For many people, the start of a new year means an opportunity to ‘hit refresh’ with health and fitness, and to begin to create better habits. But before you start in on making change, you might want to think about what your goals are.

What are your goals?

Many people have two separate (but related) goals: (1) Losing weight; and (2) Improving fitness. Losing weight is possible from making dietary changes alone, but typically a combination of changes to eating and movement will lead to greater and more sustainable change.

Weight loss is my goal

If losing weight is your goal, the two crucial levers to weight loss remain calories and exercise. The all-bacon diet sounds great, or that 30-day juice cleanse you saw in the grocery store check-out line, but research review confirms that there is no optimal weight loss diet. Reducing calories is actually more important for weight loss than the type of calories, but the key is finding an approach to healthful eating that is both enjoyable and sustainable. If you feel it would be helpful, consult with a nutrition expert before you start changing up your eating habits. Current research suggests that accumulated short bouts of moderate intensity exercise 2-3 times per day helps to reduce overall body mass, body mass index, and fat mass. Bear in mind, results are best when done for more than 10 weeks. Last but not least, if you’ve tried changing up your eating habits, and you work out daily, but you have nothing to show for it, you may want to consider making some changes to your breathing. Many people have dysfunctional breathing patterns and don’t even know it. Dysfunctional breathing can lead to anxiety, stress, fatigue, muscle cramps/spasms, and weight gain, to name only a few. Stay tuned for future tips of the week on how to address dysfunctional breathing.

Getting in better shape is my goal

When we think of improving fitness, many of us envision going to a gym, lifting weights, going for a run, or taking a bootcamp class, but that’s only a fraction of what exercise is. Moving more often and with more variety is key. Many of us only exercise in what’s called the sagittal plane (performing exercises that move forward and back), but our bodies also move in the transverse plane (rotation) and the frontal plane (side to side). We are designed to move 3-dimensionally, so if we’re only doing exercises that strengthen 1/3 of our movement capacity (sagittal), what happens in the real world when we need to use our whole system? You guessed it, injury.

Moving more requires that we make it a priority, so finding things we enjoy doing can really help with motivation. If you don’t like intense workouts, or doing HIIT training, expecting you will be able to do those kinds of activities might not be realistic, even if they do help with your health and fitness goals.

That said, if you sit for 8 hours a day for work, going over to sit back down on a Peloton bike may not be your best bet for exercise. A workout on the Peloton is great, but again, vary up your movements and activities to not only achieve your best results, but also prevent overuse injuries. If you’re short on time, you may want to split your workouts into smaller bouts throughout the day. If you prefer to get it all done in one fell swoop, then maybe create a recurring meeting on your calendar system to make sure you can get it done. If working out at home leads to distractions, pick a destination to do your workout – the garage or park works just as well as the gym for that!

Good luck with changing routines!  And remember, in the words of someone famous, if it’s not fun, it’s not worth doing!

Beacon Physical Therapy

At Beacon Physical Therapy, we support our patients in leading a healthy life and establishing a healthy lifestyle. And remember, if you are having an issue, make an appointment today. We’d love to meet you and get you back to doing what you love.