Healthy Living

Jogging for fun Written by R. A. Stewart You do not have to be a competitive athlete to enjoy running. Just a few jogs around the block per week can significantly improve your well-being over a period of time. It is just a matter of doing whatever works for you.  There is no one shoe size which fits everyone’s personal circumstances. Once you reach a certain level of fitness then you may decide to take part in your local 5k park run.  The job/walk method of training is ideal for beginners. With this system you choose various landmarks, say, lamp posts and jog to the first lamp post, walk the next, jog to the next, then walk to the next one. After a week you jog to two lamp posts for each one which you walk to and so on.  Increasing the ratio of lamp posts you jog to for every one you walk to. Once you have been jogging for several weeks you may be confident enough to jog the entire distance without stopping for a walk.  Whether it is one, mile, two miles, or three ...

  Fitness shouldn't be just a chore Written by R. A. Stewart Fitness should be fun, something which you cannot wait to get out of bed in the morning for. If it is something which you feel you should do rather than something which you want to do then your get fit program is not fun, it’s a chore. That being the case you need to examine why you are doing it and find ways to make it more meaningful and fun. Otherwise you will always find excuses to miss training and sooner or later you will fall back into your old habits and lose the benefits of your previous training. As the saying goes, “Use it or lose it.” It has been said many times “It takes a while to gain peak fitness but it's easy to lose it once you stop training." If you are having trouble getting motivated then it is time to examine your whys and ask yourself, "What motivates me?" Am I training to run my first 5k fun run?, do I want to run one mile without stopping?, or want to improve my time for the 800...

How to lose weight without being Frustrated  You stand on the scales several times a day and your weight is exactly the same each time. Maybe you are trying just a little too hard. It does not matter how often you watch the scales, it won’t budge just because you want it to. Maybe a shift of mindset is what is needed. Here is my suggestion. Focus on a healthy lifestyle mindset rather than a weight-loss one. If you do that then the weight issue will take care of itself. I am not saying that there is a magic solution to losing weight, but you need to be realistic and not set unrealistic targets. You should not try to aim to have a model-like figure or try to be like someone else other than who you really are, but rather be the best that you can with the abilities and talents which you have. Trying to be something which you are not is a sure recipe for unhappiness. There are some things you can control and others you cannot. Let go of the things you cannot control and focus on the thi...

Running your first 5k  Written by R. A. Stewart I recently saw a man on TV give his testimony on how he lost weight after starting on a journey of jogging. On his first day he jogged 500 metres and walked the rest of the way. As his fitness increased he increased the distance he jogged until gradually he was able to jog the entire 5k. This was all done with a sensible diet regime. Certainly, a bad diet will undermine attempts to get fit. Getting fit requires persistence and dedication. There is no point in just running a gut buster on a Saturday and not training on the other six days of the week because by the time the following Saturday comes around the benefit of the previous Saturday’s gut busting run will be lost. “It is hard to get fit but easy to lose it” is a quote I have heard. Inactivity is a sure way to lose your fitness. A horse trainer once said to a reporter, “If you walk up a mountain you will be stiff and sore the next day but if you walk up a mountain every day fo...

Starting your fitness journey Written by R. A. Stewart December is a month in which people sometimes reflect on the year which is almost gone. “How could I have done better?” and “What could I have done differently?” are two questions which come to mind. Did I achieve my goals which I set myself is a good question to ask and one which is personal to most people. Fitness and weight-loss goals will no doubt make their annual appearance on a lot of people’s New Years Resolutions, but sadly these usually fall by the wayside after a few weeks. There are keys to making goals stick and the first key is habit.  Fitness Key Number 1: Habit  Developing new habits and repeating the habit so that it becomes part of your lifestyle is crucial. It takes discipline to train daily. It has been said that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. That is a new habit is repeated everyday for 21 days. Perseverance is the key. Fitness Key Number 2: Passion Desire is the fuel which stokes passion. Yo...

Making changes to your life Written by R. A. Stewart “If you change nothing, nothing changes.”-Anonymous To go from where you are to where you need to be requires change. That is: Change of mindset Change of behaviour Change of routine It is all a matter of stepping out of your comfort zone. This is not always as easy as people think because of different circumstances. You do not know why people stay in a situation which is not good for them, but self confidence and insecurity are the two main ones. The biggest barrier to change is the fear of criticism. This prevents people from stepping out of their comfort zone and trying new things. People do say things about any changes they see in those closest to them and not all of it is complimentary. There can be any number of reasons why someone wants you to remain the same; one of these is insecurity. You doing something with your life will make others feel uneasy. They want you to stay as you are because it makes them feel better about...