Getting into exercise can be so daunting, especially if your overweight and never exercised for years but every good thing has to begin somewhere. I promise you, that once you get into it and you start to see results, whether that be with your weight or your blood sugar levels you will become addicted. Your fitness will improve, your blood sugar levels will drop as will your weight and inches. You will feel happier, sleep easier and have a new lease of life. In fact once you get into exercise you will feel down if you can’t do it more than you did when you didn’t want to do it. So where do you start?
- Make an appointment with your GP and tell him what your plans are.
- Set times in the week to exercise and stick to them as if they were an important appointment.
- Start off slowly and keep within your abilities and fitness level. Build up your fitness and strength slowly. Don’t bite off more than you can chew or you could be left frustrated and disheartened.
- A good way to train is with a friend or partner for that extra motivation and support. Also your a lot less likely to back out if someone else if relying on you.
- When you feel comfortable enough join a gym or somewhere that has group sessions as these are very motivational and a decent instructor will usually tailor a session to suit you.
- Go walking. Walking is a great way to keep your sugar levels down and can be a very social form of exercise.
- Cycling is another great form of exercise and not only good for you but also for the environment as when your cycling your not driving your car.
- Get a pedometer and start counting your steps. I have a Fitbit and find it very motivational as you can join in and set challenges with friends and family. It also monitors sleep patterns and calorie intake etc.
- Stop making excuses and yes I’ve heard them all. “I will start once I lose a bit weight”, “I haven’t got the time”, “I’m too old”, “I’ve got no one to watch my kids” blah blah blah. Like everything in life you’ll only get out what you put in and no one ever achieved anything by staying within their comfort zone.
- Before doing any form of exercise always warm up and once you have finished cool down and stretch. I will go more into this in the exercise plan section of the website.
- Drink plenty of water. Keeping hydrated is important for performance and health. Always have water to hand when exercising.
- Listen to your body, if you feel any pain or discomfort whilst exercising, stop and only continue if the pain subsides. Pain is your bodies way of letting you know something is wrong, ignore it and you could potentially end up injured and unable to exercise until the injury has healed.
- Most of all, make it fun, find something you enjoy doing, that way your more likely to stick with it. When I started bootcamp I was so frightened but I got into it very quickly and now Im an instructor at the very same bootcamp.
