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WARNING: This is not easy. You won’t get instant results. You will actually encounter the word “sacrifice.”
Let’s be honest…
Do you like what you see when you look in the mirror?
What about NAKED?
What do you do?
- slap your eyelids shut FAST
- grimace and groan
- find a body part to hate
- feel like giving up
- renew your vows to start a diet and exercise program tomorrow
OR do you smile?
When it comes to losing weight, toning up, slimming down, getting lean, ripped, shredded AND sexy … we all have the same motivator. We want to look good NAKED!
Am I right?
If you want to look good naked there are five things you have to start doing NOW.
Ready?
Learn to Read Food Product Labels
All you need is the basics. Learn how to read and understand food product labels so that you can easily find the most important information: Protein, Carbs, Sugar and Fat.
If you have high blood pressure or are Diabetic you should also look at Sodium.
Don’t trust the food manufactures, not one little bit. They are there to sell you stuff and don’t give a hoot about your health. They are in the business of DECEIVING you.
Low fat? Compared to WHAT? Oh and to make up for the reduced fat they load it up with twice as much sugar. So how do you know what’s what? Who do you believe?
The only person you can trust is yourself. Learn to read the labels. It’s easier than you think and just reading the labels while IN the grocery store will lead to better food choices. For example … did you know that some muffins contain MORE than 25 grams of sugar? If you are on a Keto diet, 25 grams of sugar is over 50 carbs … MORE than your total carb allocation for the entire day. “Hmmm … I think I’ll pass on these muffins today!”
Commit to an Exercise Routine
If you want to tone those muscles and look sleek and trim, commit to an exercise routine at least 3 times a week. Yoga will tone your whole body. Weight lifting will get you closer to the six-pack. Walking is good for everyone and will help keep you alive longer. There are exercise “regimes” and then there is exercise fun. Have you tried Kettle Bells instead of weight lifting? There is a world of difference. What about Zumba? Who knew you could sweat so dang much and laugh about it too!
Sacrifice
Get real! If you want to look good naked, you can’t be eating donuts everyday, nor can you sit in front of the TV six hours every evening, guzzling beer. You have to quit doing some of those things that simply don’t work.
Ah, come on … do I need to spell it out. You already know that you won’t be admiring your body in that mirror if you lie on the couch and eat a gallon of potato salad while Chef Gordon Ramsey stays skinny yelling at people.
Now sacrificing sounds pretty hideous.
BUT … what if you could sacrifice and have fun too?
It may take a bit of pushing, nudging and yes sacrificing but it turns out that hundreds of thousands of people fall in love with Pickle Ball every year … it’s one of North America’s fastest growing sports. You may not find Pickle Ball to be your thing, but. . .
there IS something out there that YOU can love!
Still married to the TV set? You could get yourself a KettleBell and do a five minute session while watching your favorite sitcom. By the end of the month you will be doing thirty minutes — feeling and looking fabulous.
You just need to get out there and try a bit of everything until you find a thing to love, something that will get you motivated.
And think about it … is it REALLY a sacrifice? After all, how many hours of Live PD chases can you watch? They all look the same after awhile … even the guest commentators have glassy, bored looks on their faces. If you don’t know what I’m talking about … good for you!
Write Down Your “Naked” Goal
Write down what you want to have happen and post it where you can see it every day. ON the fridge is a good place. Maybe just above the handle. OR on your front door, so you see it every time you walk out of your home. Do whatever you have to, to remind yourself about your goals daily.
A friend of mine put a big lock on two of her kitchen cupboards. This was where she stored all the “bad stuff.”
She put the key to the lock in a little bag and taped it ON her bathroom mirror, so she had to look at herself in the mirror as she was retrieving the key. ON the bag she had written her goal … “SLIM, TRIM, SEXY.”
She didn’t want to feel deprived, so she allowed herself to open the “bad stuff” cabinet as often as she wanted, as long as she looked into the mirror each time. After a month, she found herself getting the key less and less often and within six months she was able to look at her naked self in the mirror, with a smile on her face!
She told me, “Intense cravings for cookies and chocolate bars were the downfall of every diet I ever tried. This time I was determined to succeed. I didn’t want to intensify the cravings by telling myself I couldn’t have certain things, so I came up with the lock idea.
What it did was slow everything down. I had to go to the bathroom and get the key out of the bag. The bag had my goal written on the front. I’d look in the mirror and decide if I really wanted those cookies.
At the beginning I would say yes more than I’d decide no. Then it started to change. Finally I was saying no way more than I was indulging. Other people started noticing changes way before I did. It took three months before I could actually SEE the changes myself.
Today … the lock still hangs from my kitchen cabinet, but it is not actually locked. More importantly my two junk food cabinets are no longer crammed to the gills with junk, AND I find myself craving strawberries or, get this, a SPINACH salad instead of a chocolate bar. ”
Writing your “naked” goals and putting them up where you can see them, WORKS. Do whatever it takes to remind yourself about what you REALLY WANT, every single day.
TRACK Your Activity Results
Writing your weight loss or body building or exercise goals is a commitment. Tracking your goals and recording what you do or eat everyday is a ten times boost to that commitment.
Why? Tracking your goals means you are thinking about them everyday. For example if you are on a Keto Diet with a goal of staying under 50 grams of carbs a day … the ONLY way you actually know you are doing this is by tracking everything that goes into your mouth. Seeing what you are doing right, and where you are going off-plan helps you do better and keeps you based in reality.
“Thinking” you will walk 2000 steps a day is not a commitment. Keeping track of your daily steps in your bullet journal or daily planner makes your target goal a commitment. On day seven, when you really don’t want to go out for a short walk in the rain … looking at your almost perfect record will push you to make it a “perfect” week.
Tracking what you eat, your daily and weekly exercise regime and your successes (and flubs) is the most important part of creating a body that you can happily look at in the mirror. Tracking your results makes good things happen … and helps to eradicate BAD habits faster than you might think!
The one thing you shouldn’t track daily is your weight. Weigh scales are notoriously inaccurate. While seeing your weight plunging 3 pounds overnight will put a smile on your face, seeing your weight go up 3 pounds may discourage you enough to have you quit.
Though there are hundreds of online tracking apps. My favorite way of tracking is in a simple bullet journal. It sits on my nightstand and is the first thing I see in the morning and the last thing I write in before bed.
My second favorite “tracker” is my Life Track watch. It tracks my steps and has a built in heart rate monitor.
And finally …
Don’t expect results overnight.
You are looking to change
your entire health and fitness lifestyle.
Implementing the following five things WILL make a difference in your life, so START NOW.
Here are my two favorite trackers:
I got this as a gift and a commitment to myself after trying out several other brands that were just too freaking small. I could even read the time without my reading glasses … and checking my heart rate while walking was a challenge. This watch face is just the right size AND it looks elegant.
Possibly the BEST Fitness Tracker Ever —
Garmin Fenix 5 – Slate Gray with Black Band
