HOW TO DESIGN A BETTER BODY AND LIFE
You made the promise to yourself that this is your year! Your year to take care of you. So to help you with this promise, here is your step-by-step plan to get on track for the mind, body, and life you’ve always dreamed of. You start today!
No matter your health or fitness goals, no matter your starting point, everyone deserves to have a body that is mobile and functions optimally. To have a body that moves in the ways you need it to, without pain or discomfort. To have a body that feels good moving through your daily life.
Ready? Let’s get started!
1. Start with a Mindset-Reset
Your mindset makes up the views and feelings you have about yourself- about your abilities and your self-esteem, and it has a major impact on your motivation and success in any endeavor. Commit to upgrading your mindset first thing and become a little more aware of your unconscious thoughts. Be realistic about your goals and your abilities, but make sure to be kind to yourself as well. Start where you are, and do what you can.
2. What’s in a Workout?
Redefine your interpretation of what constitutes a workout. Even before you dive into your individual goals, you have to start looking at movement as what counts. A workout can be anything that gets you moving, that increases your ability to deal with stress, that helps you sleep better or that improves your mood. A workout doesn’t need to be spent in the gym and it doesn’t even need to look like traditional exercise.
3. Set Small, Achievable Goals
Instead of aiming for those big-picture goals like “get fit” or “get healthy” or even the more concrete but off in the distance goals like “lose 10 pounds” or “run a 5K” .. you need to break down those goals into small, achievable stepping-stone goals. You need to be able to measure them, to track them and to hold yourself accountable. Break down your goals into things you can accomplish weekly, that put you on the right path to your big goal.
4. Get Started
You know best what you are setting out to accomplish, so now its time to get a workout program together and get started. Are you going to hit the gym 2x per week, walk 2x per week and swim 1x per week? Write it down and schedule it in. Are you going to go to 1 BODi class, 1 pilates class and run 2 days this week? Mark it down on your calendar. Stick to this basic schedule for 4-6 weeks before switching anything up.
Remember if you’re a beginner or getting back into exercise after a break to take it slow and focus on the basics. Make mobility (stretching, dynamic warm up exercises), flexibility (yoga, pilates), endurance (jogging, HIIT, biking, swimming) and strength (bodyweight or weight training) your priorities.
5. Employ Progressive Overload
After about a month or so, you can start switching up variables in your training program. Add more volume (how many exercises or how many times per week), more weight to exercises that you are getting stronger at, more intensity, less rest time, etc. Only change up one thing at a time- too much, too soon is a recipe for injury or burnout.
6. Give Yourself at Least 10 Minutes
Sometimes even the best laid plans don’t workout. Your day gets crazy, you woke up late, you got stuck in traffic, etc and you just don’t want to do whatever your scheduled workout was supposed to be. Don’t stress! Commit to doing just 10 minutes. Take 2-3 minutes to get your heart rate up, 2 minutes for warm-up movements (bodyweight squats or lunges, knee ups, overhead reaches, etc), and 5 minutes of your scheduled workout.
Within 8-10 minutes of exercise, those feel-good endorphins start flowing! If you commit to at least 10 minutes of moving your body, chances are you’ll be feeling good enough to push through the rest of your workout. And even if you don’t? You certainly won’t regret getting those 10 minutes in.
7. Forget the Perfect Diet
Though this plan is more about physical activity, I’d be remiss not to at least mention your diet on the path to designing a better body. You must leave the idea behind that there is a perfect diet. There is no single best way to eat for everyone. You must ditch the idea of completely eliminating certain food groups, macronutrients, or specific foods. (Unless it is for medical reasons!) The big picture for a healthy, well-rounded diet to nourish and fuel your body is to include plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole gains, and high-quality sources of protein to get a wide variety of vitamins and nutrients. On the whole, you will want to limit but not necessarily eliminate added sugars, refined carbs and highly processed foods. Everything can have a place, especially if you enjoy it, as long as you focus on getting in the nourishment first and foremost.
8. Join A Community
While social media is great, when it comes to our health and the quality of our lives, it's time to use this digital world that we live in for so much more than just scrolling through pictures and videos.
Inside The With Us Podcast & Community, you will be joining thousands of other real people with similar interests and goals. You can message and chat with members, with myself, comment and start conversations, etc. This is a highly interactive, engaged, warm, and connected community. (Not a Facebook group.)
No matter your health or fitness goals, no matter your starting point, you DESERVE to have a body that is mobile and functions optimally. You DESERVE a life that feels good. And you DESERVE to be a part of a team that actually cares about you. The With Us Podcast & Community is a safe place not just to learn my monthly topics and receive group coaching from me, but it's a place where you can make comments, ask questions, and interact with other members so you never feel like you're on this journey alone. This podcast community can be not just your accountability partner, but a source of joy, connection, a place to meet new people that share YOUR exact interests.
2023 is the year we design a better mind, a better body, and by connection, a better life...together.
Keep steady, enjoy the journey and love yourself harder,
-Amoila
