Workout Regularity

"You have to work out 5 days a week minimum. Otherwise it is like throwing yourself down a flight of stairs. You'll be sore but it won't do anything for your health."


This is a quote from Tony Horton (who else? hahaha) and it's very true. I hate to break it to you.....

In order to lose weight and change your health, it takes a serious commitment from you. But isn't that commitment worth it? Isn't the commitment to your life, your future, your children, your spouse, your family all worth it?

So how do you do all that? It's not easy, I know. Let me tell you what I do:

Each and every day, I remind myself of a few things. I start off by reminding myself just why I started working out in the beginning--I wanted to lose weight and keep the weight off. Then I follow that up with the reminder, that as I began researching and learning more, I added to that desire the goal to physically be healthier--in every way. I want my resting heart rate to be lower; I want my heart to recover more quickly from cardio workouts; I want my VO2Max to be higher (I'll post more about this later); I want my body to feel better and to work like the well-oiled machine it can be.

You know another thing I do?

I keep the workouts varied to keep 1) my body and muscles confused and continuing to improve and 2) my mind interested and never really bored. I listen to my body--if I'm genuinely not feeling well or genuinely too tired (operative word: genuinely), I'll skip the workout and be back on track the next day. There are some days where we need a mental break to get other things together in other areas of our lives where a workout will just be too much mentally to fit into a day. See if there's something that can go besides the workout, but if there's no changing it, then be back on track the next day. You have to keep a lid on the number of times you push it off. You have to avoid skipping workouts until the workouts become a regular part of your life. You need to do this because if you continue to give yourself excuses, then you'll never reach your goal; an excuse will always be good enough. But the excuse can't be sufficient...it has to be rare, the exception to the rule, not the rule.

All that having been said, you do still have to prepare for a full lifestyle change to prevent the weight from coming back, the diabetes from returning, the cholesterol going right back up, the blood pressure meds coming right back from the pharmacy.
It will be worth it, I promise.