The Fitness Racket exposed- Part Two

This post is the continuation of the first post where I discussed what the fitness racket it, how we run this racket, and on ourselves. It went on to discuss the foundation steps to start off with to understand, expose and finish this racket for long term physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health and well-being.

The racket I am talking about is not run by poorly educated Fitness professionals. You are the perpetrators of this racket; you and your loved ones are the people affected by the scam. This post talks about how to bust that racket and start afresh. This is the second part of the previous post which explains the fitness racket we run on ourselves in detail.

This article deals not with the kind of equipment, the form of exercise, the best time in the day too eat what; all these come later. There are plenty of experts out there who have solid information on all of this.

What this article deals in is understanding our personal limitations which hinder our journey towards physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health and well-being, and applying certain principles and techniques to overcome them. (Read this again if you wish too, this is important)

I have written about how we need to acknowledge-this is step no 1- that we are running this racket within ourselves first to be able to move ahead with the racket busting in the previous post.  The acknowledgement section of the previous post basically describes the sense of denial we face when it comes to taking ownership of our own health and how we look to conform and relate to other unhealthy people by lying to and accepting each other’s justifications.

I want to stress again how important it is, because if you cannot identify and acknowledge the problem, the question of finding or striving to find the solution does not hold water.

How will you fight with an invisible enemy? Once you see it, once you acknowledge its presence and its effect on you, only then can you start analyzing it, observing its weak points and hitting it where it hurts most.  Right?

ACKNOWLEDGE this racket.

You can acknowledge that:

•         Yes, I am running a fitness racket on myself and my family
•         I find excuses NOT to exercise and lead a healthy lifestyle rather than attempting to find excuses to do so
•         I could squeeze in at least ten minutes a day of my time if I needed, but choose not to do so, and choose to lament about it with similar racketeers
•        Yes, I am grossly unfit and unhealthy, and I would love not only to look better, but feel better

Now comes the easier- if not easy- part. These are a few steps that I have learnt from various people, self-help seminars and online research, and I am putting it all together in one page.

They are:

·         Mind over Mind

·         Time Management

·         Prioritization

Mind over Mind

Our mind is, and this word best describes it, fickle. Granted, that it is superior to other forms of life, capable of greatness, and other really cool things written about it. But, if I were to choose one word that I can relate to the most with respect to our mind, that’d be fickle.

Right about now, and especially if you have previously read my blog or the part 1 of this article, you must really be thinking that I’m a nut! What is this Mind over Mind bullshit now?!

Read me out. I’m sure it’ll add value.

We have close to 60000 thoughts per day. That’s a heck lot. But here comes the kicker. There are 86400 seconds per day (24 hours x60 minutes x 60 seconds). Most of our thoughts last just a few seconds. Then off we go on to a different thought.

This is a great tool that the mind uses to not feel guilty about leading a bad lifestyle; it starts concentrating on the hot girl visible in our peripheral vision, or starts checking out the latest sale on our favorite hand-bag store.

Once we understand this, we can devise ways to manipulate it to our advantage. How? Read on.

The Usual suspects, the usual problems

We are good people. We mean well. Not only for others, for ourselves too. We WANT to lead a healthy lifestyle. We WANT to go for the early morning walk. However, whenever there is a choice to make, our naughty mind barrages us with a plethora of options, and we are encouraged by the most sinful or easiest, or laziest one.

•        I’ll sleep for another “snooze cycle”, and then go for the morning walk. By the time we realize we've overslept-after 15 snoozes, no less- we are late for work, disappointed with ourselves for having missed the walking session, miffed with our partners for not waking us up on time, and blaming work stress for lack of sleep.
• 
  
•        I’ll take this box full of cookies, but I’ll just have one a day. The next thing we know, we have a challenging assignment, or we are in the mood to bitch about our colleague, out comes the box. And in go the cookies. And then some. After having consumed the whole box, we are mildly sick, grossly guilty, disgusted over our weak will power, and run to our nearest “friend” with whom we can ruefully agree that those cookies are addictive, and it’s not our fault! Oh, of course, you also resolve not to buy the freaking box, or eat just one cookie the next time around. So does your “friend”.

Do these examples ring a bell? I bet they do. Now let’s find out how we can use the mind over mind technique

The Mind over Mind Technique explained

The Mind over Mind technique states that we have about a 5 second window between two thoughts.

For example,

• Thought no.1- I should skip gym today; I am tired and have a long day tomorrow.
• Thought no.2- I could go for a light Cardio session at least. It will actually help me relax, free those muscles and ogle at the chick that comes in at 9.

The thought sequence could have been vice versa. I am only elucidating an example. Now, for someone aiming to lead a healthier lifestyle thought 2 is a great thought. Thought 1, not so much. The trick is to wait out the negative thought, and act IMMEDIATELY on the positive thought. Some examples:

·         Alarm rings, I open half my eye, I need to walk today. GET UP INSTANTLY. Your 5 minute snooze is not going to help you any further. We need about 10 minutes to fall asleep. So yes, you might want to check your circadian rhythm, your sleep patterns and your sleeping hours, but the 5 mins snooze is just going to make you lazier. And unhealthier too.

·         Passing the pantry, donuts on display. Take a deep breath, wait for a few seconds. The mind will distract itself automatically.

That’s it. Remember to act on your positive thoughts immediately, and you will end up walking and leading a healthier lifestyle more often than not. Of course, you won’t be able to mind your mind all the time, but I can assure you that this quick action/wait it out technique will go a long way in helping you reach your fitness goals, or with your healthy life styles ambitions.

Please apply this technique and let me know if it helped you. If this series of posts has helped you, or confused you even more, please do leave a comment!

The next installment will discuss time management and prioritization, with focus on physical, mental, spiritual and emotional health and well being.

To read Part 1 of this article, click here.