Last Updated on September 22, 2017 by Michael Brockbank
Too many people try to rush themselves through fitness to get results as soon as possible. Unfortunately, a lot of them will eventually give up their routine because those results are not quick enough. Health and fitness is not something that can change overnight. Even those who had surgeries still need to follow a very strict routine. Here is why you shouldn’t simply try to skim through being healthy.
It’s Beneficial to Study a Routine
Creating a routine specific for your needs will be the most beneficial. I don’t follow trending diets or optimum exercise regimens because I know me and the effect something like that will have.
I am a believer in customizing your own process and focusing more on personal goals rather than what someone else wants you to do.
Preventing Injury
Your body is not going to be able to keep up with athletes unless you’re in good shape. It’s quite easy to push too hard and cause injuries from straining muscles to breaking bones. Pushing yourself is good, but not if it’s at the expense of your body.
Before creating a routine, examine everything it entails. Don’t merely browse through fitness sites hoping to gleam some secret. By not paying attention to the effects of an exercise or diet, you could inadvertently hurt yourself.
Use me as a prime example. I often go into hypoglycemic shock because I’ll push too hard. My blood sugar levels drop and I start shaking and getting dizzy. It’s not on purpose, but I don’t pay enough attention to my diet to keep from having such issues.
I don’t go into shock as much anymore. Just keep in mind that you can suffer though a menagerie of complications if you don’t pay attention.
Avoiding Frustration
In reality, there is no such thing as an instant weight loss program. Everything is going to take effort, including those as-seen-on-TV diet pills. I mean look at them, even the container says they should be taken with a proper diet and physical activity.
If you skim through instructions or details, you miss out on vital information you may need later. In many instances, this could quell some frustration you might feel when your results are not coming fast enough.
Case in point; throughout all the research I do for health and fitness, I’ve found it’s pretty common knowledge that the average human will lose between two and three pounds per week. Knowing this, while a bit disappointing, keeps reality into perspective for me when making goals for losing weight.
Getting Inspired
One of the reasons a lot of people fail when trying to lose weight or become more healthy is due to a lack of inspiration and motivation. If you simply flip through a diet magazine trying to find a golden morsel of information, you’re missing out on back stories and personal insights that may be quite beneficial to you.
I’m sure not everyone cares about how a certain exercise or diet plan affects some random person. But you might be amazed by how a few simple words from a personal perspective can alter your mindset.
I remember some very odd things in the writing of others in regards to a fitness routine or diet plan. And, many of them have greatly influenced what I do on a regular basis. This includes my own personal pep talks.
Identifying Pros and Cons
Understanding the good and bad of any diet or exercise is valuable for personal success. For instance, I know someone personally who developed gout when on the Atkins diet when it first came out years ago. She is one of the primary reasons why I research every diet or exercise before even considering it.
You can’t simply leaf through a few websites and pick out the parts you like and ignore the rest. There may be information regarding issues that may directly affect you. Everyone has a different physiology, and what works for one may not work for another.
Take the time and identify the pros and cons to anything related to health. You may avert complications that are painful or even deadly, especially if you’re allergic to nuts or seafood – looking at the Paleo diet.
Understanding the Routine
Glancing through a routine or diet plan doesn’t really give you a lot of in-depth details. By absorbing every bit of information you can about any particular workout or diet, you can decide whether it’s optimal for you or not.
Some of the best workout videos on YouTube will detail how to perform movements. It’s these details that will help you understand how to avoid injuries.
Let me be another example. When I weighed more than 270 pounds, I tried to keep up in a 5K walk. I thought I could do it, and I did. Unfortunately, I also developed metatarsal fractures on my feet because I: a) weighed too much for the effort I put in, and b) wore loafers instead of real running shoes. Not enough prep work went into that experience.
It was a painful lesson to learn, and something I could have avoided if I would have read a bit more and understood what I was doing.
Understanding Yourself
The most important reason you don’t want to skim through health and fitness information is to help develop understanding of yourself. One of my favorite sayings from “Magnum Force” is, “A man’s gotta know his limitations.” Without knowing this, you could severely hurt yourself.
Gleaming over certain information may deprive you of things to know and understand about yourself. If I would have spent just a few minutes on Google, I could have saved myself more than a month of severe pain and a medical boot. Chalk that one up to a “Doh!” moment.
Even dietary plans need to be understood before doing them. Don’t get sucked into someone saying, “If you do this, you’ll lose weight.” Most of the time, the only thing that is 100% certain is that you gave someone money for something that may or may not work for you.
One of the biggest reasons why I don’t do fad diets is because I know myself. I love ice cream, and anything that deprives me of this sweet is doomed to fail. It’ll promote “cheating” and I’ll eventually give up on it. Besides, the way I eat now has helped me lose about 60 pounds…so why should I try to fix something that isn’t broken?