Ten Commandments of Fitness: How to be healthy in 2016

Hello everyone! Welcome!!! :)

 

Surprise, surprise!!! Here’s a first and brand new post in the health and fitness series on LeisureReadz …. I’ll be subsequently blogging about health and fitness in some of my upcoming posts. 

A small disclaimer: I am no expert on any of these but surely someone passionate about health and fitness, someone who reads a lot of info on all of this and would love to share the attained knowledge with all her readers.

Oh and by the way, please excuse the clichéd title as I did not feel like modifying it as it sounded so perfect! Anyways, I am happy that you are reading this post today and hope you will keep coming back to the blog in future for other health and fitness related posts.

Presenting the Ten Commandments a.k.a laws for achieving optimal fitness (these are based on my learnings through extensive reading over the past few years as well as my personal experience). Following these would ensure that we all feel, look and even perform at our best! Doesn’t matter, if someone is a total novice or a pro, these would hold good for everyone.

1. Decision and Commitment: This is the very first hindrance, I would say. Yup, deciding on something does take a lot of time. But once we decide and commit to it, then the path becomes easier, not totally easy as a piece of cake though! (I know totally bad example for a fitness post!)
2. Stating clearly the S.M.A.R.T goals: We need to have the SMART approach (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound) in setting our goals. This is true especially for fitness. Starting with smaller and easily achievable goals should boost our confidence to take on even bigger and better goals. It needs to be clear as to what we consider optimal fitness for ourselves, how we want to achieve it, how to measure it while keeping the goals realistic and time bound. However, age, gender, ideal weight +fat percentage and current fitness levels, schedules and prior commitments must be assessed before developing a fitness plan.
3. Intensity and Consistency: We need to train/workout at a sufficient intensity with persistence. If intensity is what pushes one to burn more calories; consistency is what makes one look the way he/she wishes to! Consistency i.e. showing up and being patient is what would get us the intended results.
4. Variety: Ever noticed that after lifting a heavy grocery bag once, the same bag becomes lighter to lift the next time? The bag never gets lighter, we get stronger. So the more you do, the easier it becomes. The same goes for burning calories for any activity. Human body loves everything that is routine and is usually very good at optimizing while it hates anything that’s abrupt and confusing. (This actually forms the basis of strength training and fat loss! I’ll surely cover that sometime in another post…). So, stick with different kinds of workouts that you enjoy.
5. Securing snooze time: Not many of us pay attention to our sleep requirements. Although it’s a well-known fact that a sleep of 6-8 hours is essential for health and well-being; most of us aren’t getting enough sleep. The ‘sleep deficit’ is always on the rise! Hate to break it to you all, but sleeping more on weekends doesn’t help much. Getting correct sleep on each day of the week is essential for well-being + optimum results and non-negotiable if working out. (I would love to write more on this... but maybe next time!)
6. Water, Water: Water is life. We need to drink at least eight to ten glasses of water every day to keep ourselves hydrated. The requirements would naturally increase if someone is working out i.e. water lost as sweat during a workout must be replenished.
7. Food and nutrition: Purpose of Food is to nourish us and provide strength. Fad diets never work in the long term. ‘Diet’ actually needs to be a part of our lifestyle. Knowledge about the food groups, macro nutrients, vitamins and minerals etc.is always helpful in food planning and staying on track for the fitness goals.
8. Mindfulness, Rest and Relaxation: Taking a day off from training/workouts is supposed to be good as it gives body a chance to relax and heal itself. So, a rest day ensures optimum effect of the training done during the week and is also a good time to catch up on our hobbies and interests as well doing meditation or some light flexibility exercises.
9. Love it, enjoy it or else quit it: Only if we love and believe the efforts that we put in for our well-being, we would get all the possible benefits. If we don’t love it, there is not enjoyment. Body sees the efforts more like a ‘burden’ it needs to quickly get rid off; so no results will be achieved. So, better to continue the fitness goals when we actually believe in them and have fun!
10. Acceptance: Since everyone is unique in existence, the goals for two people might be same but their results will never be! De facto! So, we should never compare our results with someone else’s and we should show unconditional acceptance towards our body and have faith in its ability to adapt and change with proper stimulus.

With all this info, I hope you all feel confident to start deciding on your fitness goals. Feel free to share your opinions on this post and let me know if you liked it.

Till the next post,

Stay creative and feel alive!

Cheers,

P.S.: There’s a bonus post on fitness coming up soon! :)