In today’s blog post I want to touch on the importance of if you want change then it is going to require you to make some changes.  When we talk about change in the fitness space it normally refers to a vanity goal such as losing weight or putting on more muscle.  These are the goals that bring us to seek guidance in our movement such as hiring a trainer to help guide you through workouts on how to safely progress.  While this introduction of movement is great and will make a difference it is important to understand that other changes in our lifestyle will need to be made.   The real change you want is an improvement in your quality of life, let’s touch base on a few areas outside of the gym that can be valuable! 

One of the first things to touch base on which is essentially free is our sleep and quality of sleep.  In today’s digital world our sleep is suffering more than ever because people are taking their phones to bed, have tv’s in the room, and our minds are constantly processing all of this.  Sleep is essential for our bodies to function properly, to rest and recharge, support immune function, and so on. The list is long on why sleep is important but let's talk some strategies to improve our sleep, check out this short list:

• Aim to go to bed and wake up at the same time each day, even the weekends

• Don’t take your phone to bed, get an old school alarm clock

• Read before bed in order to relax the mind, often times this puts us to sleep 

• Make sure your room is cool and dark

• Many people are using mouth tape to promote nasal breathing which helps

These are just a few things you can focus on changing, work on implementing them and I guarantee you’ll see better quality sleep and have more energy to tackle your days! 

Next, we can be mindful of the type of content we are absorbing because the amount and variety these days is endless.  Everyone has their favorite escape shows such as reality tv but keep in mind it is better to listen or watch things of value.  There are a ton of educational podcasts and books now that can help us stay up to date on the latest things in health in order to improve our quality of life.  The more we listen/read them then it just becomes second nature for us to implement the strategies into our life.  Check out the podcast section on your smartphone and I recommend getting a kindle because it's a library of books essentially that you can bounce between as you’d like.

Lastly and probably the most important area we need to change is our nutrition but it is probably one of the toughest.  It’s no secret that nowadays there's an abundance of food everywhere you go.  It’s on our social media, on the tv, billboards, etc. and it's because of the consumer society we live in now people have to be more disciplined than ever.   It’s important to understand though that sparingly we should go out and enjoy some of our favorite foods, you just have to focus on portions and again do it sparingly.  The more we can cook at home and build our meals from scratch the better off we will be in a lot of areas such as body fat, energy, mental clarity, etc.  So the thing to remember is if you want to change it's going to require some change not just inside the gym but outside the gym as well!