Movement and exercise is a vital component for wellbeing, with the benefits it brings to our emotional, mental and physical health being huge. It has been used as one of the most common ways people attempt to ‘lose weight’ or ‘burn fat’. Exercise and movement is a necessity for healthy and successful weight loss, but no one component will solve weight issues. Exercise needs to be included for many reasons, and all of these are only because they create a healthy body. It is only once you have created a healthy body, your body can then release unnecessary body fat. While your body isn’t living in optimum health, any weight loss that takes place won’t be a long term successful reduction – extra body fat is only a message telling you something is not functioning to your body’s preference. It is important for exercise to be an important part of everybody's lifestyle, regardless of weight loss goals, and it is even more important to realise there are so many different ways you can exercise that don't include pounding treadmills or going to gyms. Exercise really is just a name given to moving in a way that brings health benefits. As a culture we are doing more set exercise (such as gym sessions) now than we ever have, but we aren't moving incidentally nearly anywhere near we should. This is leading us to de-evolve in our health and wellbeing, rather than evolve. Daily movement and being active is so important, and it doesn't need to be intense and prolonged - it's just about moving your body! In fact, light to moderate exercise brings about many more health benefits than intense and prolonged exercise does. Here are six reasons why exercise will make you feel healthier and/or help with weight loss goals...
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When it comes to exercise, we all know we should do it. We all know it’s meant to be important for our health and for our wellbeing. But I’m going to make an assumption here and say that a lot of people don’t actually understand what that means, or more so, don’t really care. It’s a case of not being able to see the benefits of what keeping fit and active actually do to our body – mentally, physically and emotionally – so it gets put in the box of ‘unimportant’ or ‘pointless’.
Even after nearly a decade as a personal trainer, it still blows me away to know and hear that many people actually do no exercise. From day to day, week to week or year to year, so many people literally sit on their backsides doing no form of regular exercise, activity or movement. If you are one of these people who have a very flimsy and erratic exercise regime, or further still an entirely non-existent one, are you quite happy to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars each year towards maintaining your health and medical insurance, do you seemingly always need to go to the doctor with aches, pains, a sniffle or a cold, yet again need another day off work due to ‘feeling poorly’, are you a person who just always seems to be tired and have no energy? Would you believe me if I told you that all that could be dramatically reduced, if not disappear, if you just got up and moved? For many, it seems they are happy to pay endless amounts of dollars towards fixing the problem that lack of exercise creates. My point here is by taking part in regular exercise, movement or activity, the list of benefits to your wellbeing is endless…the only downside? Is actually doing it! I debated in my head about my approach to how I wanted to write this – whether I wanted it to be politely encouraging or bluntly tactless. My personality wanted to opt for the polite option, but I also know that if I state these facts politely no one will change. So I’m taking the blunt approach and I’m not sorry to anyone I offend. To all you reading this who exercise 3, 4 or 5 times a week – well done and good on you for making your life and body a healthy place to live. Good on you for preventing illnesses and diseases, strengthening your immune system, improving the quality of your heart and cardiovascular system, achieving more in your day from having bountiful amounts of energy, and more importantly good on you for treating your body how it is MEANT to be treated. If you are reading this and are a person who does no or very irregular amounts of exercise, and even more, have a sedentary job and spend most of your time ‘sitting’, then get off your backsides and start caring about who you are, the body you live in, and the life you are leading. Stop feeling sorry for yourself when you get sick, when you are always ‘tired’, and stop spending all your money on doctors’ bills, pills, medication and supplements – these just fix the problem that your unhealthy, sedentary lifestyle is creating. Get up and start moving, take responsibility for your own health and wellbeing, use prevention rather than cures, and stop finding excuses! You catching a cold is not due to the sick kid who sneezed on you in the supermarket, it is due to your poor and weak immune system. You not having time to exercise is not due to a busy life, it’s due to poor management of time. You having aches and pains isn’t an excuse to not exercise – a sedentary life is likely what gave you the aches and pains. I can tell you now, any excuse you come up with for not exercising is nothing more than an excuse. It’s not a fact. Because everyone short of a paraplegic can find some form of movement, exercise or activity to do. And everyone can find time to do it. So next time you invent an excuse to get you out of exercising and keeping fit, realise it is your choice to choose that lifestyle, but don’t complain when it comes back to bite you in the backside. Don’t complain when you constantly have colds and flu’s, or when you get illnesses and diseases. Sedentary lifestyles are the leading cause of mortality. Heart diseases, cancers, strokes, heart attacks…they can all be significantly reduced if we just do some exercise. I hope I have made my point. That point being how just doing small amounts of regular exercise can improve, save and lengthen your life, and also make that life you live a much happier and easier one. If you are stuck for ways to bring exercise into your life, check out my website www.bodyessence.co.nz to see what options I offer to support you through becoming active, fit and healthy. Take care and get moving! Kerri van de Loo Health, Fitness and Nutrition Professional Is pounding footpaths and bouncing around at a gym your idea of fun? Let me teach you how to get the same benefits but by having fun!
It can be really easy to find wonderful and imaginative excuses to not do any exercise – everyone, even Personal Trainers, can find excuses when they want to! But unfortunately you really are only kidding yourself – it’s your body and it’s you that has to live in your body, so to be honest it really only affects you if you choose to live in an unhealthy, unfit and unenergetic body, rather than one that feels great, is full of life and finds daily activities easy. To achieve success at being physically active for the rest of your life, it is so important that you learn to see exercising as something to be done, a bit like brushing your teeth or having a shower, not as a chore or something that you can avoid. Just accept the fact that it has to happen, and help yourself along by finding ways to be active that you actually enjoy. Pounding footpaths and becoming a gym bunny works perfect for some, but if that’s not you, maybe gardening, dance classes, aqua aerobics, playing tag, hopscotch or making obstacle courses with your kids, pushing around a lawn mower, turning up the stereo and having a jam in your lounge, or doing a Zumba DVD with a friend may be more your style of fun. Try setting goals for Fun Run/walks, meet up with a friend weekly and go for a walk and then enjoy a coffee out after, join an outdoor group exercise class suited to your level...the only thing stopping you finding a form of exercise or activity that you enjoy is your imagination, and as Albert Einstein says, “Imagination is the preview of life’s forthcoming attractions”! The word ‘exercise’ can be portrayed as something hard, dull, boring and lacking in fun, but really all it means is ‘get your heart rate up and puff and sweat for a bit” - use your imagination…think of weird and wonderful ways to puff and sweat! They don’t have to fit in the ‘conventional’ box of ways to exercise – as long as you are puffing and your heart rates up, then perfect! For myself, I have now figured out how good children are for your exercise regime…my toddlers favourite game is ‘grab something I’m not allowed and make mum chase me around the house’…so I turned it into a game (obviously with something she is allowed) and we spend ages chasing each other backwards and forwards up and down the hallway…it’s hardly fair that she gets to run and I have to crawl...but, boy crawling can make you puff! My point is, your exercise diary doesn’t have to be boring and be all about how many kilometres you walked - make exercising fun and enjoyable, because I can almost guarantee if you don’t, you won’t stick at it for the rest of your life. Remember, what you choose to do to promote your own health and wellbeing must be maintainable for the rest of your life. If you need a structured, fool-proof, easy to follow, step-by-step weight loss programme to get you to your goal weight and then show you how to maintain your weight, get your copy of The Body Essence Weight Loss Programme today! Keep active, keep healthy and love life! Warmest regards, Kerri van de Loo Health, Fitness and Nutrition Professional |
Kerri van de Loo - Mindfulness coach, Personal Trainer, Nutrition Coach & SELF-LOVE COACH:Join our Online Wellness Club here: https://www.bodyessence.co.nz/wellness-club.html Categories
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