How to Start Running (And Why So Many People Fail)
Running is something a lot of us know that we should be doing. We’re often told that it burns calories, tones muscle,s and improves fitness. But despite all this, we regularly find it hard to stay committed.
Why exactly is that?
It actually comes down to a number of things but the biggest problem is that it’s hard work. It’s incredibly taxing on the body, requires huge amounts of energy, and is something that most of us are not at all used to. In this post, we’ll look at how to overcome those obstacles.
The Best of Intentions…
The big problem in many cases is that people hoping to start running begin with too much ambition. Instead of aiming to gradually start running, they set off on their first outing and intend to run for huge distances and burn tons of calories in the process.
What they forget, is that this is something entirely foreign to their bodies. They are not used to running these kinds of distances and they have no experience with it. Most of us spend 8 hours a day or more sitting in just one position and typing or answering calls. We don’t exert ourselves much and certainly don’t go for long runs!
What’s more, is that those days at work are stressful and tiring in their own way. When we get home, we are often far too tired to play with the kids – let alone go out running!
The one time we do manage it, we will very often then push ourselves to the point where it is very unpleasant and we have really tested ourselves. It’s no wonder we can’t bring ourselves to do it three times a week!
The Solution
So what is the solution? The answer is to stop pushing yourself and to stop expecting too much from your own body.
Instead, aim to get started slowly and to begin with at least, focus on learning to run and on learning to like running rather than trying to see immediate results! Set out on your first jog but just go at whatever pace is comfortable and stop when you’re done.
While it might not seem like much, this is enough to gradually start introducing you to the world of running. And if you aim to do this just once a week, you’ll see it starts to have incredible knock-on effects in every other part of your life!
Obesity is a physical state that refers to excessive body fat. Chances are you have experienced the frustrations of dieting at least once in your life if you have problems with your weight. Close to a hundred million Americans go on a weight loss diet in any given year and up to ninety-five percent of them regain the weight they lose within five years. Worse, a third will gain back more weight than they lost, in danger of “yo-yo-ing” from one popular diet to another. The conventional approach to weight problems, focusing on fad weight-loss diets or weight loss drugs, may leave you with just as much weight and the additional burden of ill health.
Today, an estimated sixty-five percent of all American adults are obese or overweight. Our culture obsesses about staying thin even as we grow fatter, but this isn’t about appearances. Obesity is known to be a precursor to many debilitating health conditions such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, osteoarthritis, and gallbladder disease. Obesity contributes to as many as 375,000 deaths every year. In addition, the public health costs for obesity are staggering. According to researchers at Harvard University, obesity is a factor in 19% of all cases of heart disease with annual health costs estimated at 30 billion dollars; it’s also a factor in 57% of diabetes cases, with health costs of $9 billion per year.
Set Realistic Goals:
No doubt you have fallen for one or more of the weight loss diet schemes over the years, promising quick and painless weight loss. Many of these quick weight loss diet programs undermine your health, cause physical discomfort, flatulence, and ultimately lead to disappointment when you start regaining weight, shortly after losing it. Fad or quick weight loss diet programs generally overstress one type of food. They contravene the fundamental principle of good nutrition – to remain healthy one must consume a balanced diet, which includes a variety of foods. Safe, healthy, and permanent weight reduction is what’s truly lost among the thousands of popular diet schemes.
Some of the weight loss diet schemes reigns supreme briefly, only to fade out. While some wane from popularity due to being unproductive or unsafe, some simply lose the public’s curiosity. Examples of such fad diets include the South Beach Diet, Atkins diet, the Grapefruit diet, Cabbage Soup diet, the Rotation diet, Beverly Hills diet, Breatharian, Ornish Plan – the list goes on and on. These fad diets advocate a specific technique (such as eliminating a certain food or eating only certain combinations of foods) in conjunction with the basic idea that the body makes up the difference in energy by breaking down and utilizing some part of itself, essentially converting matter into energy. This self-cannibalism, or catabolism as it is referred to, typically starts with the breakdown of stored body fat.