Lifetime Fitness - Two Basic Motvations People Have for Getting Fit

Here's a scary thought about lifetime fitness:

Those who do not find time for exercise now will have to find time for illness.
— The Earl of Derby, 1873

Most people would like to have good health and stay in shape, would you agree?

Even if they are not currently fit and trim, I'd argue that most have some desire to slim down and feel better than they do.

The problem is they are just not willing to pay the price of lifetime fitness!

(Of course, some folk don't realise that the reason they feel so lousy is because of what they eat, drink and do - or don't do - their lifestyle choices, if you like.

For those that do aspire to lifetime fitness, have you ever noticed there's two types of people?

Group A

There's group A that are doing it for their health and sense of wellness.

Group A like to get up in the morning feeling good. They are confident they have more good habits than bad habits and therefore have the balance right between lifetime fitness and lifestyle.

In other words, group A's motivation for losing weight or weight control stems from a desire to keep in shape so they can feel good about themselves. Often it is also about staying in control.

I'm definitely group A. When I'm at my ideal weight I do feel more empowered in the rest of my life and my work. When I was overweight I was unhappy because I felt like I was out of control as losing weight was such an uphill struggle.

Once I got to my goal weight and learned how to stay there, I felt like a success and that spilled over into other aspects of my work and relationships too!!!

Group B

Then there's group B. These guys are doing it for their image. They have a desire to shape their bodies into fitness model looks.

Nothing wrong with that at all. In fact, great! It means if they were ever in group A, they've moved beyond OR that they never had the issues that group A people face. Good for you, you lucky bunch!

Both groups have accelerated the growth in health spas, fitness clubs and gym memberships, not to mention the home fitness equipment business and health products industry!!!

But exercise is not the only way to get the body shape you desire. There's a parallel responsibility about the foods we choose to eat.

Whether you are group A or group B, lifetime fitness requires a healthy diet regime as well as regular exercise.

So what kind of diet is best for supporting lifetime fitness?

The golden rule still has to be to reduce calorie intake if you want to drop body fat. But if you are just trying to be healthy and combining diet and exercise, you would need foods that support both.

As long as the foods you eat equate to a balanced diet, you should get the energy you need for exercising as well as the protein you need for building and maintaining calorie-burning muscle tissue.

For weight maintainance, please see my healthy eating guidelines for some basic advice and helpful food pyramids.

Now for let's get back to weight loss for a moment. Or more strictly speaking fat loss. Whether you are trying to lose weight or sculpt your body to perfection, excess fat is what you need to eliminate.

Research shows that sustainable loss of weight can only be achieved on a diet which suits the individual food preferences, lifestyle and medical profile. So out of all the choices you have, it's best to remember that ...

Generally, there are two schools of thought, high-carb low-fat or high-fat low-carb.

High carbohydrate diets are good for storing glycogen in our muscles for when we need to perform short spurts of activity (like sports or interval training) as opposed to cardiovascular, longer sustained activity.

On the other hand, there are those that argue for high-fat diet for lifetime fitness because fat is a much richer source of calories than foods rich in carbohydrates and that it metabolizes much faster.

(Just avoid high-fat AND high-carb or you'll pile on the lbs!!)

It's not just an issue of losing weight of course. Many overweight men and women manage to lose weight.

But what I find is that very often if their weight loss regime doesn’t suit their lifestyle, so they go back to their previous habits and put the weight back on again over time.

So a good tactic you might try is to organize your diet and exercise plan with a goal of lifetime fitness not short term weight loss.

That way you are more likely to stick to it rather than yo-yo.

Find a plan that exactly fits your needs and keep a mind on moderation for what you eat.

If you've spent any time on this site, you'll know it goes without saying that as part of a healthy diet, you need to ensure that you get an adequate intake of vitamins and minerals (micronutrients and antioxidants) essential for good health.

Here's the super pot of my top recommended Formula 2 product.

It's from 30 year old international nutrition company Herbalife. You take three a day and you'll notice the benefits within a few days!

@ £22.50

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