I’ve decided to follow up on a post I did last year on setting fitness goals and expand on the psychology of achieving them. Of course everyone wants to be healthier, sexier and more fit this year and I’m sure many have pledged that this would be the year they would finally achieve it. I’m equally sure that most of these people not only failed in their approach but are  likely worse off than they were last year. This may sound harsh but I see the stone cold reality everyday. In last weeks post I isolated the inability to form new habits and get rid of  unproductive ones as a root cause for fitness program failure and abandonment. Another problem that plagues many gym goers is not implementing an effective goal strategy that is specific and realistic.

As with most areas of our lives, we are only limited in what we can achieve by the mindset we project. Before you can achieve anything you have to form a mindset for success. This begings when you accept that everything you have, is because of who you are. To change what you have you’re going to have to change who you are. Who you are is defined by what you think and do. Every thought and action must take you in the direction of your goal and not somewhere else.

It’s amazing what some people can achieve with the right mindset. You can do this too. You you can have anything in the world you want if you are willing to work hard enough and persist long enough in doing what others have done to accomplish the same thing.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          The Success Mindset (and the factors that affect it)

Get Some Control

Successful, fit people exude confidence. Your confidence depends largely on your perceived level of control you have in your life. The first step to gaining control is to accept responsibility for who you are and what you will become. Don’t blame others for your lack of fitness as this only relinquishes your control. Failures evade responsibility.  Become the architect of your own health  and take the control back.

Your Beliefs and Expectations

It’s been said that what you get isn’t what you want, but what you expect. You must expect the best to get the best. You have to expect the the best from yourself to be the best you can be. You also become what you believe. Your beliefs and your faith can define everything you are. You must believe that what you want is possible and expect that it will happen for you.

Understanding Cause and Effect

Whatever you reap you sow. You get out what you put into it. Simple as that. There is always some mechanism or action that causes everything. Believing that things happen at random, or that something is just meant to be ,will result in you losing control of your health and the rest of your life.

The Undeniable Law of Attraction

You will tend to attract people who are in harmony with your dominant thoughts. By thinking negative thoughts all of the time, you will find yourself surrounded by equally pessimistic peers that will only encourage your negativity and lack of success. Think positively in any situation and you’ll be rewarded with relationships and opportunities that bring you closer to your goals.

It’s the Thought that Counts

What you think about grows. This is bad if concentrate on things that remove you from your path toward health improvement. Your thoughts form your conduct/behaviors which in turn determine you succeed or fail at what you want.

In addition to not having the proper mindset for a healthy life in the first place, many people lose sight of what they want to achieve because they haven’t even set any goals. Without a clear sense of purpose and direction nobody gets ahead. People who reach the pinnacle of health and fitness, to whatever degree they desire, set goals. All of them do and so should you!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Why People Don’t Set Goals

• They aren’t really serious about getting the benefits. They lack the necessary desire to have the benefits. These people are essentially just talkers and wishers. A person’s true intentions can only be defines by their actions.
• They haven’t yet accepted responsibility for being who they are.
• They don’t understand the importance of goal setting. If you’ve never had to set goals before, you might not think they are important.
• They don’t know how to set goals ( I’ll explain how this is done a little later)
• They feel undeserving or unworthy of attaining the benefits
• The fear of criticism from others holds them back. In this case just keep your goals to yourself until you get the support you need.
• The fear of failure is too overwhelming. You must understand that you can’t succeed until you fail. the road to success is often paved with failures. Successful people failed numerous times but persisted until they achieved success. Failure also shows you the ways that didn’t work , which in turn brings you closer to ways that do.

The 12 Step Goal Setting Process for Getting the Body Of your Dreams.

1. Desire – You’ve really got to want it. Don’t be afraid to be selfish. When we want something bad enough we usually get it.

2. Belief Conviction -Is your goal really attainable? Is it reasonable or realistic? If you don’t believe it’s possible, it’s not. Remember, we are what we believe.

3. Write it down -  Writing down your goals makes them tangible. The pen takes your wish and turns it into something you can see. When you can see it, it becomes more real.

4. List the Benefits- Describe in detail, your motivation for achieving the goal. Don’t miss this critical step. We usually only do the tasks that we are motivated to do. Define your motives and the benefits you will receive. Are they appropriate and healthy for you? Use this list to remind you of the rewards in store for you when you are successful.

5. Establish Your Starting Point- You must establish an initial baseline. You have to know where you’re coming from to see where you’re going to. The satisfaction you feel at the end, when you look back at your starting point, will be well worth it.

6. Define a Deadline – Deadlines establish perspective. It always helps to know how long the journey will be before to set off. You may not make every deadline on schedule, just use this opportunity to make new ones.

7. Identify Obstacles- List the social, mental, behavioral, physical and psychological limiting factors to you achieving your goal. Put them in order of significance and try to eliminate them one by one each week.

8. Get Informed – Identify the necessary skills, knowledge and experience you’ll need to get you to your goal. Then learn.

9. Get help – List friends, co-workers, family, associates or groups that you can use to leverage your success. Others with special skills or knowledge related to your goal with become the support system you need. Just remember that people are only going to be willing to help you if you are willing to help them. Simply put; if you over-contribute you will over-achieve.

10. Set up a Plan – As they say;  if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Form a systematic approach that you can follow. Make corrections along the way and be ready to re-format the plan to suit any situation that may arise.

11. Visualization- Always be thinking about how you will look and feel when you reach your fitness goal. This help form clarity in your mind. Clarity and focus are prerequisites for success. And remember, you become what you think about.

12. Never Give Up- You must believe that success is inevitable. You must agree to persist through the challenges and never lose sight of the objective.

If you put these 12 steps into anything you want to achieve in life, fitness or otherwise, you can’t fail. I’d love to hear how you set your own goals and what successes you’ve enjoyed as a result. Please leave a comment below.

Some people who read my blog and see “Physique Transformation Strategies” might think I’m going to offer cool new fat loss or muscle building programs using the latest training techniques. While I do offer insight to such things, the point of my blog has always been to offer real information that you can apply to your health and wellness campaign. It’s about empowerment and enlightenment to the truth of what it really takes to transform your health and life.

Today I want to write about that little thing in your head called fear and show you how it  inhibits many of us from making positive changes in our health and fitness and offer some suggestions on how to overcome it. Fear is our basic alarm response to something we believe is threatening to ourselves or others. Although fear does in fact protect us from real danger, it is the same mechanism that causes us to resist change or advancement in our lives. Some people embrace it and are rewarded with a life rich in exploration, adventure and success. Where others prefer to dwell in the comfort of safety, and where risks are low, things will stay at the status quo. The real problem with the second group is that I don’t believe anything in this world stays the same. If it’s organic, it’s either growing or eroding. This applies to people as well. You can either get better (or at least slow the aging process) or you just sit back and get worse.

So why do so many people give in to the latter and accept living their lives as a shell of who they really could be?  The answer might be in how we confront fear. Fear manifests itself in many forms but is quite recognizible in people who are negative thinkers and talkers. These people only commit to their narrow vision of reality and often blame others for why things aren’t getting done. Instead of confronting their fears, the finger starts pointing and the excuses start flying. In the context of health and wellness, they say  “there’s no time”, “I’m too busy at work”, “my kids drain my energy”, “I don’t have a workout partner to rely on”, “everyone in my family is fat so I guess I should be too”, ”‘I’d exercise if someone would only show me how”, ” I’ve tried every diet on the market and nothing works so whats the point?” and the list goes on and on. The point is that fear of facing new challenges make some people view external forces as an obstacle for doing what you want to do.

The benefit (or detriment, depending upon your view point) of living in a  ”moan and groan society” is that we don’t have to create our own happiness when it’s easier to blame others for not giving it to us. But until you understand that you, and only, you create what goes on in your head you will never be in control of your life. When you allow outside forces to influence who you are, you give up power and create an environment of pain, paralysis and depression. Anything that takes away your power makes you a victim. Do you play the role of victim in your life? Don’t become a victim of yourself, take responsibility and move from a position of pain to power. Once you do this you’ll soon realize that the only one that can help you get healthier is you.

Learn to recognize the following symptoms of not taking responsibility in your life:

• anger
• pain
• vengeance
• self pity
• envy
• helplessness
• impatience
• joylessness
• fatigue
• addictions
• disappointment
• jealousy
   

and so on……

Have you ever felt any of these emotions? These are all negative emotions and can only bring you pain and paralysis. If so, ask yourself what you are not doing in your life that is causing you to feel this way. This can help identify where you are losing your power and understand why you’ve felt so powerless and fearful in facing the reality that you need to get healthier.

When we are afraid not only do we feel powerless but we give into that little voice in our head that only seems to point out the negative. There is a basic assumption in our society that negative views are realistic and positive ones are unrealistic. This is flawed logic. It is reported that 90% of the things we worry about never actually happen. One should then reason that being positive is much more realistic than being negative. It takes a lot of practice and time to become a positive thinker but once you “out-talk your negativity”  you’ll be amazed at the power you obtain.

“Ships in harbour are safe, but that is not where ships are supposed to be”

If the path you are currently on isn’t providing you joy, satisfaction, personal fulfillment, health and a positive way of life, get off that path because it isn’t working. Don’t think that simply changing external influences will correct your problems internally. It works the other way around. Change your mindset and all that is right will follow. 

I believe fear is the main obstacle that most people face in the pursuit of  becoming an athlete in the sport of life. Become your higher self. Say yes to things you are afraid of, take responsibility for your choices and exude positive energy inside and out. When you find your higher self you will truly find it easy to accomplish your fitness goals and anything else you aspire to as well.

Before I dissappoint too many people, this is not about how to get sexual turned on while working out. In fact, that should be the furthest thing from your mind at that time. I’m writing about increasing your concentration and motivational arousal to sufficient levels to maximize your results in the gym.

There are many psychological factors that impact the results achieved from your exercise or fitness program. I recently wrote about the importance of finding your motivation for changing your body, but that is just part of a bigger picture. For optimal progression, you also need a high level of arousal before as well as during the workout. I’m not talking about the arousal you get from checking out the opposite sex in compromising exercise positions, although this can make the gym experience more enjoyable. I’m talking about your level of arousal to complete the task at hand with the utmost enthusiasm and vigour. The fittest athletes in the world have many attributes in common contributing to their wellness. Sure, they have a high level of motivation, great discipline, exude great diligence in completing tasks but they also make sure that every workout is met with the highest level of arousal possible. So just how do they accomplish this and why are most of us in the dark about this seldom talked about, but crucial element to one’s training program?

Before I get into what it means to be aroused during your workout, I want to point out that I’m speaking to the trainees who want to get the most out of their gym experience. These are people who have a targeted goal to be a lot better physically than they currently are. For those who are only interested in “general fitness” and just go though the motions of exercise to feel good about themselves then high levels of arousal may not be necessary.

Establishing heightened arousal means to look within one’s mind to find those motivating factors that will increase performance and an adrenaline reaction. 

By definition, the word arousal means to stir up into activity or  elicit excitement. It can range in intensity from low (sleeping) to high (as experienced during a natural disaster).  A low level of arousal does not permit a high level of focus or concentration since it allows too many external distractions to enter your mind. Annoying gym music, excessive conversations in the training area, t.v.’s in every corner of the gym and pushy salespeople are all common examples. What happens is that low arousal inhibits adequate stimulation of the brain’s neurotransmitters, and the result may be a weak nervous signal that can affect yourworkout intensity. At this point it should be obvious that relaxation, deep breathing, and meditation are mental practices one should do before and after a workout, but not during.

Conversely, too much arousal can increase adrenaline, anxiety and muscular tension to such a degree that coordination difficulties can result. You may even find yourself oblivious to other important information; namely, a potential for injury while proper biomechanics deteriorate. This is especially true in highly skilled sports, such as hockey and football, where too much aggression ultimately results in error or injury. Therefore it should stand to reason that for a serious exerciser, their state of arousal should be one step below the highest level to avoid this problem.

A Question Of Sex

To achieve the best results from exercise, you must invoke a certain level of aggression or anger in order to become sufficiently aroused. It’s very common to see men displaying their aggression in the gym through their facial expressions and their grunting and moaning symphonies. Women, on the other hand, prefer to “suffer” in silence. Most women are raised to be “lady-like”, polite and different from men. Passiveness must be avoided if women want to achieve optimum results, whether it is to add muscle and strength or to lose fat. Just look at seasoned female athletes, they are very aggressive and they need to be aggressive to be competitive and to reach the pinnacle of competition. Regardless of your training experience or gender, aggressiveness and intense mental focus (without being concerned about what others in the gym think of you) takes practice.  I’ll offer some suggestions of how to do so shortly .

Are you not properly aroused?

Most people can identify when they aren’t  adequately aroused prior to a workout. Your mind wonders and you become easily distracted. You lack concern about how well the workout will proceed or how you will perform. You  lack enthusiasm or don’t not look forward to the exercise session. You may feel heavy in the limbs with no “bounce” in your step. If the goal is to maximize workout productivity, then you should watch for those signs and deal with them accordingly.

How to get aroused in the gym

You can increase your state of arousal , and the results of your training, by following a few simple guidelines. First, increase the rate of breathing, and focus on being energized. Eliminate any feelings of fatigue from the mind. Next, act energized; sustain good posture and perform some shadow boxing or household chores with vigour before exercise. Think of positive words or statements, like “energy”, “power”, “I can do it”, or “no pain, no gain”. Energized imagery can help to improve positive feelings, such as visualizing well-developed muscles, or an explosion of fireworks. Some people prefer to listen to upbeat rock music prior to exercise. Energetic music with 60 beats per minute is ideal during exercise since the music selections act as a metronome to maintain rep cadence. My personal preference is testosterone fueled hard rock of the 80′s to get things pumping.

It’s important, like anything in life really, to be cyclical in your approach. Your level of arousal should coincide with the demands of that particular workout or phase of your training. When the training is more demanding, these techniques can be used and backed off a little when the training demands are lower. For example, due to a lack of available energy and nutrients, it is hard to engage maximum mental fortitude when you’re in a fat loss phase . Conversely, an intense strength or muscle building program (where heavy weight and exhaustive workouts are used) would allow for a much higher level of concentration as the diet will likely supply the body with excess energy and nutritional support. In addition, you will find it easier to sustain your motivation long term on an exercise progam if you cycle or fluctuate your mental effort to avoid “mental burnout”.

As I always tell my personal training clients before each session, use your anger, resentment, jealousy or any other destructive emotion to facilitate the productivity of your workout. Not only will you release a lot of tension but you will have accomplished more than you ever thought possible.

Please leave your comments below!

Well, it’s been a little while but I’m back to regular posting, with more strategies to improve your health and lifestyle. Nowadays everyone is at least aware that they NEED to exercise to stay healthy, but is knowing this enough? Usually not. There needs to be an underlying conscious, or subconscious incentive to reach a particular goal. Of course I’m talking about motivation.

How a person becomes motivated depends on their personality and can be enhanced with the promise of a desirable reward. But a strong motivation does not mean a long-lasting motivation. Millions of people each year are highly motivated to develop a fit body and to lose fat, only to realize a sense of failure, shame, and laziness; often upon discovering how much effort it takes to develop such a body. As an aside, did you know almost every commercial fitness centre relies on this trend to ensure they can meet new business quotas each month? If you pay and don’t show up, then business is good. But that’s another story for another post.

A person’s level of motivation will have the greatest impact on achieving their goals.  We need to dial into what we really want and fully understand what it takes to get there. I feel that there are 5 important motivational strategies you can use to keep on track . I will discuss them in detail but it’s up to you to implement them into your own fitness regimen.

Setting Up The Right Environment

Everyone responds differently to a particular environment. When choosing a gym or place to train, make sure that the atmosphere is such that you look forward to going. It’s amazing how many people join busy gyms and complain about the crowds and pushy salespeople. Or someone who tries to exercise at home and complains they don’t have anyone one to work out with and a lack of equipment options. No wonder so many people lose interest and quit. If they only took time to consider the environment they train in, these common scenarios could have been avoided.

Some environments may encourage competition, but not everyone is motivated by this.  Some people are very competitive, whereas others are noncompetitive. Some people enjoy competing with themselves, but they find it pointless to try and emulate someone else in terms of physical appearance, strength, or accomplishments. With so many different personalities it is clear that where you train, and with whom you train will greatly impact your motivation in the long run.

Your at home environment also needs to be considered, especially if you train there. Using visual aids like inspiring posters and progress reports of measurements or accomplishments that can be readily seen can be helpful as well. It may be important to get rid of tempting junk food and any distracting devices in the exercise area. The type of music in your workout area  may also be a factor for you, although most people are using ipod’s these days anyway.

Vary The Exercise Demands

The level of exercise demands must be flexible to maintain motivation. Although hard and intense activity is necessary to make the best progress, there must be times of easier exercise to allow minor socializing, to ease mental anxiety or to enhance joy of exercise. This is not to say that hard exercise cannot be enjoyable, but cycling demands, with periods of repose, can allow for greater long-term adherence and pleasure from an exercise program. This is true of any endeavor in life; we cannot commit ourselves fully to any one thing all the time.  Just as our biological functions work in a cyclic manner, so too must our motivation and how we apply ourselves to achieve our objectives.

Don’t Make Too Many Goals

I can really relate to this one. While it’s important to set goals, too many competing goals can derail all of them in no time.  It’s like trying to ride 5 horses with one ass. A person may want to exercise hard and lose weight, but  may have other goals that require serious commitment, such as becoming a professional musician or studying full time to achieve his Ph.d.

Competing goals can create a deep sense of psychological fatigue if a person focuses too much on too many things at one time. Doing so can affect exercise quality and intensity. There is nothing wrong witht a person who places greater importance on other activities or interests besides exercise, but goals need to be prioritized. It may not be realistic to want the best body possible if other goals have taken priority, since the mental and physical effort likely will not be available in order to achieve that goal.

Avoid Exercise And Diet Templates

I hate to say it but a lot of books and even fitness professionals are in the business of selling these “done for you” exercise and diet programs that are essentially produced with computer software. I’ve seen regular people given diets that most competitive bodybuilders couldn’t follow. Seriously though, could someone with poor discipline to eat well really be expected to eat chicken and broccoli 6 times a day for 3 months? Of course not. They will lose motivation and quickly fall off the program. For a person to be motivated on an exercise and diet plan they must be taught how to eat the foods they enjoy and to exercise with a system that is productive and that they enjoy. Just because a program works well doesn’t mean it will work for long if you’re miserable doing it.

Exercise For The Right Reasons

Some people exercise for the wrong reasons, such as building muscles so that they can threaten and intimidate  people more easily. Martial arts schools are inundated with this attitude. Also consider women who are obsessive about exercise because they hate their bodies and they feel fat, yet they may be thin and borderline anorexic. There are many positive reasons why a person should exercise, and those reasons include greater confidence and to promote good health. If the reasons to exercise are to enhance the ‘positive’ rather than the ‘negative’, there is less burden to succeed, exercise becomes more enjoyable, and the ability to reach and appreciate a state of peak condition will be easier.

At the end of the day there are many factors that can influence your level of motivation and you should now understand a few of them. The ability to become increasingly stronger, to build a better body and to reach peak conditioning requires hard work and knowledge of how your body responds to exercise and the reasons for your motivation. It also takes perseverance,  but taking stock of what motivates you to succeed may have the most profound impact on your success or failure.

Many people aspire to change their appearance through diet and exercise, but the intention can sometimes be misplaced.  You see, not everyone has what it takes to succeed at such an endeavour. The most important thing you have to embrace before embarking on a body transformation is your readiness for change.

I’ve always loved the popular 80′s slogan “You’ve got to want it!”  Although it was used to sell supplements, it really rings true for most things in life that are worth having. The problem is, it’s not enough to just want it. If you’re not ready to do the work necessary to accomplish your goals then improvements in your body composition, health and physical performance will continue to elude you. I’m now going to offer a checklist of attributes that you must possess before you attempt to make real, sustainable changes in your body. If you meet these criteria, then you may just be a candidate for a physical transformation.

You Should Attempt A Physical Transformation If . . . . . .

 
1.  You are willing to do at least five hours of physical activity each week.

2. You can accept responsibility for the way your body is today and understand that, while your old habits don’t make you a bad person, they still need to be changed.

3. You are ready to spend less time with people who offer little or no social support for your goals while spending more time with those who do offer support.

4. Your work environment presents significant barriers to you exercising and eating well, and you would consider speaking to your employer about changing some of these conditions or you are  willing to find new employment.

5. An expert presents some information on diet and exercise that contradicts what you currently believe, and you maintain an open mind and give it a try.

6. You have accepted the fact that you’re in worse shape now than when you were younger because you are far less active than you used to be.

7. You can accept that your workouts, at times, will be hard and that you will need to tolerate high levels of discomfort.

8. You often look in the mirror and feel frustrated, upset,or humiliated because of how your body looks.

9. You often feel run down and tired, and understand that the source of these feelings are your poor lifestyle choices

10. You are currently taking medications for heart disease, high blood pressure, or Type II diabetes that you didn’t have to take when you were younger.

11. You are willing to join a gym today.

12. Someone told you that you’d need to throw away all the foods in your cupboards today and go shopping for different foods that are more appropriate to your goal,you would do it.

13. You are willing to wake up in the morning a bit earlier and stay up at night a bit later to accomplish your goals if needed.

14. You are prepared to make a detailed log of the foods you eat, chronicling how much you ate and when.

Congratulations if you agree that you can adopt most of these habits. You clearly have things on track and the right minset for success. You’ve either realized your body’s potential or are on the road to a successful physical transformation. Way to go! If you’re not that far along yet, if you can agree to all of these terms with the utmost honesty, then you are ready to begin your journey. 

If most of these points don’t apply to you then you’ve got a tough road ahead. In fact, it doesn’t look like you really want to change at all. Is this true? Are you simply toying with the idea of improving your physical activity habits and eating habits? If so, you’re not really ready to make a change. With each passing year that you avoid good activity and nutrition habits your risk for disease increases. Not only that, you’ll progressively gain fat, lose muscle, and look much older than your actual age. These are the consequences of remaining indifferent to the weight you’ve gained, physical inactivity and bad eating habits. Are you ready to deal with these things? Don’t stay indifferent any longer. Take an honest look at how you’ve changed (on the inside and out) and admit that you could use a tune-up. 

If this sounds like you, step outside of your shell and seek out some people who are exercising, eating well, getting results, and having fun doing it. Clearly, millions of people out there are following a healthy lifestyle and loving every minute of it. But thinking that they never had difficulties to overcome like you do, is a mistake. At some point in time each and every one of them had some old set of unproductive habits to discard. Once this was accomplished, they could easily get into the zone. And you can, too. What are you waiting for?

Today I’d like to write about something that has become alarmingly apparent to me.  My body is weak!  I can’t believe I am saying this but it’s true.  Let me explain . . .

I have been a bodybuilder for twenty years and along with that lifestyle came the acquisition of overall strength, muscle and the feeling of invulnerability to all external forces.  About four months ago I stopped weight training cold turkey so that I could spend more time on my business and in the almost forgotten arena of sport.  I just figured my mind and body needed a break from the wear and tear and overly structured daily regimen that comes with the bodybuilder’s life.

I’m 35 now, and I wanted to play again, interact with others and basically recapture some of those lost feeling of what it means to be young.  All good so far, right?  Well almost. I play hockey three to four times a week, and while it does keep me lean, I’ve lost significant amounts of muscle and strength.  Sure I’ve done a few “maintenance” workouts along the way, but they’ve been too infrequent and uninspired to be effective.  At least I’ve improved my endurance, flexibility and my hockey skills in the wake of my strength loss.

So how does this translate to my  life in general?  Not so good, I’m afraid.  I have noticed an awarness in my movements that I never used to even think about.  Bending, squatting, pulling, pushing and even sitting now take far more energy and concentration than they did only months ago.  Why is this so?

At the end of the day, playing hockey all week has just made be better at playing hockey.  This is truly a testament to weight training and the benefits derived from a properly structured program.  Clearly weight training was what kept me strong and injury free for 20 years.   No sport in the world can prepare you for the sport of life.  Sports skills are specific to the demands of the sport and don’t necessarily carry over well into everyday life. Golfing (if we’re calling it a sport – sorry Tiger) everyday will not aid your ability to bend down to pick up a pen or tie your shoe.  It won’t help you lift your children into their car seats.  It won’t make running to catch the bus any easier on your aching ankles either.  Weight training on the other hand, can help with these and most other day-to-day physical challenges.  Weight training is a key component to preparing yourself for the sport of life.  When done properly it is also the safest and most effective means to improving your overall strength and vitality.  You can train the muscles at any and all angles to develop strength in all planes of motion which is a major advantage to other modes of training.

You can always pick out the people who don’t take care of themselves or properly prepare for the sport of life.  They generally:

• Decay rapidly;
• Suffer needlessly from disease and degeneration;
• Experience higher than normal incidence of injury; and
• Experience prolonged healing and recovery periods from injury and illness.

This is unfortunate and certainly puts a major drain on our health care resources.  I have always believed that most illness and disease are preventable so long as each individual takes it upon themselves to learn natural ways to prevent ailments and expedite the healing process.

Even athletes aren’t except from this dubious distinction.  Although they may be very skilful in their chosen sport, for some, it ends there.  They live the rest of their life with reckless abandon.  Their diets are awful and most don’t appreciate how to eat properly in order to deliver the best performance.  They are getting injured at rapid rates, mostly due to poor lifestyle choices and inactivity off the field.  Being active on a continuous and daily basis is the only way to keep fit and strong.  If you’re one of those people who believe that playing a sport a couple times a week or suffering through some grueling weekly bootcamps are the answer to your health and fitness, think again.  Just look at my situation as an example. Nothing feels worse than being weak and there is no such thing as staying the same; you’re either getting weaker or you’re getting stronger.  I know I’m going to make a better effort to balance my fitness by lifting weights more often.

When you wake up every morning you need to plot a course of action that best prepares you for the sport of life.  From what you eat, how much you sleep, when you exercise and so forth, you need a plan that allows you to get the most out of your existence.  Eat foods that are produced naturally, lift weights regularly, play a sport, engage in physical activities and walk when possible. It’s a simple solution to most of life’s problems, and it works.

Don’t suffer through life, take the reins and be the master of your own fate.  Emphasize quality into your life and settle for nothing less. In turn, you’ll be a more productive and influential person, empowered with wellness that can’t believe you ever lived without.