When someone is trying to lose weight, whether it’s a little or a lot, one of the best things they can do is set realistic goals. Often I see people setting unrealistic goals; when they don’t meet those goals, they feel like they’ve failed and they give up. On the other hand, when someone sets realistic goals, they can continue to feel a sense of accomplishment, which makes them want to continue.
Exercise is one of the things that people tend to want to go crazy with. People get gung-ho and say things like “I’m going to exercise for 2 hours every day, until I lose all this weight”. Or “I’m going to run 5 miles a day, every single day!” It all sounds good on paper, but do you think most people really stick with that? I don’t. It almost sounds like the person is trying to punish themselves into being thin!
Realistically most people simply cannot carve 2 hours out of their day to exercise. Aside from that, when you take someone who hasn’t exercised before (or hasn’t exercised much), after the first day or two of excessive exercising, they’re going to be sore and tired. Someone who is new to exercising may suffer from extreme DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) and be in so much pain that they can’t workout again the next day or even the day after that. Typically when that happens, the average over-enthusiastic exerciser gives up – because they feel that they’ve “failed” when they have to skip a day or two, or when they suffer pain.
Not to mention that going from couch potato to marathon runner overnight is a sure recipe for an injury that will keep you from exercising for weeks or months at a time.
A more realistic goal would be to get *some* exercise every day. 30 – 60 minutes of exercise of some kind is the usual recommendation for a healthy lifestyle. For someone just starting out who has not exercised regularly in years (if ever), even a commitment to exercise 3x a week is much more reasonable. Nor does the exercise have to be Olympic class weight lifting or miles of running. Some basic body weight exercises and a little brisk walking is a good start.
Start slow. Work your way up. Pick exercises that you can do, maybe ones that push you a little, but don’t totally wipe you out. Before you know it, you’ll be running that 5k, benching your body weight, or whatever your long term goal is. But you have to work up to that level – and be realistic.
