Oh blimey, they’ve put me in charge of writing a blog! Well I’ll keep it to the point, or at least try to.
For me, health fitness and overall wellbeing is something on a holistic level; if you’re not eating right you won’t be energised, if you’re not energised you won’t perform well, if you don’t perform well you might be moody with others, if you’re moody that’s no fun to be around, and you might become stressed and lose sleep – it all links.
I was raised by a hyperactive ex-paratrooper with bundles of energy and an enthusiasm for life. “Dad” had a big influence on my lifestyle growing up, with each and everyday being very busy.
Monday to Friday I’d be in school, but every evening was active; Mondays swimming, Tuesdays gymnastics, Wednesday ballet, Thursday tap/ballet/stretch, Friday swimming/brownies. Saturday was the biggest day with swimming/gymnastic and ballet in one. Sunday we would go walking somewhere scenic or find an activity to do such as wall climbing or ice-skating, or every now and then I’d be in a dance show. Rest was not a thing.
For 9 years this was my life, week in week out. We moved house a lot, and even moved abroad for some time, but regardless there was always time for some kind of movement. I remember feeling happy, upbeat and energised all the time, sometimes exhausted but we pushed through.
I’ve come to realise as I reflect, that the constant happy upbeat feeling was caused by endorphins every single day. I think my enjoyment for keeping active these days is because it takes me back to that “childhood” feeling, almost a familiar comfort . Although I lost a lot of stage confidence and have now developed 2 left feet, my appreciation for health continues.
As I’ve grown older, and have really sat, thought and looked at life, I’ve come to really dislike the way the world has been designed.
Many people drive to work, sit 50 hours/week at a desk, drive home, sit Infront of the telly and then go get in bed ready to repeat.
I’ll make no wonder it’s a world full of stress, depression and obesity, people don’t get chance to release those endorphins, or at least, they FORGET where they came from as they follow social norms of sedentarism.
At the end of the day, we are animals.
We are MEANT to MOVE.
Think about cavemen; they used to wake up and have to go hunt their food (cardio), they’d then have to drag it back to the cave (weights) and then spend hours creating fires, and maybe using fur create clothing (using the creative brain).
Ironically, I’m vegetarian, so I probably wouldn’t have survived that era.
My point being, however, is we are still that caveman – same body, same limbs, only with a more advanced environment and less opportunity to move as the world’s focus is being at that desk typing away making pennies into a man-made bank account.
Now I’m not saying we should go out and start behaving like cavemen but I definitely am saying we should remember how SIMPLE their lifestyle was.
Daily movement, hydration, socialise, get outdoors, enough food, enough rest.
That is it.
It doesn’t need to be complicated. No magic pills no nonsense smoothies none of that propaganda.
If you’re still reading, great stuff I hope you share a similar view, or can at least see my perspective.
One big topic I don’t want to miss the opportunity to discuss is social media and its place in the world. Throughout my teens especially I was exposed to online content of skinny women drinking a “slim” shake labelled as fitness; of photoshopped abs labelled as health; of size 6 models labelled as wellbeing, and of 900calories a day labelled as “okay”.
Things like this can have a larger effect than you know; I personally became engulfed in such mindset and developed a very poor relationship with food and an obsessive need for routine. Whilst I was doing cardio daily and attending 3 circuit classes a week, I was also purposely eating less and less so I could look a certain way, not realising muscle creates shape, not being skinny/tiny.
When it’s all you’re exposed to you’re led to believe it’s normal, especially at 18. It’s a hidden danger of the industry, displaying snippets of content designed to play on your mind. The truth is that heavy dieting this way leaves you tired, weak and constantly thinking about your next meal, and the numbers in every mouthful, and yes the scale number is nice and low but are you happy ? Are you really happy ?
Like I say, I can’t dance anymore the confidence and coordination is gone entirely, but weight training seems to be a simple way to keep active without really requiring skill, moreso effort, for it works for me.
Rather than trying to be skinny, the attitude has changed to “how many reps of this weight can I move?”, “How long can I hold that plank?, “How many laps of that reservoir can I walk in an hour?”, “Can I target every muscle group in 1 hour?”.
The part of fitness that many fail to see is that an appearance is not the definition of ability.
Speed, stamina, strength, flexibility and composition make up fitness – not a scale weight.
Can you touch your toes?
Can you get from A to B?
Can you squat your bodyweight?
Can you run far or fast?
Trident gives me a chance of helping others to get more active and feel better about themselves, and become stronger not only physically but mentally too. I can be a part of a team who share the same values and help members to meet their goals.
Look at your training with the short term goal of getting fit, and the long term goal of STAYING fit. Use the stairs instead of the lift, walk instead of driving, stand instead of sitting. There are many ways of implementing health and fitness in your life outside of a gym.
Find something you love, that’s maintainable, enjoyable, makes you feel good that you want to MAKE TIME for, and give it your all.
Whether it be outdoor walking, climbing, swimming, dancing, weightlifting, MMA, boxing or yoga, we all have the same 24 hours in a day, what are you doing with yours?
