Your Most Important Six Months

Starting off on a fitness lifestyle is never easy. As a result, we can never find the time. That is because it requires change, which is is very hard on all of us.

A fitness lifestyle means proper diet, supplements and exercise. We all know that doing any of these only half-way will never work. They have to be practiced ardently on a daily basis to be effective. Effort is needed to make that happen.

In addition to that, setting up new habits will require some money. Health club memberships cost as do supplements and choosing better foods to eat. All of that can be hard to do, especially in times like the present.

Nevertheless, this is what we all should do. It should start on the very first day in our imaginations as a master plan which covers working out, daily diet and new supplements.Those things can and should all be seen in one's mind together, resulting in a plan for a new way of living--one which is done at the same times each day..

An example of what should come to mind is as follows : 1.) two miles of walking or jogging each day with half an hour weight training at the same time on the health club machines; 2.) seven day meal plans at a glance with calorie ceilings on enjoyable foods, checked beforehand for fat and sugar content; 3.) specific times to take supplements which are energy producing and tissue rebuilding. (A very heavy dose multi-vitamin, green tea capsules along with a support for any deficiencies such as calcium might be considered.) All of that will require not only time and effort, but also an investment in a club membership, vitamins and specific foods, ideally from an organic market.

For most of us this will seem like a sacrifice. While the supplements may cost less than fifty dollars per month, the health club membership will cost about the same and the time investment will be at least an hour and a half including time to shower and dress. That may feel like time and money which we do not have.

But our feelings need not hold us back. Persevering in spite of them, coupled with a little ingenuity does eventually pay off. Once we are into our new fixed, working routines, things become relatively easy. In fact, they become so much so that we wonder how we ever went as many years as we did in the old way. It is just that getting into them does not not come over night. in fact, it does not come in the first or even second week. Rather, it most often takes at least six weeks before the new habits start to replace old ones. It will take another four and half months after that for the whole experience to become enjoyable, and really produce results..

Moreover, it will take six months before these new habits start making us really feel great and look great--the very things we are after in embracing a fitness lifestyle.. To expect that it will not take this long is simply unrealistic. The health club statistics show that the drop out rate after the first of the year is extremely high in early March. That would not be the case if people were looking and feeling significantly better after their New Years resolutions. But this is never the case.

Why does it take so long? We ask this in a demanding sort of way because we expect fast and easy answers for everything nowadays. If something cannot happen overnight, we have no further interest. We may prefer waiting to doing anything, believing that some major company will make a pill to give us overnight success. Or, we may even opt for drastic measures such as fitness boot camps, These often promise to get us into shape within two weeks, but do little more than cause injuries the first few days that we are there.

Becoming fit takes time. The body must make changes. It must meet new demands that we place on it, and find new ways of recovering after having done so. That is true even for people who have been athletic but have taken a six month to a year break. Granted, it is easier for them because they know what to expect when they again start up, but tissue is still tissue. It takes time to recover and gradually develop.

Possibly, instead of asking why it takes so long, we should ask how can it only take six months. This may seem outrageous in a day of pharmaceuticals and extreme makeovers, but is it really? If we have spent twenty to thirty years reaping the effects of little or no exercise, unthinking choices from the grocery store and insufficient nutrition, how can we believe that it will take only six months to turn things around? Does this not seem like far too short of a time to undo so much damage?

In a more positive spirit, it can be encouragingly said that significant differences can and most probably will be felt and seen in under six months. But, for that to happen, there must be a radical break with the old self-defeating living habits. There cannot be an on-again off-again attempt based on feeling or whim. It has to be a radical break with old habits, replacing them with new ones--promptly making up for any and all daily deviations. That must be done a systematic and regular basis with the intent of never turning back. When that is implemented, changes will occur.

The best thing is to take a leisurely period of time, concentrating on nothing other than making this massive lifestyle switch. Granted, that may not have to be for six months, but doing things right for the first three will certainly make the next three much easier. That is the encouraging thing about fitness : it becomes much easier to do much more, far more quickly than we might imagine. That may be counter-intuitive, but that is how it is.

If we are still on grocery store food, limited exertion and no supplements, there is nothing more important than making the change to a fitness lifestyle. This is the single most important factor in avoiding diabetes, heart disease, stroke, etc. That is another way of saying that a fitness lifestyle will keep us out of the hospital and away from being part of the country's skyrocketing health care costs.

Staying clear of the lifelong effects of any or all of these illnesses is worth taking six months out of our lives to change.

For further thought on switching to a fitness lifestyle order my e-book "Think and Grow Fit."