After 20 years of working with people to solve their health and fitness problems, I realise that we face the same challenges. We all want more of some things and less of others. We want more energy, health, a better looking, fitter body and less stress, worry, negative emotions and ill-health.
There can be an enormous gap between wanting those things and our reality, making getting fitter, losing weight or solving any emotional issue feel like an uphill struggle.
How can we get better at being physically and mentally fit?
People generally have enough information about what to do to improve their health state (in fact sometimes we have too much information). It is not usually our lack of knowledge or awareness that obstructs us from reaching our goal. It is this:
Knowing what to do and being able to do it are two entirely different things.
You are constantly facing the two biggest challenges to getting best health & fitness:
- How can you put what you know to be good for you into action?
- How can you take the things you know and make them part of your way of life?
In other words how, for example, can we have a better lifestyle with near daily exercise plus healthier eating, and make it a natural, normal and enjoyable way of life? The same goes for those things that we know will improve our mental and emotional health.
As a Physiotherapist and personal Health & Fitness trainer I have given people the information and advice they need to get better. I have also learnt and developed other skills to help people solve the challenge of knowing both what to do and how to do it.
With an understanding of yourself and how to manage change anything is possible.
Think of your health and fitness as a continuum with you at your best to the right and your worst to the left. It’s not so much where you are on the continuum but which direction you are facing.
“Goals seem impossible only when you are not heading toward them”. Mike Hawkins.
What it means to be healthy and well is personal to each individual. It is as personal as what happiness means to them or the amount of money they earn. We are all different in terms of our metabolism, genes, personality, psyche and social situation. Too often we see a particular diet, or lifestyle dogma overbearingly represented and promoted. If a diet that ‘worked for everyone’ doesn’t work for us we feel like a complete failure.
Tip the scales in your favour by finding what suits and is right for you- and not just parts of you (a particular diet for example may be good for your waistline but not other parts of your body). If something doesn’t work for you or you don’t enjoy it, try something else.
Focusing on any health and fitness goal should be about giving yourself options, being who you are and making your own informed choices.
In my Blog I am going to be sharing insights, stories, strategies and techniques to help you move in the right direction. Because of my background I will write about science based exercise and nutrition, and will reveal some of the most effective ways to work out, eat right and manage stress.
“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading”. Lao Tzu.
