It’s not easy to find the time to address health and fitness issues. And it’s even harder to get started with making changes that can benefit our health and improve our fitness. If it were simple, then we’d all be in great shape! There are plenty of diet and fitness programs out there, but not all of them are aimed at men that have never really done this sort of thing before. So what does it take to get started? What do you need, and what should you do?
Goals Are Good
Start with a goal. It needs to be realistic rather than just wishful thinking. Start small with something achievable. That way, when you reach that goal, you’ll know you’re on track to tackle the next big thing. Your new goal might be about changing habits. Perhaps you want to commit to walking one mile every day for two whole weeks? Or maybe you want to lose one pound in the next fortnight? These are both achievable, and you’ll know that in just two weeks, you’ll have hit your target.
Food
Of course, what you eat plays a huge role in both your health and your fitness. If you’re still looking for a goal, why not set yourself a breakfast challenge? You might eat a health-conscious breakfast every day for a week. Or perhaps you’re looking to increase the protein in each meal to support muscle growth? Don’t forget, there are dietary supplements like that can help to give you that all-important boost to get you started. You can ensure you’re getting every vitamin and mineral your body needs, and support your body through the diet changes you’re making.
Quitting
Making changes is a really big part of improving your health and fitness. Some of the changes you’re keen to make might include breaking bad habits for life. Smoking is one of the worst things you can do to your body. Quitting is never easy though. Fortunately, there are plenty of different approaches you can choose from. The same goes with alcohol and recreational drug use. Getting out of bad habits is just as hard as forming new healthy ones.
Too Much To Do
With all these changes to make, you might be feeling it is too much too soon. You’re right. The best approach to change is to start with just one thing. Yes, this way takes longer, especially when you have a long list of changes you want to make. If you have your list and you’ve given each goal a date for completion, you’ll always have something positive to work toward. It lays out all you want to achieve and maps your journey to get there.
Starting To Exercise
One of the biggest challenges to change is getting started with exercise. This can be very hard for some people that have been particularly inactive for a while. You might have a fear of injury. This is valid because tackling too much in the wrong way could indeed lead to strain. If you’re in pain or injured, you won’t be able to meet your goals. Worse still, it will put you off trying again another time.
To get started with new levels of exercise, start small. Prepare your body for exercise by warming up. Stretch each muscle for a full count of thirty. Don’t over stretch or ‘bounce’ the muscle. Once you’ve thoroughly warmed up, start your workout. This might be a one-mile walk or ten reps with light weights or resistance. It doesn’t have to be a lot. If you don’t feel you’ve worked out enough, repeat the exercises later in the day.
Rest Up
Rest is really important when you’re working muscles that haven’t had a lot of focus recently. This can be as simple as a good night of sleep. If you don’t sleep well, lighten your load the following day. Tiredness can lead to physical problems, especially if you’re not used to working out.
The amount of rest you need and the amount of exercise you can do will depend on your age and current fitness levels. As you start to progress, you can change up your program, add supportive supplements like TestRx to your diet, and enjoy a wider variety of activities. You can use fitness apps to track your progress, set goals, and help you to balance your diet.
Time For It
All of these things add up to a lot of time and focus on this area of your life. Perhaps the most important thing to do when you’re getting started with a new health and fitness program is to allocate time to that task. Give yourself an hour a day to work out, stretch, and try out new diet-conscious foods. You can break this down into 2 half-hours, 4 quarter-hours, or even 6 ten minute slots.
You can also make some lifestyle changes to help you fit this new program in. You might start walking to work instead of taking the car. Or perhaps you’ll quit the elevator in favour of the stairs? Why not swap that lunchtime chocolate bar for a banana and handful of raisins? And try to add one vegetable to each meal. A carrot is handy here because they can be eaten raw for lunch, shredded in a salad or omelette topping, and steamed for dinner.
Your First Week Of Change
So what does a typical first week of getting healthy look like? You might spend your first week just listing your goals and planning how you might fit your activity in. This is a good approach because it gets your mind into gear and thinking about the changes you need to make. Pick which goal you want to achieve first, and spend the rest of your time working toward that.
Writing down your intentions can help motivate you to achieve them, especially on those days when you’re tired or overly busy. Make the most of tried and tested approaches to fitness like watches, apps, and dietary enhancements. Try swaps as part of your approach to change too. Take it slowly and steadily, and you’ll find it much easier to stick with your new choices.
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