Any day now, the first leaf on the tree outside our window will fall, indicating a change in season. In a few weeks the time, we’ll also fall back an hour, indicating a change in the amount of daylight that we have. These two minor changes often affect our mood and quite often our attitude toward exercise. But the change in season is actually a great time to adjust, modify, and add to your exercise routine and fitness lifestyle.
While the summer months and sunny days may have prompted us to do more outdoors, we can’t use the brisk, cool air and early dusk as excuses to hibernate. The fall is a wonderful time to add spice to your workout, to incorporate a few new things, or to re-visit a few exercises that may not have seemed like summer fun. Below are a few ways to avoid Fall Fitness Pitfalls.
1. Join a group exercise class. This is a great way to get out of the house and out of an old routine and into a new one! Instructors are natural-born leaders who thrive on seeing their class participants challenge themselves and reach goals. Check out a few aerobic classes that pique your interest and try them out to see which ones challenge you the most. Then stick with it!
2. Keep track of your nutrition. Avoid becoming friendly with comfort foods that are great company but turn into unwanted guests (a.k.a. body fat). Begin keeping a food journal and monitor trigger moments throughout the day that cause you to nibble. Also stay away from candy! Halloween decorations are already on supermarket shelves; be sure to bypass them the moment you walk in the door! The trick of the treat is fitness defeat!
3. Hire a personal trainer. Now, I am not simply suggesting this because I am a trainer but because it will benefit your health in the long run. Personalized fitness coaching is the equivalent of seeing a medical specialist. A primary physician (internist) can provide a patient with a diagnosis and non-surgical treatment of an ailment; the specialist, however, is more experienced in a particular area and can give the quickest, safest, and surest way to cure the problem–and that is what personal training is all about. So, run to the closest personal trainer and find out your body fat and muscle mass. Together, you can develop a fitness program that will help you build muscle, lose fat, and speed up your metabolism.
4. Schedule time for you. Even if you are only able to fit in two or three days of dedicated gym visits, exercises classes, or personal training appointments each week, be sure to make time for yourself. A healthy, happy, fit you makes the world a wonderful place for you, your family, and your friends. Besides, with all that you do with them and for them, what would they do without you? So please take care of yourself!
I would like to leave with you with a quote from one of my favorites writers, Henry David Thoreau: “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you have imagined.”
Happy Fall!
Trainer Tip by Erica Lewis, personal trainer at Lucille Roberts in Kearny, NJ.