Getting back into shape isn’t easy and it’s not a short project you can complete overnight. You must commit to stay fit in order to see any results. Committing to fitness means scheduling workouts on a regular basis and following through on them. It means insuring you have a healthy lifestyle in every way from eating a healthy diet to getting the right amount of sleep at night. It may not be easy, but once you make the commitment, it’s possible.
Identify a specific goal and write it down.
Before you can achieve any goal, you need to identify it, create a way to measure your success and a path to achieve it. There are a lot of different goals when it comes to fitness. You might want to lose weight, improve your aerobic fitness or just tone the body. All are viable choices. For a goal of overall fitness, you need to address several areas. One of them, of course, is exercise, but eating healthier, eliminating unhealthy habits and even getting enough sleep at night are other factors that affect your health.
Learn to eat healthier.
Eating healthier isn’t dieting. Dieting always ends. Even when you successfully shed pounds, once the diet ends you go back to old eating habits, which put on the weight in the first place. Instead, eating healthier means learning to make substitutions, cooking differently and choosing the right foods. Substitutions may be part of cooking differently. For instance, unsweetened applesauce can replace some of the sugar or oil in baked goods, lowering calories and improving it nutritionally. Choosing food closest to whole foods—the fruit or vegetables natural state—is always best. Get the help of a trainer or nutritionist to help you learn how to make these changes and you’ll never have to fight overweight again.
Create a program of regular exercise.
In order to stay healthy, you have to move your body. The body creates antioxidants that keep you younger and protect your cells. Activity stimulates blood flow and that brings nutrients and oxygen in the blood to every cell of the body. It makes you stronger, less prone to falls and gives you aerobic fitness, while keeping your heart healthy. In fact, weight bearing exercise is known to help fight osteoporosis better than many of the medications for it.
- Create your road map to fitness by setting smaller achievable goals first. Maybe it’s just walking for a half hour until you can run, but it’s a start that’s achievable.
- Make sure you include a good night’s sleep in your program. Not only is adequate sleep important to your heart health, it can also help you lose weight. Regular exercise helps you sleep better
- If you smoke or drink too much, work on controlling and eliminating those habits. Often regular exercise can help.
- As you reach your initial goals, set goals and steps to achieve them that are more and more difficult. Before you know it, you’ll be in shape and want to achieve even more.
For more information, contact us today at The Running Warrior