Lesson 4: Putting It All Together: The Secret Key to Success
We've learned about healthy nutrition and examined various fitness programs which will provide both aerobic and anaerobic components to our new fit lifestyles. How do we put it all together? What is the key ingredient to making all of this work?
This final Lesson will discuss the secret key to helping us lead healthier, fitter lives.
The Most Important Step For Success
By now, a lot of you might be thinking to yourself that this fitness plan is NOT the easy way. In fact, it might seem like its one of the hardest things you've considered doing. I'd have to disagree with you. I was where you are once. I thought that increasing my physical activity level and cutting out fat and sugar seemed almost impossible. I would be deprived. I would starve.
Then, I met a woman who ate healthy, exercised, and was very, very fit. She always appeared to have energy when I would wander around feeling sluggish and dull as if I was trying to wade through molasses. I wondered what her secret was until one day when I had the courage to ask her about it. She then proceeded to describe for me how she lived a low-fat, active lifestyle which benefited her in so many ways.
I started to watch her more closely after that. I noted what she ate, how much she ate, and how often. We both worked at a place which required us to travel weekly. This gave me more opportunities to examine her lifestyle, and I began to admire what I saw. I wanted that in my life.
So, I began to research anything and everything about healthy nutrition, eating low fat foods, and how to increase my physical fitness. I had always been a runner, but as I began to eat healthier and more often, I found that my decreasing fatigue left me wanting to run farther and better. I also began to research other types of exercise programs, but while I do utilize some of them for cross training purposes, running continues to be my favorite activity.
The key to my lifestyle makeover, however, wasn't in the numerous changes that I made in my diet or my activity. Instead, it was in one specific change that I made in my mind: I convinced myself that making over my life in these ways was what I truly wanted to do. I committed to making the necessary changes with a positive attitude.
One of the aspects that really helped me was realizing that, as long as I followed the low-fat, high fiber foods rule, I could actually eat more than I used to and still become fit. I had spent years trying every diet under the sun, and most of the time, I just remained at the same weight...only hungrier and grumpy. Now, I eat whenever I feel hungry. I have learned to enjoy the foods that I eat, and I notice a difference in the way my body feels when I eat high fat foods or I don't exercise.
More importantly, through my actions, I am teaching my children how to eat healthy and be fit as well. With the rising rates of obesity in people of all ages in our country, I strive to teach my children how to avoid falling into unhealthy ways of living. It is especially vital that my daughters learn proper nutrition so that they might never become anorexic or bulimic.
If you haven't reached the point where you've decided to fully commit to this fitness plan, then I recommend trying meditation which is described in the following section and soul searching. I cannot emphasize enough that this plan really does work to get and keep you lean and fit as long as you really commit to it with your heart and mind. You will never need to diet or go hungry again. You just need to want it and to do it without complaints or excuses.
