If you've ever run a marathon, or even been a spectator, you'll appreciate the motivation and commitment involved. If you're not prepared when it comes to race day you can expect many hours of suffering and struggle!
It doesn't have to be that way, of course, if you put in the required training over several months. This requires commitment and motivation, and a belief that the accumulation of all those training miles will help you to reach your goal-- whether this is time-oriented, or the equally valid desire to get round.
So what is meant exactly by motivation and commitment?Motivation is the desire to achieve something unusual that gives you the incentive to do things that other people are not prepared to do. Not many people are prepared to train week in, week out so that they can stand at the start of a marathon and say to themselves, "yes, I am ready and I couldn't have done anything more."
You can always do something more, but even the elite athletes feel that way. Every athlete has their challenges -- whether it's getting the children ready for school, or an achilles injury. It's how we overcome these challenges that make us stronger, and mean we can stand on the start line with a quiet confidence.
If you're working full time you might have to get up every day at five a.m. to fit your training in, and this will take commitment, motivation and determination. It won't help if after a few weeks you revert to your former habits, and get up half an hour before you have to leave for work.
Whether it is getting up early, or beginning a fitness program your motivation and commitment needs to last over the long term to have an affect. In training for a marathon it will not help running for ten miles every two weeks, and doing no exercise in between. Your body will have forgotten what it has to do by the time you run again! Rather run three or more times a week with one longer run on the weekend, and you will be in better shape.
These small, regular runs will add up to success over time, but they are far easier to do when you have a target to aim at. This can be a time you want to run, or the desire to complete the 26 mile race. Either way if you know what you want to achieve you will be more likely to do the things you need to do. Having a target concentrates the mind, and increases your motivation.
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If you're into health and fitness, and perhaps something of a fanatic visit
Health and Fitness Fanatic
for some great tips and ideas.
==============================
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Monday, August 08, 2005
Success in Dieting & Exercise Part 2
Perhaps the best way to increase your energy expenditure is to exercise first thing in the morning before eating. This will boost your metabolic rate, and increase your fat burning ability. Of course, if you have medical conditions like diabetes you may have to do things slightly differently. You will need to consult a qualified doctor or physician.
Ensure that you drink enough water. This will help to wash away the waste products and toxins that the body will release as you burn away the fat (which does store some toxins). And water will help you stay hydrated.
Adequate supplementation with good quality vitamins and minerals may also be important so that your body has the micronutrients it needs to drive its metabolic processes. If you don't like the idea of popping pills when you're supposed to be following a fitness plan ensure that you eat at least 5 different fruits everyday. And when you have your main meal you'll probably have some vegetables or salad, so you could consume 10 different fruits and vegetables a day.
Ensuring that your body does not think that it is in a state of famine is also important. While it is a good idea to decrease your overall caloric intake, you want to make sure that you feed you body on a regular basis, so that it knows that food is still available and is coming soon. Six small meals a day is generally a good idea. Your choice of calorie sources is also important. For many health reasons, it is good to avoid highly processed products. Vine ripened, organic produce is also a great idea.
Another way to help yourself succeed and give your body a greater variety of micronutrients and enzymes is to eat a large variety of foods. Our bodies haven't yet really adapted to the advent of agriculture, let alone a few monocrops. Variety, variety, and more variety is a great idea.
Ensure that your rest is adequate and of good quality. If you do not rest adequately, all of your body's processes can be adversely affected.
Take time for yourself. Meditate or pray. This will help you on so many different levels that there isn't enough time or space to go into it.
Set yourself reasonable, attainable goals with specific time frames. If you don't achieve them, reset the goals and review your plan. Maybe the goal was unrealistic or the plan was faulty. Entertain both possibilities. If you don't know how to tell, enlist professional help.
Measure your progress. Measuring in inches and energy is a better way to evaluate how you are doing rather than by pounds. Also very useful and a good measure of health factors, is to record how your body fat percentages change (for better or for worse).
So now you have the basic principles down. While a three month interval is a great way to look at progress points, if you stop there, you have failed. You need consistent persistence. At every goal point, re-evaluate your plan, refine it, work it, and then repeat the process. If you need a holiday from your routine, schedule it, don't improvise or you are likely to fall out of the routine and have a difficult time getting back into it.
Work it, re-evaluate it, measure your progress, and repeat.
Consistent persistence is the key to your success. This success must also be built on sound principles and be realistic, sustainable, and varied.
Don't let yourself be discouraged, keep at it and fight to maintain your consistent persistence because this is where success lives.
==========================
If you're into health and fitness, and perhaps something of a fanatic visit
http://healthandfitnessfanatic.blogspot.com for some great tips and ideas.
==========================
If you'd like to republish the above article please include the above resource box.
Ensure that you drink enough water. This will help to wash away the waste products and toxins that the body will release as you burn away the fat (which does store some toxins). And water will help you stay hydrated.
Adequate supplementation with good quality vitamins and minerals may also be important so that your body has the micronutrients it needs to drive its metabolic processes. If you don't like the idea of popping pills when you're supposed to be following a fitness plan ensure that you eat at least 5 different fruits everyday. And when you have your main meal you'll probably have some vegetables or salad, so you could consume 10 different fruits and vegetables a day.
Ensuring that your body does not think that it is in a state of famine is also important. While it is a good idea to decrease your overall caloric intake, you want to make sure that you feed you body on a regular basis, so that it knows that food is still available and is coming soon. Six small meals a day is generally a good idea. Your choice of calorie sources is also important. For many health reasons, it is good to avoid highly processed products. Vine ripened, organic produce is also a great idea.
Another way to help yourself succeed and give your body a greater variety of micronutrients and enzymes is to eat a large variety of foods. Our bodies haven't yet really adapted to the advent of agriculture, let alone a few monocrops. Variety, variety, and more variety is a great idea.
Ensure that your rest is adequate and of good quality. If you do not rest adequately, all of your body's processes can be adversely affected.
Take time for yourself. Meditate or pray. This will help you on so many different levels that there isn't enough time or space to go into it.
Set yourself reasonable, attainable goals with specific time frames. If you don't achieve them, reset the goals and review your plan. Maybe the goal was unrealistic or the plan was faulty. Entertain both possibilities. If you don't know how to tell, enlist professional help.
Measure your progress. Measuring in inches and energy is a better way to evaluate how you are doing rather than by pounds. Also very useful and a good measure of health factors, is to record how your body fat percentages change (for better or for worse).
So now you have the basic principles down. While a three month interval is a great way to look at progress points, if you stop there, you have failed. You need consistent persistence. At every goal point, re-evaluate your plan, refine it, work it, and then repeat the process. If you need a holiday from your routine, schedule it, don't improvise or you are likely to fall out of the routine and have a difficult time getting back into it.
Work it, re-evaluate it, measure your progress, and repeat.
Consistent persistence is the key to your success. This success must also be built on sound principles and be realistic, sustainable, and varied.
Don't let yourself be discouraged, keep at it and fight to maintain your consistent persistence because this is where success lives.
==========================
If you're into health and fitness, and perhaps something of a fanatic visit
http://healthandfitnessfanatic.blogspot.com for some great tips and ideas.
==========================
If you'd like to republish the above article please include the above resource box.
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