Table of Contents
- WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF SETTING FITNESS GOALS THAT ARE REALISTIC?
- HOW TO TRAIN TO RUN A 5K, 10K, HALF-MARATHON, OR MARATHON?
- HOW DO YOU EAT HEALTHILY 80% OF THE TIME?
- SHOULD YOU CUT DOWN ON ALCOHOL IF YOU’RE A HEAVY DRINKER?
- SHOULD YOU WALK INSTEAD OF DRIVING FOR SHORT DISTANCE JOURNEYS?
- SHOULD YOU START TAKING THE STAIRS?
- SHOULD YOU LEARN TO SWIM?
- SHOULD YOU TRY YOGA?
- HOW DOES THE AMOUNT OF SLEEP AFFECT YOUR FITNESS?
- SHOULD YOU ADD A NEW WORK OUT TO YOUR ROUTINE?
- SHOULD YOU SWAP SMOKING FOR E-CIGARETTES?
- REALISTIC SUMMER FITNESS GOALS - CONCLUSION
- REFERENCES
It’s summer everyone! No really, it is… bad weather aside, it certainly is warmer at this time of year - brighter earlier in the day, with spots of sun making it through in the afternoon here in the south of ‘sunny’ old England. I don’t know about you, but it certainly makes me want to get out and enjoy the fresh air and soak up some beautiful countryside.
For many of us it also means trips to the beach, and we are all aware of the beach-bod diets and workouts that flood publications in the lead up to, and during, summer. As a gym goer of 16 years, it is with experience that I can assure you that health and fitness goals are only achieved by adjusting your lifestyle - subtle changes to your diet, exercise regime and daily schedule - I know that can seem like a lot, but we aren’t trying to overhaul your entire life here - a small change in the right direction, followed by another small change in the right direction, followed by another, followed by another, and another - and suddenly one day you find yourself half way down the road without quite realising how you got there!
So it’s time to share my top tips for health this summer for achieving realistic fitness goals!
WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF SETTING FITNESS GOALS THAT ARE REALISTIC?
When people think about getting into shape, quite often our thoughts focus on celebrities in pop culture who have reached the top levels of fitness - just so we are absolutely clear, you will not get there anytime soon - now that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have those kinds of physique in mind, but they take years to achieve, and good genetics play a part more often than we would like to admit.
The right way to think about the aesthetic aspect - how you look - is that it is a by-product of the work you put in. It should never be the main or only reason you strive to be healthy - people give up simply because it takes so long to achieve, and aesthetic progress in the beginning is slow - real slow.
It is therefore really important to measure your progress in ways that are quantifiable to keep up the enthusiasm for getting in shape. While aesthetic progress is slow in the beginning, this is the time your body makes the largest improvements to things like strength and flexibility - for a lot of people, it may have been quite some time since you did regular exercise, so getting back on the treadmill shocks your body in a good way.
So the first step is to start exercising again - establish your exercise routine; forget about trying to do a comprehensive workout, and get yourself out for a short walk or run, starting at five minutes per day. We can all manage five minutes out of our day right? Five minutes of pushing yourself is achievable, and not very intimidating, and your first short term goal is to maintain consistency - that means doing it every day - however don’t think all is lost if you miss a day, allow yourself a rest day but resolve to get back on it the following day.
This method should be applied to all aspects of health and fitness - change one thing, and maintain consistency before you change another. Diet? Try adding one healthy thing to your diet: an extra piece of fruit or veg, or drink more water, and maintain. Weight lifting? Add one exercise to your routine, maintain, then add another. Stressed and cluttered mind? Find a meditation technique that you can do for ten minutes, like Wim Hof’s breathing technique.
These smaller goals are each a stepping stone that leads to the level of health and fitness you are working towards. Individually they may not seem like much, but altogether they make a path through the murky water. By tracking these small changes, you can see your progress over time, helping you stay aware of the improvements you have made, which in turn helps keep you enthusiastic and maintain momentum moving forward. It also helps to identify any problem areas you have introduced with exercises that maybe aren’t best suited to you - so if an exercise is giving you problems, look at some alternatives that work the same muscle group.
From my own personal experience, I can share that keeping a spreadsheet of my workouts over the past year has improved my consistency and frequency of workouts, and it’s visually represented on the spreadsheet by the increasing number of filled cells as time passes. It’s an encouraging sight, a testament to my will and dedication for those times we can all feel discouraged due to lack of progress. A quick look reminds me of how far I have come.
HOW TO TRAIN TO RUN A 5K, 10K, HALF-MARATHON, OR MARATHON?
If one of your goals is to get running, with a view to taking part in a long distance marathon - whether to compete or just for the accolade - the key is to get out on the road ASAP. You may already be able to manage more than a 5 minute run, but if you can’t, then it’s a good place to start - and if you can’t run, walk. Get out and start using those legs for a prolonged period of time to get them used to a degree of effort.
After maintaining a short walk or run everyday for a week, you can look at increasing the amount of time out, or you can start tracking a distance to travel. Tracking the distance may be more beneficial in terms of reaching a specific goal, like a 5k run, but is likely to require some route planning or a means of measuring how far you have travelled, like a pedometer. Just remember: we want small, manageable increases - 5 minutes to 7 minutes, or 1km to 1.2km - then maintain for a week, then make another small change. You may find the extra effort takes a toll on the muscles, so don’t feel bad if you need a rest day!
Running or walking is one of the most natural ways we human beings can challenge our bodies, it gets everything moving and the heart rate up. Exerting yourself regularly in this way will improve your sleep, your vascular health, excrete toxins by sweating, improve energy levels, and reduce stress and anxiety, and all these factors will aid in weight loss, if that is your goal.
HOW DO YOU EAT HEALTHILY 80% OF THE TIME?
‘You are what you eat’ is a familiar adage to all, and though it isn’t literal, there is much truth to it. Some people have auto-immune issues that are only resolved by adhering to specific diets, which shows how large an impact the gut biome has on our overall health.
In order to improve our diet, we have to have an idea of how good or bad it is to start with. For the sake of covering all the bases, let’s assume you currently eat healthily 0% of the time - microwave dinners, crisps, chocolate, no fruit, no veg, ice cream, fizzy drinks - you name it, if it has sugar, you eat it.
Now aside from the fact that eating like this long term is a one way ticket to obesity (and worse), you aren’t giving your body the essentials it needs. So before you change your diet, grab a multivitamin. Get into the habit of taking it everyday. Now we can look at tackling the diet itself.
There are several standards the government in the UK encourages the population to aim for: five pieces of fruit and veg everyday, and around 3.5 litres of water for a man and 2.5 litres for a woman - this is a great place to start.
Water is accessible everywhere, so your first change should be to consume more water. Aim for that 3.5 litres across the day - that’s about 15 cups. If it takes you a couple of weeks to get there, that’s absolutely fine. If you’re one of those people who complains that water is tasteless, and finds that justification enough to not drink it then it’s time for some tough love - grow up!
Water is accessible everywhere, so your first change should be to consume more water. Aim for that 3.5 litres across the day - that’s about 15 cups. If it takes you a couple of weeks to get there, that’s absolutely fine. If you’re one of those people who complains that water is tasteless, and finds that justification enough to not drink it then it’s time for some tough love - grow up!
Water is used in almost every process in the body, and this explains why water is the one thing humans can’t go a long time without. It’s also essential for getting toxins out of the body, by means of sweat and urine. The problem that I believe most people have here is that they are constantly dehydrated, and so think they are functioning normally. It is not until they start hydrating properly that they start to feel the difference. Get your hydration right, maintain it for a week, then tell me you don’t feel better. Go on, I’ll wait.
Once you’ve got your water right, turn your attention to food. Find that one piece of fruit or veg you enjoy, and make sure you have it everyday. Bananas are a good first step here, though any bodybuilders would be picking up cruciferous vegetables like Broccoli. Maintain for a week, then add another. Maintain for a week, then add another. Maintain, add another. And so on, until you hit that 5 pieces a day.
Now hopefully, by increasing the fruit and veg intake, the rubbish in your diet has been displaced to a small degree. It’s time to address those snacks. Get an assortment of healthy snacks for when you feel peckish, and these could be nuts, rice cakes, whole grain cereal, a protein shake or the like. The lack of sugar is where people struggle here, so having a dip to add flavour, or adding a small amount of sugar can help get you on to these healthier alternatives, but the aim will then be to cut out the added sugar.
Finally, look at your main meals, assess if they are as healthy as they could be, and attempt to eliminate the unhealthy culprits. A mixture of protein, carbs and veg are a safe mix, and the more freshly prepared the better.
The great thing about having put all this effort into your diet? It means you can have a cheat day here and there without feeling guilty! You work hard, you earn the right to play hard! I know all of this is easier said than done, but the first step is always the hardest. It only gets easier with every step forward you take.
SHOULD YOU CUT DOWN ON ALCOHOL IF YOU’RE A HEAVY DRINKER?
Alcohol… need I say more? High calorie poison is what it is. Did you know that you can’t die from heroin withdrawal, but you can die from alcohol withdrawal?
Avoiding what that means for society as a whole, what it means for you is nothing good. Excessive alcohol consumption leads to serious health problems such high blood pressure, heart disease, liver disease, digestive problems, a litany of cancers, and increases risk of a stroke (1).
Avoiding what that means for society as a whole, what it means for you is nothing good. Excessive alcohol consumption leads to serious health problems such high blood pressure, heart disease, liver disease, digestive problems, a litany of cancers, and increases risk of a stroke (1).
There is no alternative here, no healthy substitute, no easy fix. If you feel your alcohol consumption is something that you do not have control over, please seek professional help.
SHOULD YOU WALK INSTEAD OF DRIVING FOR SHORT DISTANCE JOURNEYS?
Now it’s time to fortify your will, because we are about to talk about choosing to do the healthy thing. It’s your day off, you live on the outskirts of town, you need a few things from the shop, a new haircut, and you fancy a nice coffee - do you drive in? Get the bus? Or do you walk? There will be days where time is of the essence, but if you have the time, choosing to walk is not only the healthy thing, it is the environmentally friendly thing to do, and while you may not enjoy it, making that choice shows you are serious about your health.
If you aren’t serious about your health, who will be?
SHOULD YOU START TAKING THE STAIRS?
Another opportunity to choose the healthy option - no I’m not talking about dinner! Depending on where you live and work, this is a choice more common to some, but when faced with the choice of taking an elevator or stairs, choose the stairs. It doesn’t add much time to your excursion, and is hugely beneficial to your health. If you do this often enough, save taking the lift for those days you are carrying a ton of shopping!
SHOULD YOU LEARN TO SWIM?
Swimming is a great form of exercise. When done with proper form, it engages pretty much every muscle in the body and so is ideal for people just getting into exercise, those who have suffered injuries, and the elderly. If reducing your body weight is one of your primary goals, it would serve you well to know that a gentle swim for 30 minutes burns over 200 calories, around double that of walking.
SHOULD YOU TRY YOGA?
Flexibility is a more important form of strength than strength itself. ‘Woah dude’ I hear you say, ‘far out.’ What am I talking about? Flexibility is about range of movement in your muscles and joints, and increasing flexibility is the easiest way to build strength - increased range of movement means more muscle fibres are recruited and activated, which leads to increased ability to deal with a load.
Yoga is a great form of flexibility training, and the beauty of doing this kind of training is that it can be meditative (2), so good for mind and body! A review of studies on the effects of mindfulness exercises concluded they help deal with everyday environmental demands and stresses, increase feelings of well-being, reduce psychological symptoms and improve behaviour regulation.
HOW DOES THE AMOUNT OF SLEEP AFFECT YOUR FITNESS?
The most overlooked, underrated aspect of health is sleep. It is when your brain clears leftover chemicals from the day, your muscles do most of their repairing, and many other things, some of which we know little or nothing about. Suffice to say, sleep is important enough that sleep deprivation can kill.
Experts are still looking at sleep to find more of the hidden mysteries, but we know REM cycles last about an hour and a half, so it has been suggested that sleeping in divisions of an hour and a half should lead to waking up at the end of a REM cycle, leaving you feeling refreshed and well rested. As individuals, we all know some of us function better on more sleep, some do well on less, but it may be the key is setting your alarm for the end of a REM cycle.
Being too stimulated before bed is another problem, so turn that TV screen off and read instead, or better yet, meditate. This should help you drift off quickly, making your wake up alarm better timed for waking you at the end of a REM cycle.
There appears to be a link between blood glucose levels and sleep issues, too. Studies indicated that more people with prediabetes - elevated blood sugar levels but not high enough for a Type 2 diabetes diagnosis - suffer from poor sleep than those with normal blood sugar levels (3). Regular exercise is really important here because it reduces insulin resistance, which means your body is better able to transport and deal with glucose (4).
SHOULD YOU ADD A NEW WORK OUT TO YOUR ROUTINE?
Whether you already exercise or not, adding a new workout to your routine may be beneficial for your goals. It might even be worth adding a workout that isn’t typical of the goals you’re aiming for, as new exercises and different stress on the body can have a larger impact than the same old routine.
For those that lean toward strength training, try adding 20 minutes of cardio at the end of your workout. As a weightlifter myself, I have often found the biggest gains - whether in terms of muscle mass or strength - have come when my cardio game is good. For me, that means rowing or cycling.
If you are more of a cardio person, then you should try lifting weight. The benefits of weightlifting are huge, particularly as one enters into older age - strength training helps to combat weakness and frailty by preserving bone density, improving muscle strength, and building muscle mass (5). It also reduces the risk of other chronic diseases such as osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes.
There’s a chance that all of this sounds new and intimidating to you; in this case I would highly recommend having a few sessions with a personal trainer. They will help put together your training plans, help you with goal setting and advise you on achieving your goals in a safe, manageable way. The key is to keep realistic goals, work hard and consistently, listen to your body, and have patience - in addition to eating and sleeping well! Rest is essential for the body, so do not be afraid to take a day off your workout to rest up.
SHOULD YOU SWAP SMOKING FOR E-CIGARETTES?
We all know that smoking has a negative impact on your lungs, and this is where we get our oxygen - that’s fuel, as far as our body is concerned. The tar reduces gaseous exchange on the surface of the alveoli in the lungs, so this means that your body isn’t getting as much oxygen as it is designed to do. Carbon monoxide from cigarette smoke sticks to the red blood cells, reducing the amount of oxygen they can carry and deliver.
Given the addictive nature of nicotine, it is understandably hard to quit the tobacco, but quitting is probably the single best thing you can do for your health. Carbon monoxide is flushed from your system after 48 hours since your last cigarette; within 2 to 12 weeks there are improvements in the circulatory system (6). From 3 to 9 months after quitting, lung function improves by 10%, and any coughing and wheezing should be reduced.
E-cigarettes are proving to be an effective tool for smoking cessation with one study finding that, when accompanied by behavioural support, e-cigarettes are almost twice as effective as a stop smoking method compared with forms of Nicotine Replacement Therapy - or ‘NRT’ (7). This means that for any smokers who are concerned with health and fitness, switching to an e-cigarette may be the easiest way to get off the tobacco and improve your fitness levels, simply by reducing the intake of tar and carbon monoxide.
REALISTIC SUMMER FITNESS GOALS - CONCLUSION
When it comes to health and fitness there are so many factors that impact the human body, and the trickiest part is that we are all individual; different in countless little ways that mean somethings might work for one person, while being the wrong approach for another. This means that your goals are personal to you, as is the speed of your progress. Lofty goals are nice to think about, but can seem a million miles away - this is why you need smaller, achievable goals that help you see the progress you have made, and the dedication you are capable of.
The words of a world renowned psychologist spring to mind - ‘do not compare yourself with someone else today - compare yourself to who you were yesterday’. Your summer fitness goals should reflect this - if you have never worked out before, you will not look like Arnold Schwarzenegger in 6 months, and if you try, you are likely to hurt yourself. Improving on who you were yesterday is always achievable, and only needs to be a small step in the right direction.
Every small step may seem like nothing, but a thousand small steps make one giant leap forward. Never forget that!
So if you are ready to quit smoking - why not try one of our popular vape or e-cigarette starter kits!
REFERENCES
(2) Effects of Mindfulness on Psychological Health: A Review of Empirical Studies
(3) Associations between poor sleep and glucose intolerance in prediabetes
(4) Update on the effects of physical activity on insulin sensitivity in humans
(5) The Benefits of Strength Training For Older Adults
(6) How You Can Help Your Heart if You Quit Smoking
(7) A Randomized Trial of E-Cigarettes versus Nicotine-Replacement Therapy
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Written by Dan Overgage
Dan Overgage – is a former smoker of 10 years until he became a client of SMOKO E-Cigarettes. Dan started working with SMOKO 5 years ago after successfully quitting using our e-cigarettes and works across our Customer Service and heads up our content creation and research with a strong focus on all things quitting smoking. During his tenure with SMOKO, Dan has written countless blogs and consults with countless clients every day to help them to stay smoke-free.
