Beyond the Gym: Embracing Total Lifestyle Wellness for True Fitness

We've all heard the mantras: "eat clean, train hard," or "six-pack abs in six weeks." While these slogans might grab attention, they paint an incomplete picture of fitness. True fitness isn't just about aesthetics or achieving a specific goal on the scale. It's about cultivating a holistic approach to well-being that encompasses not just physical activity and nutrition, but also mental, emotional, and social aspects of life.

Sure, a balanced diet and regular exercise are crucial building blocks. Nutrient-rich foods fuel our bodies, while physical activity strengthens muscles, improves cardiovascular health, and boosts energy levels. However, focusing solely on these elements neglects the significant impact of other lifestyle factors.

Sleep: The Unsung Hero of Fitness

Imagine training intensely but only getting a few hours of sleep each night. Your body wouldn't have enough time to recover and rebuild muscle tissue. Sleep is essential for physical and mental restoration. During sleep, our bodies repair tissues, consolidate memories, and regulate hormones like cortisol, which can affect metabolism and stress levels. Aiming for 7-8 hours of quality sleep each night is a non-negotiable investment in your overall fitness.

Stress Management: Calming the Inner Storm

Chronic stress wreaks havoc on our health. It can lead to weight gain, increased blood pressure, and a weakened immune system. Managing stress is vital for promoting fitness. Techniques like mindfulness meditation, yoga, or spending time in nature can help us calm the mind and body's stress response. When we feel calmer, we're more likely to make healthy choices and prioritize our well-being.

Social Connection: The Power of Belonging

Humans are social creatures. Strong social connections not only provide emotional support but can also be a source of motivation for healthy habits. Joining a fitness class, finding a workout buddy, or participating in team sports can boost your enjoyment of exercise and increase your chances of sticking with it. Being part of a supportive community fosters a sense of belonging and accountability, which are powerful tools for long-term success.

Work-Life Balance: Making Room for Wellness

In our fast-paced world, it's easy to get caught up in the work-life grind. However, neglecting personal well-being can have detrimental effects on our physical and mental health. Setting boundaries, prioritizing relaxation, and scheduling time for activities we enjoy are essential for preventing burnout and maintaining a sustainable fitness routine.

Finding Your Personal Balance

Total lifestyle wellness is a holistic approach, and the specific strategies will vary for each individual. What works for your best friend might not be ideal for you. The key is to experiment, discover what enhances your well-being, and create a routine that feels sustainable and enjoyable. Listen to your body, prioritize activities that spark joy, and don't be afraid to adjust your approach along the way. Remember, fitness isn't about achieving a specific look or number on the scale; it's about feeling your best, both physically and mentally.

Taking the First Step

Embracing total lifestyle wellness might sound daunting, but it doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing approach. Start by incorporating small, sustainable changes into your daily routine. Maybe it's adding a 30-minute walk to your day, trying a new stress-reduction technique, or scheduling a weekly social activity with friends. As you cultivate these habits, you'll likely experience increased energy, improved mood, and a greater sense of well-being – all hallmarks of true fitness.

Remember, fitness is a journey, not a destination. By embracing a holistic approach and prioritizing total lifestyle wellness, you can empower yourself to create a healthy and fulfilling life that goes far beyond the gym.

Keep Detailed Accounts of Your Progress

Getting in shape can take quite a while. It’s easy to get impatient and expect results after a week of exercise, but you have to remember that it takes much more time than that.

During that time, you will improve physically, but since the changes from week to week are so small, it can be hard to notice just how far you’ve come. In order to keep yourself motivated, you should keep lots of detailed accounts of your progress, so that you can get a very clear picture of your improvements when you feel like you’re not going anywhere.

One of the easiest ways to do this is by taking pictures of yourself. Most people do this with just underwear on, and take a front, side, and back picture. Instead of just taking a starting photo and an eventual end photo, take one each month to see your progress.
You don’t notice subtle changes in your physique since you see yourself every day. If the changes each day are minor, you’ll hardly notice them. However, two photos of yourself a month apart may look noticeably different.

You might not be exactly where you want to be, but you might see certain areas where you hold fat start to get smaller, or areas where you wanted to put on muscle have more development.

There’s also the matter of tracking numbers. Obviously, you’ll want to track your weight each week. It’s not so much recommended to track it every day, because your weight can fluctuate much more day to day than it does week to week.

Even if you’re only losing 1 pound per week, you’ll end up losing 52 pounds per year. One thing that people rarely track is how they’re feeling. Typically, after you get adjusted to the gym, people feel much happier in all aspects of life when they’re working out more often.

It’s been shown that exercise helps release endorphins, so you might notice that just by exercising more often that you’re happier in life. At first it might be a little stressful, but once you get into the groove of it you’ll really start to enjoy it...

Avoid Getting Discouraged by Others

One thing that many people seem to struggle with is that they’ll get so caught up in social media fitness people and video channels that they end up getting discouraged when it comes to their own progress.

This can also been seen in things like magazines and tabloid news headlines, where people are claiming to be making incredible progress in very short amounts of time. Usually these are celebrities with personal trainers and personal chefs.

One thing to keep in mind is that if it seems too good to be true, it’s probably not true. Many magazines will have articles about someone who loses hundreds of pounds over the course of a year, quickly getting down to their goal weight.

Often times this is exaggerated, as they might have had plastic surgery to remove excess fat, or they may have gone to some crazy extremes to achieve that, usually involving a more dangerous crash diet.
Don’t worry about what other people are doing. As long as you’re making progress towards your goal weight, it doesn’t matter if it’s 2 pounds per week or 15. Instead, be glad that you’re doing well and keep it up.

You’ll get there eventually, as long as you don’t give up. Another situation where you might get discouraged is at the gym. If you’re going by yourself, and your goal is to get stronger and put on more muscle, then it’s easy to get intimidated and discouraged by people with big muscles lifting tons of weight. 

Find What You Like

There’s a strange mindset that’s very prevalent in many fitness communities. They seem to think that if you’re not suffering somehow or having to endure some kind of harsh difficulty, you’re not really going to make any progress.

This mindset likely stems from the old adage, “no pain, no gain.” While that phrase is true to an extent, since you will have to make some sacrifices and struggle a bit to achieve your goals, some people take it a bit too far.

They end up only eating foods that they don’t enjoy and doing exercises that they hate. While there are people that can do that and maintain it over long periods of time, others will fall off pretty quickly.

This is what happens with most New Year’s resolutions. People make radical changes in their diets, only to end up giving up quickly because of the difficulty. These rapid changes are hard to deal with for most people, so ease into it.

Fitness and dietary changes shouldn’t be things that you hate. You might not look forward to exercising each day, but you shouldn’t exactly dread it either. The problem most people face is that they only pick the most generic “healthy” options, whether they like them or not.

In terms of exercise, you should do what you like to do. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t push yourself, but don’t force yourself to do some form of cardio that you hate. If you prefer elliptical machines to treadmills, then use the elliptical instead.
It might not give you as great of a workout, but if you can go on an elliptical for 45 minutes, that’s much better than 15 minutes on a treadmill, since you’re going to burn more calories in a longer period of time... 

Give Yourself Enough Time

Among the many misconceptions about fitness, the amount of time it takes to get in shape is certainly one of them. Many people expect to see dramatic results after a few weeks of training.

To people more experienced with fitness, this sounds ludicrous, but many people do expect results that quickly. In reality, fitness is a game of consistency and patience. Sporadic exercise and dieting cycles won’t really get you anywhere, but instead you should be exercising consistently throughout the week.

After a week of clean eating and regular exercise, you can expect to lose one to two pounds. If you’re 60 pounds overweight, it’s going to feel like it’s taking forever, but you’ll get there as long as you stick to it.

Some weeks, you might even stall in weight loss, even if you’re doing everything right. This doesn’t mean that you have to give up or make some drastic change, just stick to your plan and eventually your weight loss will continue.

In a few cases, sometimes you do need to make small changes to lose more weight. However, it doesn’t have to be anything crazy. You might work out for an extra 15-30 minutes each day, or cut out one of your snacks from your diet plan.

Try making small adjustments like this at first, and if your weight loss continues, just keep it up. Many diets and workout programs claim to be able to get you to drop crazy amounts of weight in a very short time... 

Understanding Your Goals

Many people every year embark on a journey, an attempt to get in shape, without having a clear or realistic idea of their goals. When someone says that they’re trying to get in shape, if you ask them about what their specific goals are, they rarely respond with anything really specific.

Instead, they respond with things like “wanting a flat tummy” or “just losing a few pounds.” In order to be able to make significant progress towards your goals, you need to have clear goals in mind, such as reaching a specific weight, running a mile in a certain amount of time, or lifting a certain amount of weight.

It’s fine to start out with more general goals, but you should try to sharpen them a bit so that you can get a very clear idea of what you’re working towards. For example, if you wanted to have a flat stomach, that’s a fine goal to work towards.

However, to achieve that, you’ll have to reach a certain weight and a certain body fat percentage. Find out what those numbers are for you using online tools and references, and then work towards that.

Another key part of your goals is to make them realistic. Having unattainable or unrealistic goals may just dishearten you when you don’t reach them. You need to know what you’re capable of doing in a certain timespan.

Let’s say there’s a man who is very overweight - around 40% body fat. If that same man’s New Year’s resolution is to drop down to 15% body fat by summer time, he’s likely not going to reach that goal... 

Fix Your Fitness Mindset

One of the most important aspects of fitness is your mindset. While diet and exercise are naturally very important, it’s also crucial that you have the right mental state in order to keep going when things inevitably get tough.

When people give up on their pursuit of fitness, it’s rarely because they get too worn out physically, but instead they stop focusing on it or end up discouraging themselves, resulting in them giving up entirely.

By improving your mindset when it comes to fitness, you’re going to be more likely to stick with your program and ultimately succeed in your weight loss or muscle building goals. ..

Check under mindset for several articles on this important subject + the possibility to claim your free copy of the brand new e Book on this very same topic!