Why be into fitness at all

From the sound of current statistics, almost no one seems to be into a fitness lifestyle. Indeed the obesity figures rise by the month. Home fitness equipment goes back from the garage to the resale stores. People still complain about the yo-yo effect of diets. Fitness club owners see no relief from the empty floors of March following the New Years resolutions of January.

Yet there are a few people who still seem to stick at it. Why is this so? And what are they doing?

Without a grad school study to answer these questions, one can only make some guesses. It is assumed that persons into fitness are supplementing, eating properly and daily doing their workouts. Almost everyone who cares about their health believes that all of these together are necessary. Moreover, most everyone who is into fitness would never think of only one without the two others.

If that is true why are these people doing them when so few of their friends, relatives and neighbors are not? The answer should be that they know a fitness lifestyle right, that is in anyone's best interests. But is this the case? With the medical establishment's almost universal insistence on rest and cutting back on exercse from thirties on, to the media's glorification of grocery store eating, to the absurdly endless criticism of the vitamin industry (largely by people who look like they should be on them), it is really a wonder that anyone is into fitness at all. Surely those who are must feel strange.

Nevertheless, at least a handful of people do try to keep trying to do the right thing. Sometimes it is because they have been scared with imminent diabetes or heart trouble by a physician. Other times it is because of the notion that twenty less pounds will give them a better edge in the dating world.

Yet, are either of these reasons good enough to insure a life long commitment to a healthy lifestyle? That is, are they enough to incur the same type of consistence and regularity that is associated with oral hygiene, namely the daily brushing of one's teeth?

Perhaps they are for a few. But most likely they are not for most. In both of these instances, the need to live healthily goes away as soon as the goal has been attained. That is, the hard work of dieting supplementing and working out becomes too much once one is out of the doctor's danger zone or once one has established an on-going relationship with a new intimate conquest. Then one finds him or herself back to the same old life of ease and American normality--the very thing which caused the excess pounds to appear in the first place.

It seems then that a better reason for making the initial sacrifices is necessary. That is one which makes a person stay at a fitness lifestyle simply because it is more life-enhancing than continuing on in the same old mediocre and self-defeating ways. Surely everyone believes that life is more fun with dazzling teeth, so why should not something be similar for fat free healthy physique or figure?

In short then, one should simply be doing the right things for him or herself. There should be no other reason. That is, one ought not to be doing them because a doctor scared them. or to ensnare a potential boy or girlfriend. No one brushes their teeth to keep free from scurvy anymore. Nor does anyone wake up one day to buy their first tube of toothpaste in hopes of snagging a rich or sexy one. We all brush our teeth because its makes us feel good, meaning attractive and healthy. The same should be true for daily proper supplementation, exercise and diet. That is only reasonable, is it not?

For more thought about living in a fit and healthy manner order my book "Think and Grow Fit."

About the Author

Obese 45 years ago; state champion power lifter 1978; in better shape today at 61 than when on swim team in high school

http://blog.foreverfitness.info

Author of "Think and Grow Fit" the no hype guide to getting fit and staying that way forever

http://www.foreverfitness.info

Author (mark19). Submitted on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 Time: 8:33 AM

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