3 Crucial Ingredients to Being Fit

Do you struggle with losing weight and staying in shape? Have you attempted weight loss over and over with only a little success? Well I have 3 things to share that can help you get the changes you are looking for! 

1. Foundation

What's are your priorities? God? Your happiness? Family? Work? Figuring out your priorities is key to your weight loss efforts. If God is your priority then seeking Him for help in the area of fitness is essential so He can help you accomplish what you don't always have the strength to do on your own. But if your happiness is number one then after working all day you might feel entitled to lounge on the couch the rest of the night and not exercise because you won't enjoy it. If family is number one then you are running around serving every family member and pushing aside important responsibilities and not focusing on yourself. Your life flows out of the foundation you set. Your priorities are seen by the choices you make.

2. Intensity

If you want to be fit and lose weight, intensity is key. Our bodies are well-constructed machines and work very efficiently. If you have plateaued then look at what you're doing. Are you lifting the same amount of weights? Are you running the same pace/distance you were 3 months ago? Your body won't change if you don't change what you're doing! Athletes have amazing bodies because they are always pushing themselves. If you want to be fit then do what fit people do! That does NOT include walking on the treadmill every night for 30 minutes while reading a book. You can do that but don't count it as your workout or expect to see a change in your body. 

3. Habits

Fit people have formed healthy habits. It's not grueling work, annoying, a diet, or a wagon to get on and off. Healthy habits become a part of who you are. They become second nature. Once you push passed the hardest part of "making it through" your workouts, it really can become fun. Your body will crave these healthy habits. It takes about 21 to 30 days to break a habit, which would hopefully be a bad habit. But if you're breaking a bad habit then hopefully you're replacing it with a healthy habit. So maybe you eat a Snickers bar every afternoon at 3:00 but you change the habit by eating a mix of almonds, dark chocolate and a piece of fruit or veggie. You're not only removing one bad habit but you're adding a great one. Maybe you commit to exercising several days a week. Next thing you know you're doing random exercises at any given moment. You get hit with the "bug" for working out!

So how do we make these things happen? To develop your foundation you need to sit down and spend time figuring it out. Clear your head, write/journal, pray, meditate, and talk with someone who can give advice and help you sort this out. 

Once you figure out your foundation then your mind will be focused on what you need to do, which will translate to more intense workouts because a workout is more than half mental. If you tell yourself you can do it, you will. 

Finally, sit down and set goals. These goals will turn into habits. Successful people have goals and they go for them. Now I know you have the capability to do these things. Are you going to sit down and figure this out? Are you ready for a change? Time to get started. 

Inspired by Chalene Johnson's book, "Push"