I took the boy for a run/walk last night in our amazing jogging stroller and fortunately I did not have too many people around to witness the carnage. I try to get out 1-2 per week and I hope things get better? COME ON… Huffing and puffing and walking most of the way.

(Also, our jogging stroller is expensive if you buy it new. We were given this one, but if you are trying to get active with your kids, don’t think for a moment about spending the extra coin on this. I am frugal, but this stroller is TOTALLY worth it.)

I need to get out there and do something every day. This is the best piece of advice I have ever gotten concerning fitness. The other piece of advice that I cherish is that you are not going to lose all the weight over night. You must continue to put “one foot in front of the other” and keep going/never quit. Finally, the ultimate piece of advice: set goals that you can easily obtain (see below).

Here are 7 sure-fire ways to keep yourself motivated while attempting to lose weight and get in shape:

Get Information
There are so many resources online it gets completely overwhelming. I did a search on men’s fitness and found 1.4 million sites. Men’s fitness tips and men’s fitness advice is a manageable 350,000 sites, but still, the advice and guidance is abundant. One point of caution: find a source, or a just couple of them, of information and stick with them. I like Men’s Fitness and AskMen. There are tons of others, but I simply don’t have the time to read all of it.

Set Goals
Make your goals so obscenely easy to attain that they embarrass you to tell friends. Seriously, studies have shown that your brain does not differentiate between easy and hard goals – just success and failure. Make all your goals easy to attain and sooner than you think, your brain will be re-wired to believe that you can attain any goal you set for yourself. One of the biggest hurdles in this process is convincing yourself you can do this. Get out of the way of your own self.

Be Creative
This is essential in my workouts and diet. Change things up as much as you can tolerate. Move from weight lifting to cardio to circuit to hiking outside. As soon as you lose interest and start getting board, you will find yourself looking for excuses to not do it.

Fix the attitude
Even if you have a great attitude about this process, never forget that you always need practice in fine tuning it to perfection. Make this process of weight loss and fitness part of your life – part of who you ARE! This will make it as difficult to miss as skipping that morning coffee. I get real cranky without the morning caffeine and hopefully I will soon feel this way about my fitness routine.

Keep a progress log
Yup, I know I will get pushback here. My wife likes keeping a log on EVERYTHING. I like writing here, so I will do it online at Bushbaker.com. Mostly, guys hate this, but many experts believe it is essential to keep track of your progress to help make changes as needed. My wife uses a log to monitor the boy’s feedings. It has helped us tweak what he needed and we have a perfect weight and healthy young boy. He sleeps through the night now and we credit that log that helped us along the way.

Use reminders
Sticky notes, motivational posters, motivational print outs, pictures of what you want to look like, pictures of yourself that you DON’T want to look like (my favorite) are all good ways to do this. Keep the fact that you are trying to lose weight and get in shape right at the front of your brain. It makes it that much harder to cheat and procrastinate.

Reward yourself
NEVER forget that it is a process. You must train yourself to change your life and rewire the brain to accept this as part of your life. Don’t fight science regardless of silly it may sound. Reward yourself when you reach your ridiculously easy goals. This will reinforce that you are doing the right thing – even if you know you are tricking (training) yourself.

Finally, the main reason I am embarking on this life changing weight loss and fitness regimen is that I love my family. I love them so much that I want to be around for them for a long time. I have had a few friends kick it lately WAY before their time was up. Really good people, great attitudes, just all around good people. They were not taking care of themselves and found out they either had cancer, diabetes, or other weight related things that caused their early departure. This is a nasty piece of reality that forces us to have our own little growth spurts as people…

Oh yeah, I almost forgot my update:

Tuesday was a little better. I did not splurge too much on nasty food and got out with my son for a 2 mile walk/run. He loves it and it’s good for me so I will continue doing this every day – so long as I follow my own advice.

Get In Shape: One Foot In Front Of The Other is a post from: BUSHBAKER dot com

That picture was taken of me back in 2000. I use it because I was in a great physical condition at the time and feel comfortable with it. Take a look at some of the pics from my recent adoption of my son and you will see that I have completely let myself go. I am ashamed to admit my weight or my physical fitness level on this blog, but I am letting it all hang out.

I recently weighed myself and I am hovering around 250. Since I am only 5’11″, I am bordering on obese. My wife still loves me and my new son is sure to love me. But I really don’t love myself and that has taken its toll on my marraige and will now threaten a future relationship with my son.

So, today is the day that everything changes. You have any idea how many times I said that? If I had a nickel every time…. In this case, though, I am putting this information on this blog and I hope any who read this hold me to task. My future with my family depends on it. I will be enlisting the support of several blogs that I have encountered recently that help with people needing to get themselves on the right path.

Every day, I will have some good content laden posts on all kinds of subjects, but I will also have a post on what I accomplished on my health and fitness. Losing weight is a terrible thing to do and is a wonderful thing to have done. I don’t pretend to ignore this fact, but I think the real trick to permenent weight loss is to make the act of of losing the weight as rewarding as possible. To rewire your circuits in your brain to embrace the journey of the weight loss.

In any event, I hope some people find this information inspiring in some way and want to join me in my quest. Here is what happened yesterday:

Eating:
You don’t EVEN want to know. I am too ashamed to put it here.

Fitness:
Nothing

Today is a new day. Let’s get moving!

Health And Fitness: Completely Out of Control is a post from: BUSHBAKER dot com