Are You Happy with Your Fitness Results?

The truth is there are hundreds of ways to tune up the body mentally and physically. So why are so many people unsuccessful when trying to improve their overall well-being? It is not that they are incompetent or that they do not know the right combination of things to do. In this quick 3-minute read, I will show you how you can find the formula that will help you reach any fitness goal.

The First and Most Important is Consistency

This is where so many people fail. They try something for a short amount of time, get distracted by life’s curveballs, and their commitment to walk every morning fades to 2 twice a week, then to twice a month. You must integrate what you do for health and fitness into your daily routine. I would be willing to bet that most of you reading this have no problem finding time every day to look at your computer or cell phone or watch some television. There is always time. The Dali Lama once said, “Everyone should meditate for 20 minutes every day. Unless you are too busy, then you should meditate for an hour.” Your mental and physical health should be your priority. When we are not functioning to the best of our abilities, then everything else in our lives starts to suffer.

You cannot have healthy relationships when you do not feel good about yourself. You cannot perform well on the job if you do not have the energy to be creative and productive. Most importantly, you cannot be a good role model for the ones you care about without being a good example.

We Are What We Eat

You do not need to be a paranoid health nut, but you do need to be conscious of what you are putting in your body. All it takes is a basic understanding of how and what nutrients your body needs daily. Most of you probably already know this but if you do not, go do a couple of hours of research on what is the appropriate amount of food and what ingredients are most important for your activity level and age.

This is not rocket science, but so many people fail at this easy task. The purpose of this article is not to teach nutrition, so if you are uncertain about what is right for you, please look into it. If you are currently eating fast food and not watching what your body is taking in, you will be surprised at how a few simple adjustments will dramatically change how you feel. A good app you can download to help with this is My Fitness Pal.

You Must Like What You Are Doing for Fitness

If you don’t enjoy what you are doing daily, you will not be successful. If you don’t really love to run, then don’t try to run to get in shape. Find something you can become passionate about and go with it. Here at the academy, we offer four different programs: Muay Thai/Boxing, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, Eskrima, and Tai chi/Qigong. Our members not only have a practice that helps to build their cardio conditioning, but they are learning a skill that inspires them in a supportive community that holds them accountable to help with consistency.

I only give this as an example. You do not need to choose martial arts for your fitness, but the “why” of your fitness routine should have a good foundation and reasons for you to want to do the training. I hope this helps to point some of you in the right direction toward improving your well-being. If you are in the Portland area and what we are doing here at the academy sounds like fun, please reach out, and we will set you up with a free private lesson to learn more about the training.