Get Crystal CLEAR
The best way to start your weight gain journey is truly knowing yourself.
- Know your realistic timeframe
- Know the realistic weight goal
- Know what you’re willing to sacrifice to achieve the goal
Yes, it’s that simple. As I prepare for starting my short sweet weight gain goal, I’ve been extra intentional about reaching my goal the easiest way possible. Not the fastest but the easiest.
As a person that struggles with staying at a healthy weight and being consistent, I have to be sure that this is an easy win for me to achieve my goal.
7 Keys for Planning
That little tidbit can be helpful with creating a plan for your fitness goals.
- Observe – Take a week and simply observe your natural habits. What time do you wake up naturally? What time are you ready for bed? When do you get hungry? What foods do you grab if you feel lazy? Do you eat at all if foods aren’t prepared? How many calories are you taking in on a normal day? How many calories do you intake if all foods are prepared beforehand? Are weekends harder to stay on track versus than weekdays? When do you feel motivated to exercise?
- Review Observation– After you take a look at your findings, analyze where you fall short. Where are the areas you need to adjust? For example, do you need to wake up earlier or stay up later in order to eat more? Do you need to have more high calorie snacks available for times you feel lazy? Understanding this will help you with the next step.
- Breakout Calories – This is the step I’m currently working on while writing this blog post. Ok so you need to consume 3,000 to 4,000 calories a day. Think about how you want to realistically achieve this goal. If eating a 1,000 calorie breakfast is NOT realistic to you, don’t breakout your first 1,000 calories in one meal. Remember, the plan needs to be realistic so that you stay consistent. You can say your first 1,000 calories look like breakfast meal = 500 calories, drink =100 calories, snack #1 = 200, Snack #2 = 200. That’s all before noon but broken down into small realistic parts. If you can’t consume large quantities of food in one setting, don’t force yourself to do that! This will be tortue if you plan in that way.
- Develop a Schedule – Now that you have a better understanding of your habits, develop a schedule you can at least stick to for 30 days. At the end of the 30 days, you can change but think realistically on what you can start doing today or tomorrow. Set times to eat around your current schedule for life. Set those alerts in your Microsoft Outlook or your phone calendar to remind you.
- Meal Plan – This isn’t new for you to read but it’s necessary for you to read on this post. You have to have a meal plan and here’s the reason why, when you have to think hard about something you’re less likely to do it. It’s natural. In our day to day, we stick to routines that are easy and come natural to us. Search google for meal planning. I’ll do my own post but for your immediate action, search google today. Meal Plan for your meals but also set aside snacks and prepare your smoothies so it’s easy for you. Consider these things in your meal planning
- Exercise Plan – After you have a plan for meals, then plan your exercise time. It doesn’t matter whether you’re working out at home or in a gym or boutique gym. Plan your time for exercising and what muscle group you plan on focusing on. For example, you want to grow muscle on your glutes then on Mondays and Fridays you’re going to do 50-100 squats between 7am – 8am. Don’t make this too complicated because you want to be consistent.
- Get Started and Execute – The last thing to do will be to…do. Your journey will not be picture perfect but you will learn along the way. All you can do is plan for success and adjust your plan along the way.
Enjoy the Journey
I’m sure you have already read a few blogs and health websites already looking for the answers. Or perhaps you’re looking for the step by step on how it has worked for others. Truth is, even if someone shared the exact steps at what worked for them, you will still have to go back to what works for you. So you might as well start your journey empowered and create your own plan based off of all the resources you have in your toolbox. I’ll continue to share what I have learned or discovered but take what works for you.
Wishing you the best on your weight gain journey.