Truth be told – the day I finally looked at myself in the mirror without a shirt on and was extremely happy with what I saw, I wasn’t all that surprised. I knew that the day would finally come and I knew that I could reach the health and fitness goals I had set out for myself. I don’t say this to sound arrogant or anything like that, but rather just to make a point about what is required to realise success in any area of your life really, with your health and fitness goals being one of them as just an example.
It’s as simple as this – you have to turn your health and fitness regime into a lifestyle!
If all the things you do or all the things you’re supposed to do in order to carve and chisel out your dream body are a chore, you’ll only have the willpower to diligently carry them out for a limited amount of time. At some point skipping leg-day will evolve into skipping leg-day twice or thrice in a row, in addition to delinquency in sticking to a diet you know you need to stick to in order to achieve certain fitness goals, and so on…
Sure, it’s hard. It won’t be easy at all and that’s why it’s referred to as “killing your workout” or “putting in a hard session in the gym!” I reiterate – it’s NOT EASY!
This, however, is the reason why you have to turn your health and fitness regime into a lifestyle – you could, for example, get a barbell or two for use at home so they become part of your everyday life, as you won’t even need to make the trip to the gym in order to train. It takes a while for some changes you introduce into your life to become habitual. Your body might be aching all over for a whole week if you do something as seemingly unassuming as joining the neighbourhood kids for a fun game of kick-about on a Sunday afternoon, but start playing football every other day for an entire month or more and you’ll have no body-aches to speak of.
Instead you’ll start enjoying what was otherwise a source of pain and you’ll look forward to every other game that’s coming up. The double-benefit which comes into play is that at this point whatever activity you engage in and enjoy doing is also good for your health, so your body will reward you for that.
It goes way beyond just finding some fun physical activity to take part in as part of your resolution to turn your health and fitness regime into a lifestyle though. You need to institute habits which pretty much make up the default settings of how you live your life, such as how everybody who sends me any thanksgiving gifts knows to go for the healthier choices, like how the Deluxe Dried Fruit and Nuts Gift Tray from Broadway Basketeers seems to be a perennial favourite choice amongst the people who know that I’m somewhat of a health nut.
Of course both sides of the equation have to be taken care of, including your eating habits as well as the physical activity you engage in. Try to incorporate better habits into everything that you do. Eliminating obstacles that can ordinarily prevent you from doing healthier things is a great place to start – it stops you from being able to make any excuses! If your gym is too far to make the trip, join a new one or get a home gym. If your home gym is too stuffy and uncomfortable to work out in, install a wall mounted air conditioning unit. If your workplace only offers food that isn’t very diet-friendly, bring your own lunches into work. It’s all well and good saying that something is preventing you from leading a healthy lifestyle, but ask yourself – what’s the alternative? Make the changes you need to make now and watch your lifestyle benefit as a result!
