Written By Jessica Marsh
5 Fitness Truths I Wish I Knew Sooner In My Health and Fitness Journey
Recovery. Are you giving yourself enough time between training/classes/cardio, etc to let your body rest and repair? What are you doing to promote recovery between sessions? Are you getting enough sleep? More on this in a bit.
NEAT. How much are you moving outside of the gym? NEAT, or non-exercise activity thermogenesis, refers to the amount of calories burned from activity outside of standard exercise and will make up for more calories burned than any single workout. NEAT is pretty neat that way ;)
Mental health. How are you taking care of your overall mental health? What coping mechanisms do you have in place to deal with hard days or moments? How are you managing stress? Which leads us to Tip #4…
4) Sleep and stress management are the magic pills you’ve been looking for.
There is absolutely no pill or quick fix that can replace what good sleep and stress management can do for your results. As humans, we all face numerous stressors every day. All stress - “good” or “bad”, physical or emotional - is still stress, and our ability to manage it over time is what will ultimately determine the level of results we get.
5) AND FINALLY, Prioritizing your health & fitness goals isn’t selfish - it’s actually your responsibility.
Prioritizing your health is one of the most selfless things you can do. When you’re operating at a peak health state, you feel better, you move easier, you think clearer and you’re able to give more energy to everyone and everything in your life. On the flip side, when you’re regularly operating from near-empty reserves, you are in fight or flight mode - you show up as a more irritable, careless, impatient, unhappy, less present version of yourself. When you prioritize your health and fitness goals, you release the burden of others having to take care of you and gift yourself and everyone around you a better version of you
Bonus Tip #6: Never forget the power YOU hold in any given moment to change, grow, and evolve.
“You are under no obligation to be the same person you were 5 minutes ago.”
— ALAN WATTS
Realizing the greatest version of you is not an endpoint or destination, but a moving target that will be your North Star. You can become who you want to be. You can create the life you dream of. But you have to start. And you have to keep choosing to keep going.
Conclusion
At JackedNLeen, we are passionate about helping clients realize the greatest version of themselves because we ourselves are busy parents, entrepreneurs, bodybuilders - the list goes on - who have had to navigate the many challenges of life in figuring out how to successfully show up for our children, clients, goals, etc. We by no means have it all figured out, but we sure have learned a lot and know if we can help even one person become a stronger, more resilient, badass human, the whole world will be a better place for it.
I’d love to hear what resonated most for you in the comments, and what you’d like to see in future articles as we build out our Blog!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read & until next time,
Eileen