How do you know your overall health? Well, it could just be that you are unsatisfied with how you look, feel or perform, or it may be that you have serious weight concerns and need to drop some pounds. Nonetheless before you hit the gym or even eat your first good meal, there are many things you can do to prepare and motivate yourself to ensure a successful plan.
I think it is important to at first know where you are at physically and healthily. You have to be honest with yourself and not pretend that weight isn’t an issue. So step on the scale and write down the number, remember it, because the next time you step on it that number will have hopefully decreased. Get your body mass index (BMI)—a number generated from an equation using your height and weight. A BMI calculator can easily be found online. Your body mass index will tell you whether you are considered to be underweight, normal, overweight, or obese. Your goal is to get that number in the normal range, and I guarantee that once you do, you’ll realize how much better you really feel.
Once you know where you stand, I think it would be helpful to make a set of goals. For example, to lose 10 pounds in four weeks (a pretty hefty goal) or to be able to pull off 25 pull-ups—whatever you wish to gain should be a goal. The goals you make will help keep you motivated throughout as you will always be striving for something, and you will experience great satisfaction once you get there. Keep your goals updated; once you are one or two, maybe five years, into your healthy lifestyle, your improvements obviously won’t be so vast, so make sure what you are aiming for will be something you can achieve and something you can feel good about.
The entire process of losing weight or gaining muscle is slow and undoubtedly frustrating at times. The scale isn’t going to move every day, so don’t look every day. Check your weight every week. The longer period of time will allow for a greater number drop and help prevent any frustrations about your progress.
It’s much easier to do nothing about your weight, but the repercussions are devastating to your future health. You may not see the correlation now, but 20 years down the road, you don’t want to be wishing you had taken the time back in college to get yourself into a healthy routine. So look at yourself and be honest about where you are and where you want to be. Then, and only then, will you be ready to get yourself on a routine that will stick.
