Posted by Tia Patel | Jan-07-2021

Health is Wealth

It’s true that your health is one of the biggest reasons to workout! It can reduce your risk of major illnesses, such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and cancer by up to 50% and lower your risk of early death by up to 30%. This pandemic has proved that we shouldn’t take our health for granted.

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Mental Health

Pounding the pavement or retreating to the weight room can work wonders when you’re feeling a little extra anxiety. Exercise is a form of meditation, a way to focus on the present moment and not waste mental energy worrying about the future or replaying the past. Thanks to the flood of endorphins, working out can make us all feel better about ourselves and more confident in our abilities of what we can achieve both in fitness and in our personal lives. Perfect as a mini escape from the pandemic.

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All the Food

Pre workout fuel and post workout munchies are one of the biggest motivations to workout and keep you training hard. We all like to indulge in that slice of chocolate cake but knowing that you’ve worked for it by doing a home workout or attending a yoga class makes it taste all the better! There’s nothing like the thought of your favourite burger with cheese and bacon to get you through the final 3 miles of a run or rewarding yourself with a guilt free pizza.

Saying yes to adventure

It's true that hiking in the rain isn't one of our favourite ways to keep fit! That feeling of ‘look what I can do’ as you’re watching the sunrise from a mountain top, cycling down the cobbled streets of a town in Europe or swimming in a waterfall is something we all look forward to. But the ability to say yes to adventure relies on us maintaining our fitness levels all year round. So even though we can’t go anywhere right now in lockdown, we can still plan and give our future selves the adventure of a lifetime.

1. Rewards. Whilst most of us will see goals as “better health” or “weight control” as a reason to workout, there comes a point where this may not be a good enough reason to get you out of bed on a Monday morning. Instead, creating a neurological habit loop is more effective for your Monday workout motivation. This involves creating a trigger of behaviour, perhaps setting out your running gear ready the night before. The routine of going on your run or whatever your preferred form of exercise may be, followed by the reward of getting your favourite drink on the way to work or watching an episode of your favourite television show in the evening. Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, explains that extrinsic rewards are “so powerful because your brain can latch on to it and make the link that the behavior is worthwhile” which “increases the odds of the routine becoming a habit”. Over time, the motivation becomes intrinsic, as the brain begins to associate sweat and pain with the surge of endorphins. Once you’ve trained your brain to recognize that the workout itself is the reward, you won’t even want the treat.

2. Sign a Commitment Contract. Working out with a partner is a great way to help maintain healthy relationships and give you a reason to workout. But life often gets in the way preventing us from going to that evening yoga class. Whilst the feeling of embarrassment as we fail to complete a commitment we had told our friends we would do is short-lived, the thought of losing our hard earned money is a bigger commitment to our goals. Stickk.com works by asking users to define their goal (whatever it may be), acknowledge what it’ll take to accomplish it, and leverage the power of putting money on the line to turn that goal into a reality. Ultimately, you're signing a contract of accountability with yourself to help achieve your fitness goals, whatever that may be.

Read our top tips for maintaining healthy relationships here

3. Create a Plan. This will allow you to work out your ultimate fitness goals, tracking your progress along the way and creating smaller milestones for celebration to push us further along in our overall journey.

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4. Rethink Positive Thinking. When you’re deciding whether to get out of bed to go running in the morning, it helps to imagine how the sun will feel on your face as you run around the reservoir, or, how delighted you’ll be when you see your new physique develop thanks to your gym workout. The perfect workout inspiration!

5. Find Your Fitness Tribe. The laughs, high fives and words of encouragement from the bonds within a strong, supportive fitness community create lifelong friendships. From CrossFit boxes to run clubs to yogi circles, there’s a fitness squad for everyone. Find a workout that makes you feel good and surround yourself with people that help build your confidence as much as your strength.

You Didn’t Come This Far to Only Come This Far - By waking up every morning and repeating this mantra, you remind yourself of all the success that you have had in your life and are ready to tackle the day. It makes you realize that if we were to quit, as we all have a tendency to do from time to time, how much we would actually be giving up.

Action Conquers Fear - A simple, short and straight to the point mantra that says it all. Fear keeps us from achieving our dreams. Overcoming fear requires action. Action can sometimes involve risk. Risk, and as a result action, is our way of overcoming all that we fear.

Don’t Wish for It, Work for It - This mantra for success has the ability to get you out of your head anytime you drift off into the world of what could be. You know what you want, so there is no time for daydreaming about it. Instead, get to work. The difference between success and failure is the action that you take today.

Excellence Does Not Require Perfection - When we are passionate about something, whether it be fitness, business, etc., failure and imperfections can drive us crazy. This mantra reminds us to not chase perfection, but instead excellence and realize that failure is a big component of success.

And our favourite of them all …. One Year Equals 365 Possibilities - All too often we get overwhelmed by the bigger picture when we are far away from achieving what we set out to achieve. Focus on one day at a time, and you’ll get there.

It’s important to understand why we are doing what we’re doing! The ultimate goal will provide the motivation we need to achieve our dreams one day at time, whether that's doing one pull up or completing an IronMan - just remember you are strong and you can do anything you set your mind to.

 #TeamGPD