Getting Healthy Without the Hype

07.31.2007

By this time you have already heard countless reasons why you should be working on your fitness, so I will not be spending a lot of time on this. I'll forgo the boring details that medical doctors and fitness professionals have been preaching for what seems like an eternity at this point. What I will focus on are the three main camps that a vast majority of people break down into. The first are those who will never do fitness, ever. Everybody knows someone who falls into this camp, they simply refuse to get into any kind of shape, eat moderately healthy and basically will die from all the associated complications that the lifestyle to (heart disease, diabetes, etc.)

The second group is probably the biggest camp. It includes individuals that have participated in some sort of fitness program or recreational sport, but for whatever reason hasn’t been consistent in it. The final camp includes the people that most of us would consider to be maniacs. These are the people that are always eating healthy and exercising regularly; usually bouncing off the walls and driving everyone else nuts.

If you are in the first and second camp then this article is for you. I should mention that people go back and forth between the second and third camps all the time. However, the group that the medical and the insurance companies are worried most about is the first group. If you are in this camp I will be very clear about this, you are a dead man walking. Can you change and move into any of the other camps? Yes, you can, but only if you want to. As for the second camp, you have the best chance to dramatically change your life.

Here’s the thick of it, fitness blows. It can be boring, painful, uneventful, and confusing. The key to it is commitment and finding ways to make it fun and interesting. You don’t have to walk on the treadmill for what seems like hours or ride a bike that goes nowhere. However, you do have to do something, and you need to sweat, or what I tell the women, “glow” (sorry ladies). Your heart rate has to get up above couch potato, and exercise has to last for longer than 30 minutes. Just as everything else in life, you have to work at it to get something from it. There is an old saying that has been passed on in my family for generations, and this is the bottom line, “It’s time to get off you ass”. The good thing about fitness is that you can start anytime, and for most of us sooner will be better than later.

Matt Heringer - Staff Writer