4 big health mistakes

Source: Web exclusive, June 2011

“One of the biggest health mistakes is doing the same fitness routine without changing it much over weeks or months (or years!) and yet still expecting to see improving results. Recently a colleague asked for my advice about why her fitness routine wasn’t yielding results. Turns out, she’d been doing the same workout five days a week for some time. Your body needs change to change for the better.

“Fitness is like anything else in life’eventually there comes a point when you must make adjustments or changes in order to grow. For example, I don’t parent my five-year-old in exactly the same way that I used to when she was younger. And what I do now in my career is not the same as what I did in the past (for example, now I am growing my career with blogging, which I wasn’t doing a few years ago). Think of all the ways  you adapt different facets of your life’fitness shouldn’t be any different.

“If you’ve been doing the exact same routine without additions or changes for more than four to six weeks, it’s time to try something new. Go to a new-to-you fitness class, change your toning exercises (there are multiple exercises for working all major muscle groups) or swap cardio machines at least once a week.”
‘ Amanda Vogel, fitnesstestdrive.com

"The number one health mistake that people make is accepting a self-limiting view of their own potential."
‘ Sandy Ibrahim, hitgirl.wordpress.com

“The number one health mistake that I see people making is that they still believe in magic. Whether in regard to weight loss, nutrition or exercise, people are still falling for scams. Sadly, there is no weight loss in a bottle. There’s also no food additives that will miraculously turn sugar and pulverized flour into health food, no diets that don’t require lifestyle change and no magic exercise equipment that takes only a few minutes a day to work. 

"The good news is that getting healthy is easier than one might think.  Rediscovering your kitchen, finding 20 minutes a day for any activity you might enjoy, learning how to read a food label’those 3 interventions alone would take a person a long way to healthy living."
‘ Yoni Freedhoff, weightymatters.ca

“When it comes to fitness, the biggest health mistake I see people making is not following a training plan that has a variety of different techniques. Making a training plan ensures that you won’t give yourself a lame excuse to avoid getting your sweat on. Having taken the time to plan out when you will have rest days, and what activities you will be performing each day of the week, will motivate you to perform your pre-planned workouts.

“If you restrict yourself to using only the equipment available at the gym, chances are you aren’t going to tone your entire body and get the results you want to achieve. In order to ensure that you are getting a total workout you want to make sure that you are incorporating cardio, weights and stretching into your workout regime. This also includes switching up your exercises. You don’t want to get stuck in a routine by only performing biceps curls, triceps dips and lateral raises with hand weights to strengthen your arms. You want to switch it up by incorporating medicine balls, TRX suspension trainers or dumbbell exercises to make your workouts fun and challenging. And who doesn’t love coming home and crossing off the workout you just did on your calendar?! It feels so good and you become your own cheerleader by telling yourself how awesome you are!”
‘ Siobhán McCarthy, siontherun.com