How to Make Health and Fitness a Lifestyle!
How to Make Health and Fitness a Lifestyle!
Making health and fitness a lifestyle is not an easy task.? Now a days the convenience foods, busy work schedules, juggling a family, social events etc., all make it very difficult!? One thing we neglect and put off is taking care of ourselves.? But without our health, how can you effectively do your job, play with your kids or grandkids, work around the house, etc. How many times have you injured yourself lifting something at home, getting out of the car, or lifting your kids?? How often do you get sick?? Get headaches? Heartburn and bloating?? Right now it may not seem like a big deal to you, but as we age, these things could lead to bigger and frightening sickness or chronic injury.
We all know that losing weight and improving your overall fitness are things that don?t happen overnight. But, did you know in order to be truly successful that important steps need to be taken before you even start a diet or exercise program? The first thing you should do is identify where you fall on the behavioral change spectrum. There are five distinct stages of behavioral change. Do you know what stage you currently fall under?
Knowing what stage you are at will help you to create a road map to the subsequent stages and ultimately help you to be successful in your fitness goals. Below are the five major phases:
1. Precontemplation: This is the point where you don?t feel that any change in your lifestyle is necessary. You may be thinking that exercising just takes too much time or that fast food is just too convenient to even consider giving up. Starting a fitness or diet program during this stage would probably result in failure. If this is you, remember none of us are immune to decline in health!? Don?t wake up one day and wish you had of been on top of your health.? Educate yourself on why preventative health will put you 10 steps ahead of others.? Be aware of how much better you will feel then you do now!? Imagine!!!!? You could be king of the world! ;^)
2.?Contemplation: During this stage you may start thinking that a change is necessary. So, you think that maybe cutting back to eating fast food only three times a week is not so bad and you might be able to at least take a walk once in a while. This is a good time to learn more about the benefits of healthy eating and regular exercise.? Take a better look at what the nutritional values of all that fast food (they have to supply it now).? Remember how you felt after a healthy meal in comparison.? Remember how you felt after that brisk walk.? Bet you want to feel that way every day!
3. Preparation: At this point you are getting more serious about taking action. You?ve penciled in a walk with your friend for next week and are planning to go grocery shopping to cook a home meal. You may want to research exercise equipment, gyms, personal trainers, and diet programs to learn more about what you can do (with the help of professionals and/or equipment) to get in better shape.? Set realistic goals and realize where you have gone wrong in the past and what you need to do to overcome obstacles.
4. Action: Here?s where you actually take the first step. The first step may be as simple as taking a daily walk, reducing your fast food visits to twice a month or just cutting back on daily sodas. Or, you may go as far as hiring a personal trainer or joining a gym. During this stage it is very important to learn coping mechanisms that will help you avoid re-lapse into your old ways. One way to avoid being a part of the high exercise dropout statistics is starting slowly into a new program and making permanent lifestyle changes versus temporary ones.?? Start in a workout phase that allows you to correct imbalances and prepare the body for more intense exercise!? You will be glad you did this!? Don?t be a workout dropout!!!!
5.??Maintenance: This is, of course, the phase that everyone should strive to be at. This means that you have been doing a regular fitness program consistently for quite some time and that you continue your new lifestyle. It?s important throughout this stage (which should last a lifetime) that you include a variety of workouts that change frequently. You should also seek social support of friends and family. Never think you are ok to go back to the way you were!? This is a common mistake and why people end up putting all their weight back on!? Fine tune your nutrition and continue to keep the workouts on a regular basis!
The key to success is first identifying your stage and then taking steps to advance to the next level (unless, of course, you are already at the Maintenance stage). Use the suggestions mentioned above in each stage to help you move to the next phase.
It?s also important to tune-in to your fears, past struggles and expectations. Making nutritional and exercise changes is not easy and should be approached slowly. Remember to make small changes. Don?t try to go from a completely sedentary lifestyle to an hour of continual exercise in just one day. Build up slowly starting with even just 10 minutes. And lastly, be sure to inform your family and friends of your plans and enlist their support. Support is extremely important for your success.
Rome wasn?t built in a day!? More than likely you didn?t gain 30lbs overnight either!? Don?t be the one who only starts exercising in January to drop out in February.? Don?t be the one who workouts every day for 2 hours and doesn?t eat much for 4 weeks to get ready for a social event! So unhealthy and creates bad habits!
If this was easy then we would all look amazing!? There are steps to a healthy lifestyle.? Don?t let anyone tell you that you should drop how you do things now and move into something strict over night!? You are setting yourself up for failure!? This could lead to disorders and overtraining.? I will discuss what overtraining does in another article!? The effects of doing too much, especially right out of the gates, is not worth it!!!
For nutrition take these small steps each week:
- ?Cut out one thing like drinking soda every day, to drinking soda a couple times a week. Or cut out eating something sweet every day to just doing it a couple times a week.
- Drink 3 litres of water a day at least!
- Cut down on portion sizes.
- Add more quality protein to your meals.? (lean cuts of meat, nothing fried)
- Eat more fruits and veggies
- Cut out the ?Bad? carbs one at a time and replace with low glycemic carbs (sweet potato, quinoa, gluten free carbs, brown rice, quinoa pasta)
There are obviously many more things you can do but these are a great start!? You didn?t develop bad habits overnight and food tends to be something we turn to for comfort.? Eating badly when you feel badly will only lead to feeling worse!!!!? Have a small treat and wreak the benefits!? Remember, you don?t have to eat bad foods when you go out to be social.? What difference does it make whether you eat a salad or burger with friends?? It only matters in your head!? Restaurants will make changes if you ask!
A healthy lifestyle is a process!? It takes some hard work, constant upkeep and help from others to build the perfect temple!? If you maintain the temple it will remain standing even in the worst of storms!
Source: http://fitness-for-u.com/?p=753
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