Fitness: Healthy Lifestyles: Minor Changes, Major Results

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Healthy Lifestyle: Minor Changes, Major Results

Want a more calming approach to fitness? Start with first gear and work at your own pace through the gears to your preferred fitness level.

Life is hectic. We get up, go to work, tend to our household responsibilities and then we’re off running to our kid’s practices, attending community meetings or social functions, etc. By the end of the day, we’re tired and the thought of exercise is the furthest thing from our minds. We get caught up in a cycle we can’t seem to end. The next day, it starts all over again and we begin to wonder why we’re always tired, and find our health slowly deteriorating as the years pass by quickly.

We ask ourselves, “How do we break this cycle?” We begin to realize that something in our lives has to change but we’re unsure of what it is. We feel mentally, emotionally and physically drained and don’t have the confidence or energy to make the necessary changes. We decide we need to begin taking care of ourselves so that we can continue to participate in an enriching life and age actively and gracefully.

If we try to make rapid wholesale changes, we may find that our ambitious plans are quickly derailed and we slip back into our old ways. So instead, we slowly and consistently begin making lifestyle changes. Some of these changes are as follows:

Begin taking short daily walks; five minutes the first day and add one minute a day until you are walking 30 minutes a day or, measure the distance of your previous walk and try to walk marginally further, in the same amount of time, the next day.
As your fitness level improves, add other lifestyle enhancement activities. Slowly change nutrition patterns; eat more frequently, adjust portion sizes, make nutritious food choices, and drink more water throughout the day. Eventually, your blood work results transform to those more indicative of a healthy lifestyle.
Introduce weight training into your newfound lifestyle regime: regain lost muscle, halt or reverse the onset of osteoporosis, regain balance and mobility to prevent falls, and slow down the aging process no matter what your age.

Almost suddenly, we have more confidence and feel physically, mentally and emotionally stronger. We walk with a spring in our step and have a positive outlook on life. Family and friends begin to validate our efforts by complimenting us on the way we look and praise us for the changes we have made. We comment that all we did was made small lifestyle changes, remained consistent and that the changes weren’t difficult and really….it wasn’t.

Submitted by Giulio Carlin, CAT(C) CPTS, Certified Athletic Therapist.

ATTIVO Personal Fitness and Sports Therapy Studio is located in Bronte Village at 2440 Lakeshore Road, West. For further information, please call 905.825.0300 or visit the site.

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