By: Dave DePew

Millions of Americans begin each New Year considering a number of possible resolutions. These resolutions range from finding love and starting a family, starting a new career, improving personal finance & eliminating debt, personal growth, education & training, improved time management & organization.

In addition they may be trying to make home improvements, purchasing a new home, taking more time for leisure & recreation and the all too popular resolution, to adopt a new healthier lifestyle.

The area that catches my attention is the goal to develop "a new healthy lifestyle."

I have decided to help you create your Body Fat Reducing Resolution list for 2006 with some tips on how to get things started!

To help you with reaching your goal to reduce body fat I have compiled ten goals to kick things off.

1. Find A Trainer & Get An Assessment!

A great place to start your journey is with a fitness and metabolic assessment. To create a set of goals you should start with having a clear idea of where you are starting out. For many people taking the steps to locate a personal trainer and having the courage to have an assessment performed is not always the easiest thing to do.

Let's face it no person likes bad news, but the key is to remember this is a clearly defined starting point for a new journey. If you need help locating a personal trainer in your area I would be happy to help match you up with a personal trainer in my national network.

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2. Get An Exercise Plan!

An essential element to developing an effective exercise program is having a plan before you go into the gym. Most people who are new to the gym make the mistake of grabbing whatever exercise machine is not being used at the moment.


Click Image To Enlarge.
Have A Plan Before You Go In.

They don't usually understand what muscles are being worked or if they are training them correctly, it is this frustration that is one reason most people find exercise to be unpleasant.

Bodybuilding.com's Searchable Workout Database. Go!

Over the years I have seen many opinions change about exercise just by working with my clients to develop a personalized plan. A detailed exercise plan can turn a person from feeling intimidated into a regular gym rat. Before you know it you're exercising every day!

3. Set An Appointment To Exercise!

How many times in the last few weeks have you said you would go to the gym and start working out? Just saying that you are going to workout "sometime this week" just doesn't work. Everyday you say to yourself that "this will be the day", but after a long day at work you go home and just don't seem to find the time to lace up the shoes and head out the door.

The reality is that without a plan you are likely to never get started. Start by setting an appointment each day to exercise. Find the time that you know will be the easiest for you. When you make this time for yourself KEEP IT! Exercise is not something that can just get done later; you can't just reschedule an appointment with your health.

4. Exercise Every Day!

Yes, I said every day! That is no mistake, everyday you need to commit to doing at least 20 to 40 minutes of exercise. Don't stop reading now, you can do this! Now I promise not to bore you with some statistics on how performing 20 to 40 minutes of combined cardio respiratory activity and resistance training is going to help you drop fat, but you know this.

You know that exercise works, but you don't want to do it for some reason. Typically it is because all of us, I can also be guilty of this, make things out to be more difficult than they need to be, when we just need to get started. It is important to feel successful out of the gate!

No person wants to feel beet down from exercise, we want to feel energized and see that the exercise helps us to have more energy to do the things we want to do. I'm not going to tell you that you need to love to exercise, but you do need to exercise in a way that you love how it makes you feel!

Find an environment that is friendly, easy to have access to, and provides you plenty of moral support. Making a commitment to do some exercise every day regardless of the type of exercise will help you to create new life long habits. Habits that can take root in as little as 21 days.

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5. Perform Resistance Training & Cardio Respiratory Training!

In order to drop one pound of body fat per week you will need to create a calorie deficit of 3,600 calories with exercise or nutrition. Results are great when incorporating an exercise program that includes both resistance training and cardio respiratory training. Resistance training provides the greatest long term benefit, but cardio provides the greatest initial benefit.

The thing is that you need both! Cardio respiratory training when performed in intervals not only helps you to tap into body fat storage, but the progressive intensity helps you continue to burn more body fat after the completion of exercise.

When performing resistance training with the intent on working with progressively higher weight loads or by increasing the time the muscles are under resistance you will begin to create more skeletal muscle that will assist you in utilizing a greater number of calories each day.

6. Share Your Goals!

Make it a point to include people in on your goals. Tell everyone! If you are serious about your goals then you need to tell the world. Ok, so maybe not the world, but you should definitely tell your friends and family and if you have a supportive work environment tell your co-workers.

WHAT'S YOUR GOAL?

Choose Your Goal Below. Choose A Goal Lose Fat Build Muscle Contest Prep Cortisol Blocker Energy Immune System Joint Health Prevent Aging Sexual Health Skin Care Sleep Aides Tanning More Goals... Is Your Goal Not Listed? Click Below To Learn More About Goal Setting. [ Goal Setting ]

When you share you goals you may find that others will open up to you about their desire to exercise and eat better and they may join you by setting their own exercise and nutrition goals. Be warned that you are also likely to have some people who will be expecting you to fail. The whole experience may be a little scary for you, but it may just be enough to keep you from quitting.

7. Reduce Portion Sizes!

Eating smaller portions can help you cut your body fat down as much as 4% in only a month. Not all my clients train the same way or follow the same nutrition program (I'm big on individualization), but many of my clients who eat frequent smaller meals, about 6-8 with pre and post workout shakes, tend to drop as much as 4% body fat in the first month.

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While there is very little scientific research on why and how this works many top nutritionist and trainers report similar results with their clients.

8. Cut Trans Fats!

One of these Body Fat Reducing Resolutions may be to reduce the amount of Trans Fat in your daily diet. Trans fatty acids are commonly found in frozen foods, meat and dairy. To help make your goal a bit easier, beginning January 1, 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is requiring trans fat amounts to be listed on virtually all food labels.

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Learn to read the label on manufactured foods, but make a majority of the food you eat from naturally occuring food sources. For example stay clear of margarine, once thought to be healthier than butter, is actually full of trans fatty acids. By replacing margarine with healthier fats, such as canola or soy oil, you will significantly lower the amount of tainted and otherwise toxic ingestion of these unhealthy fats.

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9. Find A Workout Partner!

Having someone to exercise with is a great way to increase motivation. Adding the whole social pressure cooker to your routine is also a great way to increase accountability. You may find it difficult to skip out on someone who is waiting for you; a good workout partner should feel the same way.

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Far More Difficult To Skip.

You have the option of making a friend at the gym or inviting a friend to workout, but either way may take some time. In the beginning your workout partner may just need to be someone who will show up when you do, but over time it becomes more important that you share the same goals.

10. Always Reward Yourself!

Don't wait to reward yourself when you reach your long term goals. Every goal has a variety of checkpoints. Any time you pass or reach one of these checkpoints you should celebrate your success. For some added motivation plan your rewards ahead of time with specific rewards like a new pair of running shoes, a sports massage, an MP3 player or a vacation.

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If in 2006 you can implement reflect on theses goals each day you can significantly increase your chances of success in 2006.

dave@davedepew.com

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