Do you fuel your car with garbage?  Do you allow the oil to run low?  Do you ignore the lights that pop up on the dash board telling you something is wrong?  Do you ignore the screeching noises and odd smells until fire erupts before you take it to a shop to see what’s wrong?  Ok, so some of you do some of those things, I know because I see, hear and smell your cars clunking down the road on a regular basis.  My point is, for most of us, we seem to treat our automobiles, boats, houses, tvs better than we treat our own body.  Yet out of all of those things, our body is the only one that we have just one of and it can’t be replaced.  So why do we fuel our bodies with garbage, ignore the aches and pains, ingest poisons and allow it to be destroyed?  The answer, because it’s easier to let it die and crumble than to build and strengthen it.  It’s temporarily cheaper, though much more expensive in the long run, and is much more convenient to eat bad food.  While it’s really not difficult to exercise, it’s even easier NOT to exercise.

We all know what we are supposed to do.  We see and hear it all around us.  Eat right and exercise.  Careful though, eat this but not that.  Exercise like this but not like that.  Take this pill but not that pill.  Eat carbs, but don’t eat carbs.  Eat protein, but don’t eat that protein.  Make sure to do resistance training but careful, if you do it wrong you could get hurt.  Make sure to do cardio training, but know that if you do it wrong it can be bad.  All of these things can be overwhelming, to the point of avoidance.  There is no need to be overwhelmed by everything.  Doing something is better than doing nothing.  You don’t have to change everything at once.  Start with one thing and move on from there.  For instance, instead of suddenly changing your entire diet, simply cut down on how much you are already eating.  Place your food on a smaller plate.  If you normally have seconds, don’t.  Know that it takes awhile for the brain to process that the body is “full” and no longer needs food.  You may still feel hungry at the time of eating, but within the next 30 min. you will feel much more satisfied.  From there, spread out your eating habits.  Instead of 2 or 3 meals a day, eat the same amount of food with 5 or 6 meals a day.  Then move on to swapping foods.  Instead of eating a handful of potato chips, have a handful of carrots.  Next thing you know, you’ll be eating healthy and dropping weight!

Follow these same rules with exercise.  If the gym is too overwhelming at first, start by walking around the neighborhood and moving towards jogging.  Pick up a physical activity such as a sport.  The nice thing about finding physical activities done with groups is that will give you an incentive and surround you with people who are active which will reinforce your exercising habits.  When ready, take that next step and enter the gym.  Don’t be afraid of the equipment and horror stories people will tell you.  If you are worried, ask a knowledgeable friend or better yet, have a trainer take you through a workout.  Many gyms will give you a free session or two with one of their trainers.  Make sure to ask plenty of questions!

Start simple, and learn on the way, just like everything else you’ve ever done in your life.  You didn’t start running before you learned to walk did you?  Of course not, so don’t expect to change your entire life in one day, it will only deflate your hope and excitement when things inevitably fail.

Lastly, don’t expect changes to happen overnight.  The average person can only lose 1 to 2 pounds of body fat a week.  It’s simply too difficult and even potentially unhealthy to lose more than that.  1 pound of fat is the equivalent of 3500 calories.  That means you have to either remove 3500 calories from your diet, burn 3500 calories, or a combination of both each week.  That’s a 500 calories deficit a day.  Knowing that average bout of exercise about an hour long will only burn a few hundred calories, you can see where it could be difficult for the average person who works or goes to school to lose more than 1 to 2 pounds a week.  So don’t get discouraged if you don’t suddenly drop 10 pounds the first week! Also keep in mind that if you are doing resistance training, you will be strengthening your lean mass (muscle, bone, etc.) and this will add a small amount of weight.  For many, they either gain or maintain their weight for the first week or two.

So learn to crawl before you learn to run.  Eat less before you learn to eat more.  Learn to lift yourself before you learn to lift a weight.  Stay motivated by surrounding yourself with those who will motivate you and help motivate them in return.  Rebuild your crumbling temple; don’t just paint over the cracks!