Mental Power and Long Term Exercising

Three words that you must be familiar with all the time - long-term exercising - is the way to lead a healthy life. But things have to start from here first actually all the way up there in your head where you possess the mental power where orders are given and the rest of the body follows. Therefore, it is very important to establish the stimulus, motivation, incentive, inspiration, and so forth in order to perform whatever task you need to follow in life. In our case the task is exercising, but not only that, it is also the long-term exercising to have lifetime results. But we all know it is not as easy as it sounds; otherwise, you would not see the widespread obesity in the U.S. and many other places whether developed or underdeveloped countries.

If you read the surveys of how many people start to work out with some enthusiasm, then after few weeks or months they stop. Or the other people who get a gym membership and work out are as rare as each time it snows in Long Beach, California. Ok, maybe this is a little bit of an exaggeration because it never snowed during the many years of my stay there, but you get my point. Then you have the same people in the above survey ask me the question; are there any weight loss secrets, or how do you create long-term exercising habits? People who fail to start exercising or don't continue exercising in the long-term don't pass beyond the Maintenance Stage in the Stages of Change Model.

These stages are as follow:

Precontemplation

In this stage the individual has no intention of exercising in the near future, which may be about six months.

Contemplation

In this stage the individual does have the intention of exercising within the next six months.

Preparation

The individual has the intention and is preparing to exercise during the next month by reading fitness books or shopping for a health club, for example.

Action

The individual is exercising during the first six months and beyond.

Maintenance

The individual has been exercising for the first six months but no more than five years.

Termination

The individual has successfully terminated the sedentary life that he used to lead and is being self-efficient to exercise. I specialized in Health Promotion as my major and studied the Stages of Change Model to find out how people can develop a long-term exercising relationship in order to show effectiveness and better health outcomes.

By the way, the above health behavior model is not only designed for physical activities only, but for a broad range of other physical and mental health behaviors. Like, but not limited to, smoking, alcohol, substance abuse, eating disorders, and obesity. So how do you set your mind to go beyond the maintenance stage of change to keep getting off your butt and working out on a consistent basis? Well, first you need to understand that motion is as much of a necessity as food and water, and that is not an overstatement ! When you become inactive day after day, then things start to go down hill, and it even get worse because the body even becomes more inactive and will perform less and less. These negative effects are subtle in a way, because they don't happen overnight; however, it is an ongoing process. For example, the knees become stiff if you perform exercises like running or jogging, and it becomes undesirable, then you probably lower your standard to walking, and then walking occasionally.

Other examples are your back hurts and you pull a muscle by simply bending over to pick up something causing shoulder injury by just reaching up for a coffee cup and other simple motions which the normal and healthy body is perfectly capable of doing. So understanding the underlying psychological and physical health risks should be a good motivation for people to perform their best to complete all the stages of change. Physical appearance is another stimulus for the individual's mind to become interested in obtaining and maintaining a healthy body. Enjoying recreational activities like hiking, biking, skiing, and many other outdoor physical activities that bring pleasure and at the same time require decent stamina, endurance, and strength should spawn an interest in your head which you had before and really enjoyed without anyone telling you to do it! When you were younger during childhood time you couldn't stop running, jumping, and hanging on the monkey bars because these physical activities brought happiness, health, and peace of mind and the physical well-being too. This interest can be a stimulant and motivation for you to get in shape by starting to exercise.

I have trained clients who have been exercising for several years and can be self-sufficient to work out by themselves. But, still, some of them choose to stay with their personal trainers not because of the lack of their knowledge of how to exercise, but it gives them the psychological edge, like motivation and support to keep the long-term exercising habits. Whatever works for you to give you the - extra push - to work out and keep working out you need to exercise your mental powers for long-term exercising whether you want not only to look good, but, also as a health necessity in our present time and increasing inactive lifestyle.

Hey, wait a minute, what's up with this photo?

And I thought you would never ask ! I know you might be wondering what do these photos have to do with long-term exercising and mental power ? Well let me briefly explain; I am a beginner photographer who has worked hard to go through the Stages of Change Model when I started my interest in photography. I had an interest for a few months and then lost that interest after 4 or 5 months of practicing photography because of frustration, lost of stimulus, and interest. Then I started to read more and take more photos until I started to get some nice pictures of nature and portraits and motivation was reborn once again.

I also started to join a community of photographers from all levels and began to listen and then listen more. Then I was able to get a "soul satisfying" picture at the end of the month or even after a longer time period. But it was worth it. And I have been doing this as another passion of mine for more than 7 months. I still have a lot to learn and I thought I would like to show you some of my pictures that I had to wake up early in the morning to take or wait for the perfect sunset time to capture a moment of life.