Living a healthy lifestyle could be one of the most difficult tasks in life, it is not just about discipline but it is about letting go of the many pleasures that life offers, like eating your favorite cold dessert or chips while sitting in front of your television for hours, or skipping lechon, sisig, crispy pata, caldereta, adobo, three cups of rice, cakes and pastries, leche flan and fruit salad in every handaan that you are invited to.
Our desire to feel and look good is always a struggle for there are many temptations that we have to resist. But if we look around us, there are also a lot of people that are really enjoying their healthy living, and then at the back of our minds we tell ourselves that we can also do it. But why we always fail whenever we attempt to start reaching for our fitness goals?
Recently, I had the chance to interview a well-respected sports medicine practitioner,—Dr. Jonathan Yarom, MD, a longtime member of Herbalife Nutritional Advisory Board, and also a well-experienced sports medicine specialist, and a consultant and advisor to many sports teams and sports organizations. Yarom came to the Philippines to join William Rahn, senior vice president and managing director of Asia Pacific at Herbalife Ltd., in announcing the partnership between Herbalife and the Philippine Basketball Association held recently in Pasay City.
According to Yarom, 94 percent of those who are into fitness training fail to achieve their goals because of several reasons. Yarom talked about a number of reasons we don’t get to what we want for our fitness and health, but for me, these three are what impede us from reaching our goals.
1 Diet and good nutrition. Yarom stressed that even if we have a workout regimen that we follow everyday, it is impossible to attain optimum health without taking into consideration the kind of diet and nutrition we feed our bodies. He said, “It is very important to let ordinary people know that balance between good nutrition and an active lifestyle is the secret to healthy long life.”
Good nutrition doesn’t mean filling our stomach with delicious food but it is giving our body the right amount of nutrients—vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats, carbohydrates, fiber, water—that it needs.
Yarom also added that it is always better to watch our calorie intake. He said that knowing the required amount of calories would make a lot of difference in keeping a healthy body.
2 Get a support group. Most of us desire to lose the fats and weight, we often exercise on our own or enroll to a nice gym that has good equipment sets. But doing exercises alone is one of the culprits why we don’t get to our fitness goals. Yarom said it is important for anyone who is in fitness to get a support group that can motivate and help you. “Doing fitness alone will burn you out. You will eventually get tired and lose interest in your regimen.”
3 Not enough exercise. We always say that we don’t have time to run, to do brisk walking, or few sit ups and crunches. According to www.bewellbuzz.com “Thirty minutes of intense cardio three or four times a week keeps the heart strong. It takes motivation to go to the gym or track for a workout, but it doesn’t end at that. If you’re not working hard when you get there, you’re not going to see results.”
Medical studies and researches show that regular physical activities is just as effective as prescription medications in treating chronic diseases, and with this a lot of people are getting into sports.
Yarom also stressed that keeping a healthy body means staying active.