If you’ve been on the couch for a while, the hardest thing to do is to get moving. For some, maybe you’ve never been much for exercise. Others may have once been in pretty good shape but now find themselves out of breath walking up the stairs. Either way, the key is to start moving.
Let’s put aside the idea of qualifying for Boston anytime soon. While that may be a goal, if you’re sitting on the couch, the goal is too far away to focus on right now.
Instead, you need to start creating shorter, more attainable goals. Nothing gets you motivated like when you start hitting a few of these interim goals.
I’ve been on lots of diets during my life. And the one consistent thing I’ve seen across all of them is that they are geared to have you lose weight fast during the first week.
These diets will typically get you to make significant calorie cuts or eliminate salt or something else that will cause you to drop weight fast primarily through water loss.
The reason being when you step on the scale and see that you’ve lost ten pounds in ten days, you’re much more motivated to stick with the diet.
Same thing applies to movement. If you’re going to get back in shape, you need to start exercising consistently.
My plan is to start walking every day. Walking is one of the best ways to start building a movement habit without risking injury when you’re getting started. It’s low impact and doable for most everyone no matter your fitness level.
Additionally, if you are eventually going to qualify for Boston, you’ll be running nearly every day. So let’s start developing the habit right away.
I recommend starting with 30 minutes. You will eventually want to add to that but when you’re just beginning, it’s better to go out for shorter periods more often.
It doesn’t matter when you walk or what pace you walk, just get out and do it.
Happy walking and I’ll talk to you again soon.