Why its a lifestyle choice..
Fitness isn’t just fitness, by this I mean you can’t put it into a box and bring it out when you want it. If you’ve made that decision to improve your fitness then you’ve also decided to transform your lifestyle too - for the better! Many people mistakenly belief that if they start a fitness program everything else will naturally ‘fall into line too’, How wrong could they be? Very wrong is the answer, if you start a fitness program your also going to have to take a long hard look at other aspects of your life. Such as diet, alcohol, sleep, social activities and the like.
To start up a fitness program is just the start of your adventure into changing your life forever! I know this may sound a tad dramatic but you have the chance to relook at all your ‘vices’ and make that decision to kick them into oblivion and start working on a more healthier version of you!
Let’s start with your diet, so many times I hear of people starting on these diet plans, such as slimming world etc, this is a really positive step but then you look closer and the exercise is missing out of the equation. To lose weight effectively- which means not to put it back on when the diet stops - you have to increase your activity. So you can walk more BUT this means briskly walking where your heart rate rises and you get on a little sweat. Taking a walk where you don’t sweat or your breathing doesn’t increase will benefit you in small ways but its not an activity that will improve your fitness. So get those trainers on and start walking BRISKLY!
As with all healthy eating its best to eat a balanced diet, which includes all the nutrients you need to help your body run smoothly. So eat your carbs, proteins and healthy fats and try and stay away from those bad saturated fats!!!
Next on the list is sleep, now, when your eating properly and exercising, in theory your sleep should be wonderful. Unfortunately there are other factors around that can mess our sleep patterns up, but over the last few months I have found that going the bed at the same time every night and also waking around the same time every morning really helps. I don’t know about you but I find that if I sleep in at all at the weekend, I feel a little fuzzy and tired throughout the day. My normal bedtime is 10pm and I naturally wake around 6 am, I think having children has helped me get into this sleep pattern and after 11 years I can honestly say I have never slept in after 7:30am!! Since lessening my alcohol intake I have seen my sleep benefit as well. I have decreased my consumption dramatically and can go months without wanting to touch a drop, this is mostly due to my training and how much I have come to realise alcohol effects it. Without it though your sleep pattern can really improve, no more lying wide awake at 3am after ‘zonking’ out early after a couple of glasses of booze. There’s nothing worse than lying awake, wanting to go to sleep, and thinking about the busy day you have planned with the kids, knowing that your going to be feeling rotten for most of the day due to the couple of glasses of wine- which incidentally was meant to relax you the night before!! I really do suggest you re-think alcohol and look at the benefits of decreasing your intake.
Next one to look at is your social life, which also may be intertwined with the alcohol reason above. Late nights, partying, binge drinking all these factors will need to be looked at as in time they will catch up with you! Too much ‘burning the candle at both ends’ will lead to illnesses such as colds etc. All these factors will hit your immune system making it more difficult for you to carry on with your fitness and worse case scenario thwarting all your good intentions for 2019.
As you can see most of what I have talked about ‘isn’t rocket science’. To increase the likelihood of achieving what you want, and becoming fitter you will have to look closely at all of the above and ask yourself if you are ready for it all. I hope you are because once you start implementing those changes to your life the rewards will start coming to you thick and fast. Helping you feel more positive about life and also increasing your confidence about life in general.