We are officially 49 days out from summer. Does that make you excited or make you cringe a little at the thought of “Oh summer, swimsuit time, ugh” Well, if it does, never fear. It’s still spring, and you know what that means, (aside from no more snow) spring cleaning! How does that relate to fitness? Well, I’m not just talking about your pantry. No, no. There is still time to spring clean your fitness and nutritional habits so come June 21^styou won’t be saying “Oh no” You’ll be saying “Let’s Go.”  In the next few blog posts I’ll be focusing on getting summer ready, but before we dive in, I want to focus on something that gets forgotten a lot; your mindset. After all, your mind is where it all begins and also where it can all go wrong. 

Sometimes we all just need to take a step back and evaluate how we are looking at things. Some examples:

 

“I’m not getting results like that person”

 

“I’m can’t run fast enough”

 

“I’ve hit a plateau and there’s nothing I can do to fix it”

 

 

These are all examples of negative minds sets that can seep into our brain and stay there! They feed off of bad days, and bad choices, and want to take up permanent residence in your head. They don’t want to rent space in your cranium, they want to buy land and build. So this spring, try taking a different approach to starting your new routine. Before you ever start, clean out all your preconceived notions; this is going to be hard, I will probably fail, etc, and start fresh with a positive mindset. Let’s change the above examples to:

 

“I will focus on MY results and MY results only"

 

“I may not be as fast as I want, but I am getting faster every day and will continue to progress and I am happy with that”

 

“I may have hit a plateau but I see it as a challenge to push myself to a new level through healthy eating and new training techniques. BRING IT ON”

 

 

One of my biggest fitness pet peeves I see and hear is what I call Serial Scale Syndrome- Yes, I’ve even coined that term because I’ve seen it so much.

 

Def: Serial Scale Syndrome- The over use of a scale by any individual for the purpose of knowing one’s weight at all time’s of the day.

How do you know if you have SSS? Here are the common symptoms

 

Don’t get me wrong, scales are great. But they can be a MAJOR hindrance if you aren’t utilizing them properly. Remember, if you are doing strength training, muscle weighs more than fat, so even if your weight goes up, you are most likely gaining muscle, and becoming leaner, as well as being a healthier BMI than when you weighed less.

 

The point here: Use the scale for what it is intended for. It is NOT the all-knowing, all-determining factor for your success.

 

I almost think I shouldn’t have to say this one because it’s been said so many times before, but I still see it all the time. If you are participating in an exercise regimen, you need to eat. For the sake of this blog, I am not going to get technical, but in my personal opinion, anything less than 1200-1300 calories a day is going to harm you more than help. It’s important to calculate your BMI (Basal metabolic rate) to give you a guide for what your body would burn by itself. Then, you need to think about your goal weight loss and how much you will be working out. This is where a personal trainer and/or nutritionist can really come in. Can’t find one or afford one? My simple rules to follow:

 

 

The body does a pretty good job of telling us what we need to do – listen to is. It will guide you. Just      like it tells you when you’re eating TOO much, you’ll see and feel signs of not eating enough too.

 

So, now that we’ve covered some of the negative mindset tendencies I see, next week I am going to share some of my very favorite go to exercises to get summer ready.

 

Until Next Time , Enjoy That Sunshine.

 

Yours in Health and Fitness,

Ashley