8 Eye-Opening Life Lessons Fitness Teaches You by Coach Calorie One of the greatest things I have learned in my own fitness and health journey is just how much the skills and lessons you acquire translate over into everyday life. Because of this, fitness and health are not just important to our bodies but in EVERY ASPECT of life. Here are just a few of the lessons that fitness teaches you: -What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger Yes, we hear this all the time (thanks Kelly Clarkson!), but an easy way to get a taste of what this actually means without experiencing a major life trauma is through fitness. When you’re in the midst of a killer workout, and you really do feel like you are going to die but you make it through anyways, you literally end up stronger than you were when you began. You learn that something may be really tough to do, and you may feel like giving up or letting it beat you. However, if you don’t, your reward is waiting for you, and that is strength. In fitness, your muscles will rebuild what you have torn down during exercise, only bigger than before, faster than before, more efficient than before, because your body knows what it needs to get through the next workout. Use this metaphor in life to understand that no matter what life throws at you, you can use that to rebuild yourself with more knowledge, more understanding, and more mental toughness. You end up being a better version of yourself. -One Foot In Front of the Other When I run, I usually hate every second of the first mile or so. After I reach a certain point, because of experience, I know that I’ll get my “second wind” and be able to run for many more miles. But the first mile or two are really hard for me, and I want to quit running with almost every step. So when I run, I make a deal with myself that I’ll just get to the first bridge, and then if I want I can turn around. But pretty much 99% of the time, by the time I get to that bridge, I think I can make it a little more, so I tell myself I can turn around if I just make it to the next bridge. Sometimes on really tough days, I have to make deals with myself just to get through the next 10 feet. Before I know it, I have 5 miles under my belt and feel great. This is a great approach to life as well. When times are tough, just take it a few minutes at a time, a few hours, a few days. Get through the moment and before you know it, you’re there. You don’t have to run the whole 5 miles all at once, it comes with a series of steps and the effort put into each one of those. Remember this the next time a difficult situation comes up and it will remind you to focus on the short term so you don’t feel so overwhelmed. -Caring For Yourself One of the biggest life lessons that fitness has taught me is taking care of myself. Before, I put everyone else’s needs before mine. I did not self-care because I had children and a spouse to take care of. It was a hard concept for me to swallow, but it started with going to yoga twice a week, even though that meant putting my two youngest in the gym daycare for an hour. Once I realized that a) my girls were fine and b) yoga made me a better person for my kids to be around, it was an easy choice to keep adding to that. I began to exercise more and more, which led me to want to eat better. And even recently, getting into physical shape made me want to get my mental fitness in order as well. Not only am I healthy and happy, but I’m a much better mom and role model for my kids now than I have ever been. This all started through my choice to take care of myself through fitness. -You’re Only Limited By Your Own Imagination If you had told me a few years ago that I’d be sprinting, doing pull-ups, that I’d have a six-pack after 4 pregnancies, that I’d love healthy food and even eat cauliflower regularly, I’d have guffawed. This is a life I only dreamt of and never even imagined for myself. But I wanted it, I worked for it, I stopped telling myself I couldn’t or I didn’t have time or all the other BS excuses and I went after it, and I’ll be damned if I’m not sitting here with a six-pack. I have dreams outside of fitness, an entire list of them, and they feel real to me. I know now that anything is possible. I’ll try just about anything because I know now that I should never limit myself. Everyone who was great at anything, including fitness, started out just exactly where you are. The only difference between you and them is that they stopped believing “Not me”. If I can have a six-pack, maybe I can have that dream job???? The world is mine. -Self-Control and Respect There are many things in this world around us that are out of our control, but the way our bodies are treated isn’t one of them. YOU are the only one who can feed yourself, make the decision to work out, avoid unhealthy choices and make healthy ones. You are responsible for YOU. Does that feel scary to you or does it feel empowering? If it doesn’t feel empowering, you are looking at fitness the wrong way. It’s your opportunity to have power over your LIFE, the quality of that life, the positive impact you can make on those around you, to keep yourself around longer for your family and people who love you. You may not be able to control how someone else treats you, but you can treat yourself with the respect you deserve. Once you begin to treat YOURSELF with respect and care, you’ll be surprised how differently the world begins to treat you. We teach others how to treat us by how we treat ourselves! -Confidence Being fit has a snowball effect on your confidence. It starts with doing something you didn’t think you could do, like pushups or running a mile straight. This creates an inner confidence that radiates in everything that you do and makes it easier to try more and push harder. You will begin to make different choices, carry yourself in a new way, smile more, and be more sure of yourself. This is only complimented by an outer physique that will accompany your new found confidence. Not only will you feel better about yourself as a person, but you’ll have the knowledge that you’re stacking the health odds in your favor, and having the threat of disease off your shoulders just might make you stand up a little taller. Your confidence will be contagious, those around you will admire your efforts and want some of what you have, and you’ll help change lives. Besides, there’s something really cool about knowing you could kick someone’s ass if you needed to -Patience and Discipline Something I’ve noticed is that fit people tend to have more discipline and patience in their day to day lives than most. They understand that choices have long-term consequences, and that short-term gratification isn’t always as satisfying as long-term. They have a deep understanding that what they choose to do today determines what kind of future they will have. Getting in shape also requires learning a new form of patience, which is finding the joy in the short-term effects of exercise and health rather than wanting an immediate transformation right this minute. They learn to listen to their bodies, to have patience with it, to focus on inner transformation rather than external so that the external has the time it needs to transform as well. Isn’t this a great way to look at all aspects of life? Focus on the things that bring you joy right now, and the long-term picture will come together without you even realizing it. Make the best choices that you can make right now to determine a successful future. -Habit Formation Changing your lifestyle requires forming new habits. Forming new habits is one of the hardest things to do, because it actually requires that we change our brain activity. Our brains LOVE the safe, the normal, the usual–homeostasis. Trying to change that up makes our brains freak out, but it can be done if done intelligently. Those who have successfully made the change from an unhealthy lifestyle to a healthy one know that forming new habits, one at a time, is the key to long-term success. Once you learn how to change your bad habits, you can change ANYTHING in your life. If you can learn to give up your 2 cans of soda a day habit, you can certainly start leaving for work 10 minutes earlier, stop smoking, stop procrastinating, etc. using the exact same habit-forming skills you learned in fitness.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 14:00:23 +0000
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