Body Wise*

*The information contained herein is not intended to diagnose or treat ANY medical condition.

Fitness on a Budget

By Alex and Sherri McMillan

With times being tough and talk of a recession everywhere you turn, people are stressed and resources are slim. So what do you do to achieve your fitness goals and battle the bulge, even though your wallet is skinny?

Let’s put first things first. The problem with stressful and cash-starved times like these is that it’s very easy to give up on making time and the budget for fitness. But fitness should be the last area of your life to put on the back burner and trim from the budget, as it’s the very thing that is going to give you the energy and stamina to deal with any struggles. If you don’t make time for fitness, then plan on forced time for being sick and tired… on top of everything else. Unwanted medical bills, prescription co-pays, and lost income due to illness, stress, and injury are very costly alternatives to investing in you.

Often times, the key to finding the budget for fitness is about perception and priority. For example, many people view health club memberships as a too expensive fitness option, when in fact buying a latte and a muffin every day usually costs more than what a gym membership and two personal training sessions per month would cost. Now seriously, which of these two choices is going to get you into rock star shape in 2009?

One of our trainers Emil Zatopek shared this quote (below) with his clients to help inspire them and we thought each of you could gain something from it as well. 

“When a person trains once, nothing happens. When a person forces himself to do a thing a hundred or a thousand times, then he certainly has developed in more ways than physical. Is it raining? That doesn’t matter. Am I tired? That doesn’t matter, either. Then willpower will be no problem. “

So ask yourself, what will you do to challenge yourself and see what you are made of?

Consider how much discipline it takes to workout three-to-five days a week. Think about how hard it is to keep stretching beyond our comfort zones and how challenging it is to exercise at high intensities. Consider the self-resolve required to eat healthy foods and drink lots of water every day when temptations surround us everywhere we go. But if you have the courage to respect your body — the temple that houses your mind and spirit — achieving your goals will not be far away. It says a lot about who you are as a person when you invest the time to take care of yourself.

It says you respect and love yourself enough to do the things necessary for you to be at your personal best. Each time you get into the gym for a workout on a day when you just don’t feel like exercising, you grow a little stronger as a human being. Each time you go for a run or walk on a cold winter’s day when you just feel like staying under the warm, cozy covers, you strengthen your character. When you endure a tough workout, it enables you to persevere through any other challenge in your life. Improving your physical conditioning will not only enrich your life and make you a better person; you’ll also become a better parent, a better spouse, a better and more productive worker, and a better friend. Exercise gives us a lot more than just a great set of abs.

Exercising regularly, eating well, and taking the time to relax and nourish your body will make you feel happier. It will provide you with more energy than you have ever known. It will give you greater stamina, and mental toughness, and make you a clearer, stronger thinker. It will make you more patient and loving. There are 168 hours in a week. Surely each and every one of us, regardless of our hectic schedules, can carve out four or five of them to care for our bodies and work on mastering our physical state.

And you must remember that a missed workout is much more than just a missed workout. When you miss a workout, you don’t just stay at the same level you were at — you actually take a few steps back. Every time you miss a workout, you have done something to strengthen the habit of not working out. When you’ve made the promise to yourself to exercise so many times per week and then you break that promise, you start to lose trust in yourself. With each missed workout, you start to lose self-confidence and begin to question whether you can actually stick with it at all. A missed workout fuels self-doubt and makes that negative habit stronger. Miss enough workouts, and eventually that negative habit of not working out will replace the positive habit of exercising that you have worked so hard to cultivate. Every time you fail to do the right thing, you fuel the habit of doing the wrong thing.

So the next time you’re trying to justify pressing the snooze button and skipping your workout, or working through lunch instead of taking a walk break, or heading right home after work instead of stopping at the gym, just don’t do it. Don’t even think about it. Don’t even allow yourself the opportunity to talk yourself out of doing what you know you need to do to be at your best. Just remember that you’ll feel like a million bucks once you’re done. The real challenge for most people is not the workout itself, but actually overcoming the negative thoughts that try to sabotage your very good intentions.

So let’s just say that there is absolutely no budget for the gym. Well, then let your body be your gym. Did you know that after all of these years of scientific advancement into gym equipment and technology that many of the most effective fat burning and muscle sculpting exercises for your entire body are ones that only involve your body and use minimal to zero equipment? Give us a call and we can show you hundreds of exercises that you can do from home using nothing but your body. Can’t afford one session with a trainer? Get online and do the research — it can’t get less expensive than that.

No excuses. Remember, results are not guaranteed, they are earned.
 
Alex and Sherri McMillan, M.Sc. have been collectively inspiring people to adopt a more healthy and fit lifestyle for more than 30 years. They are the owners of Northwest Personal Training and Northwest Women’s Fitness Club in Portland. OR, 503-287-0655 and Vancouver, WA, 360-574-7292. Visit www.nwpersonaltraining or www.nwwomensfitness.com for more information.