See Me... Be A USER!!

I posted right before I left for vacation and I shared with you that I had lost 23 pounds.  I am happy to say I came back from vacation STILL weighing 23 pounds lighter.  I must admit I was a little nervous considering how fresh the food was in West Palm Beach, FL.  However, being true to who you are as my family and friends, you still held me accountable.  I received a text from a very, very good friend Henreka saying, "You bet not come back one pound heavier than when you left." (Believe me, she was not playing!)

So with that in mind, I took to walking on the beach or swimming lapses in the pool, which wore my tail out. However, it kept me accountable which kept me in check.

Now that I've been back, I'm having to refocus and re-motivate to get back into a routine. To help me get to that point, I reached out to a fellow public relations peer at NC A&T and Aggie Alum, Calvin T. Williams, Jr.  

Calvin is the founder and managing director of Explosive Training & Sports Management, LLC in Raleigh, NC.  The organization markets, manages, and trains professionals and aspiring professional athletes. Calvin spent four years playing professional arena football. He organizes athletic training sessions to assist athletes in strength, condition, speed, and agility. Check him out at: www.the-etsm.com .

Read how he breaks healthy living into four parts with the Acronym USER :

1) UNDERSTAND- "The challenge you will face."

• Rome wasn't built in a day and neither will the perfect body. It is good to seek out professional consultations, so that your goals can be realistically assessed and realistic time tables can be established. Once this has been done you can begin setting short term goals to help you get on the way to your long term goal. (Winning battles is ultimately what helps you win the war) 

2) SURROUND- "Yourself with support systems"

• No matter how motivated you are, you WILL face adversity, bumps in the road and challenges that seem impossible to overcome. Here is where having people that support and believe in you come in handy. Not only will you feel great that someone wishes to see you succeed, you become re-energized and get right back on your path to success.

3) EMBRACING-"Lifestyle change & Eliminating Negativity"

• It took a lifetime to learn the bad habits, so realize that unlearning them is not going to just happen because you decided to live healthy now. The most unsuccessful people that wish to lose weight are those that "diet". However, those that make small changes in HOW they eat, achieve long term success. It can be as simple as replacing unhealthy snacks with healthy snacks and drinking more water this month. Then as you get more comfortable, learn portion control, how to read food labels, structuring meals based around proteins, carbs and "good fats" and so on. Do you know how a fit persons body and an unfit persons body uses sugar is totally different? Fit people's bodies use sugar for energy as opposed to unfit people's body that use sugar as (for lack of better words) a poison. Something to use as motivation when working out that you can actually reward yourself with sweets (in moderation) the more fit you are! 

• The less negative individuals you surround yourself with the more positive your outlook of life will become. Because all the people that point out all the negative aspects of everything will no longer be around! Lets face it, life has ups and downs but who needs the person around that is telling you why you can't do something, we all need the person around that tells us we CAN do something. Just remember the saying, "Whether you think you can or think you can't, you are right!" So subtract the negative Neds and Nancys from your life and add in the positive Paul and Patricia.

4) REMEMBER- "Why you wish to accomplish your goal"

• This is the most important motivating factor, the emotional "why" that triggers your want to achieve a health-related goal. After many years in fitness and health settings, I found it hard to relate to people that quit, didn't stay consistent or never started their health/nutrition plans. As I talked with and learned more about people I began to realize that most were forgetting the emotion that sparked their interest in changing. Well, think about that emotion each day, whether it's wanting to look good at the class reunion, trying to attract a person you are interested in, or the doctor told you that you are at risk for diabetes and it scared you. When you consider the emotion that made you want to change and why each time you go to a gym, order a meal, get up late at night for a snack, it will motivate you to make wiser choices and continue striving for your ultimate goal.

There is light at the end of the tunnel and if you are a USER of the methods described above, you can and will see the light shining bright at the end of that tunnel!