Kick starting your health into a higher gear needn’t be as extreme as that. Like any driving teacher will tell you, it’s actually a lot better to be gentle with the gearstick so you don’t do any damage to the car. And that’s the case for plenty of us. If we were to get onto the treadmill right now and run like Usain Bolt on Monster energy, we’d end up simply sore, exhausted, and demoralized because we in fact aren’t Usain Bolt.
So how do you start to look after yourself while avoiding that instant burnout? Well, we have a few tips to help you out and most of them amount to dipping your toe in and accepting that diving is counterproductive.
General health
Your first step might be to take a look at yourself and your family history. Are there any patterns you’re worried about? Are there conditions that pop up through your family tree that you are worried might afflict you? If you don’t know or can’t think of anything you might want to get a health assessment from Echelon. Echelon can give you a health assessment that could flag up anything that might result in problems down the line.
With this in mind, you can then take steps to try and avoid these problems. If there is a history of heart attacks, you can work on your cardio. If your parent’s legs gave out at a certain age, you can start weightlifting to strengthen yours, etc. Overall, you are likely to guarantee yourself a better quality of life as you get older.
Exercise
But don’t run into the gym and start lifting the biggest weight you can find. Start with exercise you enjoy. If that’s a long walk, start with that. Walking is highly underrated for exercise. It can be just as good for you as a quick run but you won’t feel like you’re dying for the following week.
Swimming is a great option because it is a full body workout, you can go at your own pace and the water is great for joints and muscle pains. And if you’re still a little apprehensive you can look into low impact exercise. Crank the treadmill incline up but the speed down, look into yoga for flexibility or consider a dance class so you don’t even notice the fitness for having fun.
Diet
Like diving into high impact exercise, a diet is going to get demoralizing if you don’t see results right away and it feels too difficult. You have to guess what’s realistic for you. For example, a carb-free diet isn’t going to be sustainable if you’re addicted to pasta. You’ll just end up miserable and starved. Instead, think about making a few small changes to begin with. Maybe implement them gradually, week by week so that you don’t feel like it’s an uphill battle to just find something for dinner tonight. If you hit your ideal weight on a hugely restrictive diet, not only is that no healthy, but you’ll simply put it all back on once you’ve hit your goal and stop dieting.
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