Pathetic Physical State of Americans

The fact that most kids in America are officially unfit is pathetic. I don't blame individual kids though. I blame parents and schools. Chances are that most parents are unfit too though.

You don't need a fancy playground but they can be a fun way to get physically fit.

The solution is simple. Play (exercise) with your kids. It's a chance to bond with them, you will improve the health of both of you and it can be very fun. Go to the playground with them today and scramble around with them for an hour.

Ask me about playground activities for all ages.

No Point in Even Trying

Sad but true?

Maybe the Onion was correct in their recent spoof news article. Losing weight, writing a book, breaking up with someone, learning another language, changing careers--all these choices are made more difficult by the inertia of life. Change is hard, intentionally changing yourself is impossible.

Bullshit.

We all start out life at the same place as naked, helpless, poor, dumb babies. We immediately start to accumulate experiences, knowledge, & stuff.  We also start developing habits--both good and bad.  Learning to speak and understand our first language seems like a natural process from a position of being an adult who is already fluent but think about how frustrated kids are by their inability to understand or to be understood.  No wonder kids pitch fits all the time; they want something specific but are incapable of getting it! There's nothing easy about developing language skills, but children have no other choice than to struggle through picking up words and phrases little-by-little everyday. They develop the good habit of studying their first language until they can be understood as they would like to be.

He'll be speaking Swahili in no time

Necessity drives kids to try new things. As adults we benefit from the ability to reason and forecast with rational thought.  We can look at our struggles to become fitter and healthier through the lens of a child struggling everyday and see that immediate results are not possible. We can see the reward in the effort itself.  We know that diligent effort over time pays off in the end. We know that babies learn to speak eventually because they work at it everyday and don't let minor setbacks derail their progress.

Changing your life isn't impossible. You have so much more going for you than any helpless, ignorant baby, and they change their lives all the time. Find your internal driving need as babies do. You have to want to do something the way that a baby wants to talk or walk. Commit to a healthy lifestyle and little-by-little you'll get the results you want.

If a helpless, dumb baby can do it so can you.

Develop a Fitness Habit

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
-Lao Zi, Tao Te Ching

It's hard to get in shape.  There are no magic bullets.  Exercise hurts.  You can't get into shape without gutting through some difficult days or without fighting through laziness.  Discouraged?  Don't be.

Get off the sedentary highway by developing a daily fitness habit

As the classic quote above says, even the hardest endeavors have a starting point.  Here are 3 steps to get you started on a fitness path and keep you on it:

1. Do a little something everyday
2. Log what you do in a journal
3. Tell other people what you are doing

The first step is to make an intention that you will do something everyday.  Pick something approachable like 10 pushups or walking 1 mile.  The easier it is, the more likely you'll do it.  The important part with this step is that you develop a daily habit or bias towards exercise.  The intensity or duration of whatever you chose is irrelevant for this goal.  Feel free to do other exercise but do your daily routine no matter what for at least 60 days straight.

Secondly, you need to log what you do.  This is also part of forming the exercise habit.  Tracking what you do gives you a sense of personal accomplishment.  The log will also be a record to help guide your exercise program as you start to see results.

If you don't track it, you can't fix it

Lastly, tell other people what your daily exercise is.  Your friends and family will remind you periodically and give you additional motivation to stay on the path.  This will also provide you with another source of pride as you are able to confirm to them that you already did your workout.

Getting healthy and fit doesn't have to be a daunting challenge.  Start with modest daily goals, log your activity and engage with those around you about your plan.  Pretty soon you'll be the athlete that you never thought you could be.