Saturday 11 March 2017

Enjoy your Journey to Fitness not just the Destination

We live in an increasingly demanding world where everything seems to be instant and everything and anything can be achieved in next to no time.

It's human nature to want to find the shortcuts in anything to make our lives easier or reduce the amount of labour or time it takes to do a task.

However as our activity levels seems to reduce thanks to labour saving devices and our food intake increases thanks to bigger portion sizes and higher energy dense foods, the balance of energy in and energy out is becoming disrupted so much so that the country's body size is getting bigger every year!

I see a lot of people choosing 'diets' to help lose weight quickly, only to discover that once finishing their 'diet' they start to increase size again. In the end they find themselves heavier than when they first started and then they go on yet another 'diet' to try and fix the damage and the cycle repeats itself once again.


Image result for journey path image


However it hit me the other day that why can't we enjoy the journey of getting fitter rather than focusing on the final destination?  If we break the journey down into 'bite size' pieces and begin by getting more active such as joining the gym or a running club, start enjoying the social side of this and enjoy how our body starts to feel stronger, fitter with more energy.

These new behaviours are for the rest of our lives and not just for short term.  The only 'diet' anyone should be on unless you have some serious medical condition is eating a wide range of food from all of the major food groups regularly and in the right portion sizes.

It may sound boring but just eating healthier and cutting down on the high sugary/fat foods and moving more so there's less energy going in and more going out, then your body composition will start to change for the better.

This will take longer but the chances are you will lose body fat and have a better chance of keeping it off for good.

Think of The Hare and The Tortoise and remember who won the race in the end.

If you start to enjoy the journey to fitness then you will eventually arrive at your destination rather then it always being just out of reach.