One of the fatal mistakes that many people make when they’re deciding to get into shape is to tackle the entire concept of “fitness” at one time.  Incorporating fitness into your life takes time and won’t happen overnight. Your body, mind, and spirit need time to adjust to the many changes that will be happening as you start to add exercise to your daily routine.  If you tackle getting into shape in small incremental steps, you will be less likely to become overwhelmed and quit.

Many people have the wrong concept of exercise. They think getting fit means spending an hour everyday on a treadmill or lifting weights like Arnold Schwarzenegger. That couldn’t be further from the truth. You can actually become healthy and fit in less than 20 minutes a day.

The first thing that you need to do is start moving …

If you haven’t been active in a while you’ll want to start by adding walking to your day.  You can start with as little as 12 minutes per day. Interval training is especially effective even in just 12 to 20 minutes per day. For example, you can walk at a fast pace for 1 minute and then recover by walking at a slower pace for 1 minute. Repeat for 12 minutes to 20 minutes.

The most effective way to achieve maximal results from your interval training is to monitor the intensity of your workouts. In other words, you need to monitor your heart rate. 

Monitoring your heart rate …

The first thing you need to do is to calculate your estimated maximum heart rate. You can easily do this by subtracting your age from 220. For example, if you are 48 years old, you would subtract 48 from 220 to get 172.

The next step is to calculate your exertion range. Since your exertion range should be between 60% – 80% of your maximum heart rate, you would multiply 172 by .60 and .80 to get a range of 103 – 137 respectively.

In the above example, you would try to stay in the range of 103 – 137 during the exertion phases of your interval training. The best way to monitor your heart rate and ensure that you are staying in your 60% – 80% range during exercise is to wear a heart rate monitor. And as always, I recommend that you see your doctor for clearance before starting any new exercise program.

If you do this consistently everyday, you will quickly see a difference in your fitness level. After you’ve become fit, you will want to begin to incorporate other types of exercises, such as core strength and stability, and balance exercises.

After a couple months of taking the above small steps towards fitness you’ll start to see a significant change in your fitness level.  You’ll find that you feel better, have more energy, are sleeping more soundly, and feel better about yourself.

Action Steps for Today …

Get started moving today. If you haven’t exercised in while, just start walking. For the first couple of weeks stick to the same walking routine so that you get used to some type of fitness.  This way you won’t injure yourself by attempting to do more than your body is ready for.

If you’re already fit, you can start with interval training right away. Remember, the key is to start at an intensity level that is right for you. And then gradually build up to more intensity as you become more fit.

In addition to your daily exercise routine, try to find other ways to get moving. Take the stairs instead of the elevator; park your car around the corner from your destination and walk a block or two; or leave your car at home whenever you can.  Your goal for fitness is to get moving and to keep moving.

My Contact information for Assistance with Personal Training

Phone: (866) 385-9685

Email: epetty[at]keywebenterprises.com

I welcome your comments, suggestions, and questions so go ahead and leave your comments –I’d love to hear from you. Also, if you’d like for me to cover a topic in more detail or cover a topic that I have not talked about yet, just let me know.

It’s importance for you to know that this blog was created for you.  The goal is to build a community of people helping people. So if you would like to share your knowledge on a health and fitness related topic, just leave your comments. 

Be Organic God’s Way!

Edwin

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Can I really make my brain better?

The brain is involved in everything we do. Mental stimulation and intense exercise makes the brain better and protects it against deterioration including Alzheimer’s. You must continually challenge your brain and stimulate it to think by learning new tasks. This blog series will address ways to make your brain and memory better.

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Okay, now that we’ve covered some important aspects of foundational health through forgiveness and giving, I’d like to start talking about some ways to build on that foundation. If you missed the last few posts, I encourage you to take a moment to read them.

Making your brain and body better for everyday life involves more than just walking on a treadmill for 30 minutes everyday or doing some other form of boring exercise.  Many people settle for boring exercises, because they think it’s helping them. But it may actually be hurting them. I stopped long-duration treadmill exercise sessions years ago and I don’t miss it at all.  I’ll talk more about this in future posts.

If you want to function better in your everyday life (and who doesn’t), you need to work on making your brain better with new learning experiences and proper eating that feeds your brain. You need to work on your core stability and strength, balance, and flexibility using exercises right for your fitness level.  Many people get discouraged and quit exercising simply because they are trying to exercise beyond their fitness level. This is a mistake that can be avoided by starting an exercise program that is right for you.

I know you’re probably thinking that it sounds like a lot of work and very time consuming. But it really isn’t. I’ll show you how to pick exercises that are right for your fitness level. Once you are exercising at the right level for your fitness, it then can become very enjoyable.  For me exercising is fun and I look forward to it.

Before going on, let me just tell you a little bit about myself…   

I recently retired at the early age of 47. Before retiring I spent nearly 28 years of my life working for a major health insurance company. Although, I was a Technology Manager/Consultant, and not directly involved in patient care issues, I saw indirectly the impact of an unhealthy lifestyle on rising healthcare costs as well as the implications of not dealing with the root causes of poor health and wellness. By the way, this experience is what drives me to help people become healthier.

While working in the corporate world in a demanding high stress position, I was challenged to find time to exercise and take care of myself, but I managed to because I value my health. When you consider your health as an asset and not just something that you deal with when you get sick, you have a whole new perspective on what you eat and how you exercise.  

Well I have to go for now, but please come back to visit tomorrow. I will be talking about why different forms of exercise are so important.  Many people think that aerobic exercise is the only form of exercise they need to do after age 40. This could not be further from the truth.

I am doing an informal survey of the types of exercises people over 40 do. For example, do you do aerobic exercises (treadmill, walking)? Do you play golf? Do you workout with weights or weight machines? And so on …

I’d love to hear from you, so post your answers via a comment to this blog. Your participation will make this blog more beneficial for everyone.

Be Organic God’s Way!

Edwin

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Before embarking on your journey to be healthy and fit, you must first address your foundation. Let me explain what I mean …

A strong spirit is the foundation that leads to true health and fitness. Being “Organic” or getting back to where God created you to be starts with your spirit (Tim Elmore).  I am convinced that as our spirit gets stronger, it will have a profound effect on our total health.

Since your body is God’s temple you should glorify Him with it. However, we often give little regard to how we treat our bodies. We don’t get enough sleep, don’t exercise, and don’t eat right. Then to make matters worse we push our bodies to the limit expecting it to keep working just fine. Is it time for you to inspect your building – are you trashing the temple of God?

Many Christians act like they own their body – they can eat whatever they want, they can think whatever they want, they can feel any way they want, they can go without sleep, they can stress their bodies, minds, emotions, choose not to exercise – sit on the coach – yet believe God that they will be healthy.  It doesn’t work that way.  James 2:20 states “Faith without works is dead” (KJV).  This verse applies to all areas of our lives including our health.  We have to make the commitment or covenant that our body is not our own.  We’re supposed to live to 120 years of age, but the average American checks out at 75.5 years of age.  (Dr. Don Colbert).

What we do in the body, will affect our spirit, because our spirit lives in the Body (Jentezen Franklin).

So here’s the first step to total health and fitness … Forgive!!!!!

Do yourself a favor – accept people for who they are (Joyce Meyer)

Forgiveness does not come easy for most people, but it’s what we must do in order to truly be healthy. When we forgive, we are being obedient to God and ultimately protecting our bodies from sickness and disease. Sometimes forgiveness has to be directed toward ourselves. I know for me, forgiving myself is sometimes harder than forgiving others.

Make the choice today to forgive and then to move on. You will be glad you did. Total health will not happen unless you start with forgiveness.

I encourage you to stop reading right now. Grab a pen and paper and write down all the people you need to forgive. Remember that list may include you.

Once you have the list completed make a conscious decision to forgive right now. This is a choice based on your spirit, not on your emotions. You may not “feel” like you can forgive the people on your list, but don’t worry, if you make the decision to forgive, that’s what matters. 

Now, tear up the list and make a decision to move on.

Be Organic God’s Way!

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