August 23rd, 2011
August 13th, 2011
Motivation to Exercise: Getting Going With Getting Fit-by Bob Prentiss
If you surf the web like I do, you read lots of information about how much exercise we are supposed to have. I’ve read one hour a day that gets your heart rate up, but have also read that walking for half an hour three times a week is plenty. I’ve also seen some interesting statistics as to how many people in the US don’t get enough exercise. One figure I read recently is 50%, though the author didn’t say what enough meant. I’m not sure if enough means one hour a day or walking for half an hour three days a week.
I’ve enjoyed reading many of the reasons people give for why they aren’t exercising enough. One popular reason is “I don’t have the time.” Almost as popular is, “I don’t like exercising.” One I hear pretty frequently, especially from people who are seriously overweight is that they can’t lose weight because they are unable to exercise, because they weigh too much. I recent read an article that many people don’t exercise because they have psychological resistance.
Whatever the claimed reason, the bottom line is that these people simply aren’t motivated to exercise. And if you aren’t motivated to exercise, you aren’t going to do it. If this describes you, if you lack the motivation to exercise, but would like to get motivated, there is something you can do to get motivated. What you can do is use the model for self motivation. Motivating yourself is a skill, and the easiest way to learn that skill is with the model.
Here’s the model for self motivation: MOTIVATION = (VISION, SUCCESSABILITY, ENVIRONMENT).
The model tells us that your motivation is directly related to the three factors:
- your vision (the change you want to make in your life),
- your successability (your confidence in your competence, that is, your perception of your ability to make the change)
- your environment, both your physical environment (where you will do the work necessary to make the change) and your social environment (the people and organizations available to you).
The model for self motivation tells us that any positive steps you take to impact your vision, successability or environment will automatically positively impact your motivation. Let’s see how we can use the model to motivate ourselves to exercise.
The first factor is vision, the important change you want to make. How you view this change will directly impact your motivation to make it. First off, if you aren’t clear on exactly what the change is, you will not be motivated to make it. Your lack of clarity will serve as a demotivator. It will actually rob you of your existing motivation. Second, if you view the change as something that is not particularly valuable to you, you will not be motivated to make it.
Task One: Get Clarity The first task therefore is to get clear on what you mean by exercise. Do you want to exercise an hour every day, or will you be happy with half an hour every other day. Take some time to get clear on exactly what you want to do.
Task Two: Why is it important to YOU? You need to figure out why exercising is important to you. It doesn’t matter if it is important to your mate, your family, or your friends. If it isn’t important to you, you won’t be motivated to do it. So spend some time figuring out why it is important to you. Think about the healthy impact it will have on your health if you get adequate exercise, and the unhealthy impact not exercising will have on your health. Exercise will lower blood pressure, fight depression, cure insomnia, and build strong bones. When I think about healthy impacts of exercise, one of the most important to me is that it will lessen the likelihood of me getting a stroke. I’ve got several friends who have had them, and it’s not something I want in my future. A great way to make exercise important to you is to find an exercise you enjoy. For me is road biking. I enjoyed off road biking, just being in the woods, but found it wasn’t able to give me the cardiac intensity I enjoy (I love those endorphins). I couldn’t ride hard enough, because of all the trees. I don’t have to worry about trees when I ride on the road. Biker’s high is just as good as runner’s high.
The second factor is Successability, your confidence in your competence.Finding an exercise you enjoy is also important for your confidence in your ability to do the exercise, as the more you do something, the better you will get. Try different exercises. If one seems like it might be fun, consider taking a clinic. Most cities offer low cost clinics where you will learn, along with like minded people, how to get better at your sport. The better you get, the more confident you will be, and the more motivated you will be to do it.
The third factor is Environment, the place you do your work and the people and organizations that surround you. You can positively impact your physical environment, the place you do your work, in many ways. Just this past weekend I positively impacted my physical environment by building a chin up bar in my car port. I know if I had to go to the gym, I wouldn’t do them. I had bought one of the chin up bars that goes on the upper door jam, but found I didn’t like it. It’s too low for me to do chin ups comfortably. I know people who love them; they jump out of bed and do some pull ups. They don’t have to slip on a pair of pants like I do. You can also impact your social environment to increase your motivation to exercise. One way to do this is by joining a gym, or your local YMCA. Group classes are a great way to find exercise that you find enjoyable. We all know that exercise is good for us, even those with a psychological resistance. But exercise does not need be a chore.
Finding an exercise that is valuable to you, meaning fun, is well worth the effort. Having fun is something we seldom lack the motivation to do.
Bob A. Prentiss, the Non-Motivational Speaker, is the creator of the Model for Self Motivation and the author of the soon to be released book, iMotivateMe: Take Control of Your Motivation to Reach Your Goals and Achieve Your Dreams.
To find out more about the Model for Self Motivation, and how it can help you achieve your goals and make your dreams come true, visit Bob at http://www.bobaprentiss.com/. While there, you can sign up for a free monthly newsletter full of information on how you can learn the simple skill of motivating yourself.
Follow Bob on Twitter @motivateyou
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August 13th, 2011
Discover How To Finally Lose That Excess Body Fat- by Carolyn Hansen
There is a new approach to losing weight that is gaining momentum. It is now recognized that someone who is overweight is likely to have poor ‘metabolic fitness’ which means fat burning/fat storing hormones are unbalanced and inner systems and processes are not working as efficiently as they should be. Losing body fat becomes very difficult if not impossible.
This is the main reason why 95 percent of diets fail. If you are not prepared to take the necessary steps to rebalance your body first then spending time, effort and money on diet and exercise programs will not solve your overweight problem. This is not some new ‘fad’ dietary approach but stone-cold research based fact.
Build metabolism to burn body fat
A healthy person does not carry excess body fat. So by building your ‘metabolic fitness’ back and improving your health everything else will then fall into place. If you have been overstressing your body with restrictive ‘diets’ or too much long duration, low intensity exercise regimes you have likely been causing damage to your metabolism (your body’s engine).
This is where the burning of body fat hits a plateau and your body will not longer respond to the stress you are putting on it. This not only makes weight loss virtually impossible it risks overall health as well.
You need to retrain your brain that you need to be healthy to lose weight, not lose weight to be healthy. Building back your health should be your first priority with weight and body fat loss ranking as a distant second. This means no longer falling for ‘get thin’ quick schemes that give nothing but false promises.
Toned muscle tissue is what burns body fat
To move forward and begin the rebuilding process the first thing to implement is a proper strength training exercise program as it is the only thing that will tone up and restore the fat burning efficiency of muscle tissue. Toned and healthy muscles are what drive the metabolism and burn body fat. It is within the muscle cells that fuel is burned for energy.
Weak flabby muscles are what we get these days in our sedentary and inactive world and they have low energy requirements so restoring their health is the number one priority. This approach is based on increasing the amount of fuel (calories) we burn so we burn more than we take in. The old outdated approach was all about eating less than we burn which worked against the metabolism and made us unhealthy in the process.
When you have your exercise program in place tidy up your eating plan and this means getting rid of as much processed non-nutrient so called ‘foods’ as possible. You know the ones in pretty boxes and packets full of unhealthy chemicals that screw up our hormones and make our body store fat instead of burning it.
Replace these ‘nasties’ with ‘whole’ foods – lean proteins, healthy carbohydrates and fats. This means getting back into the kitchen and cooking from scratch. This is the only way you know what is in your food. If you want to get healthy and lose that excess body fat there is no way around this. But you can make it enjoyable and even fun as you increase your skills in the kitchen and soon you will not want to eat anything loaded with unhealthy chemicals.
So, these two strategies, your proper strength training program 2-3 times each week and your small healthy meals each with a portion of protein are your ticket back to not only a healthy disease proof body but a lean, strong, shapely one as well.
If you would like to know the real reasons you have been unsuccessful in your attempts to lose weight, come grab my free report on the Best Way To Lose Weight at http://noexcusesbodymakeover.com/
I guarantee you’ll find it to be a real eye-opener.
Author Carolyn Hansen
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