#9 - Because it improves your heart health

Photo By rei-san 

From Web MD: A sedentary (inactive) lifestyle is one of the top risk factors for heart disease. Fortunately, it's a risk factor that you can do something about. Regular exercise, especially aerobic exercise, has many benefits.

This is kind of a big deal.  What we eat and what we do makes our body healthier or sicker.  However, what I find really exciting is that I also think that exercise is good for our emotional "heart."  We breathe, find calm, or find our point of exhaustion. 

We aren't dwelling in our minds for just a short time each day.  Instead we're dwelling in our bodies.  Exercise triggers responses within our muscles, our nerves, and our balance stabilizers.  It keeps us too "busy" to over think things.  Thus, letting our subconscious take over and work on issues that need to be worked on. 

So that, when it's time for bed, we are sleepy and our mind can be quiet. That is a beautiful gift.

Crys

#8 Because it burns more calories than not working out

Photo By rellim jan Miller

When we're trying to get fit, we'll do any number of things to lose weight and change the shape of our bodies.  We'll try fad diets, pills, exercises, tread mills, just eating less, cutting out sugar or fat, shakes, etc.  Some people are driven while others are reluctantly making changes because they're no longer happy with the way that they feel in their skin.  I've known very large people who were happy in their skin.  I've known athletic people who aren't happy and continue to strive for some sort of perfection.  It's interesting to me, not only because I've had my own struggles with weight and body image throughout my life, but also because we're here to encourage each other. 

When a friend says that they're getting a little too much junk in the trunk, our first response is often that they're beautiful.  This is true to me when I say it.  I don't feel what they're feeling.  I just know that when I look at my friend, I see my beautiful friend. 

On the other hand, when somebody makes a grand effort to improve their body, I find it an inspiration as well.  I'm encouraged in my own battle between what is right or wrong with my own body in my own mind.  I'm not usually the first person to say "Have you lost weight?" but I'll often say, "You look really great!"  If they care to share, then I like to learn what is working for them. 

More often than any other answer, people have decided to get up, start walking, and become less sedentary.  That's the only start that really matters.  You finally get moving and you're instantly burning more calories than you were before.  You can go from sitting and burning about 75 calories per hour to walking and burning at least twice that (even at a slow pace). 

Here's a fun Calories Burned Chart.

Time to get moving...

Crys

#7 - Because you want to move forward, not backward

Photo By Nicholas_T 

"When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened."

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." ~Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)

Twenty years from now, if you stay on your fitness plan, where will you be?  If you keep working out, don't give up, don't let a stumble take you out of the game, and you keep going, where will you end up? 

You want to move forward in life.  You want to feel better, look better, do better.  Sometimes I wish I could write things on the inside of my eyelids.  So that when my head is hung low, and my eyes are closed in defeat, I could read to myself  "You are one of those who Make It Happen."  Even if you fall down today, you will not be defeated by weakness if you keep building your strength.  Even if you can't catch your breath today, you will not be defeated by exhaustion if you keep building your endurance. 

The image you see in the mirror will change whether you keep working hard or whether you give up entirely.  What kind of change do you want to see? Every day that we make healthy choices, we're deciding what we want to see in the future.  The same goes for every unhealthy choice we make.  When our bodies start to break down from lack of use, when our nerves are damaged from sitting all day long, when we eat the most convenient and nutritionally lacking foods, we are choosing what we want to see in the future. 

We want to move forward, not backward.  We want strong and healthy bodies that we will joyfully live into old age with. 

Crys

Reason #6 to workout "Because you'll feel bad if you don't"

By Mel B. Melissa Wiese

This is number 6 of 100 Reasons You Should Workout Today. 

Thinking about disappointing myself is a good reason to get moving on any given day.  I like that I've made the commitment to be healthier.  It's disappointing to find that I've either made excuses or filled my day with other activities, and I can't workout.  Sometimes this is motivating enough to workout at strange times or get moving where ever I happen to be. 

This past Saturday we were visiting a friend that lives several hours away.  We were at an outdoor beer and chili festival.  By the time we got moving that morning and had breakfast, it was time to head to the festival.  We knew that we would have to head home pretty soon after the festival because the drive was long.  This was an outdoor festival so we did get plenty of walking in.  I felt like I needed to stretch.  I saw a little girl doing cartwheels in the grass.  It'd only been at least 20 years since I've done a cartwheel.  So I put down my purse and my fancy necklace made of a beer can.  I warned my husband to step aside... and I did a somewhat weak cartwheel.  When I stood up, at first I saw stars, and it made me laugh.  I could feel the places in my body that had stretched to help me throw my feet up into the air.  As the stars dissipated, I was ready to try again.  This time I threw my feet higher and I was conscious of where I wanted them to land (near where my hands would release as I came back up).  This time was much better.  It felt good to be stretching the rest of the world receded for just a few moments.  I probably looked silly, but I really didn't care.  It felt good.

Some nights we get home late, and we workout anyway, but that's always hard for me.  My motivation is low when I've had a long day at work and a long drive home.  I'm likely to choose to skip on those evenings.  So, this week we've started working out at 6am.  This means waking up before 5am so that we can drive to Alamosa (45 minute drive).  So far?  I'm a little more weary, but my days seem longer.  I am enjoying having workout partners.  I like having a protein shake first thing in the morning.  I never have to worry about fitting in my workout.  No more disappointments. 

This morning our workout was P90X2: Shoulders, Arms, & Balance and X2 Ab Ripper.  It was great.  I felt like this was my best effort at Ab Ripper to date.  I love this program.  If you've done P90X, you've got to try P90X2.  I think it's more fun even though it's also more challenging with all of the balance and stability exercises. 

If you haven't tried P90X, I highly recommend it!  It was my gateway to fitness.

Reason #5 Because you have goals you want to reach

Photo By opopododo Quinn

How have you done with your resolutions from the New Year?  Do you end up having some of the same resolutions every year?   I think most of us do, especially where exercise, diet, weight loss, and different physical activities are concerned.  We resolve to fit into clothes that we've "grown" out of.  We resolve to workout 3-5 times a week.  We resolve to spend more time outside and less time watching TV.  We all have goals.  Some of them are immediately attainable while some are long term goals. 

This year I decided to skip the resolutions that I never follow through with anyway.  I decided that I needed to make changes, but I didn't start doing anything about it right away.  I didn't like what I saw in the mirror.  My clothes were all getting tighter.  I didn't feel like walking out to the mailbox, much less any further.  Reasons to make a change began to outweigh my excuses. 

The tagline for Beachbody is "Decide. Commit. Succeed."  I'd decided, and finally I was ready to commit. 

Everybody needs to come to that point on their own.  Nothing will force us to get up and move around.  We must push ourselves outside of our comfort zone.  Let's face it, our comfort zone hasn't been very good to us.  It lets us get complacent. It lets us decide that the easy road is the road we want to be on.  That road is flat and boring.  The easy road never challenges us, and we never grow.  If you're happy with your life, with the image you see in the mirror, and with your health, then maybe you don't need to make a change.  However, if you're like me, you've started feeling aches and pains that are just the beginning of signs of trouble.  It hurts to get up off the couch.  It's exhausting to go get the mail.  My food tasted bland and boring.  My comfort zone was getting incredibly uncomfortable. 

When you've decided, then commit.  Choose a program or a goal that's right for you.  Whether you choose to go the extreme route like Insanity, P90X, or P90X2 or if you'd like something that is a little gentler to get started, perhaps Slim in 6 or Body Gospel, you won't regret getting started changing your own life.  There's a great comparison chart that will help you compare and choose the program that's right for you. 

My transformation is still happening.  We're all a work in progress. Our goals won't achieve themselves.  Nothing extraordinary happens without work.  You have things that you'd like to accomplish in this lifetime.  It's time to get to it!

Crys

#4 - Because you'll feel proud of yourself

Photo By enthusiast_rocks

There are days that I just don't feel like getting up early.  Or it's late in the day and I've not had time to workout yet.  I don't want to.  Usually one of two things happens, I either decide to do it anyway or my husband starts his workout and I can't resist joining him. 

I can't say enough about having a workout partner that helps me stay motivated.  Even when we workout separately, I like having sombody I can text when I need help or motivation.  It's also nice to have somebody share my celebrations with.  "Today I finally did Drea Rolls!!"  "I burned a record 650 calories!!" 

When I'm done though, it's all calm and happiness.  I'm proud that I was able to complete what I've committed to doing.  Sure, I still fall down, but it's the getting up that really matters.  Jumping back into the workout and getting dirty again.  Nothing that is worth it is easy, but no matter what you use for motivation and what kind of workout you did, you got off the couch and you did it!  If you simply get outside for a walk, or do a nice yoga stretch workout in your living room, you're doing something.  You're moving when you could have sat still.  Eventually, when you look in the mirror, you'll start to see changes, but until then, celebrate the fact that you started.  Be proud.  Be joyful. 

Crys