Fitness for Longevity

Longevity is defined as having a long life or extended service.  If you are married or in a relationship, did you get into it just for the short term or for the long term?  I would use say that everyone chose it for the long term but there are some odd ones out there that just want a short term relationship and thrive on chaos and drama in their lives.  Enough about relationship talk, let’s talk about your life.  Chances are everyone wants a long life, but what are they doing to put the odds in their favor?  There are somethings in life that are beyond your control, but let’s talk about what you can control; your health and fitness.  This is the foundation for making longevity a possibility for your life.

There are thousands of diets and exercise programs that one can choose from right at their fingertips on Google or Pintrest, but there is one important question to ask when you choose your path;  Can I sustain this for a lifetime (longevity)? Some of the insane choices can give you the immediate response of “NO” to this question.  Others seem like you could but once you dive into them and learn the ins and outs, chances are it’s not something that can last a lifetime.  Every person is different, so what works for one, may not work for the other.  There are success stories for many programs out there but what is the long term success rates?  Humans are going to be humans and lose interest at times and just get lazy; that’s part of being human.  There needs to be some variations to make the program a success for millions of different people from millions of different backgrounds.  If we fall into a rut of doing the same thing over and over, we tend to lose interest and fall off the wagon only to be back in our bad habits.  We need to constantly vary our activities and food to keep things fresh and motivating.

 

What has been one of the most successful programs over the past 18 years in these two areas?  CrossFit.  They have done their homework and have put the world on notice that they know how to get results.  Through the constantly varied workouts and the endorsement of the Zone diet and bringing the truth of sugars to the public eye, they illustrate how longevity is obtainable through their sport.  If you know anything about a CrossFit class, there is ALWAYS a scale for something that you cannot do physically due to lack of experience, physical limitations, or an injury.   There is no excuse there.  For the food side of health and fitness, it takes some work to make it work.  Convenience foods are what has gotten society into such bad shape.  Therefore, we have to do something different to get different results.  Of course Zone suggests the healthy foods over the junk foods, but there is an allowance for the bad ones if you choose so at times.  BUT it cannot be a long term allowance, it has to be a cheat meal, not a cheat day that turns into a cheat week that turns into a cheat month.  Food and exercise play on each other and both play very well together when given some thought and planning.  If one takes it half serious, that one will get half the results.

For those that may argue that CrossFit is not successful, I would ask them if they had tried it over a 1-3 month period and took it serious.  Is one going to get results from the CrossFit fairy in one week, most likely not.  It takes work and time to produce results, longevity.

Take your health and fitness serious because the goal is longevity.  I guarantee your family will think the same thing.