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Why Putting Fitness First is Important

March 17th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed

If your like most people, you tend to take your health and fitness for granted. It’s not until you start gaining weight, have a medical emergency or reach the age of 55 or 60 that you start to think about fitness. Sometimes waiting for a medical emergency or late in life before improving your fitness can prove fatal.

Do not let this happen to you and your family. You need to put your health and fitness first in life and begin making changes today. Although you may not see an immediate significant impact from implementing a fitness first program, it will pay off in the long run. It is the best way to ensure a long, healthy and happy life.

The fitness first plan is simple and can be implemented by making small permanent improvements in your diet, exercise and fitness program. It involves living a healthier life style so you can reap the rewards today and especially later in life.

Living healthy when you are younger provides numerous benefits such as:

live a longer more productive live;
minimize your risk of developing health problems later in life;
allows you to engage in the activities you want later in life versus having limited mobility;
can slow the aging process; and
enhances your overall sense of well-being; and more.

A fitness first plan will differ from person to person because we all have different fitness goals and our bodies function differently. However each plan includes a balanced and healthy diet, an exercise program, good sleeping habits, limited alcohol consumption and the removal of bad habits such as smoking and drugs.

Designing Your Fitness First Plan

Although this may sound selfish, you are the most important person in your life. You need to take the time to learn as much as possible about your body and current fitness level, so you can design the fitness first plan that is right for you.

Your plan should leverage and maintain your strengths while minimizing or eliminating your weaknesses. For example, some people have more flexibility with their diet because their bodies process food efficiently, while others need to adhere to a very strict diet. You may have tremendous lower body strength but minimal upper body strength. You may have great muscle tone but lack flexibility.

Your fitness first plan should address your specific problem areas to ensure good overall health and fitness. It’s also advisable to design and/or review your plan with your doctor, a personal trainer, a nutrionist and/or other specialist.

When developing your fitness first plan, the following steps may prove helpful:

analyze your current state (i.e., diet, exercise, body fat percent, habits, etc.);
design your long-term future state;
develop your initial short term plan to begin moving from current to future state;
review your plan with specialists, as needed;
monitor your progress regularly; and
implement additional improvements, as needed.

Your fitness first plan should motivate you to focus on your fitness today so that you can accomplish what you want in the long term. The greatest benefits of the plan will be experienced 5, 10, 20 or 40 years from now, depending upon your age.

Your fitness and health should be your number one priority. If you do not take care of yourself who will?

Your fitness first plan should also be fun and include activities that you enjoy. A happy and healthy lifestyle is not meant to be an overwhelming burden. It enhances your life.

Sure it takes work, but the work can be challenging, interesting and (at least some of it) fun.

To Your Health,
MyDietAndFitnessProgram.com