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Community Corner

It's Your Life

Exercise and good nutrition should be as much a part of your life as brushing your teeth or cleaning your house—ongoing hygiene, not a one-time fix.

So this is the last week of my . I’ve learned a lot from it and am excited to share more once it’s completed. But probably one of the best things I’ve learned from it is how much fitness is about every-day life, not a few weeks (or months) of special training and dieting.

In other words, fitness is a lifestyle, not an end goal. So don’t expect you can be really committed for several months and get to your “perfect body” and then go back to living the lazy life. Any dieting craze is bad for your body and mind. To have consistent results, you need to have consistent methods and disciplines. You can’t expect to be able to clean your bathroom once and then never have to do it again. It’s an ongoing maintenance process. Same with fitness.

That said, you might as well learn to like it and make it fun, right?

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So the first thing to learn is what motivates you. Do you need to set a goal for yourself, like lose a certain amount of weight, gain muscle mass, run a race? Or do you need to find that mode of exercise that you just love and look forward to every week, like Zumba or Pilates? Maybe you need to start with small goals so you can quickly see progress (i.e. do 15 pushups from your toes), or you might be the type of person who needs a big, lofty goal to strive for (a triathlon).

Another thing that will make a fitness lifestyle successful is simply planning. When you organize your day, or your week, be purposeful about fitting exercise and good nutrition in there. It’s much easier to order pizza or settle for frozen dinners one too many times if you haven’t planned anything else to eat.

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And no, you don’t have to devote an hour to exercise every single day if that won’t fit your schedule—but choose ahead of time the days you will and the days you won’t (and what time on the days you do), rather than letting it be haphazard. If you can’t do an hour, do half an hour. Some days it might just be five minutes of jumping jacks before you get dressed for the day. That’s still better than nothing.

The one thing that almost everyone needs to start making fitness part of their lifestyle is some form of accountability. This could be a workout buddy, a blog, coworker, teacher at the gym, etc. Once you get going and get used to making fitness part of your life, the need for this accountability may lessen because your body will crave the health and activity. Right at the start, however, it can be the only way to persevere when you just don’t want to get out of that chair.  

This area of accountability is one of the places where the personal training was a huge help, especially since the trainer was coming to my home. There was no getting out of it. But there are other ways; knowing that an instructor in a certain exercise class is going to be looking for me, or a coworker is going to ask me how my no-sweets challenge is going are also highly motivating.

Finally, let yourself be regularly inspired! Get to know people who are on the same journey and working hard. If you have friends who will make fun of you for working out and trying to change your lifestyle, well, make some new friends who will encourage you to be healthy.

I was inspired by a friend who last week completed the Marine Corps Marathon in Arlington. It took her just under seven hours (for comparison, an average marathon finishing time is about four and a half hours). The people who cross the finish line first always get the most laud and recognition, but while I was standing on the sidelines waiting to spot my friend, I was filled with awe and respect for the constant trickle of people who kept coming, who stayed committed and kept moving for six or seven hours.

They showed more endurance than those who finished in half that time. Many of these finishers were either older, were not in great shape, maybe had injuries of some kind, or were just slow. But, they didn’t give up and they finished a marathon. Something millions of other “more fit” people have never done.

So find out what motivates you, make a plan, get some accountability and inspiration and change your life.

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