Active Lifestyle

This morning I saw an active lifestyle segment on television. (I will not embarrass the channel by naming it) In a nutshell, it said that if you get out and move for 30 minutes a day, every day, you can consider yourself very active! Basically, the program stated that all you need to do is DRAG yourself out of bed 30 minutes early and be active. Well, we can’t blame them for wanting to take the easy way out. But to me, this was quite a sad commentary on just how pathetically inactive we have become.

First, being active can ACTUALLY be fun. That’s right, being active can be fun. I know this is a new concept for many people because we have been trained for so long to think that in order to stay in shape we must force ourselves to do things that we literally hate doing. Things like going to the gym, getting up early and working out before going to the office, going for a training run tend to be thought of as work themselves. Now why is that? For example, I ran Mt. Baldy. Now, this was hard work, no question, but I loved being outside, I loved the sense of adventure. And, lets face it, this is not to shabby of a view to see in the morning.

The reality is that you are better off doing something that you love that keeps you active, even if you think that you get less physical benefit out of it, rather than doing something you hate to get more physical benefit out of it. The reasoning behind this is simple; if you love doing it, most likely you will stick with it for the long term, whereas if you hate it, just how long do you think you are going to stay with it before you end up throwing in the towel?

Attitude is everything. Change your attitude and change your results, it is literally that simple. Be creative. Think of ways to change how you view your workouts and over time, they will become more fun and less like work, giving you that extra desire to stick with it and play just a little bit harder. More to come…………