I am currently doing Chalene Johnson’s PUSH Jump start series and this lesson just made me think of all the people that I work with on a daily basis. I really hope that this will help shed a little perspective. We are going to do a little reverse engineering today to help you really hone into what your health and fitness goals are. We are going to break it down and make sure you are clear about what you will need to do in order to reach that goal. Are you ready?
To reverse engineer something is to take it apart and study how it was put together. As a kid, I was fascinated by telephones. Remember the old rotary phones with the curly cords?
They’re probably collectors’ items now. I bet I’m not the only one who unscrewed the ear- and mouthpieces to have a look inside. I’d guess the guy who built your house actually took the whole phone apart.
Chalene Johnson said, As I was leaving the gym recently, one of my students stopped me to ask if I thought her goal to lose 30 pounds in 2 months was realistic. I asked her how many pounds per week she was comfortable trying to lose. “I really haven’t broken it down that way yet,” she admitted. Then I asked, “How many calories are you burning on average right now, and do you know what your body fat is?” Again she replied, “Well, I need to figure that out.” I followed that with, “Well, how hard are you willing to work?” She smirked at me, as if to take the hint, and said, “I guess what you’re saying is I need to do a little research first, huh?”
Reverse engineering is common practice in business and finance. Yet when it comes to your health goal, it is equally important! My student’s goal to lose 30 pounds in 2 months might be very doable, or a 3-month time frame might be more realistic based on her individual situation. There’s only one way to know, and that is to figure out what it would take to get there—deconstruct the goal!
Anything you seek to accomplish in the next 12 months, someone has done it before you. That’s great news! It means you too can accomplish the same feat. It also means the blow-by-blow steps you need to get where you’re going have already been mapped for you. In the words of my friend Brian Tracy, “No one is smarter than you. And no one is better than you.” In other words, you can do anything you set your mind to. If someone else has lost 100 pounds or gotten himself out of debt, so can you, but you need the blueprint.
Grab a flathead screwdriver, some duct tape, and a hammer. Before we start out in the direction of a brand-new you, we’ll need to map our course. Today we’re going to disassemble your health goal. We’re going to figure out where you want to be and work backward to determine exactly what it will take to get there.
Before we begin, here’s a reminder: Your health goal needs a relatively precise measure. To list “Have more energy” is fan-tab-ulous, but we need a way specifically to measure it. No sissy goals. Put it out there. Believe! Set your sights high! Make sure your health goal includes quantifications such as a number, a measurement, a body-fat percentage, a number of miles you can run, a number of days you will exercise each week, etc. Measurements give you direction and hold you accountable.
Let’s say your health goal is to lose 20 pounds and cut your body fat in half. You can picture yourself at your birthday celebration next year in a great new outfit and looking toned and sexy. A list that simply states “lose 20 pounds, exercise more, eat less, and join a gym” is like walking into the forest without a map and compass.
Instead, I want you to create a brainstorm list of everything you could possible need to know, do, change, research, buy, organize, and schedule to make this goal happen. Essentially, you’re repeating the exercise of Day 5, but specifically for your health.
Your assignment for today is to create a master brainstorm for your health goal. Create your master brainstorm in a journal or on a legal pad. It can be as long as you want it to be!
I’ve given you a sample brainstorming list below. It’s long, but long lists are good. In fact, long lists are superior! Each line of your brainstorm represents a small step, a detailed guide. Make your list as long as possible.
- How much weight do I want to lose per week?
- How much of a calorie deficit would I need to create to lose 2 pounds per week?
- How many calories per day does my body burn right now?
- Based on my estimated current calorie burn, how many calories per day I should consume?
- Have my body fat measured:
- Research cost of hydrostatic body-fat testing in my area.
- Have a reputable personal trainer measure my body fat.
- What should my body-fat percentage be?
- Find an online support forum for fitness people.Beachbody-www.teambeachbody.com/melaniemitro to create a free account and have me as your personal coach. I will then add you to our online support groups for fitness motivation, accountability and tips.
- From the message boards, interview someone who was able to reduce her body fat by 50 percent.-Me!!
- Create a very detailed list of questions for this person.
- Interview a second person. (Find someone who started where I am now.)
- Research what a reasonable length of time it takes to reduce body fat by 50 percent.
- Research which exercise routines help reduce body fat the most effectively.-www.teambeachbody.com/melaniemitro
- Set two dates this week to sample new workouts. 724 Fit Club Come and join us for a free workout and sample workouts like TurboFire, Insanity, P90X and Brazil Butt Lift.
- Look into the cost of gym membership.
- Research the cost of equipment I might need. (Purchase used?)
- Rearrange my schedule to allow for early a.m. workout.-I get up every morning at 5:45am. sure it was an adjustment but it was well worth it! Now my workouts are complete before my family wakes up and I don’t interfere with the flow of our day.
- Budget to buy a calorie-counting device.
- Buy portable containers for pre-portioning your food.
- Find an online accountability partner. With my Beachbody challenge groups I assign you an accountability partner to keep you focused on your end result along with me as your coach.
- Sell my old laptop and use the money for new cross trainers.
- Take before photos on my cell phone (for my eyes only).-totally worth it, I took before pics and stored them on my computer and didn’t show anyone until my transformation was over. But it was so great to see how much my body had changed. If I wouldn’t have taken those pics, I wouldn’t have really understood the difference in my body!
- Organize the pantry.
- Organize the fridge.
- Throw out all the junk.This is a must if you cannot resist temptation. Then, when you have a late night craving the only thing to reach for is a healthy snack! This has saved my butt many of times.
- Put an alert in my phone to remind me to eat every 3 hours.
- Put an alert on my phone that reminds me to review my Push and health goals.
- Pull the smaller dinner plates from storage.
- Schedule a date for weekly progress photos.
- Make a promise to my accountability partner to send him or her my pics.
- Subscribe to two free nutrition newsletters.
- Use my phone to snap pics of everything I eat all day for accountability/accuracy.
- Find an expert in vegan cooking.
- Schedule all workouts for this week. I schedule my workouts in my calendar like an appointment that I cannot miss. It’s non-negotiable.
- Learn everything I can about exercising with a knee injury.
- Start a lunchtime walking program at work.
- Ask my family and co-workers for their support.
- Ask my family and co-workers to join me on my quest to be healthy for life! (Remember, this is my new lifestyle!)
- Schedule times on my calendar for meal prep for the week on Sundays/Wednesdays.
- Talk to a few people about their “diet.”
- Research the best fine dining options for healthy folks and what/how to order.
- Research the best app for calorie tracking.
- Look at free Web sites that help me determine my daily calorie burn.
- Track my calories daily using my phone.
- Organize my food prep area to have measuring cups, scale, etc., easily accessible.
- Make a list of the negative things I say to myself and replace them with the opposite.
- Schedule a physical with my doc.
- Talk the girls into changing bunco/wine night into a power walk Saturday.
- Keep a journal of how I feel after I exercise.
- Post a list of all the adjectives I will feel when I’m healthy for life—post it on the fridge.
- Create a list of favorite activities other than my soul-mate workout.
- Make a promise to my husband and my co-workers that I will be losing 20 pounds by x date and that it ll be gone for good!
- Get a water purifier.
- Dust off my George Foreman grill.
- Grocery shop with a list.
- Keep myself accountable with a video diary and post it to my blog.
- Schedule a weigh-in date with my accountability partner.
- Schedule a monthly follow-up body-fat testing—post results to my blog.
- Decide what foods I need to just stop buying.
- Ask friends for suggestions on their favorite workout DVDs.
- Create a playlist of the songs that pump me up!
- Cancel my rag mags and replace with health subscriptions.
- Schedule a weekly family walk on Sunday.
- Keep a gratitude journal.
- Volunteer to help with PE at the kids’ school.
- Call my neighbor and see if she wants to do this with me.
I hope that you found Chalene’s suggestions helpful. I know that I sure did! I am always learning new things and some of the items on this list I am definately going to start doing! If you need help setting goals and developing a way to reach your goals please message me and I can coach you to your health and fitness goals! Together we can achieve great things.
Good luck and stay focused!
xoxoxox
Melanie
Beachbody Coach
www.teambeachbody.com/melaniemitro
www.myshakeology.com/melaniemitro
