Physical Fitness & Weight Loss Challenge

Week # 4 - Small Changes

Welcome to week # 4!

The theme for this week is to start making some small changes to your eating habits.

Repeating Weeks

While the exercise goals are increasing each week, feel free to repeat the same week once or twice if you need to let your body catch up.

For example, if you want to repeat week # 3 exercise goals for week # 4, just write EG3 at the far left of your scorecard row for the week to remind you that you are doing exercise goals set # 3.

Keep working at the same level until you feel ready to move on.

Weekly Goals - Week # 4

Start by picking your reward for this week and writing it down on your scorecard.

Cool Down (CD)

Cool down is slowly bringing intensity down to warm-up level for about 1 minute (march in place slowly or walk at normal pace) followed by 1 to 3 minutes of light stretching.

You may also want to drink some water after your cool down.

Goal # 1 - Exercise Goals

Here are the exercise goals for week # 4 (EG4):

Advanced Track

Days 1-6: 2-4 minutes warm-up + 12 minutes Level I + CD

Moderate Track

Days 1-3: 4 minutes warm-up + 5 minute Level I + CD

Days 4-6: 4 minutes warm-up + 6 minutes Level I + CD

Easy Track

Days 1-3: 4 minutes warm-up + 2 minutes Level I + CD

Days 4-6: 4 minutes warm-up + 3 minutes Level I + CD

 

Day 7 is your rest day on all tracks.

Remember to check the box in your scorecard when you complete each day... and keep going strong!

Adding Variety to Exercise

As you progress in your exercise routine, you'll want to start thinking of ways to mix things up.

It's much easier to stick to a fun exercise routine that changes regularly. Not only that, but your body responds better as well if you keep challenging it with something new.

With that in mind, here are some tips of how you can add some variety to your exercise routine:

• Switch activities - If you are doing Tae Bo as your main activity, then go for a brisk walk, or do some other fun activity once a week. If you are walking, consider doing a Tae Bo routine instead.
• Do a different part of the Tae Bo tape - An easy way to add some variety to your Tae Bo routine is to do a different part of the tape each session. Do your 4 minute warm-up and then fast forward five, six (or ten) minutes into the tape so you get to do a completely new routine each time you exercise.
• As you get more comfortable with the Tae Bo exercise, pop-in the 8 minute tape (Red tape) and do a few minutes of the more advanced routine.

Later, I'll recommend some other exercise tapes you can use to add even more variety to your routine (they're just a bit too fast and intense when you are first starting out.)

Goal # 2 - Make a Small Change to Your Diet

The second goal for this week is to get familiar with the small victories tool by using it to make a small change in your eating or drinking habits.

You can use the information you gathered last week to help you pick a small change you can experiment with in the upcoming week.

Here are some examples of small changes you could make:

Drink a bit more water - Some nutrition experts claim that we often confuse thirst with hunger. We eat when we are really just thirsty. If you find yourself snacking during the day, maybe you are just not getting enough water.

How much water do you really need? There is no scientific evidence supporting the idea that you need 8 glasses of water a day. You can start by drinking 2 glasses per day and see how you feel after a month. If you find it beneficial, go for 3.

Here is some more information from CNN.

To use the small victories tool, you would start with half a glass twice a day, and then slowly increase this to 2 full glasses a day.

Replace sodas with water or diet sodas - Sodas are a major source of empty calories that don't really contribute to your nutrition.

Replacing them with water, or at least with diet sodas, could be an easy way to lower your caloric intake without having to eat less.

Using the small victories tool, you could start by replacing 1 (or 1/2) a soda each day with water or diet soda. And then increasing this amount every 2 weeks.

Eat fruits instead of chips - If you have a favorite snack to munch on during the day, like chips or crackers, you could replace it with a healthier snack like fruits or veggies.

 

The idea here is to start by making one small change to your eating habits using the small victories tool.

Goal # 3 - Start Renegotiating Your Relationship with Food

Continue expanding your awareness about what, when, how, and why you eat. If you found journaling helpful, feel free to continue doing that. If you haven't tried it yet, give it a try this week.

See if you can spot any trends or patterns in your eating habits. This will help you later as you identify and continue renegotiating your relationship with food until it becomes a source of nutrition & health.

Also, start paying more attention to when you stop eating, and notice the difference between no longer feeling hungry and feeling full.

Look at the quadrants of the pain/pleasure matrix that I described in the small victories article, and see how they relate to your eating habits.

Pain/Pleasure Matrix

Goal # 4 - Continue Your Health & Fitness Vision Board

A "vision board" is a tool that helps to inspire and motivate you. It gives you a concrete visual representation of what a healthy & fit lifestyle means to you.

Here is my current health & fitness vision board (shrunk to fit):

OK, now it's your turn. Start putting together your own vision board using your favorite painting program (the free Paint program that comes with Windows should work just fine) and the images you collected last week.

Depending on your experience with the computer, this could take anywhere from 20 minutes to well over an hour.

You don't have to do it all in one sitting. Just look through your images and pick one that inspires you. Use that as a starting point and let your imagination guide you.

Don't turn it into a chore. Have fun with it!

Read this article to learn more about visualization techniques and why they work.

 

P.S. If you think this challenge is a good idea, I would really appreciate if you tell you friends, family, and co-workers about it.

This article is part of the physical fitness and weight loss challenge. Click here to learn more and join the challenge.