In regard to fitness motivation, life is a series of choices.
Every day we have the power to choose how we want to live our life.
We choose when to get up, what to eat for breakfast. We choose whether to arrive late or early for work and what to have for lunch. We choose if we will exercise today or not and we make a whole load of other choices all throughout the day, like whether to have a beer or watch TV and what activity to do at the weekend. 
When faced with each of these choices we have the power to either move towards lifetime fitness, better health, more confidence, increased vitality, happiness etc… Or away from it. It is as simple as that.
Here are some examples of how you can choose to move towards lifetime fitness with small choices each day -
Is this chocolate going to make me healthy and fit in the long term? No – ok I won’t have it.
If I wake up now and run before the rest of my family is up then I will be assured of a good 30 minutes exercise today. If I stay in bed then I’m not sure if I’ll find time later in the day. I have the choice to exercise today or not. Ok – I’ll get up now.
I can’t decide whether to go to the gym and do the spin class or go for a drink with work colleagues. If I go to the gym I’ll do 50 minutes of quality cardio, which will make me fitter , it will also help with my training for that 10k race event next month, give me a rush of endorphins, and give me a chance to say “Hi!” to my gym friends. Or if I go for a drink then I will drink calories, eat calories, get to bed late and feel tired tomorrow, which will probably result in cake. I don’t want to do that so I will go the gym class.
Do these sound too clear cut? I am certain that you can take any decision and break it down like the examples above to decide what you should do.
But what if you make the ‘wrong’ choice?
Well the great thing about life is that, it keeps giving us the opportunity for growth and change. We have a new opportunity to find fitness motivation each and every day.
One bad decision is not going to mean you will never be fit. One bad food choice won’t make you fat.
The important thing for lifetime fitness is to make the right decisions most of the time.
A really great way to explain it is with a diagram, using myself as an example.
On the right I have my goals. This is my body fitness, the health I would like to enjoy into my old age, my confidence and vitality. Basically it’s my ideal life.
That’s me in the middle :-)
Now let’s talk about my choices.
Every time I make a choice, whether it be about what I am going to eat, whether to walk to work or get a lift or what time to wake in the morning and whether to go for a run. Each of these choices means that I will either be heading in the direction of my ideal life or away from it.
Easy!
So let’s look at what happens, if I head that way most of the time…
I will reach my goals and when I do, I can set and target new goals to aim for – yay!
And what happens if I choose not to take that direction.
Exactly! – I move away from what I want, and if I make decisions like this most of the time then I will move away from what I want most of the time!
But if I make decisions towards what I want most of the time then I will get to where I want to be.
It’s so simple.
So why not spend the next few days really thinking about what you choose to do with your time and what you choose to put into your body. Ask yourself whether your choice is taking you towards where you want to be, or away from it? Because it can only do one of those two things.
I know it seems really simplistic to reduce our life to this but if you do then it’s so much easier to be fit, stay fit, get fitter and enjoy your life.
It’s quite empowering really – you are in complete control. You decide what you want and you choose to achieve it.
Or you choose not to – either way it’s your choice!
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