What does that mean? It means many of us use lack of time, money,
or just not getting around to it as excuses for not exercising. When you're
hungry, you make time to eat. When you're sleepy, you make time to sleep. So why
is exercise such a burden? I’ll bet if you can find 15 minutes to grab a bite
to eat during the workday, you can find 15 minutes in the morning to do at
least a light warm-up and then another 15 minutes before bedtime. Do that five
days a week and BAM! You’ve just worked out the recommended minimum of 2-1/2 hours
a week.
What's that you say? Exercise doesn't pay your bills? Well, it’s a fact that one of the greatest preventative steps you can take to better health is exercise. Regular exercise retards aging and enables many to live longer at a higher quality of independence, reducing the need for nursing care and ambulation devices later in life. In the long run, being healthy saves you money.
Exercise doesn’t have to “hurt” to work. The old adage “No pain, no gain” is terribly inaccurate.
Light-to-moderate exercise four to five times a week is plenty to help maintain a healthy lifestyle. You don’t need to lift tons of free weights or run on the treadmill an hour or two a day; you just need to become active in different ways.
“I am losing weight just fine on my lettuce and rice cake diet.” Yes, if you eat fewer calories than you’re burning you will lose weight, but you may lose muscle mass also. Exercise, in addition to a proper diet, helps the body to increase lean body mass (muscle) and reduce fat mass while retaining strength and dropping weight at a safe, maintainable rate. If you have any questions about your caloric intake, check out my blog post “Weight loss simplified”.
So, I am going to end this before my soap box arrives. What I am really trying to say is that if you want something bad enough, you’ll do whatever you must to get it.
Stay healthy, everyone.
-Reuben
