[pdf-embedder url=”http://weightitgetsbetter.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/My-Y-Story.pdf” title=”My Y Story”]

The staff at my local YMCA consider me “A REGULAR.” When they became aware of my weight loss achievement, they asked me to share how I got started with exercise at the YMCA for their newsletter. I was asked to explain why I chose to join the YMCA in the first place, after joining, how I got started with exercise, what exercise I actually do when I am there, what has worked for me, and what is it about the Y that has helped me so that I wanted to continue to exercise on a regular basis.

It takes a lot to get started with exercise, at least that’s my experience. How do you really get going? Here are 8 Keys On How To Get Started

1. Set Small Goals – realistic, attainable, detailed goals, such as I will workout 2 days per week, 10 minutes per day. Make sure that you continue to set additional small goals along the way as you are progressing. This will help you see just how much you’ve accomplished and then keep you reaching for more. You may be saying, what is 10 minutes going to do for me? Why bother? Think about it this way, It’s 10 minutes more than you are doing right now!
2. Plan ahead –  set yourself up for success, schedule an appointment with yourself on your phone, set the timer, whatever will help you to put time for yourself on your schedule.
3. Get your gear ready – at first, I suggest you keep it simple, unless it motivates you to have all new things. When I first began to exercise, I wore men’s 3 xl tee shirts and black gym pants, sports bra, sneakers and no-show socks. That’s it. Pretty much no frills. Now, I have a fitness tracker ( a fitbit surge, a polar waterproof watch for my water aerobics) stylish outfits, a few pairs of matching sneakers, gym bags, weightlifting gloves, and few other things.
4. Work your plan – here’s a snapshot to what my beginning exercise routine looked like: Week 1 – walking for 10 minutes 3 times per day. Then, I added 5 to 10 minutes the next week and continued to add to my time until I worked my way up to 60 minutes. (Since I started exercising, I have now completed 2 – 5K races) This helped me to overcome any excuses I always gave myself for not having enough time to exercise. I would say, everyone has at least 10 minutes to do a little walk. Sometimes when it was raining outside, I would go to the mall and just walk for 10 minutes before I looked in any stores. That strategy really worked well for me.
5. Pick a type of exercise you believe you will like, but be flexible and open-minded to accept you may not like that form of exercise and continue to look for something else.  I often hear people say – I HATE to exercise, which I totally understand. Let’s be realistic, when we are trying to lose weight, many of us feel it’s already enough to ask us to eat less, eat healthy, watch portions, track calories, water, sleep, then to tell us we also need to exercise too! It can seem like just too many things to manage at the same time. That’s why I recommend start slowly and work your way up as you add exercise into your daily life. Working out does get easier over time and initially it’s about setting up the routine and making the commitment to add exercise to our schedules.
6. To buddy or not to buddy that is the question? If you know trying to exercise by yourself will not work for you, try to find someone, a relative, friend, co-worker, who has similar fitness goals as you do and someone who you can team up with to help keep each other focused and motivated. If you cannot find anyone to join you, sign up for a class or walking club. With wellness a major focus across our country and within our companies, fitness is a main component of wellness and many local communities are now offering free exercise classes in parks and hospitals sponsoring a wide variety of exercise groups and walking clubs.
7. Be creative to combat boredom – doing the same exercise all the time not only gets boring, but your body then gets used to it by becoming more efficient which means your burn fewer calories. I realize that when I do the same exercise and I am getting in better shape, I have to work harder to burn the same amount of calories as I once did before. So, it’s important to mix things up, try different ways and types of exercise and also work out at different times of the day and on different days. I suggest develop a workout plan and keep it for 3 months then change it every 3 months.  Look at different ways to get exercise into your daily life – walk the mall once before shopping, or in the supermarket – I sometimes walk the outer aisles fist, one lap around before I begin to shop.
8. Track your progress – there’s nothing worse than putting the effort in and not seeing the results. I often hear this from so many people who eventually give up on exercise just as they are on the verge of their breakthrough. One thing I have found that has helped me tremendously has been take my body measurements. As my shape and size was changing and I was toning up and adding lean muscle to my frame,  I went through a phase where even though I was consistently losing weight, I didn’t see the  changes in the mirror. Recording my body measurements really helped me recognize my progress. I measured, chest, waist, hips, right thigh, left thigh, right arm, left arm, right calf, left calf. I recommend taking your measurements at the time you change your routine, every three months. Initially when I was losing weight, I took my measurements once per month, but I now take my measurements once every 3 months. It’s really up to you how often to take your measurements.
9. Enjoy your success and keep me posted – enjoy the process and your journey to discovering the world of exercise. I would love to hear all about your experiences.

Those pants in the photo are plus size women’s 30! For those of you who may not be familiar women’s pants sizes, the range is normally 0,2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18,20,22,24,26,28,30,32 and does continue. So as I mentioned, the pants in the photo are SIZE 30! Look at my photo below so you will have an idea of how those pants would fit me now!

Save

Save

Save

Save