As we enjoy all of our Christmas parties (and goodies at the office!), I know that in the back of many of our minds is, “at the beginning of the year, I’m going to get back to the gym and go on a diet!” Below are some tips for beginning your exercise program from my experience through the years as a physical therapist and avid exerciser, with mistakes that many people make:

1. Get the word “diet” out of your vocabulary once and for all! (yes, that is my number one tip!) Concentrate on healthy, wholesome food. As a confirmed fat-o-holic (I love fatty foods!), I can truthfully tell you that the past few months have been a revelation to me in eating healthy. While recovering from my bike accident, I could not eat all the things I normally eat. I began to eat more healthy food, and I experienced a new phenomenon for me: I don’t crave the fatty food as much anymore! Changing your eating habits really can make a difference, and “dieting” only messes with your metabolism, causing it to slow down and not burn as many of the calories that you are desperately trying to cut from your diet. Talk to me about this sometime face to face (or e-mail me!) for further info.

2. Specific tip – cut out food after 7 pm! I’m sure you all already know this one, but I wanted to throw it out as a reminder – this is a huge mistake that many of us make, and usually an easy correction to make.

3. Start your exercise program in a manageable fashion! Most of us have a habit of heading full-bore into an exercise program, and getting sore and/or burned out quickly. This is a tendency I’ve seen over and over again with my patients, and I’ve learned now to warn them against it. Start your exercise program in a way you can sustain it over the long haul… otherwise you will get discouraged when you start to miss days. In other words, if exercise isn’t already a part of your life, then pick something that you enjoy, and do it 3x/week for about 20-30 minutes (you may have to start with 15 minutes if you’re truly a beginner), and feel good about your accomplishment!! Once you’ve worked this into a habit, then you may want to add more to your frequency, but I would recommend at this point (or maybe before!) that you start mixing your activities up: add a second type of exercise to your schedule. In fact, I always recommend the “cross-training” concept, as it keeps you interested in what you’re doing.

4. Be an educated exerciser! When you take up an exercise program, you need to know what that exercise is going to help you achieve. If you have a goal of weight loss, doing cardiovascular exercise (such as cycling, swimming and walking/running) is your ticket. Your metabolism is revved up by these activities. And know that intensity of your cardiovascular exercise makes a difference – not always is faster better! Some studies have shown that exercise at 60-70% of your maximum heartrate (this is pretty easy going, just beginning to feel like you’re doing something) burns fat at a faster rate than harder efforts! Another forgotten area for weight loss, however, is strength training. Light strengthening exercises build the muscle that actually use the calories we are trying to burn.

5. Stretching is important! Don’t leave this important part of exercise by the wayside. Healthy muscles are flexible and strong. Some of you may have read some of the studies lately saying that stretching isn’t necessary – that it doesn’t prevent injury. Did you know that those studies were conducted on teenage athletes?? My connective tissue at 40 years of age is a lot different than that of a teenager, and I know that I have to stretch to prevent injury when I exercise.

Hope you all have a healthy Christmas and New Year!!
Love, Cindy
Colossians 3:23
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