The First Step to Fitness is Changing Your Mind
If you’re like most people, you know you should exercise but can’t seem to find the time to “just do it.” In our push-button, drive-through, remote control world, less than half of adults meet the basic recommendation for good health: to accumulate 30 minutes of moderate physical activity, most days of the week. Sadly, more than one in four is completely sedentary—spending the vast majority of their days on their increasingly vast bottoms.
That’s why I’ve dropped the “E-word” from my fitness coaching vocabulary. Too many people view “exercise” as hard, painful work—something “good for you” that they should force themselves to endure like tasteless tofu or nasty medicine. Or, they associate exercise with negative experiences from their past, such as suffering through the “Gym Teacher from Hell” or enduring the humiliation of getting picked last for a team.
This “exercise anxiety” is exacerbated by our competitive culture, which leads people to feel that if they don’t excel at a sport, they don’t deserve to play. For some, discomfort at their perceived exercise inadequacy spirals out of control, so they think they’re too out-of-shape to even set foot in a gym—which is like thinking your house is too messy to hire a maid.
So, the first step to fitness is changing your mind: Get rid of these negative—and false—ideas about exercise. In fact, I advise people to stop using the negatively charged word exercise entirely. Instead, substitute the words “movement” or “physical activity.”
If you think this is just a question of semantics, think again. Actually, it’s a total attitude adjustment that has three parts:
It’s important to realize, too, that moving your body is about much more than appearance—getting regular physical activity is a matter of life and death. Physical inactivity causes 2 million deaths worldwide annually, according to the World Health Organization, which notes that sedentary lifestyles increase the risk of numerous chronic diseases including breast cancer, colon cancer, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. [Visit the WHO web site, www.who.int/moveforhealth/introduction/en/index.html]
So the next time you’re tempted to push a button rather than use your muscles, make the active choice – and set aside some time every day to do some form of movement you enjoy. When physical activity is fun, it will get done.
About the author
Carol Krucoff is a registered yoga teacher, certified personal trainer and co-author, with Mitchell Krucoff, MD, of “Healing Moves: How to Cure, Relieve and Prevent Common Ailments with Exercise”
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