This health and fitness thing is one of America's biggest conundrums. We all say we want it, most of us could easily figure out how to get it, yet very few of us (people in this country) can live it. Especially in the long term. We're all very aware that choosing healthy food and exercise will improve our lives in hundreds of ways. Yet the daily battle continues for most of us. How do we make it automatic like sleep, eating and breathing? We can't. It's like work or traffic or family issues. It takes time, practice and patience. Super wealthy people get that way because they want it... badly. Achieving wealth, fitness, or even true happiness requires courage, determination and the willingness to fail often and being perfectly okay with that. Eating, sleeping and breathing is easy. Everybody's managing to do it. Healthy and fit people are rare these days because a vast majority of them don't have the right tools. No-one in this community has that excuse. You have the tools. Now you need to decide if using them every day is worth it. Time, practice, patience, a plan and staying accountable is how you'll get it done.
T. Hortonhead
So true. Many people are so ignorant, and many are just plain trapped in a dreadful cycle of poor nutrition. Studies have been done indicating that less affluent zipcodes have higher rates of obesity. Why? Look at all the discount supermarkets which offer inexpensive, over-processed foods at a far lower cost than the healthier fare. One can fill up their cart with 25 cent boxes of macaroni and cheese, super sugary cereals, bargain Twinkies...and feel like they're getting a "deal." Sad to think that it's cheaper to eat crap on a budget.
ReplyDeleteHey Hortonhead???
ReplyDeleteI am in complete agreement with you. Doing something 5 or 6 days a week has been my way of life for as long as I can remember. At 48 I do not have a body of a 20 y/o, but I feel great look pretty good for my age and stump people I work with when they ask me how old I am. They say "oh maybe 30" YEOWSER!!! how fun is that!
Are people afraid of failing when they don't see results right away? YOU BET. Society today wants everything now, results now. We can only continue to be examples of what hard work and dedication can bring. Good health, a positive attitude and dedication to life long fitness.
Thanks BIG T, you are a blessing and a great motivator.
Love from Minneapolis,
Mary
It's so interesting that you posted about this today, as my thoughts have been gravitating to the concept of choosing to be fat or unfit versus choosing to be healthy, fit, and your best self. I think that unfit people assume that fit people are the ones who actively choose to be athletic, tones, trim, flexible, etc. But the reality is that whether you're fit or unfit, it's always a choice.
ReplyDeleteFortunately for me, my parents helped me choose to be active from an early age with intense ballet, jazz and modern dance training for over 20 years, and I've continued to make those kinds of choices, even now after pregnancy and major surgery (c-section), while chasing around an 8 month old baby, working part time from home, practicing yoga and studying to be an holistic nutritional consultant. I'm on day 13 if P90X (just finished rocking legs and back) and am so stoked about my results and the "me" time that I'm able to have again, even if it's just in my own living room! Having already lost my baby weight, P90X is helping me get toned and in peak form again. Who needs the gym when I can work out with you guys!?
My personal frustration related your post topic today is that my fiance is pretty unfit. Over the 2 years we've been together, he's gone from being just a little soft to about 50 pounds overweight, with a sedentary lifestyle and ultra poor food choices. There's always an excuse not to be active, and always a reason to put garbage in his mouth. After 2 days of P90X he threw in the towel; realistically it was probably too intense for his current fitness level, but there's no sign of him getting active in any other form any time soon.
It's a major conflict of lifestyle for two people in a relationship and raising a child together, since as I'm sure you know, being active is a lifestyle and reflects your values and goals.
I know that change must always come from within, but aside from leading by example, do you have any advice for how people can encourage their loved ones to put in the time, practice, patience, get a plan, and stay accountable?
Every morning I look in the mirror and remind myself that I am responsible for everything that I will face that day.......Moods, traffic, contracts, rude people, ect(the list never ends!). I cannot control what happens, but I can control my reaction to it. A while back I promised myself that I will never let someone else ruin my day, and through sometimes it is so tough to do, it does bring a real sense of control to my life. We all have issues to deal with as that is life, but what frame of mind we use while going through them is up to us.
ReplyDeleteI love knowing that I alone am responsible for my health, no matter how many McDonald’s I pass! By the way Tony, I just finished my first week of P90X and I am pumped. I cannot thank you enough for the amazing job of putting this program together, as I know it will put me back into the shape I once was….................Cannot wait to get back to my X-life on the edge..........Go big or go home!
*shudders*, I think of my parents when I read this. My mother had a sedentary lifestyle all her life, and now she has so many health problems that she physically *cannot* do anything but sit, or walk very haltingly anywhere she wants to go. I love her, but I don't want to be like her. My father has crippling rheumatoid arthritis, yet he still manages to get out and move around because he realizes that if he stops, he won't be able to start again.
ReplyDeleteHealth and fitness are a choice, but I also believe it's a "chicken/egg" scenario. The more your respect yourself, the more you want to treat yourself well. That means cutting the crap and respecting your body with how you eat and the level of physical activity, at the very least. But if you don't........you won't.
Much food for thought behind this. Actions speak much louder than words. I'll save the preaching for a Sunday, but there's too much of the drive for instant gratification driving our culture, and the waistlines show it. We want to be fit, and we want it now, and if we can't, we won't bother. That's the bottom line.
Disturbing!
Tony,
ReplyDeleteOn a cool and crisp night a couple weeks ago, as I was driving all alone down a very rural and scenic stretch of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, a very peculiar thought came into my head...what would happen if my car broke down right now in the middle of nowhere? Could I save myself? If no police or anyone else showed up to help me, could I walk the next 15 or so miles in cold darkness to a rest stop. Or if there were no rest stop, could I "bring it" cross country to some lonely farmhouse? And you know what, the answer to all those questions is a resounding YES! Thanks to the variety, consistency, intensity and purpose provided by all those years of P90 to P90X plus, I certainly know that I could do almost anything...and that kind of freedom is what keeps me pressing play every single morning. More durable, less vulnerable! The simple knowledge of being able to save my own life in almost any kind of predicament gives me enough motivation to always look forward to the next pull-up or pushup...it's the shield of fitness.
Nick
People,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your thoughtful responses to this topic. My biggest dilemma is finding techniques to inspire people to stay at it day after day, year after year. Many in this community have done it, but so many more need it.
"We are the people we've been waiting for."
TH-
Things that make you go hmmmmm...
ReplyDeleteI'll try to inject some positivity into my comments (*laughs*) and though I'm not as eloguent as most are here, share what motivates me. I juggle a career and full time grad school, and looking good/feeling great to me is too "touchy feely" to motivate me on an ongoing basis.
What does motivate me is the fact that an hour of exercise clears my mind/wears my body out enough that when I'm done cooling down, it's not unusual for ideas to solve long-burning problems start percolating in my brain. When I just sit and drink coffee, I just stress myself out into a migraine. In fact, sometimes when I feel a tension headache/migraine coming on, working out will actually help unclench the neck muscles enough to keep going. What working out does is shift my perspective just enough that what bothers me, doesn't, for a while. It's the organic antidepressant! LOL.
It's also very empowering to see tangible results of such hard work, whether it's lugging 40 pound bags of dog food without throwing your back out or whether it's taking the stairs instead of the elevator without losing your breath. That's what keeps me working out, having the ability to "do".
*shrugs* Thank you for listening!
Everyday in my job I witness the terrible cycle that many Americans have embraced when it comes to their own health and the health of their children. I work in a very popular local restaurant. Even though our menu offers many health options, people consistently choice the unhealthy ones. But what is so shocking is that they are making unhealthy food choices for their young children. Parents have to set the example of good nutrition for their children and educators and politicians need realize the importance of physical education and good nutrition in schools. Hopefully, Tony you can keep inspiring adults like my husband and I(we recently started P90X)and we can can pass the knowledge and tools on to our children. Our daughter is doing the P90X, too. If you offer children good choices in nutrition when they are young, they will continue with this as adults.
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