This is a question that is often
finished with “to lose weight”, “to get bigger” or insert your health related phrase
here? Recently whilst on Reddit which I do frequent from time to time I
responded to a post asking “I want to lose weight but I hate the gym. What can
I do?” Now I could have posted a link to thousands of articles written by
myself and many other very experienced and intelligent people. But instead I
posted “The Question is not what we recommend, the question is what do you like?”
This is really the crucial
question for everyone. I could go on and on about recommendations and science
and some may take the advice at least for a little while. But the only things
the keeps anyone and everyone coming back is finding something that they enjoy
rather than doing something they think they should. You don`t need to do any
research to know that people will more likely do what they enjoy rather then
what they don’t enjoy. This poster hit the nail on the head “I hate the gym”. I
find that so often with patients and people I speak with. They don`t like the
gym and think exercise requires mandatory gym attendance. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM)
defines aerobic exercise as "any activity that uses large muscle
groups, can be maintained continuously, and is rhythmic in nature." Most
people often equate exercise to the above definition and think boring running
or walking on a treadmill for ages. It certainly bores me thinking about it. But
the thing to note about that definition is that it is very broad. This gives
you and I a lot of room to play and be creative.
I want to let you in on little
secret often in education and motivational interviewing the teacher or
interviewer will ask open ended questions and may do this “what do you think
the answer is?” We do this when
interviewing someone for lifestyle changes and it works. The aim of this
questioning is to force the person to give themselves answers and convince
themselves of the change. Sales people will do it, they ask “on a scale of one
to ten how much do you want this product?” The interviewer will then follow it up
with “why wasn`t it a lower number?” They use it to get to the core of any
problems and get you to convince yourself that you need this product. Have you ever
had this happen? We use this to expose ambivalence. Now you may begin to see
the connection to the previous paragraph. The definition of physical activity might
be very broad but encompasses a lot of easy to do activities that most don’t
consider. Like for example increasing your N.E.A.T (non exercise activity time)
I recommend it in my weight loss activity checklist. For instance walking
further to work or climbing extra stairs instead of taking the lift. Kicking
the footy with friends, doing gardening all ways to improve your N.E.A.T.
When asking “what should I do to
achieve something?” often it is best to ask yourself first. You may not know
what you need to do but you do know what you like. That first and biggest step
to taking responsibility to find what YOU like. This will increase the
likelihood of adhering to your goal.
Now as a little addition you may
have read this article and said I hate any physical activity. Really? Do you
like video games? They can be used to create physical activity. Find out what
you really like and use it to get physical, there is always something. The one
thing I have found through all ages is that exercise that`s disguised as a game
and is fun will turn everyone into an exercise lover without them knowing it.
