Summer’s winding down, vacations are finishing up, and the fall is rushing up on us….already! The days are just getting shorter and shorter and as it gets colder, our laziness kicks in and exercise gets pushed to the back burner as it gets harder to dredge up motivation and easier to just hibernate, watch movies, and eat seasonal comfort foods.
Well, the key to not slipping down that slippery slope (which slips right into the holidays before you know it) is to establish an exercise routine that you look forward to and keeps you motivated…and here’s 5 reasons why you should start: NOW.
1) Everyone wants instant results. Not gonna happen. However, within just 1 hour of exercise, you’re protecting yourself against colds, flu, and all those other nasty bugs that come with the changing weather. That hour of exercise strengthens your immune function for about 24 hours as you know, every little bit helps.
You also get the bonus of those nice exercise highs, courtesy of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine, which flood your brain for a few hours post exercise, nix your stress and help you make better diet decisions for the rest of the day. And of course, you’re burning calories, which help contribute to your calorie deficit towards fat loss!
2) Within 1 day of exercise, your body is able to add lean muscle, (from any kind of resistance training, whether it’s bodyweight, free weights or machines or interval training) which stokes your metabolism. Your blood pressure is also lowered for up to 16 hours post-exercise! The increased blood and oxygen flow throughout your body also increases your alertness and focus.
3) Within 1 week of exercise, your risk of diabetes goes down. Obviously no one wants that, so that’s a pretty strong incentive, but in addition, your VO2 max (your endurance and aerobic fitness benchmark) can improve in as little as 7 days and now you’ll be able to sprint up those stairs a little bit faster and make that subway before it leaves!
1 week is also the amount of time that 1 pound of fat loss can sustainably and safely be achieved with a healthy diet.
4) 3 weeks is the amount of time it takes to build a habit, so hopefully you’ve established a fun, fulfilling routine by now, but if you need a few more long term reasons to stick with it, within 1 month of regular exercise, your strength will improve and you’ll be able to notice the results of lean muscle replacing body fat, giving your body better firm muscle tone, replacing unwanted jiggle.
5) And last but not least, within 1 year of regular exercise, your stamina will have shot up by up to 25%, your heart rate will be lower, your body will be much more efficient at burning fat and using it as fuel, you’ll have significantly cut your cancer risk, and slowed down the body’s aging process. And best of all, aside from the physical and health benefits, your energy, sleep, and mood will be vastly improved, and you’ll just feel great in general!
So start one day at a time and build from there, but more importantly, stop procrastinating, and start TODAY.
