Begin Getting into Shape Strategies: PART 1

A few years ago, I was in quite bad shape. When I was younger I kept to a regular, almost daily, routine of exercise, over the years, I let it slip. So I was leading quite a hedonistic lifestyle where I would binge drink at least once a week, not sleep much, work all through the night until the mid-afternoon without eating, then eating vast quantities of fast food and drink lots of coke. Needless to say, my body became a mess, and I ended up with all kinds of allergies and disorders with my digestive system. This is from someone who worked hard to maintain my health and fitness, and then a few bad habits repeated frequently can destroy all that effort in just a few years. I gained a lot of weight, and if I ran down the street, my lungs would feel like they were burning for ten minutes afterwards.

When my business took off, I decided to spend less time on it, and concentrate on repairing my mental and physical health. My allergies were gradually getting worse, to the point where everyday I had hives and rashes on my skin, and it hurt to inhale causing my breaths to be short, and I would easily get out of breath. So this made me wake up that I had to do something or end up dying from ill health. I could keep going along the road where my quality of life would decline, or I could make a choice to improve my quality of life - after all, if you're going to live life, you may as well live it well.

So the first thing I began doing was quite simple - getting enough sleep, and going to bed early. Having a refreshing night of sleep benefits the mind aswell as the body. Getting your mind fit is fifty percent of the battle for a healthier and fitter body, because as the brain is able to function right, it is able to make informed decisions and drive the body to a better state. Next is eating correctly, nutrition is vital, because if your body lacks any vitamins or minerals, then your organs will not be able to perform its functions efficiently, and the most important funtion is performed by your skin and liver which help export toxins out of the body. Toxins in the body make us feel sluggish and also cause rapid ageing, therefore we want all the vitamins and minerals which enable optimal liver function. Drinking plenty of water is important for the kidneys which filters the blood into urine - if the kidneys do not receive enough water, then they become less effective at doing their job, forcing the liver to do some of it - and the liver is responsible for breaking down body fats and converting them to energy. Someone who is not drinking enough water can suffer kidney failure, and because their liver is busy doing the job of their kidneys, then warning signs could be weight gain and lethargy from lack of energy.

When you have cut out all the junk food from your diet, the next thing to do is isolate other food sources which could interfere with the body's normal functioning. Milk is one of those foods which appear innocent, but can contain a cocktail artificial hormones which are injected into cows to enable them to produce enough milk to meet the demands. If you must drink milk, then it is best to stick to organic milk. The hormones found in dairy is responsible for early pubescence in children, and leading to obesity in later life. By cutting out milk, you'll give your body the chance to eliminate these hormones, which can lead to infections from a weakened immune system if not dealt with. Also, many people use milk as a substitute for water when they are thirsty - when you are thirsty, it is your body's way of telling you that it requires certain minerals, vitamins or just water - the adult body does not need milk, and therefore milk is unable to quench a thirst, therefore it is easy to keep drinking milk with an insatiable need.

The next step of my new regime, was to begin taking longer and longer walks. Before, I would spend most of my time in front of a computer, back and shoulders tense from trying to meet my own production deadlines. When I'm trying to get the work done quickly, at the same time my adrenaline is also pumping - although mentally it is easy to deal with stress, it does not go unnoticed by the body, and when adrenaline is released into the body, it has to be worked off physically or it creates problems like heart disease and cancer. The benefit of going for long walks instead of sitting in front of the television or reading a book, is that it absorbs enough of your concentration to avoid snacking, and it straightens out your posture. Most headaches are caused from tension in the back (if not by slight dehydration), by walking, it flexes the spine, and releases tensions in the back muscles. The other important function of walking is to help blood pump around the body, helping move toxins to the organs which can take care of them, and also allow your lymphatic system move and distribute fats around the body - the lymphatic system does not have an automatic pump system unlike the heart of the cardiovascular system, so it uses gravity and or the contraction of the muscles to aid it. Fats that are not properly distributed in the body can cause blocked lymph nodes leading to cysts, but usually trapped fats is visible as cellulite.

Getting healthy and fit is not something that happens overnight. Most people who want to improve their physical condition have unrealistic expectations of results after just a few weeks, and hence they give up. Although all these paid fly-by-night diet and fitness courses might say otherwise, one should not expect major results nor be even thinking within a short timespan. The most successful people who maintain their fitness after achieving it think in the long term, and really it is the ability to think in the long term that ensures any type of success in whatever you do. There are adverts that promise a six pack in just three months, while it is possible for one in a hundred people, for the majority it doesn't work like that, and besides, what is the hurry that a six pack needs to be achieved in three months? What difference really is three months to the person who has had a beer gut for many years! Then what happens when the objective of a six pack is achieved after three months - do they stop and let it get flabby again? These are things that people forget to think about when they are presented with the potential rewards, all rationality goes out of the window and they enter fantasy land. Getting fit and healthy should be thought about in terms of a life long habit, a maintenance routine just like brushing your teeth and sleeping - once this idea is accepted by your subconscious, then you're almost there.