What’s the best gift you can give yourself or others? It’s the gift of Health, Fitness and Personal Energy. You can give it to yourself, or to others. The nice thing is that it doesn’t cost much and the rewards are incalculable. Health and Fitness is the gift of life, of longevity, of feeling alive.
Diet books, cook books and exercise books seem to be common gifts and are appropriate this time of year, but as the comedian once said, diet books teach you how to not eat something that you just learned how to cook.
Aside from diet and cook books, the gift of fitness can be one of the most rewarding you can give, receive or get for yourself.
Where do I find this gift?
Go to a big box store and go to the Sporting Goods Section. Look at the exercise bands or tubes. I recommend the wide bands. They usually come in groups of three, each with a difference resistance. The different resistances are shown by different colors. You can use one or all three depending on your strength level. You can find them in price ranges from $10 to $25. Amazon carries them too but it’s nice to be able to take them out of the box and test them.
The bands I use at home or on the road are four feet long (48”).That way you can grab them anywhere based on what you are doing with them.
Take walks. Walking is one of the best exercises you can do. Often there are kids playgrounds along your walk, in parks, and at schools which you can usually use when school is not in session. Walking is free.
Another alternative is to give yourself, or have someone give you, a gym membership.Yes, they can be expensive and all too often, people “dropout” of the exercise part and keep paying the monthly or annual payments. Gyms count on that. I go to the gym five days a week and see a lot of seniors there early in the morning, day after day. You don’t need the fancy amenities like running tracks and pools unless you plan to use them. There are a lot of good plain gyms out there. I use One Life Fitness (Sport & Health) in the Washington, DC metro area. It has all the machines, free weights, and cardio equipment I would ever need.
A still more expensive alternative is to hire a personal trainer. You can get a world of benefit from it, but it can be expensive and your trainer will spend a lot of time trying to convince you to continue.
The best equipment of all is your own body plus the ground. You don’t need equipment, you need action. Equipment does give you more options.
How do you get started? Open the box and start. Get a head start on the New Year.Start by looking in the mirror and being brutally honest about what you see. It may not be pretty.
Follow that by visualizing what you would like to see in the mirror. Focus on that picture and let it install itself into your subconscious mind. You can make an affirmation that says you are becoming that new image of yourself. Make that new picture of yourself part of your self-image or Identity as you are striving for it. Here;s a caveat. Many authors will tell you to affirm in the present tense. They say to affirm that as if you have already reached the goal. But your subconscious mind won’t believe you. It will believe you are becoming that image.
I know that sounds a little “woo-woo”, but it works. I know first hand. And others have confided the same experience to me.
Don’t expect miracles at first. Let the miracle happen over time. It will. Expect plateaus and work through them. Start slowly. You might want to check with your doctor first.
The gift of health and fitness is not something you’ll ever want to return.Once being a healthy and fit person becomes part of your self-image, you’ll never want to let it go.
Have a wonderful Holiday Season, and a very Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it. I will not be publishing a blog article on Christmas Day but I may give a blistering lecture on New Year’s Day.
Thank you for reading. If you know someone who you believe would benefit from this article, please share it with them.