Five Tips for Lifelong Fitness

There’s a lot of good reasons to make exercise a normal part of your everyday life, so why don’t more of us make time to burn a few calories and make our muscles stronger?

If you adopt and drop workout routines regularly, you aren’t alone. However, consistently moving your body really is the best way to prolong your life and promote health. So, how do you truly make fitness part of your life?

Avoid Illness and Accidents

Working out is one great way to prevent disease and accidents, but it isn’t the only way. Whether you exercise regularly or not, if you come down with a serious illness or experience a serious injury, you’re going to find it difficult to exercise. Once you let your exercise routine lapse for weeks, months, or even years, it can be very difficult to pick it back up again.

Find other ways to prevent disease. That includes eating healthy most of the time, getting enough sleep at night, reducing stress, and washing your hands regularly.

You should also do your best to avoid accidents. There are many ways to do that, but one of the best is to put your phone down. Don’t text or use your phone behind the wheel, and don’t use it while you’re walking, as it can greatly increase your chances of tripping, falling, or getting hit by a car.

Don’t Make It About Weight

Most people head to the gym because they want to lose weight. Surprisingly, that’s not why you should be making physical activity part of your daily routine. Instead of focusing on losing weight, you should focus on health and creating healthy behaviors.

When you don’t focus on how much weight you’re losing, you’re less likely to get discouraged and quit. Instead, focus on how you feel after you’re done working out. Notice if it makes you feel more energetic, if it boosts your self-esteem, or if it makes you feel less depressed. When you find other reasons to exercise besides losing weight, you’re more likely to do it for a lifetime.

Find Workouts You Enjoy

A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that working out means going to the gym, running on a treadmill, and lifting weights. Although those are fine things to do, you’re much better off looking for workouts you enjoy.

If you find a workout you enjoy, you’re more likely to look forward to doing it, and if you look forward to doing it, you’re more likely to do it for weeks, months, and years to come.

There are a lot of activities that can give you a good workout that you may not have realized! Just a few include:

• Walking
• Swimming
• Hiking
• Physical video games
• Dancing
• Gardening

Try New Things

It’s great if you find something you like to do, but no matter how much you liked it when you first started, it’s normal to get a little bored when you do the same exercise routine over and over again. Don’t be afraid to shake it up when things are getting a little stale!

There are many things you can discover when trying a new workout. You might build your confidence and self esteem by trying something new, like a self defense class, while doing something like yoga may help you bust stress and feel more relaxed.

Trying something new might mean doing the same thing differently too. For example, instead of exercising alone, consider joining a class or hiring a trainer.

Be Forgiving

Most of us have big dreams of exercising each and every day, which means we feel guilty when we don’t. The problem with feeling guilty is that it often has the opposite effect of its intent, which means it can actually make you less likely to exercise the next day.

It’s impossible to follow the exact same schedule each and every day. If there are days when you can’t exercise, don’t beat yourself up, and you’ll be more likely to get back to your routine again the next day.

Even if it has been months or years since you’ve exercised regularly, if you forgive yourself for letting all that time go by, you can get into an exercise routine that you actually enjoy.

Fitness isn’t something you do every once in a while. If you want to boost your health, it’s important to find ways to make it a fun part of your life so you’re more likely to do it for years to come.