When deciding to finally take steps toward your healthier self, we often make it much harder than it needs to be. Don’t get me wrong, improving muscular strength, overall muscle mass, aerobic exercise, or any other fitness level can be difficult. Let’s face it, if it were easy, everyone would be fit. however, it’s not as hard as you think it is.
What Does It Take To Start Feeling Health Benefits And Improving Your Physical Fitness?
There are great bodies everywhere that can inspire you and you are aware that there are several ways to live a healthier lifestyle. Except for every time you get close to starting, you wonder how will you find time to work out and learn how to improve your nutrition.
With your already tight schedule, how could you possibly find a couple of hours every single day? The fact is, if you are just looking to reduce body fat, improve weight loss and get in better shape, you don’t need to invest that much time into your exercise sessions. The time needed is considerably less than you have come to think.
Look, you are not trying to achieve Olympic greatness or to become a professional athlete, you just want to improve your lifestyle, feel good, and have more energy. So don’t compare your time to those individuals that do this for their career or live an entirely different lifestyle. I am speaking to us individuals that have families and a busier lifestyle.
Getting in shape is your goal and that’s why you are here.
How Much Exercise?
To achieve a goal of getting in better shape, you only need to commit to regular exercise of about 3 – 4 bouts of exercise for approximately 30 – 45 minutes a week. This is roughly 2.5 to 4 hours of exercise a week. doable? I think yes.
If you can do this, you will be well on your way to feeling and looking your best ever. Now, if you just gave me a “yeah whatever” look on your face, go ahead and wipe that off! Getting into better shape, if you are consistent, only takes this amount of physical activity. sure, it takes time but the time needed, you have.
Building an exercise program and a sound nutrition plan are both critical factors in improving your health. Both can be easier than you think.
Nutrition And Finding Ways To Reduce The Calories You Consume
Here’s another one that people feel requires in-house scientists and every imaginable way to weigh food or count calories. Again, this too is not a difficult task and many individuals already know what it takes. Implementing a few simple strategies to eat a sound nutrition plan is key.
Nutrition is important for a few reasons; it is how you provide your body the fuel to perform optimally, helps improve body weight, reduces fat, and improves muscle growth. Eating a healthy diet is also important to improve your body composition. This is also key to getting in and out of your clothes. Not only will you get in better shape but you can increase muscle mass, improve aerobic activity, and achieve almost any fitness goal you have. All this just by doing what I mentioned above.
This might mean limiting calories from snacking and taking a closer look at excessive liquid calories, but you likely already knew this. If you eat nutritious, Whole Foods and focus on proteins, fruits, and vegetables, you’ll be well on your way. Actually, by limiting potato chips, cookies, cake, and other garbage (yes, garbage), you may find it much harder to consume the calories you need in a day as calories from nutritious foods go much further. For example, try comparing an average donut of 240 calories to; 4 oz of chicken (~112calories), a cooked bag of broccoli (~80 calories), and an apple (~80 calories). Guess what the difference is? The difference is only 32 calories! They are extremely close in calorie count, one group is substantially better for you, and will fill you up considerably more. Besides, how many people eat one donut!!!!
Proof you can enjoy food, make things you like, and achieve your goals.
Consistency And Its Role In Health
As I mentioned prior, many of you know you need to exercise and eat properly but that’s not the reason you fail. The reason many fail is the key comes down to one very important word, consistency. If you set out to work out for 4 days a week and only make two sessions, then your results will suffer. If you find yourself rarely following a healthy diet, of course, you’re going to find yourself in the same place you are today. You have to be consistent otherwise getting to your goals is going to continue to be a struggle. Consistency is the hard part and if you can’t do this, you will find yourself quitting as you have in the past.
The Process Of Getting In Shape Is Easier Than You Think And Here’s Why
You Don’t Have To Starve Yourself
Do you think muscular, well-defined upper body and lower body physiques are built on starved individuals? They’re not! You may be surprised with how many calories you can continue to consume to lose say 1 pound of fat a week. If you are trying to gain muscle, it’s even higher. For weight loss, one pound is great progress especially when you are also trying to gain muscle.
Don’t let those TV shows of weekly weight loss of 18 pounds fool you. You have a life outside working out all day long and also have other responsibilities. Losing one pound of fat a week and gaining say 12 pounds of muscle in a year are amazing results! On that note, you do not have to eliminate the food you like. When I talk about consistency with nutrition what this means is eating on a sound plan about 90% of the time. Have a snack a couple of times a week, and go out to eat once or twice but be mindful of what you are eating and how to adjust what you consume during the day. No this does not mean starving yourself either.
Snacking
Yes, you can still enjoy some snacks and other treats at times. Nutritious meals and foods do not need to be 100% of your diet. I still go out to eat, have a snack (no not after every meal), and accomplish all my goals, and so can you without perfection. It is almost impossible, not recommended, and can certainly derail you after some amount of time. However, snacking after every meal or eating lots of empty calories is the stuff you feel you could eat forever and still be hungry. Believe it or not, the food is engineered to do just this. This is an indication you are not eating enough of the good stuff. If you do, you will curve many of these cravings.
Making Gradual Changes
I also understand that if you have to make gradual changes, that is ok too as doing a complete overhaul at once is also more apt to lead to failure. Healthy food does taste good and the perception it takes like cardboard is ridiculous. I have never had a bad apple, grilled chicken, or sautéed vegetable that I did not like. Well except maybe Lima beans.
As time goes on, you will find you can maintain a much better balance if you follow these steps. If you need to, reduce your money spent on snacks and just don’t have them around the house. How about this suggestion, find some better options.
You Don’t Need Hours On Hours Of Exercise
You should be exercising for hours but not in one day, it’s over the course of an entire week. If someone describes needing this much time they either have different goals than you (like competing) or screw around for half their workout.
There are several ways to get in your exercise and this can include; combining strength training and cardio, and also going for walks or playing sporting activities. These all count towards exercise and a good target would be to get 3 to 5 hours of regular physical activity in a week. There are also considerable benefits to walking, especially if you do not like steady-state cardio. I honestly feel walking is very underrated as the number of calories is not substantially different from other cardio and is considerably more tolerable. I also enjoy being able to walk and enjoy the scenery and it is also highly tolerated when trying to retain muscle mass. So those beliefs to myths that you need to train for two hours are just not realistic or required. You can work obviously work out for as long as you wish but understand the more you do, the longer the recovery will be. More work means more time until those same muscles are ready for your next session. Thirty minutes of moderate-intensity to high-intensity exercise, 3 to 5 times a week, will make a considerable difference in your life and you will notice these changes in a relatively short period of time.
Set Goals And See What Achieving Them One By One Will Do For Your Psyche
Once you start to see and feel changes from your daily exercise, you will feel the empowerment from all the changes you are making. Success should be measured by attaining certain goals. This should include long-term goals and short-term goals that are designed to help you achieve long-term objectives. The ideal approach is to break long-term goals into incremental objectives so you know you are on the right path. This way, if you need to make changes, you can make them quickly and still accomplish what you set out to do.
The more success you have on these achievements, the more motivated you will be and your confidence will grow. It’s no surprise this will help you toward your next objective. You will also have a better understanding of what is achievable and if you are just looking to get in shape, it is easier than you think.
Once you truly understand what it takes to start improving your health you will realize there is plenty of time for the things you love and enjoy. Now that you know this is easier than you think and manageable, you will likely no longer put it off.
Finally, a map and plan to be successful!