We all have habits, routines and patterns. It’s called a lifestyle. Think about yours. Do you live an active lifestyle or just a busy lifestyle? They are two very different things.
An active lifestyle includes fitness and exercise. You work out at the gym or engage in different sports and activities that make you consistently active. It’s also a lot of fun. A hike or a walk at the beach is enjoyable and good for you!
A busy lifestyle means you’re on the go all the time, but it may not be physical. Perhaps you have a very engaging job and you work a lot. You’re constantly busy trying to balance your work life with your personal life. You can be very busy and also sedentary.
Here’s the thing.
Your body adapts to whatever lifestyle you are living. If you live a sedentary lifestyle, your body will adapt and tend to become soft and overweight. Without stressing your muscles, they become weaker and lose their shape. You’ll get winded easily and have little endurance if you don’t exercise your cardiovascular system.
Conversely, if you exercise regularly your body will adapt to the stress by becoming more fit. Your posture improves, and your muscles get stronger with more tone. Your heart and lungs get stronger and you lose weight and become leaner.
Your body will adapt to your lifestyle.
We often compartmentalize fitness and attach the label of “workout” and we say things like “I have to go workout now.” Working out becomes a specific activity we do, and we choose whether we’re doing it or not. You can also make working out part of your lifestyle and whether your workout or not is never up for debate. As part of your active lifestyle you work out. There’s not question that working out is what you do.
Engaging an active lifestyle and making exercise part of your active lifestyle removes the negative choice of “Do I workout today or not?” If its your lifestyle you just do it.
Here’s a few tips to help with your active lifestyle:
- Write a description for your active lifestyle. Commit
it to paper. It becomes more real if you write it down.
- What are the things that make you active? Group
classes, hiking, biking, sports, walks, etc. are all things that can be on your
list.
- Schedule your activities. Most people keep some sort of calendar or schedule, even if its informal. Schedule your activities so they become as important as any other activities. They are more likely to get done.
