Atlanta Fitness Coach: A Blog about Weight-Loss, Nutrition and the T-Tapp Workout

How to Maintain Your Motivation.

We tend to yo-yo when we begin a program in a negative emotional state and we want to reduce the anxiety that we are feeling because of it.  We believe we are in a crisis and we want to improve that situation.  For example, maybe you went to your Doctor and they told you your blood pressure is out of control or you got on the scale and you came face to face with that number.

You got upset and vowed to take back control.  But the focus is on relieving that crisis.  So you begin a new program of diet and exercise.  A few weeks later your blood pressure is coming down and/or your pants are feeling a little looser.  The anxiety is being relieved.  So you stop being as vigilant.  "A glass of wine every night isn't going to hurt anything." we say to ourselves.

And before you know it, we're right back to where we started. 

If you are ready for lasting change, the first thing that must change is your focus! 

What is it you really want?  If you aren't clear about what you want, do not begin a program.  It's like going on a road trip without having any destination in mind.  Do you leave your house with the intention of not going to Los Angeles?  This is what happens when you start a program with the intention of not having a blood pressure problem or not having to face that scale again.

Instead...focus on what you want.  Make that your constant focus.  When you keep that in mind, all the choices you are presented with each day become much easier to make because you know where you are going!

It's the second week of January! I did all the workouts last week I had committed to in writing. And my derriere was kind of sore by saturday night!

I got out my Tempo Lower Body DVD and did the full 60 minutes. Oh my gosh! That workout kicked my butt! I love that it doesn't matter how much you've been doing T-Tapp, if you go to your max you continue to get amazing results.

For this week, I've commited to wearing my heart rate monitor. I want to see how high my heart rate goes during a workout. This morning we did an advanced T-Tapp workout in class. I got it up to 136 during hoe downs. I've been adding alot more hoe downs during the workout to keep it more like interval training.

The latest sutdies are proving interval training to be the very best way to get heart and lung healthy, as well as to burn more fat.

More on that soon!

Happy Monday!

We're BACK!!!

January bootie call Audio!  Click HERE!

It seems like everyone I've talked to over the last couple of weeks made a conscious decision to throw caution to the wind and just eat and drink themselves through December.  Maybe the stress of the year had something to do with it.  Or maybe we all needed to prove to ourselves that excess truly does make us feel crappy.

So I sent out a challenge in my newsletter to anyone who wanted to join me in a January Bootie Call!!! 

I started mine yesterday by being brave and hopping on my tanita body fat analyzer and finding out exactly where my weight and body fat % was.  I then took measurements around my "areas of concern".  I wrote down my results and then also wrote down my goals.  From there, I broke down my goal into daily action steps.  

I had decided to do the Take Shape For Life 5 & 1 nutrition program for at least a week.  And yesterday I stuck to the program.  I had decided to do my T-Tapp 4 days in a row.  I know...easy for me because I'm teaching it 4 days in a row. We did a great workout yesterday.  I drank my water and took all my supplements.

Here are a few things I found interesting about getting back on track. 

1. I REALLY didn't want to get on my scale.  I didn't want to know.  How often do we allow ourselves to be in denial about our current state of health.  Monitoring is a huge tool to long-term weight management.  And I can see why. 
2. Today I feel good about myself.  I feel like I have taken control back over my health and that is translating into how I'm showing up in the rest of my life.
3. I realized how grateful I am to have these effective tools to go back to when I need to recommit to my health.  Remember when it was the beginning of January and you really wanted to feel good again but didn't have a clue what to do?  So we just decided to stop eating or "cut back".  That always lasted until around 4:00 in the afternoon and we got so hungry we ran into the kitchen and ate whatever we could find. 
4. I realized I was excited about getting back into my health routine.  I wanted to get back to my healthy food and consistent exercise.  I was ready!
5. It's all a mind set.  When I make a decision and then put that decision into a written game plan, I  stick to it.  If I just say I'm going to lose a few pounds and don't put together a written plan, it doesn't happen.

I hope you'll join me and write down your own January Bootie Call. 

WARNING!!!!  Only do it if you are ready to do what it takes to achieve your goals.  If you aren't ready and the idea of it leaves you feeling stressed out (and NOT excited) please don't do it.  Wait until you really are ready.  Otherwise you will reinforce your failure programming and use it as one more thing that didn't work.