Exercise is very important for health and well-being but unfortunately a lot of us make excuses for not exercising or going to the gym. Some people are genetically lucky that they don’t need to go the gym. But if you’re doing simple every day exercises like going for a walk it can still keep you in shape.
Most of us are great at making decisions but even better at making excuses for not doing what we know is good for us. There is a lot to be said about the advantages that strength training has on your health and well-being. It is very important, especially for women later on in life. It helps with muscle tone, faster metabolism and osteoporosis. It will give you an outstanding body shape as a result of all of this.
You hear men and women complain about the bit of belly fat that they can’t seem to get rip of. Yes, walking is good but there are two important things that go hand in hand that is getting the right balance of nutrition and exercise into your daily life. The best way to achieve this is by incorporating strength training with added cardio in between. Nutrition is probably people’s biggest issue.
You will hear people say, oh I joined the gym a couple of months ago but I’m still in the same shape I was back when I joined. This is the time to ask yourself what exactly are doing that’s preventing you from losing weight, toning up or building muscle mass.
Have you ever thought you might have burned off 450 calories at the gym then consume about 500 calories after their workout. Its easy to get very hungry after working out and even more tempting to eat becasue you believe you’ve workout out enough and deserve a good amount of sweet or food.
You see most people are determined to go to the gym and get in shape but they forget that food plays at least a 70% role. If it was easy everybody would be in great shape.
It’s not easy, it’s actually hard work and anybody out there you see who is in great physical shape and looks well, it’s because they obviously trained very hard to get like that. Although, some people are more fortunate than others, they don’t need to exercise much to keep in shape.
Have you ever just met someone and asked them how to manage to keep in good shape and they tell you that they do not go to the gym or exercise. That’s why some people are physically gifted, while most of us have to put in the effort if we want to look good.
Generally, for most of the population you do have to work out to maintain the shape they have or to get maintian a healthy lifestyle. Getting the right amount of exercise and nutrition is the key to living a happier more balanced lifestyle.
It is common that the more weight you gain the less happy you will feel. So whether you want to lose weight and build muscle, you first need to set realistic expectations to achieve your fitness goals.
You can’t just say, “oh I want a great body like Genevieve Nnaji or RMD. This is not going to happen for you. Realistically you need to know where you can be for your body shape. There is no point in trying to achieve a body that is not achievable for you. So if you can balance weight training out with a good cardio session, whether that be running or walking.
The great thing about combining weight training with a good cardio session is that you can shape your body. Eating a low fat diet and cardio does not allow you to shape your muscles the way you want them and that’s a fact.
More and more people are coming to this realisation of keeping fit because weight training has becoming a popular trend on social media sites. Women have even come to this realisation that it’s okay to lift weights etc.
So once you have made a commitment to work out regularly, using weight training and cardio, you can still go out and treat yourself to a nice meal once a week. You will actually appreciate the meal more knowing that you worked your butt off at the gym and you won’t feel the slightest shame whatsoever. Just don’t make your cheat meals an everyday occurrence or you’ll only be shooting yourself in the foot.
Always remember that at least 70% is down to nutrition and how you feed your body. If you go home in the evening time and eat high sugary carbs and Eba or garri, soup with assorted meat, you won’t be able to physically burn off those calories because there is only so much exercise to burn off in one workout session.
So if you are going out and eating extra calories you will definitely store more body fat. The body gets use to cardio but weight training is much better because your body never adapts and gets use to weight training. It does adapt to cardio.
There will be times you won’t feel like going to the gym and you will make excuse after excuse why you can’t go. When you think about it not making the effort to exercise regularly actually takes more effort because you actually choose to avoid and make excuses which only make you feel even worse. The longer you sit around thinking about it the less likely you will do it.
Don’t be one of those people that say “ah I’ll go in an hour. Then the hour goes by and you’re sitting in front of the telly watching movies, playing game or watchign football. Best thing to do is set aside a time in the day or evening that you won’t be busy and commit an hour to the gym or exercising at home. Very simple, yeah? Of course it is!
If you’re a woman, no doubt it can be difficult after you have just had a child or more than one child running about. But you should at least allow yourself 2-3 days a week of some form of activity if you really want your body back the way it use to be before child birth.
So our advice is, if you’re new to the gym or haven’t worked out in a long time is to start off slowly. Set some small achievable goals with your diet and exercise program. You don’t have to work out for an hour or 2 hours, 30 minutes will do. Once you begin workout out your energy levels will increase, you will have more to give on a daily basis and it will just make you a happier person overall.
So if you want to earn your ideal body shape, then you have got to put the effort in, get into a gym or do it in the comfort of your own home, there is no excuse and Yes anything is possible when you put your mind into it.
