Firstly, this isn’t going to be what everyone wants to read. If you disagree with anything in here, I’d love to hear your reasons why and likewise, if you agree I’d also love to hear your personal opinions on the subject.
My personal opinion is that being better as a person means you’re happier, healthier, fitter and more balanced.
So what do I mean by this statement?
Happier
Fairly subjective I suppose and I’m not going down the douchebag route of referencing research articles ??? that prove if you’re healthier and fitter then you’re happier…
The last subtitle is being well balanced and the key to your happiness does come from a little mix of everything but I’ll dive into that later.
I always say to clients on a 30-day trial at Compello that I’d prefer they came to see us once a week with our sole aim being to keep them injury free and to help them understand healthy living.
The rest of the week you can do what you love. Whether that’s cycling, fell running, singing, the list goes on and on.
If you can’t enjoy your hobbies because you’re in the gym trying to get better at your hobbies then you need to rethink and reprioritise.
Do what you enjoy. The gym is an starter to a healthier life not the main course!
Healthier
Health – The state of being free from illness or injury
Being healthy is the key to life.
It’s the ability to move better, to live better and to being better.
It’s actually quite simple.
All you have to do is pick some stuff up, put some stuff overhead, carrying some stuff, do the odd bit of stretching, do some stuff you enjoy, have a beer or 2 and eat like an adult not a petulant teenager.
Unfortunately it’s NOT easy to do consistently.
Fitter
If you can train for anything, why not train to be better at life?
Unfortunately, most people think when they go to the gym they have to train for a set target and make the gym this life.
To get in shape for a holiday, to look good at a family reunion, to impress ‘the lads’ at an old teammate meet-up. The list goes on as you can see…
So what’s wrong with those goals? Nothing, nothing at all except they’re so short term and narrow minded and damn boring…
When you target things in the short-term without a real long term goal then you’ll never get to the ‘White Whale’ you want to catch.
(White Whale – something you obsess over, your ultimate goal)
A lifetime fitness goal – What would that look like?
- Playing football with your children
- Being able to push your daughter on a swing
- Walking your grand-children to school
- Playing 5-aside with your mates
- Quite simply going out for a run and waking up without feeling like you’ve been hit by a bus!
Fitness for life is much more important than you may think and actually much simpler as well.
Well Balanced
Here I’m talking about eating and living.
Being well balanced with your diet means exactly that. Do you want to be a sumo-wrestler? No, well don’t eat like one. Do you want to be a walking keg on legs? No, well stop drinking every night.
Want to just feel a little bit better about yourself? Not wake up bloated on a morning or feeling sluggish?
Eat ‘normally’ – unfortunately now normally means smashing down McD’s, Subways and pizzas daily and NOT eating the so called ‘weird’ bodybuilder obsessed things like greens, rice and chicken. I’ll let that sink in!
I’m not saying cut these out, I’m the first to admit I love a pizza and I love some chicken nuggets but just not everyday. Have these occasionally and eat the weird bodybuilder things like Greens, vegetables and meat every day.
“Give the man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime”
Putting It All Together
To be honest, it’s not easy at all but anything thats worth doing isn’t.
Do your best and do what you love and choose something that you can do for the rest of your life.
PS – You’re not going to count calories for the rest of your life, so why bother starting? Learn how to have a healthy relationship with food and training and you’ll still be doing it when you’re supposed to be retiring!
Always a pleasure
Chris