). The better news is that it gets easier each and every day you live healthy, especially once you start to see and feel the physical benefits.

I plan to cycle through four weekly categories: Diet, Exercise, Supplementation, the X-Factor.

A Little About Me:

I have been a personal trainer for the past couple of years and have been involved in athletics up to the collegiate level. I have gone through periods of excellent health and periods of very poor health and fitness. Most recently my exercise comes from running with my two dogs, KiKi and Tucker (pictures to come),  and weightlifting at a local gym. I currently weight train with a close friend of mine that I met through personal training who will be frequently mentioned in this blog because of his passion for body building, his recent accolades, and his influence in my personal journey. I just went through a month and a half lull in my training and my diet suffered right along with it (for me, these two seem to go hand in hand: when i eat well I want you work out and when I work out I want to eat well. when one begins to falter, the other does too and it's a slippery slope). In this blog I hope to share some tips and pointers that I have picked up along the way, and I will share a lot about what has worked for me in my experiences. Everyone is different. We are all built differently with different mechanics and we are all at different points in our journey. What works for me might not work for you. You will be able to get the most out of this blog if you read it as tool for knowledge, motivation, and support. thanks for reading!!

Mike Reicherter