Keeping the fire burning

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, if you want to succeed in something, you must enjoy doing it. When I finally decided to start exercising half a decade ago, I told myself that I was never going to stop. Over the years I’ve been telling myself that I’ll probably die on the road running or in the gym because I have come to really enjoy this fitness journey. And that’s exactly what people need to understand, fitness is really not a destination, it’s a journey, just like life.

I remember a few years back when I used to run three times a week; a friend of mine came to me and said that he wanted to join me. I was more than happy to accept the request. Within a period of less than two weeks however, he no longer wanted to do it, needless to say he had given up. It was pretty sad but what could I do?

The above scenario clearly shows lack of will. Maybe after those few days of running my friend realized that he was not progressing as he had planned and probably grew to hate exercising as a whole. It is important to understand that Rome was not built in a day. You have to be ready to put in the work both on the days you feel all psyched up and on those you feel like giving up: exercise consistency it’s called.

As I have said on a previous post, don’t get into exercising wanting to lose weight and nothing else because you won’t last long. The best goal to set is that of improving your health because this you can easily achieve after the first few sessions. I remember how torturous my first run and gym workout were, I was all sore but after the third session, I knew that this was something I could do for the rest of my life.

It really doesn’t matter how heavy you are; don’t think too much about the weight loss issue at least not for the first few months of exercising. Aim to increase your endurance, improve your breathing and generally feel good about yourself. I have seen people who weigh more than 110 kilos skipping rope like boxers and sprinting like they were born for it. Clearly for such people, weight is not an issue; in fact they are much healthier than some people half their weight. 

In summary, learn to love the fitness journey. Weight loss will come but much later on so don’t focus on it too much. Appreciate the small achievements you make for example if you manage to run 1 kilometer today and a few days back you could only do 700M; that’s an improvement. If after a few weeks of exercising you realize that climbing a flight of stair is no longer causing you to puff and pant then you have definitely bettered yourself. Appreciating these seemingly minor improvements will go a long way in keeping you motivated and as result you will be able to keep the fire burning.