Working Out for Overall Health

Often people only think about exercise as a means to the end of changing how their body looks, or improving their athletic performance. These are very goal oriented strategies for exercising, but it is not something that resonates with everyone. So how do you develop a fitness plan without one of these two goals? The answer is changing your mindset to seeing fitness as a part of an overall healthy life. You’ll want to think about what types of movement you enjoy doing, how often you want to do these activities and the amount of exercise you need to feel your best.

It can feel weird at first, but it allows for your fitness plan to become a part of your daily life, rather than trying to create a new life around your fitness plan. It can also be helpful to create a different type of goal, called a process goal. This type of goal doesn’t have to have an end date and is more focused on the day-to-day. An example of this type of goal is “I will strength train 3x per week.”

You can set these types of goals as a way to incorporate better habits into your daily life and can be created for everything from exercising to drinking more water everyday. These types of goals can be kept in a daily tracker so you can see your progress over time.

Having a tracker also allows you to see what habits are working for you, and which ones are not. If you notice you’re not completing a habit as often as you’d like or you’re noticing you’re still not feeling the way you want to (still tired, always feeling hungry, etc.) you can look at your tracker to see if there are any patterns.

Embracing regular physical activity without fixating on changes to your body or athletic performance allows us to unlock a world of benefits, including improved physical health, enhanced mental well-being, increased energy and vitality, body positivity, and the opportunity to build social connections. So let's celebrate the power of exercise and healthy habits while embarking on a journey towards overall well-being, appreciating our bodies for all they can do.