Your First Steps to Fitness: Expert Advice for a Successful Start

After helping hundreds of people lose weight and keep the body they want, our team has noticed some common traits and actions that lead to success. Think of it as a blueprint for getting fit.

By the end of this article, you’ll know how to get started on your fitness journey. Plus, you’ll get a beginner workout to kick off your new healthy lifestyle.

You got this!

1 - Set action-based goals - When we start going to the gym or exercising, we all have goals in mind like, “I want to lose 10 pounds,” “I want to run a 5k,” or “I want to get stronger.” These are good goals, but they can be hard to control. At the beginning, it can be tough to know what is realistic. For

For the first 4 to 6 weeks, focus on being consistent. Set action-based goals you can control, like:

• Go to the gym 3 times per week

• Take at least 8000 steps every day

• Eat protein with every meal

Start with a few manageable habits, ones that you're confident you can achieve, and go for it. Once you start seeing some progress, you can enhance and incorporate other habits as well. This gradual approach not only builds your confidence but also sets the stage for tackling more ambitious goals.

2—Make Healthy the Easy Choice—Humans tend to default to the easier choices. So to be successful, you have to set up a life that is helpful to your goals.

Here are a few tips that are simple but will rock your world:

• Pack your workout clothes the night before

• Have a gym plan: Know what exercises you’ll do that day.

• Remove junk food from your home. It’s easier to avoid buying unhealthy snacks once at the store than to resist them every time you’re in the kitchen.

• Prepare healthy food ahead of time: You’ll be more likely to eat healthy if you have meals ready, especially when you’re tired after a long day.

Simple actions will lead to big wins! Make “healthy” the easy choice, and you will be able to be successful for the rest of your life.

3—Don’t forget about nutrition—How you fuel your body is very important. Do not be overly restrictive or jump into fad diets. Focus on eating protein with every meal and adding more fruits and vegetables to your day. One great tool is to track your food for a week or two. You can do that on the Coaching Spot App.

4 - Strength Train, Strength Train, Strength Train - You may be tempted to jump on the treadmill or elliptical as your default choice. But the sooner you start Strength Training, the better off you will be. Start with comfortable movements and add some resistance as you go (add more weight to make them harder). See the workout at the end to get a good head start, and you can even track your progress in Coaching Spot.

5 - Do not let information stop your action - We live in a world where we get a lot of information thrown at us. Flashy headlines and scary news compete for our attention. You might see things like, “Never do this exercise or eat this food,” or “This is the best workout or diet.”

Here’s the point: People who are in shape didn’t get there by arguing about these points. They got there by taking action.

Start moving! As you go, you’ll find ways to improve your training, nutrition, and lifestyle. But first, just get started!

As promised, here is a workout to get you started:

We have a full 6 week schedule that you can access for free on the Coaching Spot app as well as tracking your food. Download on IOS or Google Play Store.

We are also here to help with any questions you may have.

You can do this!