When it comes to getting healthier and fit, you have to pick programs that can be maintained indefinitely. This means, no fad diets that will drop 20 pounds real fast but if you tried to stay on forever would kill you. (ie: grapefruit only diets, honey and cayenne drinks only diet, etc, etc….)

The best way is to realize that it didn’t take you a matter of weeks or even months to get to where you are now. What does this mean? It means that it will take you more then a matter of weeks or even months to get back into health and fitness.

Once you come to terms with the fact that it isn’t a quick fix, you can take it a step at a time to ensure that you will stick with the new changes. Instead of trying to fix everything at once, burning out, quitting and going back to your old ways, I want you to pick 1 thing to change. Stick with that for 2 weeks until it becomes a habit, then change one more, then another… If all you did at first was drop all the sugar out of your diet (and by this I mean white refined sugar, HFCS, candy, etc…) and get onto even a basic exercise program. Just cut the sugar and get moving. After a couple weeks when that is now a habit try to work in more vegetables and ramp up the workouts. Before you know it you will be eating a very clean diet of real food (fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy) and working out regularly and intensely.

That is the real secret to making it work. Taking it a step at a time and making them habits and that takes about 2 weeks of 100% effort and commitment. No cheating. Once you are in the habit of eating clean and exercising, you can allow yourself the odd cheat. If one day you really want a chocolate bar, and you just can’t shake it, then go ahead and have 1. If you only have 1 a week or 1 every couple weeks, it won’t kill you. After all, you’re making these changes so that you are healthier and enjoy life more. Does denying any and all treats fit into that? But this stage only comes once these are the exceptions to the rule, once the healthy lifestyle is the normal and habitual way to be.

Odds are you won’t want that junk anyway because once you are off the crack (sugar) you just don’t want it anymore. That and if you do have some it makes you feel like garbage.

Chris Walls is a Personal Trainer at the newly opened Crossfit Kelowna training centre.  For more information on Crossfit, please visit http://www.crossfitkelowna.com