Simple Steps to a Fitness Lifestyle

Yes, this sounds like the cover story of a Rodale magazine… but I am here to give you practical advice, not trying to sell you a heart-rate monitor or a weekend spa trip in Montana.

Are there Simple Steps to Fitness? Yes and No.

Eckhart Tolle writes and speaks about Spiritual Awakening in our lives. In my personal journey, I have discovered that spiritual awakening is to realize that everything we seek requires personal responsibility, conscious thought over our actions, and hard work. When we accept that our lives will be filled with hard work, we can enjoy our labor and then enjoy reaping the rewards of our labor.

A spiritual guru once wrote that enlightenment is knowing and understanding that your life becomes harder, not easier, when you have been spiritually awakened. You have reached a place of joy, but then you have the responsibility of guiding others to this place of joy, and this is a journey that requires constant hard work and mindfulness.

I will begin writing on the Steps to Fitness by giving a short success story of my friend Randy who took some exercise advice I provided to help him lose 10 pounds of body fat in 11 weeks. (I have Randy’s approval to use his story as an example).

My friend Randy works in the word processing department of a major investment bank. He is a hard worker, but works on a computer for 9 hours each night, five days a week. He eats a fairly balanced and regular diet and regularly exercises using some dumbells at home. At the end of each work day he will have some low-fat yogurt and occasionally enjoy something like a small cup of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream to wind down.

Over the years he went from a regular bodyweight of 150lbs up to 165lbs, although nothing in his lifestyle changed, he was not eating more or exercising less, it was just the office work and laid-back lifestyle that modern living often results in. He gained this body fat just by living a regular lifestyle that most people live.

Last fall I gave him some exercise advice. Without having to cut any calories or go on a special diet, without having to join a gym or get a personal trainer, he followed the advice I gave — at home, after work, a few nights a week — he was able to reduce his body fat and went from 165lbs down to a steady 155lbs.

The advice I give is simple: in addition to his regular dumbell workouts, I explained to him that by adding weight-less high-repetition squats to his workout routine, he would be able to 1) improve his cardiovascular fitness, 2) increase his muscle-tone, and 3) increase his overall metabolism — which in turn will help him burn more calories on a constant basis.

Disclaimer: if you aren’t accustomed to exercising, first of all, make sure you have the green-light from your physician to start a new exercise regimen.

I have described the squats in a previous article, you can find it here: http://soonmethod.wordpress.com/2008/03/11/basic-training-regimen/

The key is to introduce your body slowly to the new exercise routine, not to blitz your body into submission and failure after one workout or one week, which then will kill your motivation — you will find yourself back in front of the computer at night surfing Drudge Report, wondering why you quit, rather than enjoying your workouts.

It is better to get a light cardiovascular workout, break a sweat and slowly see results, than overload your body and nervous system until it forces you to quit what you’re doing. Less is more in the long-term. This is why crash diets always result in binge-eating and extreme workout regimens result in back-pain and visits to the chiropractor. The National Academy of Sports Medicine does not recommend more than 2lbs of fat-loss per week, in order to remain healthy and to avoid any risk of complications.

This may not be the best analogy, but think of yourself as the turtle, not the hare — slow and steady will get you faster to your destination than hard, fast, and extreme. Be the camel, not the race horse (another odd analogy?) — the camel trudges along slowly to its destination, but stays healthy and can travel long distances without struggle, but a race horse expends so much of its energy in such a short time that it risks life-threatening injury and has a very short racing career and life span.

To sum up, the initial Step to a Fitness Lifestyle is simply to get started. Start easy, take baby steps, be happy with slow progress and be patient with your expectations. In the 1940s and 50s when fitness guru Charles Atlas proclaimed that you can “Build an Atlas Body in 7-days” it was a marketing gimmick — back then it took 7-days for the post office to deliver his booklet His training regimen was very simple and straight-forward though, what he called “Dynamic Tension” is what the world today knows as weight-training, all it took to achieve success was commitment and hard work.

This is not new information — Jack Lalanne was giving sound fitness advice back when Franklin Roosevelt was President of the United States. What I’m trying to do here is put this fitness information and benefits into language that we can appreciate in the 21st Century… I will be happy to see even 1 person spend less time at home surfing the internet and more time outside feeling the joy of a life filled with health and fitness.

Like enlightenment, there are no shortcuts — we must work hard in order to find progress and see the fruits of our labor.