Top Five Things I Learned About Fitness - The Hard Way
Submitted by Fit and Female Blog
Top 5 Things I Learned About Health & Fitness — The Hard Way
They say there’s no teacher like experience. Ain’t that the truth?! I’ve been working out for 26 years (and a fitness professional for 17 of them) and I’ve learned as much from my mistakes as I have from my good choices.
Some of them I learned by trial and error, some I learned by education. Some I learned easily — and some I fought tooth and nail despite all evidence to the contrary.
So here are my top five…
Lesson 1: You Are What You Is! Your body is different from anyone else’s and the sooner you come to a loving self-acceptance of how G-d made you the happier you will be! Stop wishing you were Giselle (or whomever). She’s a freak of nature anyway — that’s why she’s making the big bucks — because she is UNUSUALLY beautiful, tall and skinny. (Besides, I bet that Tom Brady is in a really pissy mood these days). Remember that your body is unique and that “fit” is going to look different on you than it does on a cover model, your naturally-skinny cousin or even the woman next door.
Lesson 2: Stop Beating Yourself Up For Not Being Perfect!! The road to health and fitness is not about being 100% perfect all of the time. You might have a week where you are really consistent and a week or two when you are far less so. Just pledge to do your level best MOST of the time given your time constraints. Aim to eat healthy and workout MOST days of the week. Don’t let a string of bad days — or months…get back on the wagon and expects the normal bumps in the road to wellness.
Lesson 3: A Day Without Chocolate Is Like A Day Without Sunshine! I’m a chocoholic, have been for years. I’m not apologizing it and have absolutely no interest in being cured. Now I don’t eat all of Hershey Pennsylvania on a daily basis, but I do have at least a piece(or two) of a little something chocolaty — everyday. The point is, daily deprivation doesn’t work, small daily indulgences do. They prevent you from feeling like your health and wellness program is a form of punishment, whatever it is for you allow yourself to enjoy it in moderation. Besides chocolate is an anti-oxidant (yup, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!!)
Lesson 4: Give In To Sleep When You Are Tired. Okay, truth be told — I forget this one a lot. I’m like a lot of women that I know, in that I typically try to pack a 72-hour “to do” list into a 24-hour day. I can motor through sleep-deprivation pretty well, or so I think. Then finally one day I realize my thinking is a little muddled, I’m a bit cranky, my coping skills are down….hmmm. Then I remember, ah hah… I’m tired. And I give into it. I start going to bed really early for a few days, sleep 10-12 hours (I swear!) for a day or two, take some killer naps — and generally give into it. Within a few days I feel this veil of negativity lift and I feel like myself again.
Lesson 5: If It Hurts — Don’t Do It. Some mild discomfort or the occasional soreness are a normal part of an active lifestyle. Feeling continually beat up by your fitness program isn’t!! The more you ignore those nagging aches and pains the worse they typically become, until you eventually get side-lined by an injury. Common culprits which make exercise painful are: 1) over-training (i.e. doing too much, too soon and/or too often) and 2) too much impact –activities like running and jumping need to be done sparingly (if at all) for most of us. High-impact activities are frequently associated with inflammation and damage to joints, bones and soft tissues. Work-up to them gradually and reduce (or eliminate them entirely) when pain flares up.
Hopefully, learning from some of my mistakes might prevent you from having to make the same one’s yourself…but ..probably not ;-) Because human nature being what it is, we usually have to figure these things out for ourselves in order to believe them.
