Right now I am in the midst of packing an moving from a house into a townhome in a town just 15 minutes out of Calgary.
The move to me seems straightforward and I am very excited. The kids will be in a good school together, we will have a bit of a more laid back lifestyle and we will have a more family like community to live in.
My wife on the other hand is struggling a little bit. There is all the moving plans, getting the kids registered for school, the idea of moving to a small town for the first time in her life and she bears the brunt of coordinating all of the expenses and hiring the movers.
We have moved a few times in the past and each time our roles are the same but the way that we deal with it is always different. One person or both of us is usually tense we each have our own coping mechanisms and in the end we are always happy with our move and how smoothly everything has gone on moving day.
The reason I tell this story is because for many people a diet or a change to a healthier lifestyle is the same thing. Some parts of the change are easy and some parts of the change are much more difficult but if you stick with the change you are always happier in the end with your new way of life.
Healthy Eating Lifestyle
Healthy Eating is difficult at first. We all have food that we rely on everyday and weekly for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. When you change the way you eat you suddenly have to find new foods, new recipes and a new way of eating. It seems that when you make these changes you have to spend far more time planning and preparing your meals then you ever spend eating.
Of course over the next couple of weeks everything gets easier, guess why? Well after a couple of weeks you are going to have a new familiar diet and meals that you will come to rely on and you will get used to preparing more food ahead of time instead of running through the drive through.
Weightlifting Lifestyle Change
Starting doing weights is a funny time for anyone getting into shape. You will do weights the first time and everything will feel awkward, you will leave the gym tired and sore and then the next morning you will struggle to get out of bed. Of course after three or four workouts you will be far less sore leaving the gym and feeling much better the next day.
I say that starting is a funny time but later on after you have been working out a few months you will have to really push yourself to get a good workout in and that awkwardness will be gone. Finally you will be reaching plateaus in your workouts and staleness will set in and you are going to have to be creative to hit your muscles different ways and in different angles in a bid to confuse your muscles reaction to your workouts.
Cardio Workouts
Just like you do in lifting you are going to have the same muscle soreness and training plateaus in cardio. The big difference that I find though is that with cardio you will get good at one thing and not want to change.
You start walking, graduate to running and then before you know it you refuse to do anything but run. Running is good don’t get me wrong I think that going for a run is the best single bit of cardio most people will do.
But, what about swimming, riding, rowing and other methods of getting your cardio workouts in? If you vary your cardio you will be able to achieve much greater results and have less of a chance of getting injuries from repetitive actions.
How Then Is This Making My Life Better?
So recognize in yourself what my wife and I are going through over these last few and next couple of weeks. If you know ahead of time or can kind of predict the problems and stresses in your life as you get started in this new lifestyle then everything will be a lot easier for you.
I may be painting a bit of a negative picture of getting started in your new greater lifestyle but realistically this is what holds most people back, discomfort and pain in some way.
So as you start and as your mind and body rebel against you it is important to remember that things get better and easier really quickly. The discomfort today is a vague memory next week and your newfound strength feels great and more comfortable to you anyway.
Think about how cardio will affect so many aspects of your life. Coupled with a better diet where you are eating mroe often you will find that you wake up with more energy, have better concentration, have less slowdowns in mental alertness during the day, a great sense of confidence and then better sleep at night.
Does this sound great? In one paragraph I was able to easily give you all of the good reasons to be healthier and those painful beginnings look as little inconvenience to what you will see in your life soon enough.
