If you want to lose weight this year, you NEED to Self-Monitor for SUCCESS

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If you want to lose weight this year, you NEED to Self-Monitor for SUCCESS

January 13, 2009 - Follow me on Twitter

***Dr. Berardi shares 5 great tips to help you get in better shape***

I’m a big fan of Dr. John Berardi’s view about healthy eating and weight management. I think these five tips will help a lot of women out there who will set new weight control goals for themselves for this coming year.

Self-monitoring to lose weight by Dr. John M. Berardi, PhD, CSCS

Self-monitoring is simply a fancy term for recording or keeping track of what you do. Several research studies have shown that those people who keep track of their exercise habits have more success than those who don’t.

So how can you use the power of self-monitoring to improve your body? Here are five strategies we use with all our clients.

1. Keep a workout log

1) One way to self-monitor is to keep a workout log. To do this, all you’ll need to do is pick up a notebook and at the beginning of each week, set aside seven pages for the coming week’s workouts.

2) Date the top of each page for the coming week and list the exercises you’re scheduled to do each day. If it’s an off day, write that too.

3) Then, while at the gym, record exactly what you do on the page designated for that day.

4) At the beginning of each week, when it’s time to set up your schedule for the coming days, look back and see how well you did. If you got all your workouts in, that’s awesome. If not, set exercise goals for the coming week so that you commit to getting to the gym as scheduled.

5) And remember, according to the 90 per cent rule you don’t have to make every workout scheduled. But you shouldn’t miss any more than one workout in every 10.

2. Start an exercise calendar

1) Another way to self-monitor is to keep an exercise calendar. Just pick up a standard calendar or print one up with your word processor.

2) First, schedule the start of your new program. Then, write all the dates on the calendar for the next 12 weeks.

3) Then, at the beginning of each week, schedule your activity for the week. Write in words like “15 minutes of intervals,” “30 minute walk,” “60 minutes of strength exercise,” or simply “no exercise.”

4) Each time you accomplish what is scheduled for that day, go back and cross it off the calendar.

5) This is very simple but effective method, because seeing how you’ve done at a glance allows you to appraise your efforts honestly.

6) And for those of you who’ve been exercising for quite some time, don’t mistake this for a beginner’s tool. This is a valuable exercise for people at all levels – top coaches have even their medal-winning athletes do it.

3. Do a three-day diet record

1) Can these same tactics work for your nutrition as well? You bet.

2) Each client who comes to us is asked to track everything they eat for three days (both what you ate, and when you ate it) and submit it to their coach.

3) Together we then go through the log and compare each meal to the five rules we gave you in Day 1. Nothing works better than a clear example drawn from your own life. And in addition, this can help you identify what kinds of foods you like and when you’re typically missing meals – valuable information when it comes time to design a new plan.

4. Create a two-week meal plan

1) The next step we take is to plan two weeks of eating in advance, including both the regular meals and the 10 per cent “cheat meals.”

2) We’ll create a 14-day meal plan calendar with each meal and snack properly designed and scheduled.

3) Afterwards, we’ll look at how the client fared: were meals missed? If so, which ones, and why? Was the client following the plan 90 per cent of the time, or really just 70 per cent? It’s amazing what information those little notebooks can reveal.

Again, it’s a low-tech way to make rapid progress. Give it a try!

5. Measure your results

1) All successful programs share one simple method: they measure results.

2) As a colleague of mine likes to say, “If you’re not assessing, you’re guessing.” So which are you doing?

3) Precision Nutrition is built around the concept of regular assessment and optimization. We never expect to design the perfect nutrition plan right away. Instead, we start off with what we believe will work based on past experience, and then we test to see whether it’s doing what we expect. If it does, we continue. If it doesn’t, we adapt.

That regular assessment is what separates the winners from the also-rans.

Yesterday, you wrote out your goals. Today, choose something to measure. In the early stages of fat loss, it can be as simple as your body weight or waist circumference. In the more advanced stages, a multi-site skinfold measurement will give you even better data.

And if your goal is really to look better, are you taking regular photos of yourself?

Precision Nutrition clients do all of these things. Every two weeks they submit a comprehensive self-assessment including body composition data (weight, skinfold measurements, etc.), photos, recovery and energy surveys, diet records, and even blood work.

You’ll find more details on Dr. Berardi’s Precision Nutrition program to help you get into the best shape of your life in 2009 here: The Precision Nutrition System

If you’re looking for more great recipes that are yummy and healthy, you might want to take a look at these two great resources from Dr. Berardi:

Gourmet Nutrition: Dr. Berardi’s new cookbook for the fit food lover (I love this cookbook and I love the healthy recipes). You’ll find over 120 recipes! This beautifully photographed book is a MUST-HAVE (in my humble opinion) for anyone interested in eating body-friendly food. You’ll love the taste and you’ll love what it does for your body.

You’ll get more information here on: Gourmet Nutrition

The Precision Nutrition System: A complete nutrition program containing seven guidebooks, a gourmet cookbook, and access to member’s only resources. It’s everything you need to get into the shape of your life. From the strategies to the food!

You’ll get more information here on: The Precision Nutrition System

Photo by mikebaird