Love to be FIT

Fitness is a new topic that I haven't written about on my blog. These days it seems that everyone has an opinion on fitness. I have one too. Why not share? From my latter elementary school years until middle school as a wee little chap, I found myself struggling with my weight. I wish that I could say that I loss the extra weight that I carried eating healthy and exercising, but that isn't the case. Instead, the pounds that I loss were from eating very little. It wasn't until my college years that I started to establish a routine of exercise and became more selective with my food selections and became mindful of meal portion sizes.

The formula for maintaining a healthy weight is as simple people make it out to be,

Exercise + nutritious foods = healthy weight

The challenge that is difficult for many people to solve is, how on earth can I compute this formula everyday with my own body?

You can scour the internet for the perfect diet plan, but I've learned that if you don't have a few key elements in place as you embark on this fitness journey you will find the numbers on the scale yo-yo-ing back and forth time after time.

The philosophy of fitness that I have made my own is, our body is a temple of the Lord and because of that we should take care of it. To neglect exercise and abuse the blessing of eating by gorging myself on whatever I want, whenever I want, and however much I want is a misuse of the body that God has blessed me with. In taking care of our bodies our focus should not be solely on the exterior. Any exterior enhancements that are realized because of fitness are a by-product of exercise and healthy eating. When we're consumed with how we look, we're led to make our bodies an idol.

Here are a few lessons that have enabled me to stick to a health and fitness plan over the years,

• Get yourself an accountability group. Signing yourself up with other people who have the same goal of maintaining a workout routine can be one of the most crucial decisions you will make to staying with a fitness plan. When you know someone is responsible for ensuring that you're following through with your plan, it does something to your mindset regarding exercise. We never want to let someone down, so an accountability partner or group of people can be the motivation that you need to stay committed to your goals.
•  Identify the exercise technique(s) that you're willing to commit to for fitness. Do you like to workout alone? Does taking a long walk in the park sound appealing to you? Or, do you enjoy group fitness classes where you can feed off the hype of an instructor face-to-face and other class members. Identify your exercise of choice and make it a part of your exercise plan.
•  Make exercise engaging and enjoyable for yourself. When you do, you will find that you're more apt to commit to it. Who wants to do something 5-6 times a week that they don't enjoy? If you enjoy walking, then make walking your regular exercise regime. Think about the physical activities that you enjoy and investigate ways to scheduled them into an exercise routine.
• Establish a time of day that you can commit to exercising and the days of the week that you plan to workout. If you don't establish a plan ahead of time as soon as there is a distraction, you will neglect your workout and could become discouraged on following through and keeping up with your plan. 
• Adopt the mentality that each time you workout, you are making time for yourself and in doing this you become a blessing to others. When you exercise you are not just doing something special for your body, you are taking care of the person that also takes care of others.

For several years now I have been blessed with amazing, energetic, and beautiful women who desire to honor God through fitness. We have become accountability partners to each other and keep each other accountable simply through text messaging each other with our weekly goals, sending encouraging notes after each workout, and sharing in each others successes. You can do the same, even if its just one person that you can enlist to share in the journey to loving fitness.

There's only one you.

Take care of you.