As a professional Personal Trainer who takes a holistic approach to health and fitness, I believe that there’s more to a healthy lifestyle than just working out. If a client wants to truly achieve their health goals, physical fitness is obviously an important piece of the puzzle and it’s what most people come to me for. But for most clients, other factors need to be addressed if we’re really going to get them where they want to go.
Here are what I consider to be 3 major pillars of a
Healthy Lifestyle:
Physical Fitness
This is what most people come to me for and we obviously spend a great deal of time and energy devoted to physical fitness. Goals can vary significantly depending on the client. For some, it’s being able to perform activities of daily living without pain or discomfort so that they can remain living independently. Others may be just beginning an exercise program after a health scare and encouragement from their Doctor to lose weight. Others may be training to run their first marathon or improve in another sport. Components of physical fitness include muscle strength and endurance, cardiorespiratory fitness, agility, power, reaction time, coordination, flexibility, speed, etc. So, we’ll be doing some aerobic activity, strength training, stretching, etc.
Healthy Nutrition
Nutrition involves ingesting the appropriate amounts of macro and micro nutrients for our bodies to be able to function. We need the right type and amount of fat, protein, carbohydrate, vitamins, minerals, and water on a regular schedule to live a healthy lifestyle. This is true not only for athletes, but for everyone! Good nutrition is necessary to help prevent obesity or other disease, recover from illness or injury, and live life in good health. If your primary goal is fat loss, THIS is where you should start!! And healthy nutrition does NOT mean starving yourself!
Psychological / Emotional Fitness
We live in a stress filled world these days. To live a healthy lifestyle, you need to have enough energy and motivation to meet the demands of everyday life on an ongoing basis. This may include looking at how you feel about yourself or your life, the people you interact with on a daily basis, or how you respond to thoughts and emotions. You need to be able to deal with daily stressors so that you can function well in society. Practicing self-centering skills such as meditation, spirituality, or expressions of self-awareness may come into play.
This is obviously not an exhaustive list, but it’s a good start for most people. My scope of practice is primarily fitness, though I can give general nutrition guidelines and ideas for behavior change. I don’t hesitate to refer clients to other allied professionals such as licensed Nutritionists or Clinical Psychologists if the need arises.
If you’d like help getting started on living a healthy lifestyle, call me today and we can chat about your specific situation. In the mean time, choose one small thing that you can do TODAY to improve your health! Hint – call 612-804-9496 🙂
