HERSH: Overcoming obstacles to fitness

By Jeff Hersh
Published: September 7, 2008

We have a way of allowing life’s impediments to derail our efforts to begin and maintain a healthier lifestyle.
Every time we turn on the TV, read a magazine or newspaper or open our mail, we are inundated with solicitations from companies who want to help you plan for your financial retirement. They’ll help you live comfortably into your golden years. We have worked hard and deserve these comforts they promise. We can easily justify contributing to a 401(k), IRA or other savings plan for the promise of living out our years financially secure. However, what if our retirement savings end up being spent on prescription drugs, doctors, hospitals and long-term healthcare?
Without investing in our own health retirement fund, a little at a time, just like our financial retirement future, this becomes a very rea l possibility.
While we know a program for an active lifestyle is beneficial to so many aspects of our lives, many still struggle with incorporating this lifestyle into their daily routines.
The wellness industry terms those as health seekers and estimates health seekers comprise anywhere from 70 percent to 80 percent of our population. Health seekers are those who may have tried to incorporate a healthier lifestyle but failed to know the benefits of such a lifestyle but never start or have given up efforts to achieve a healthier lifestyle all the while recognizing the benefits.
How can we move from being a health seeker to an active health achiever?
The first step is to address and overcome the excuses we use that set us up for failure.
The most common thing I hear is that there’s just not enough time to include activity in a busy life. If we redefine this problem as one of priority, we can easily see that we spend our discretionary time doing what we want to do as opposed to what we should do. How many hours are spent in American households watching TV every day?
If we cut out television viewing by a mere hour a day and replace it with activity, we meet the Surgeon General’s daily recommendation for activity. But what if you don’t watch an hour of television? How can you squeeze that hour of activity into your day?
Break it down into manageable segments. Six ten minute or three twenty minute sessions does it for the day. Perhaps an hour is too much when you start. Try for thirty minutes a day. You’ll be surprised how easy it becomes to expand that time to sixty minutes.
Another problem I hear often is what I term the PIG — Problem with Immediate Gratification.
We live in a society that wants it fast and often and that attitude has spilled over to our fitness goals. We hear about six minute abs, seven minute total body workouts, and complete body makeovers in just ten minutes a day. This is just marketing hype to entice the time strapped to purchase a product.
I will literally see people get on the scale before their workout and jump right back on after their workout is done, apparently hopeful that some miracle has occurred and they’ve defied science to achieve some unrealistic goal. When those immediate goals aren’t met, they get discouraged and give up.
What we really should focus on is a long-term approach to lifestyle change. Fitness is truly like the parable of the tortoise and the hare. The long steady approach always benefits more than trying to get all the results in just a few weeks. The long-term approach creates a new lifestyle as opposed to the short term where we find ourselves trying to cram one more thing in our busy day.
One way to achieve success in your fitness goals is to break your long-term goals down. When someone comes to me and says they want to lose fifty pounds I tell them they don’t really want to do that.
Instead, what they really want is to lose a pound a week for a year. Most everyone would agree that sounds pretty easy. It’s the same goal just broken down into manageable increments. Shifting the focus away from a large goal to smaller increments on the way to that goal makes it seem more attainable. Think about it, a half pound a week is thirty six pounds in a year, a quarter pound a week is thirteen pounds.
Another key to success is to redefine terms.
For example, replace the word exercise with activity. Just by doing this, we expand the scope of what we can do. The term exercise can limit us by stirring up visions of weights, treadmills and gyms. However, the term activity allows us to think of playing with our kids, walking and recreational sports as well as the traditional gym activities.
Another example is to substitute the word diet with nutrition. Diet conjures up visions of deprivation and hunger. Is it a coincidence that the first three letter of diet are die? Nutrition is perceived in a much more user friendly way. So, instead of going on a diet plan, go on a nutrition plan.
All of us can struggle from time to time in our efforts to achieve and maintain a healthier lifestyle. If we make a healthier lifestyle a priority, set reasonable long term goals broken down in to short term increments, redefine the way we think about achieving a healthier lifestyle and invest in ourselves, we will be well on our way.
Editor’s note: Jeff Hersh is the Wellness Director at the Waynesboro Family YMCA. His responsibilities include creating and implementing corporate wellness programs, group fitness programs, senior wellness programs and youth sports and strength-training programs.
Word from the Y is a rotating column featuring several members of the Waynesboro Family YMCA that will offer insight on sports and their impact on the Waynesboro and Augusta County communities.