I’m a certified personal trainer and I know some great tips for sticking to your exercise regimen even if you keep blowing your diet.
Imagine a life of impaired mobility. Ever see commercials for those motorized scooters? In one, some senior citizens are “square dancing” in these devices.
Another shows a young child on a tricycle following Granny as she scoots about the room. And then there’s the man in the bright yellow shirt and the huge smile as his scooter keeps pace with his two grandkids.
This is all a part of painting the picture that scooters are cool. Well, there’s nothing cool about legs that don’t work. Makes you wonder how seriously people — who need scooters — ever took exercise in their younger days.
Perhaps they skipped too many workouts because blowing their diet got them feeling down. Maybe many scooter-users gave up exercise altogether because they couldn’t stick to a diet.
If you blow your diet, imagine life as a weakling. Do you ever want to answer “Yes” when the checkout clerk at the grocery store asks if you need help carrying your bags to your car? Did you know that a broken hip is often the cause, not the result, of the fall? These are all reasons never to avoid consistent exercise just because you didn’t stick to your diet.
So next time you decide to drive past the health club because you ate too much of your coworker’s birthday cake, ask yourself what you’d rather be doing when you’re older: Hiking with people half your age, with most of them behind you? Or bobbing up and down in a swimming pool while waving around Styrofoam tubes because working out on land is too hard on your joints?
Another way to stick to exercise if you blow a diet is to join a volleyball or basketball league. When people are expecting you to show up, it’ll be pretty hard to cancel just because you gorged at McDonald’s.
You can also hire a personal trainer or tennis instructor. Again, what are the odds that you’ll miss your exercise session when you know your trainer is waiting for you?
Sign up for a bootcamp-type program that requires an upfront fee. You won’t miss any sessions when you’ve prepaid for them.
Check out the local recreation center’s program booklet. Again, the activities require a prepayment.
If you blow your diet, you won’t miss exercise if it’s scheduled with a buddy. Think how mad he or she will be when you cancel because you’re feeling sorry for yourself after having indulged in too much pizza.
And keep telling yourself if you blow a diet: “I exercise because I want dense bones that won’t shrink and make me shorter when I’m older; If I slip and fall, I want to bounce right back up instead of cry out in pain; I don’t ever want to be calling my insurance company to see if it’ll cover the cost of a scooter; and I don’t want anybody else feeding and bathing me when I’m 80.”
