How To Get Fit

How To Get Fit: by Scott Canipe

The song birds are singing, the flowers are blossoming, and the trees are growing green leaves again. What does this mean? It means that spring is here and summer is speedily approaching. This translates into people stripping down to more revealing apparel such as shorts, short sleeve shirts, and ultimately bathing suits.

In other words, the contours of the body are going to be shown. If you haven’t prepared to look your best for the warm and hot seasons, now is the time to do it before it is too late.

With this warm weather upon us, many people are wondering how to get fit for the spring and summer? The “beach body” mentality runs through their minds quite frequently. They say to themselves, “I want to look my fittest so that I am beach body ready.”

However, physical fitness is not just about how you look, it is how you feel, and most importantly it’s about being as healthy as you can be. Additionally, if you are healthy, then you feel good, and when you feel good, you will look good.

Regardless if your age is 20, 30, 40, 50, and beyond, it is never too late to get in shape and fulfill your physical potential.

Getting in Shape

There are five basic requirements that will help you to get fit:

1. Being motivated – Motivation is the cornerstone to get anything done in life or to be successful. This includes finishing college, raising a family, running a business, and it also includes becoming physically fit. One must have the inner strength of motivation to affect outward change.

2. Map out your objective – What is it that you’re trying to accomplish with your fitness goals? Are you trying to gain muscle mass/strength, increase endurance, exercise to lose weight, become more flexible, or a myriad other reasons that could be mentioned. Once, you have decided what you are trying to achieve, write it down and make a commitment!

3. Choose one of the many physical fitness programs – After you have set the goals that you are trying to accomplish, you then need to find an exercise program to start, stay with, and finish. Physical fitness is a very deep subject to study. The human body is a marvelously complicated instrument and, as such, there are many different physical fitness programs to follow.

   Look at your lifestyle. Does your job, family or finances prohibit you from joining a health club? Driving back and forth to a fitness center can be quite timely and also expensive. If your schedule does not accommodate, then you may want to look at specific physical fitness programs that you can commit to at home. These are also referred to as the “home gym.” Home gym programs such as P90X, Insanity, Zumba, etc., contain workout routines that can be utilized in the comfort of your home or office.

4. Cleanup your diet - The old adage “you are what you eat” could not be any truer. To increase muscle strength/size, lose body fat, have greater energy levels, etc., diet and nutrition is imperative to achieve these goals. One must intake adequate amounts of water, lean proteins, complex carbohydrates, fresh fruits and vegetables, and supplementation to affect the highest levels of physical fitness.

5. Stick with it - Many times people began an excellent workout program, however before they see results, they simply quit. Unfortunately, this is a fact for most people that are trying to lose weight and get fit. You must endure!

   It is true that any time you begin something new it is difficult to adjust to this different lifestyle. The hardest thing is breaking old habits and forming new ones. But if you persevere until the end, without faltering, you will be pleased with the end result.

It's Up to You

So there you have it, a great start that answers many questions about how to get fit? So what is holding you back from developing the body of your dreams??? The answer is a resounding YOU! You hold your destiny in your hands. With the proliferation of information that is out there, there should be no excuse for one not to be healthy and physically fit.

So set your fitness goals and go after them with all that is within you. Remember this: It's not a matter of IF you can do it, but WHEN you will do it. The end result is largely up to you. A goal, drive, resiliency, and good old-fashioned hard work turn fitness dreams into living realities!

Useful Resources

Fit is Sexy!

Push yourself to the limit.

Sacrifice equals results.

Fit and fabulous!

Just do it!

You only have one body, so take care of it.

Fuel your body!