Fitness is a Journey, Not a Destination

People often get motivated to begin a fitness program by a well-defined desire. Maybe they want to lose a particular number of pounds. Perhaps they want to run a marathon. Or maybe they want to look good for a special event, such as a wedding or high school reunion. While the motivation from such goals is good if it gets someone to take action, this type of self-limited target is often counter-productive to lasting improvements in health and fitness.

There’s two potential outcomes to these types of goals: you successfully achieve what you set out to do, or you don’t. Not achieving your desired outcome can be very discouraging and may put you off from trying in the future, but successfully hitting your target has a major problem too. If you do reach your goal, what happens next?

In many cases, the answer is… you enjoy your success for a limited time and then go back to the lifestyle you were living before you took up the challenge. With your main motivation gone, the exercise, eating better, etc. will likely quickly fall by the wayside.

And when that happens, you lose the gains you made – usually a lot quicker than you were able to achieve them. You may be motivated again when the next short-term goal comes to you, but you’ll probably be starting over to a large extent. This leads to the “yo-yo” effect of getting in shape, getting out of shape, getting back in shape, etc.. and this is not a means to long-term health.

Again, short-term goals aren’t all bad, especially if they get you started when you might otherwise have procrastinated and avoided making any changes. But it’s important to have a long-term goal in mind as well and to look at whatever regimen you start as the beginning of a lifelong healthy lifestyle habit.

You can still use whatever short-term goal is prevalent in your mind, such as looking good for an upcoming event, but also figure out a long-term (lifelong) goal to continue once the event has passed. For example, I’m going to lose 20 pounds for the wedding and then keep it off by continuing to exercise 3 days a week and maintaining a healthy diet. Remind yourself of the long-term part of the goal regularly, especially as you approach your target, and focus on making your actions part of your usual routine – not something you’re squeezing in to your schedule temporarily.

Another thing to keep in mind is that “getting in shape” is relative to where you are starting. Someone who is 100 pounds overweight and gets winded walking across a room is probably going to have to approach things a bit differently than someone who is already reasonably fit and healthy and who wants to get in really good shape to run a marathon. But both can make improvements over time and in most cases, the person who gets winded walking across a room can eventually get to where they too can run a marathon.

With very few exceptions, anyone can improve their fitness – no matter their age and no matter how out of shape they may be when they begin. The key is to start – and then just keep going. Yes, you may need to modify the specifics of what you’re doing over time as your body changes with age. The running of today may need to change to the walking of tomorrow. It’s important to listen to your body and to be flexible to change what you’re doing and/or how you’re doing it – just as long as you continue to do something.

While there are no guarantees that getting and staying fit will allow you to live a long, healthy life, not doing so definitely puts you at risk of a shortened, unhealthy life. Lifelong fitness also tends to lead to a much more pleasant time for however long you do live!

To sum it up, if you’re not in as good of shape as you’d like to be, get started now on changing that, and then “rinse and repeat!”

Until next time…

George F. Best, D.C.