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Fitness Defined - Lifestyle

By Brad Scott

The final component of fitness is lifestyle. By lifestyle I mean your everyday living, working and social lifestyle. Are you stressed out at home or at work? Do you take smoke breaks with your co-workers? On the weekends do you tend to bar hop and get drunk?

Many times we sabotage ourselves by the lifestyle that we lead. If you exercise regularly and eat right but smoke a pack of cigarettes a day. Are you truly living a fitness lifestyle? With the harmful effects of nicotine and smoke on the body so well known, I think it's safe to say you are not.

However, suppose you have one cigar every year on New Years Eve. It is doubtful that one cigar a year will have extremely harmful effects. Any amount of smoking is bad for the body, but one cigar a year versus 365 packs of cigarettes a year...well, that's an easy equation to figure out.

How much stress do others place on you at home, at work and even at play? How much stress do you place on yourself? Are you enjoying life and everything it has to offer or is do you dread starting each day? When was the last time you had a full body massage?

Do you have ambition and drive? Do you have professional goals? Do you have personal goals? Do you have a job or a career? Do you live in a city which you love?

Do you take time out for yourself each and every day? Do you love yourself? Do you treat yourself?

Do you prefer the fast pace of the city or the slow walk of a small town.

Questions, questions, questions.

When I say lifestyle, you have some image pop into your head. And typically it is not your lifestyle, but the lifestyle of someone you know or some celebrity. You may not even think of yourself as having a lifestyle, but you do.

Lifestyle is defined as the way you live. Wikipedia defines lifestyle as your pattern of social relations, consumption, entertainment, dress, attitude and values. Think about your true lifestyle as it is today and how you would like your lifestyle to be. Are you close or is there a huge gap?

Your lifestyle helps to define you as a person. Your lifestyle can be fun, fantastic, fake, productive or harmful. Do you seek out adventure, enjoy meeting new and different people or trying dangerous sports such as sky diving? Are you more reserved, seeking the company of only those already close to you?

Your lifestyle weighs heavily on how much or how little you enjoy life. This is how my motto was developed. Everyday I tell people to "Live for the Moment and Exercise for Life" and many people do not understand what I mean by that. Everyday, should be a blessing. Everyday, you should be able to look back a think of at least one thing that really made you happy that day.

It may have been something as small as hearing from a long time friend or as large as buying a new house. But whatever it is, do something you enjoy. Take 1 Moment out of you day to smile. One Moment to make the day worth living. If you can find joy every day of your life, then life itself becomes a joy. And by exercising you will increase your odds of living a long healthy life that allows you to enjoy thousands and thousands of moments.

Take a moment to think about your current lifestyle. Does your lifestyle provide you the joy you want out of life? If not, how can you alter your lifestyle to live happy? Are the changes very drastic and will take a while to implement or do you just need minor changes to find the satisfaction you seek? Are you willing to alter your current lifestyle slightly to increase your personal joy? No one can make you happy except you, so take that next step.

Personally I live a lifestyle I enjoy, but there are changes I want to make as the years go buy. I enjoy spending time with my family and friends, but do not get to spend the amount of time with them that I would like. As a Fitness Professional I get to touch the lifes of people everyday and it is a very satisfying career.

I am able to go out in social events, have fun and travel. I have children and try my best to bring them up to be good, responsible people who will one day leave the nest and have wonderful lives of there own. At which point I will throttle back on work and spend more time on the beach relaxing. I have relatively low stress and find a reason to smile every day. My memories of life are wonderful and pleasing.

About the Author:

Brad Scott is Owner and President of Sport and Life Fitness in Melbourne Florida. He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and is a Certified Fitness Trainer and Specialist in Sports Conditioning with the International Sports Sciences Association. With over 20 years of experience, Brad offers a wide variety of fitness solutions for most anyone. Visit him online at www.SportAndLifeFitness.com today and start your fitness journey.