Whether you are just starting to get fitter or have spent years working hard at the gym, chances are that, at some point, you have come across and despaired at the clichés surrounding fitness lifestyles.
These include things like having to limit your food to only bland, diet-friendly choices, feeling hungry and irritable while you doggedly power away on a boring treadmill every day, and just generally feeling imprisoned by the daily routines you have signed up for in order to start getting healthier.
The good news is that these clichés are not true –in fact, getting stuck into a regimen that you resent is an almost definite way to never integrate the changes you need into your lifestyle.
Patience and Mental Discipline is Important
Fitness is a flawed, long-distance event that will ask you to tap into the reserves of your patience and cultivate huge mental discipline. It is not a short-term, hell-month type of experience, and nobody gets fit in 30 days or three months.
If you are paying for services that promise you these kinds of results, you have been tricked, and need to hightail it back to the world of reality.
The truth is that fitness as part of your lifestyle can be something you truly enjoy that has positive effects on your day-to-day lifestyle, or something you dread and loathe doing.
The path that you end up following is one of your own choosing. This article outlines some ways to make it a good experience, and so ensure that you stay motivated to stick with it over the longer term.
Make Plans to Be Successful
If you are going to be working really hard, make sure you do it right, and are working towards the results you want. Plan on how to do this, and include rewards along the way as you reach your milestones.
Spending some time at one of the online betting NZ sites so widely available could be how you celebrate dropping your first dress-size, for example. These kinds of rewards will ensure you stick with your plan even when the going gets tough, and will help you acknowledge how far you have come.
Have Fun with Your Cardio Workouts
If you are one of the many individuals, myself included, that loathe running, I have excellent news for you! You don’t have to do it!
You shouldn’t be forcing yourself into your jogging pants to meet your cardio requirements. If you don’t enjoy it, find an activity that gets your blood pumping and heart thumping and do that instead.
Stop Worrying about Everything
Once you have done the research you need to and selected a fitness programme that you feel is best for your requirements, settle in a little and enjoy the ride.
Put your focus on keeping your mindset clear and your discipline sharp instead of trying to find a way to get quicker results, or worrying about having chosen incorrectly.
Get Ready to Go the Distance
Release dangerous ideas about your self-image and thoughts that pigeon-hole you as an unhealthy or unathletic person.
These kinds of negative proclamations only halt your progress and encourage failure.
Remember that your brain can be either you best ally or worst enemy, and direct your thoughts towards its being the former.