Three keys to help you get motivated to be healthy and fit

For years, the fitness industry, the government, and others have been telling the public that they need to start exercising and eating healthy. They talked about the consequences of what would happen if they didn’t. What is the result of all this? We get fat. We have more fitness facilities, weight loss programs, weight loss foods, diets, fitness equipment, and more than ever before. We get fat.

The Baby Boomer generation was supposed to be the ones to get and stay fit and healthy. They were going to stay young. They got fat. As a fellow Boomer generation, it’s crazy that my generation (the one that would make a difference in society and focus on youth) is now unhealthy, fat and old.

The younger generation is even worse, because they started to be unhealthy from the very beginning. Many young people are simply sitting at home watching TV, playing on the computer, or using their smart devices. They are not motivated as I and many others were during our youth. We wanted to play outside and our mothers had to drag us.

The motivation to be healthy and fit has simply faded in today’s society; except for a few who still want it. I am not blaming those who are not motivated. They may not have a reason why. And this mindset started years before many of them were even born. It was after World War II and the 1950s that the focus became living a life of leisure. We would have moving sidewalks so we wouldn’t have to strain to get around. We would have faster food options, including TV dinner (and later fast food). It was about the easy life. From the late 1960s to today, our food supply changed as did the way we ate. In the 1970s, farmers received subsidies to grow corn products and thus generate cheaper sugars (high fructose corn syrup). Life changed and another generation helped drive this change. Today we cook less at home and eat more out. We move less and sit more. It is time for a change.

We can regain control of our own lives and those of our children. It’s all about motivation. And that motivation starts with the “reason why.” Without a “reason why,” we simply won’t take the necessary steps to move toward health and fitness. All action begins with the way we think and believe.

Here are three keys to help you “kick-start” your motivation to get healthy and fit:

1. Identify your “personal reason” why you want to be healthy and fit. It has to be strong enough emotionally. It can be for your children. In fact, our children are more influenced by our actions than by what we say to them. Another “reason why” could be health related, such as avoiding heart disease, diabetes, or any other lifestyle-related disease.
2. Create a vision board of what being healthy and fit means to you. Steven Covey talked about starting any goal with “the end in mind” in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. A vision board allows you to have a visual representation of the outcome of being healthy and fit. Create more clarity and reality for you.
3. Whenever you have any thoughts about health and fitness, take action immediately. When you do that, it will help create a neuroconnection and embed that thought into your subconscious. Every time you do it, the connection grows stronger and leads to creating a habit.

Being healthy and fit is your right. It’s about taking personal responsibility as well. Take the first action of discovering your “reason why” and move on with the rest. DO IT!