How To Make Fitness a Priority

The absolutely hardest part of fitness is personal: intimidation. Before anyone starts out on any path of fitness, the most discouraging thing to do is to try maintaining focus on too much. Never try to keep up with anyone else or any esteemed or commercialized standard set only to drive feelings of inferiority. To whom do any of us have anything to prove besides ourselves anyway? Before anything else, congratulate yourself for having the gall to make that decision to exercise in the first place. Then follow these steps:

1. Keep your mind on the ultimate prize, but your focus on what’s directly in front of you. Instead of holding focus on the overall of what we ultimately want to accomplish, try to hold focus on no more than one-hundred yards at a time. 

   Once you meet that target, redirect a new hundred-yard-goal and congratulate yourself for meeting the last; confidence builds confidence.

2. If fatigue occurs, go home. Slowly walk it off, in the case of fatigue, calmly stretch out, then completely relax and – after deciding not to forge ahead in this venture – turn around and head back. But always recognize that at least that’s a start; and this goes especially for you folks who are either new to disciplined exercise, attempting to find some consistency and regularity with the idea, or for those returning. Any intimidation is definitely self-inflicted, though easily corrected.
3. Start off slowly. Always begin with a slow, comfortable pace, and maintain that pace before gaining any momentum. Start small; expect small; build pride on small; and then slowly build stamina from there. 

   Instead of preparing for the Tour de France or aiming to run some sort of Olympic marathon, try an easy and stable bike ride in the neighborhood or jogging around the block; better yet, try jogging through agrassy park somewhere local – jogging on pavement and asphalt is harmful for the calves, ankles and spine, not to mention the disagreeable mood and bad attitude this pounding rhythm incurs.

4. Get the proper equipment. Invest in that pair of running shoes – it’s far better to pay up-front for protective gear than pay more for medical bills and endure the pain and suffering in the future.
5. Develop a habitual fitness routine. Here’s mine:
   • Exercising in the morning before my first meal, while the levels of muscle and liver glycogen –or stored carbohydrate – are low, is the optimal way to burn stored fat instead of carbohydrate.
   • I start by jogging for roughly fifteen minutes. I try to work out first thing in the morning at least every other day of the week. Then I come home and lift light weights to work out arms, abs, back, and chest muscles; the leg muscles have been covered from that initial jog.
   • Typically I do three light-weight sets of fifteen reps on each muscle group – with heavier weight, always less repetitions – and then decide which exercise or muscle group I’ll work next.
   • Planning which muscles I’ll work after that initial cardio bolt-out-of-bed is one area in which I completely avoid until I have barbells in hand. I do not recommend this method for weight-lifting, since it seems so undisciplined, but my focus is always on getting out of that bed, out the door, on the grass jogging before planning anything else I’ll do that day.

   This method makes me feel more alert during the day and my metabolism stays at an elevated peak for hours.

Never mentally push yourself to try and gain the most in a short span of time. You’ll never live up to your expectations. Discouragement builds discouragement; pessimism builds pessimism; and that pessimistic and defeated mental hurdle is truly the most difficult to move beyond. Again, begin with jogging – or riding a bike or roller skating or any other type of cardiovascular exercise – slowly for a few minutes from the start and build up from there. Cardiovascular exercise is by far the most elemental and essential form of exercise we need, and it creates mental alertness and places us all in a better mood throughout the day. Any exercise is good exercise, but the optimistic attitude needs to be there first.