To be fit and healthy, you need to be disciplined. You need to stick to a healthy routine of a balanced exercise routine coupled with good, nutritious food that will give you the fuel you need for your body to function well. However, there are certain behaviors that many of us exhibit that prevents us from fully living the fitness lifestyle. Here are five of these.
Your Exercise Routine is Unrealistic.
When we start at the gym and decide that we’re going to get ‘fit’ we have very good intentions. We think that we’re going to be at the gym at 5.30 every morning or that we will dedicatedly stop by the gym after work every day so that we can get a good workout every single day.
This may work for a week or two. You may even be lucky enough for it to last for a month. However, you’ll find that after a while, you’ll start to lose interest. Why? Because your goals were unrealistic – you set yourself up for failure.
When setting fitness goals for yourself, make sure that they are S.M.A.R.T. In other words, they need to be:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Realistic
- Time-bound
You need to factor in what other commitments that you have when deciding on what goals you want to achieve with your fitness plan. For example, if you’re constantly traveling for work, saying that you’re going to go to the gym five days a week is unrealistic as you don’t know if the place that you’ll be in has a gym. So make sure that your fitness routine is in line with what you need to do in other facets of your life.
You use a Hectic Lifestyle as an excuse for Eating Poorly.
These days, we’re all constantly on the go. Nine times out of ten, we don’t have time to sit down and have a proper meal. Fast food – which is full of bad fats and other not-so-healthy things – becomes a staple for us as it’s quick and tasty – so filling that void for us.
The unfortunate result of this is that as we don’t dedicate enough time to exercising, with this added calorific junk food, we end up putting on weight. Worse still, we may even create health problems for ourselves, such as heart conditions owing to the increased amount of bad fats that we’re taking in.
Being busy is no excuse for eating poorly. It is possible to eat well while still being hectically busy. However, getting this right needs a little bit of planning. A suggestion is to – every Sunday – do a massive cook-up. Then freeze each of these meals in individual portions. Every time that you want to eat a meal, all you need to do is pop one in the microwave, and you’re good to go!
If you need some help in terms of what good nutrition principles are, visit a nutritionist for some advice. This person has taken many nutrition courses and – as such – they know what good nutrition principles are and how to advise you regarding this.
You Force Yourself to do Exercises that you don’t like
There are many different types of exercises, and each has its own set of benefits that they have for the individual. However, if you don’t like one exercise modality, don’t keep pushing yourself to do it.
The reason?
Even though you may not think this, your mind plays a vital role in all forms of exercise – not just Yoga and Pilates. For example, if you hate lifting weights every time you know that you’re due for a weight-training routine, your mind will start giving you negative feedback about the session that you’re about to do. The result is that you’ll end up talking yourself squarely out of going to the gym in the first place. So if you don’t like lifting weights, and you know that you need to do resistance training, why not try Pilates or Trusted Treadmill instead as this will give you the same result as lifting weights will.
The great thing about fitness is that if you haven’t been living a healthy and fit lifestyle up until now, it doesn’t matter in the slightest. You can always start now and work your way to what you want to be. The time is now!
