Fitness as a lifestyle

How to incorporate fitness into your everyday life? 

Oil your machine everyday, then use it every single day, so that it will outlast its warranty period.

The oiling bit is the nutrition you take in everyday. Take one second, before you put anything into your mouth and consciously reflect on what you are feeding your body. Sometimes, we unconsciously grab that cookie or pizza even though we are not feeling hungry. Maybe we are just emotionally down, sad, angry, shameful. Next time you reach for something to eat, take a second to be mindful, and after that, if you still want to go ahead, by all means! But you will realise that with practice, you will learn to put down food that are toxic to your body, and learn to substitute them with healthy choices that will strengthen and oil your machine, but this is for another blogpost discussion.

Today, we are talking about the using bit. We all know that our bodies are meant to be moved. Every single bone, joints and muscle. Think about it, such a complex and marvellous engineering done - hinge joints, ball and socket joints, muscles attached accurately to the right part of bones with excellent precision to provide us the leverage and force necessary to - MOVE. If god or the universe or whatever you want to call it, did not intend for humans to move, he would have just created us in the form of a blob or like.. umm a rock. He has put in so much work into engineering our bodies, and how are we living? like a blob on our sofas and beds.

If you read the brilliant book Sapiens by Yuval Noah, you will understand that our ancestors had plenty of exercise to survive and thrive amongst predators and unfavourable terrains and weather conditions. Climbing, kicking, running, squatting, pushing, pulling, swimming - so much movement which if you refused to do, you will perish.  Unfortunately, fast forward to the 21st century, and those activities i've listed above are a luxury or a choice - gym membership to push and pull, private swimming pool to swim, sports for kicking and running. What about the vast majority of humans who do not make this choice? The sad truth is that the outcome will still be the same - you will perish.

Perish in terms of early myocardial infarction, stroke, arthritis, hip fractures due to osteoporosis, diabetes, I can keep going. Hopefully, I have given you enough reasons to get your gluteus off that sofa and start moving, but how do incorporate this into your daily life?

To be honest, if you are privileged enough to have the money and time to purchase a gym membership or hire a personal trainer, that is to be honest, a great idea. A good gym (and the initial motivation that you have spent a good amount in the membership and hence, pressured to make full use of every cent paid), coupled with a good personal trainer who will motivate you even further during every session, will definitely get the ball rolling. These will eventually captivate your mind and you will realise that fitness is a lifestyle and you will almost get addicted to exercising (due to the dopamine released when you exercise).

However, many of us do not have money or time (or at least we pretend not to have them, yet another awesome blog topic to discuss for the future). Hence, start small but strong. Strong meaning commitment, consistency and creativity.

Let me explain.

Commitment - every day, dedicate 15-30minutes (when you are starting off) to moving your body. Keep it simple, just movement of your body. Say to yourself, no matter how busy the day is, when I come back home, i will do some form of movement.

Consistency - Once you have made that one second decision, be consistent, be like the sun and show up every single day. The world may be crumbing onto your shoulders, but remember to move for 15 minutes.

Creativity - I believe that this last step will help you stick to your practice. Movement can be any form that brings your heart rate up sufficiency. If you are a 70 year old, you don't have to do a high intensity cardio workout. Just stand up, move your neck, shoulders, wrists, elbows, hips, knees and ankles. Rotate them gently in the morning, followed by some light stretches of your back and leg muscles. This will be sufficient to bring your heart rate up. The next day, take a stroll in the nearby park with your partner. The next day, switch it up and walk inside your nearby community swimming pool. If you are a 20 year old, do a 15 minute high intensity interval workout. The next day, take your bike to go buy groceries for your mum. On a weekend, invite your friends to do a chill yoga sessions for 15-30minutes. Purchase a pair of weights for just under 10bucks and do some weight training.
I hope you get the point now. Everyday, attempt to switch up the movement so that you look forward to novelty. You will be excited and eager for the movement session the next day, instead of dreading another 30minute of cardio workout.

Once you've consistently moved, every single day for at least a month (30days), it is going to be hard to stop moving. This is when you can, and will start to get serious with your workouts and will start to see some crazy transformations. Those transformation videos on youtube, I'll never know if there are a 100% genuine, but I do know that with consistency, commitment and creativity, it is definitely possible! Let me know if you guys are going to get started on this fitness lifestyle!