By Jaime Brenkus, Evergreen Wellness
In our hurried, hectic lifestyles we race around trying to fit in everything we want to do. Think about your own life: isn’t physical activity the first thing you push aside when you’re busy? A zillion other things become your priorities. Yet you still desire to have a fit, healthy body. That’s the bad news.
Now, the good news: fitness is cumulative! A little here, a little there. According to The American College of Sports Medicine, you can get great benefits by doing shorter bouts of fitness at a time.
Your approach to fitness can be sensible and painless. You don’t have to be a bodybuilder or a marathon runner to see results.
Most people have busy schedules and share the same goals. They want to lose weight and firm their bodies. I’m here to tell you that if you can work out just 8 minutes every day – just an hour a week – that’s a great start. Remember, you don’t have to torture your body for it to respond.
Rethink Your Definition Of Exercise.
If you’re truly strapped for time, rethink your definition of exercise. We often get stuck in the trap of thinking that exercise means running for miles or working out for hours. However, that’s not the only way to think about exercise. Think about 8 minutes a day! There is always something you can do, even if it’s a little bit at a time.
Reshape In Eight.
Let’s break this down. There are 1,440 minutes in a day, 10,080 minutes in each week. You only have to give 8 minutes of your time every day. That 56 minutes per week can make a huge difference in your life!
If You Rest, You Rust!
As we age, we naturally lose muscle if we don’t exercise. You might find some easy activities you did previously, such as carrying groceries or playing a round of golf, too challenging. This is a warning you need to do more exercise.
Rev Up Your Metabolism.
When you were in your 20s, you could eat almost anything and never gain a pound. Now, you find that food accumulates on your body in the form of fat and unwanted inches around your waist. As we age, Mother Nature has a way of turning down our body’s metabolism, the rate at which a person burns energy. Every decade starting at the age of 25, our metabolism declines.
The good news is that if we put the right fuel in our bodies and start an exercise regime, we can increase our metabolism and help reverse the aging process. If you exercise, your metabolism revs up. If not, it drops and you find yourself with less energy and more fat.
Set A Reachable Goal!
Remember, success in life is not about inches and pounds, it’s when you start taking your first steps towards a reachable goal. You’re never too busy to take an achievable step toward wellness!
About Jaime Brenkus
Jaime Brenkus is a Fitness Coach for Evergreen Wellness (exercisewithjaime.com) which provides videos and articles designed to inspire people 55 and older to enjoy happier, healthier lives. Brenkus is a nationally recognized fitness expert best known for revolutionizing the fitness industry with his 8-Minute Abs video series in the 1990s. Over the last three decades, Brenkus has helped millions of people become healthier and more confident by feeling better and looking younger.
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