dylanlj

It hurts. It takes over. It’s easy. On a brighter note being so overweight gave me focus. That is how www.fitness-challenge.co.uk was born. So how did I overcome my fatness, my barrel chest, my gut? Simple, I decided being fat was too easy. Getting fit and healthy was not. Eating rubbish is easy. The negative thoughts never go away. The thought of exercise is painful. Feeling sick, occasionally, after eating fast food lingered. The guilt was awful. On the other hand getting up early, going for a short run, stretching, hitting the punch bag, swimming at lunchtime and preparing a vegetable stir fry made me feel great. It was much harder than the lifestyle I led at the time but I felt better for it. So you have two choices. Do easy = Eat rubbish, smoke, drink heavily, take no exercise, become obese, feel terrible, let the negativity take over or Do hard = Eat healthily, exercise, push yourself physically, never give up, set targets, understand your body, calorie count, feel great, remain positive, lose weight

Realbuzz, an excellent online health and fitness resource, recently sent me an email containing information on their fitness plans and how to determine the best plan for you. I read the feature with interest but soon realised the article was also missing the point. Whilst the article is perhaps targeted towards seasoned fitness people and beginners it failed to address some of the biggest challenges some of us face in becoming fitter and healthier. The key to any good ‘fitness plan’ is identifying the reasons why we do not take part in exercise programmes in the first place e.g. time, cost, lack of motivation. Secondly, it is about putting together a simple plan of action. Here is how I started making my simple lifestyle changes. Dylan’s Top 10 Tips on getting started 1. Check the weather the night before so you are fully prepared 2. Prepare your kit the night before (good quality shoes and comfortable clothes and gloves especially in this weather) 3. Visualise how you might feel by doing something you know you need to do 4. Get up really early – 6am early enough? 5. Go for a 5 minute jog or walk, nothing more (make it 10 minutes the next time) 6. Don’t worry about complicated fitness programmes at this stage 7. Pat yourself on the back for following all the above 8. Put the kettle on! 9. Decide when you’ll do it again 10. Plan to relapse