Living the good life….it sounds wonderful doesn’t it? Have you thought about what living the good life means for you? Think of the times in your life where you have been limited by your current fitness level. Without a healthy, fit body, opening your car door, balancing around your dogs greeting you when you get home, picking up a paper from the floor or opening a jelly jar could be difficult, if not painful. Maybe you don’t have any limitations today, but wouldn’t it be nice to keep it that way?

Imagine a day that starts with an easy roll out of bed, a quick stretch, and a skip downstairs to put on workout clothes and shoes and a trip to the gym for a 30 minute workout before work. If that were the way you started your day every day, how different might the rest of your day be?
Fitness and ongoing good living won’t happen by accident; in fact, it gets more difficult every day as your body fights the constant pull of gravity. Our best chance is to embrace our bodies as they are, make a commitment to learn how our body works, and find out what it needs to stay strong and healthy. And most importantly, take the steps to maintain the health and freedom a strong body provides us.

The first step, embracing your body the way it is, starts with a realistic evaluation of how fit and healthy you are today. It’s hard for most people to be objective about their own bodies, and most of the time people are reluctant to take this essential step. But not you and not today!

Start by taking a walk, either on the treadmill or around the block.
Walk for 12 minutes without stopping and pay attention to these 4 things:

a.) Can you talk without having to interrupt your sentence with your breathing?
b.) Can you feel your heart beating and do you notice it is beating faster as you walk?
c.) Where do you feel fatigue? Your legs, core, upper body?
d.) Does the 12 minutes seem to go on forever, or does the time pass by quickly?

Write down your observations and use this as your baseline to begin building your cardiovascular strength. At first, walking will be enough, but soon your body will adapt and you will need to increase the work load to increase in strength. This “overload” principle is essential for improving your health, because if you don’t, aging and gravity will have their way with you, leading instead to gradual weakening every day.
These are the first steps to take care of your heart and lungs. With a strong heart and lungs you can:

Live your life without struggling for breath.
Use your body effortlessly to perform the work you do with daily living
Burn calories efficiently to maintain a healthy body weight.

This means you can skip down those stairs, pick up your children or grandchildren and jog over to the park for a morning of play, and you can do it with ease. You will look fit and strong doing it and you will feel great!

Here is a warning: Your mind will tell you all kinds of excuses about why you don’t need to exercise. You need to stop listening to yourself! Without constant care, your body will weaken. Even with constant care, you can’t stop aging, but you will significantly delay the loss in body strength and function with a commitment to a fitness plan. Your plan will provide direction and focus to help you exercise effectively and efficiently throughout your life!

Over the next 5 weeks we will focus on 5 Facts of Fitness and how they will help you take care of your body. They are:

  • More exercises for cardiovascular fitness (now that you have had 4 weeks to get stronger).
  • The value of muscular strength and balance for your fitness
  • How much muscular endurance is enough?
  • Is my fat helping or hurting me?
  • Stay flexible in mind and body.

You can find me, Susan Jansson and Snap Manager, Eric Acevedo, at the new Snap Fitness on G Street in Jacksonville. Come see us during our Grand Opening April 1st through 3rd and get started improving your health. We have a team of trainers that will help you develop your fitness strategies as well as help you stick with them over time.

With a strategic plan that includes taking care of all aspects of fitness, you can create and maintain a healthy body that contributes to living a good – and healthy life.

Susan Jansson, Snap Fitness owner of Jacksonville and Talent, Oregon SNAP locations, is a 20-year fitness professional with multiple fitness certifications as well as worldwide accomplishments training, writing and speaking about her passion – health and fitness. She is CEO of HealthSPORT, a 5-location fitness organization in Humboldt County, California. Susan divides her time between Oregon and California teaching, developing uncommon fitness strategies, and mentoring both fellow fitness professionals as well as newcomers to the industry.