For me, fitness is an essential component of my lifestyle. It’s how I ensure that I’m living a full and productive life, how I maintain my optimism, my health, and my self-image. And if I want a piece of chocolate cake – well, I actually do deserve it. Attempting to achieve health through calorie restrictive diets is a roller coaster. You lose weight, you plateau, you gain weight, you quit the diet, and then start all over again.
Here are my top five tips for improving your life through fitness:
Here are my top five tips for improving your life through fitness:
- MOVE everyday. Do anything for any amount of time. It’s essential to burn more calories than your daily resting calorie burn, create blood circulation, and create good endorphins every day. Sitting is bad! When you sit, your calorie burn drops by 1 calorie per minute compared to the calories burned by a person who is standing. When you’re moving, you burn 3 to 10 calories per minute. When you sit, enzymes that help break down fat, drop production by 90%. When you sit, all electrical activity in your leg muscles shuts down. And if all that wasn’t bad enough, your good cholesterol drops by 20%. After 24 hours, your insulin production drops by 24%...and an increase in diabetes rises.
- DON’T diet. Dieting is only a crutch. And diets tend to last only until you do or don’t meet your goal. And then what? Enjoy what you like to eat in moderation, and count your calories daily. See last quarter’s blog on losing weight, if you need to
- Set weekly exercise GOALS – If you’re a runner, set a goal of reaching a particular number of miles per week. If you like to walk, walk to a certain point everyday for a week. If you need challenge, climb that mountain/hill 4 times a week. Promise your self a treat – a piece of dark chocolate, a massage, or anything that motivates you to hit that weekly exercise goal.
- SLEEP a lot. Being fit isn’t just about moving everyday. Sleep contributes significantly to providing the energy needed to exercise. Sleep also regulates your metabolism, repairs muscles and refreshes your mind, building your willpower.
- PRIORITIZE your health and fitness. We all have a tendency to put work, social events and assorted “important” projects ahead of our daily fitness routine. But a lifestyle of fitness means you put those things second – which might sound selfish until you consider that a fit person with a sharp mind will perform better at work, be a better more attentive parent and will achieve more in a day than someone who is tired, lethargic and unhappy with themselves. Find a minimum of 15 minutes a day to move no matter what’s going on in your life, even on vacation. Once you’re consistent about making fitness a part of your life, it becomes a part of your routine – just like brushing your teeth. When exercise becomes a habit, you’ll feel like something isn’t quite right when you skip your daily workout.
