I taught a seminar last night called, "Elements of Success in Your Fitness Journey." It was a great interactive group of people that were excited to make changes in their lives. They were all somewhat active already, but needed some guidance....needed some fresh ideas. I don't think they had thought of fitness as a "journey" before, but left with a new look on things realizing that everyone has to work at this their whole lives. At the beginning of the seminar, I defined "fitness journey"-- The process of keeping yourself healthy your whole life. It never ends... you always have to take care of your body, you always have to eat. I think once your look at health and fitness and your own situation in this way, it takes some of the pressure off. There's always a push to "get there." When you get there, you have to work to "stay there." The "staying there" is the hardest and longest part of your journey. I've talked about this in some of my earliest blog posts from last fall. (Go back and reread if you don't remember.)
As part of the journey, you all know that you have to be ready to make lasting changes. In my studies to become a trainer, I learned about the "Stages of Change." It's good to identify where you are among these and define where you want or need to go from there.
1) Pre-contemplation-- This stage is where someone has no intention of making any changes. They aren't exercising and don't intend to start in the next 6 months. ***Have you ever tried to convince a loved one to change their life habits that are in this stage? It's pointless because they aren't ready.
2) Contemplation-- Someone in this stage of their journey is not currently exercising, but is thinking about becoming more active in the next 6 months. They are looking for information and education on what they want to try.
3) Preparation-- People in this stage of their fitness journey do exercise sometimes, but are planning on doing it more regularly in the next month. This is where you can strongly influence a friend or loved one to join you in your favorite Zumba class or invite them to hit the weights with you!
4) Action-- People here are active and regularly exercise, but haven't maintained the behavior for 6 months, which is how long it can take to form a new healthy habit.
5) Maintenance-- People here have maintained change for 6 months or more. ****People here consistently review and renew their goals. They don't stop because if they do, what happens??!! They'll gain the wrong things and lose everything they've worked so hard to achieve.
So, WHERE ARE YOU?? Can you identify? How do you move from one stage to the next? Well, usually some sort of trigger sparks you to move into the next stage. Maybe you find what you love to do or discover that eating clean and exercising makes you feel so good! Maybe you've had a recent health scare and it triggers you to the action stage because you have to change for the sake of your own future.
Just so you know, you will bounce around these stages during life. You may be in Maintenance now, but get sick or hurt or life gets in the way and you get thrown back into Contemplation or Preparation. That's okay, keep on your fitness journey and remember to take care of yourself in some way until you can cycle back up to to where you were.
Don't Stop. Look Forward. Just Keep Going.
