Commit to Be Fit! Four Tips to Get You Started!
THINK positive thoughts INTENSELY! GROW enthusiastic images BOLDLY. FEEL FANTASTIC now!
I have always been active in some way. Almost everyday of my adult life (53 years young now!), I have run or run and lifted weights or run, lifted weights and stretched. Once in awhile I’ll bicycle or get on the elliptical machine at the gym I belong to. Most of my vacations are physical in nature and usual involve hiking!
There have been times in my life (outside of these vacations) when I have felt that I had the time to “do” this in my day and then other, long periods during especially hectic times in my life where, although exercise is a priority, it didn’t always happen with ease. I jammed a quick 45-minute workout in around all the job-related events in my life at the time.
Lest you/we think that a person need be an “exerciser,” I would also consider myself to be a physically active person and have often found enjoyment in the “physicality” of working in the yard, painting the house, walking or biking uptown on an errand, taking the stairs instead of the elevator in a building, parking some distance from my destination, and the like.
My motivation to be an active and an exerciser is probably two-fold. One, I find the activity relieves my stress and helps me feel confident and strong. As a woman, I find value in translating this to other areas of my life. Secondly, as I get older, I realize the value that exercise can have in my overall health especially as it relates to cardiovascular disease and weight management.
Research studies can be easily found to support the fact that exercise/physical activity for 30 minutes most days of the week can prevent or delay diseases while enhancing the quality of life. So, knowing this, why don’t people exercise? Why don’t people stay physically active?
You tell me…
Time?
Other demands?
Job?
Lack of interest?
Lack of knowledge about how to be more active?
No role models?
There are several things I would like to mention in this article about general fitness. I would also contend that IF you don’t enjoy, have no interest, time, or knowledge, about HOW to exercise that you at least create opportunities to be more active.
Walk up the stairs instead of taking the elevator, park farther from a building you are visiting, walk some place instead of driving your car, walk to the restroom/drinking fountain on a different floor every work break, get up from the chair/sofa to change the TV channel instead of surfing with your remote, do push-ups or jumping jacks or ab crunches during commercial breaks, or whatever else you can think of.
Most definitions of general physical fitness would include consideration of cardiovascular or heart health, muscle strength and endurance which can ultimately improve bone density, as well as flexibility or the ability to move each of our body’s joints through its “normal” range of motion. Any of these dimensions of fitness, if given the attention it deserves, can result in many physiological improvements including improved resting heart rate, blood pressure, “good” cholesterol levels, and the like, let alone other more perceived benefits including the ability to perform physical work/play comfortably, increased energy, less stress and relief from depression, better sleep patterns, to name a few.
So, I believe that most of us have some sense of what we need to do for ourselves, about how to exercise/be more active physically BUT we often lack the commitment to doing so. Every time I say “no” to being active in some way, I am saying “no” to my health. By saying “yes” to exercise or activity, I am saying “yes” to myself. So, how about saying “yes” today?
Presented below are several “starter” activities to get you going…
1. Brainstorm those ACTIVITIES THAT YOU LIKE TO DO as an adult/did like to do as a child, and determine how you can fit these activities into your everyday life! The POINT – You have to like what you are doing.
2. Highlight any personally compelling reasons to embark on a more active lifestyle. The POINT – You will “do” what you “BELIEVE” is IMPORTANT!
3. List barriers to becoming more active. POINT – If people, events, YOU, or other things get in the way of being consistently more active, you won’t remain committed to activity.
4. Strategize for “dealing” with these barriers to possible achievement. The POINT – Better to know what might prevent you from doing some activity ahead of time and be able to ROLE PLAY a solution.
Create opportunities for you to be successful in exercising or being more physically active! The strategizing takes time BUT is well worth the outcomes experienced.
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