I KNOW I SHOULD EXERCISE, BUT...7 Steps To Removing Your "But" From Exercise - Softcover

Sweeney, Joe

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0966616324 ISBN 13: 9780966616323

Publisher: Pacific Valley Pr, 1998

Synopsis

To permanently remove fat and inches from your body, you must remove your excuses from exercise. I KNOW I SHOULD EXERCISE, BUT shows people how to start exercising with ease, how to stay motivated and how to fit exercise into a busy schedule. A simple, straightforward, practical and humorous book. Loaded with tips, quotes and anecdotes, it is the perfect prescription for the inactive person with little time or incentive.

About this title

About the Author

Joe Sweeney has guided more than 30,000 people, ages four to ninety, toward physical fitness and healthy living. Since 1980, he has spent over 300 weeks as a speaker and instructor at Rancho La Puerta, North America's oldest fitness resort. At the world famous spa he has trained a wide range of people-including CEOs, entrepreneurs, housewives, athletes, couch potatoes, octogenarians, children and celebrities. Joe has not been on Oprah or Donahue, but Oprah and Phil have been in Joe's exercise classes.

Joe walks his talk. At age eight he began bouncing on a trampoline at his local boy's club. Years later he became a collegiate gymnastics champion (two-time Pacific Coast Athletic Association All Around Champion) and competed in five national gymnastics championships. During a fund-raising event he once performed 1000 cartwheels in an hour.

When Joe retired from gymnastics, he pursued other physically-oriented sports, hobbies and adventures. In the 1970s he piloted over 700 flights on a hang glider, including eighteen flights from Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park. In the 1980s he bicycled across America twice and once down the 1000-mile length of Mexico's Baja Peninsula. Joe has twice climbed Mt. Whitney, at 14,494 feet the highest peak in the contiguous United States.

He has enjoyed numerous active vacations and expeditions, including trekking in the Lake District of England, kayaking in the San Juan Islands, bicycling in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, rafting the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, tracking mountain lions in the wilderness of Idaho and hiking Mexico's Copper Canyon.

Joe earned a degree and teaching credential in Physical Education from San Jose State University. He has coached gymnastics at the club, high school and college levels and taught high school Physical Education. Over the last thirty years he has taught gymnastics, volleyball, hang gliding, board sailing, swimming, diving, soccer, tennis, walking, water exercise, weight training, stretching, yoga, frisbee, juggling and disco dancing.

Although Joe has trained champion athletes, he is proudest of his work with novice exercisers, for they often exhibit the most enthusiasm and appreciation for physical movement, and they often make the most remarkable progress.

An award-winning speaker, Joe presents keynotes, seminars and workshops to corporations and associations on fitness, stress management and adventure. His clients include General Electric, NationsBank and the American Association of School Administrators. His most popular presentation is: How to Fit a Healthy Life into a Busy Life.

Based in San Diego, California, Joe is also a personal fitness trainer.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

(Chapter One) YOUR WARM-UP

Do any of these excuses sound familiar? "I don't exercise because"

* I have no time

* I lack the motivation

* I'm not coordinated

* I always injure myself

* I'm too stressed to exercise

* I've never liked exercise

* I was always picked last in PE

* I'm too old to start

* I'm too tired

* I need to lose weight first

* I'm afraid I might become addicted to exercise

I wrote this book to help you toss your excuses and get moving. Consider me your personal guidance counselor. I will show you how to begin an exercise program, how to progress safely, how to make it effective, how to stay motivated, and how to fit exercise into a busy schedule at home, at work, while on the road and during the holidays.

If you have never enjoyed exercise, I will help you learn to appreciate it enough to do it. You might even learn to like it. If you already work out regularly but often flirt with burnout, I will show you how to achieve greater balance and a fresh start with your exercise routine.

If you think you're too old to start, I'll tell you right now that you are wrong.

You need exercise more now than ever before. This high-tech world leaves you stressed. Your technology-enforced sedentary life stresses you further. Gone are the days when people hunted for their dinner. You don't even hunt for a phone booth anymore-you just reach for your car phone.

But there is good news in this modern world: No matter how long your list of excuses, you can become a regular exerciser. It doesn't matter if you never enjoyed exercise in the past, if you injured easily, if you have no coordination or if you were always picked last in P.E.

You can learn to get physical once and for all.

I know what it takes to be a regular exerciser. I've lived it. I've done it right and I've done it wrong. I have seen thousands of people get fit by following the right steps, and I've seen thousands of people fail by taking the wrong path.

The physical benefits of exercise are well known. Exercise can strengthen muscles and bones, decrease body fat, lower blood pressure and cholesterol and improve your defenses against heart disease, breast, uterine and colon cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis and arthritis.

Yet the promise of physical health or the threat of disease don't seem to be enough to get many people moving. The American Heart Association now recognizes physical inactivity as a major risk factor for the development of coronary heart disease, yet only one out of five Americans engages in regular physical activity. Seek the intangible benefits of exercise and you are more likely to get moving-and keep moving.

Get active and your eating habits may improve. As you begin to appreciate through exercise what your body is capable of doing, you may experience a blinding flash of the obvious: If you start fueling your body with higher quality foods, you might perform even better.

Exercise can help you quit smoking. As you move your body, increase your heart rate and attempt to take some deep breaths for the first time in a long time, you become painfully aware of how smoking interferes with the efficient funtioning of your heart-lung system. Annoyed by your wimpy level of stamina and endurance, you may become disgusted enough to quit your nicotine habit. If you are ready to feel stronger and more vibrant, read on and get ready to enjoy your new-found energy and more youthful appearance.

Keep your photo I.D. handy-they may be asking you for it more often.

Three Common Fitness Afflictions
Before you learn and practice the Seven Steps to removing your "but" from exercise, you must learn to steer clear of three behaviors that can sabotage your efforts to get fit. I refer to these self-defeating fitness afflictions as: paralysis by analysis, perfectionitis and quickfixitis.

Paralysis by analysis is failing to take action on a subject due to over-examination. If you haven't started exercising yet because you are trying to determine the best exercise to do and the best time to do it, you suffer from paralysis by analysis.

The best exercise is whatever exercise you are willing to do. The best time to work out is whatever time works for you.

-JS Perfectionitis is the belief that everything must be performed perfectly. If you think you must do sixty minutes of vigorous exercise every day, you suffer from perfectionitis. You can benefit from as little as ten minutes of exercise three days a week.

Quickfixitis is the belief that an instant solution exists for every problem. If you hope to get fit in a week, you suffer from quickfixitis. You may need several weeks or even several months to get in shape. That's okay. As you will soon learn, your journey to fitness can be as enjoyable as your destination.

If you identify with any or all of these unproductive behaviors, you are about to do the right thing. The Seven Steps will help cure you of these fitness afflictions.

The Seven Steps
Soon you will learn the Seven Steps in detail and put them into practice. Here's an overview of each step.

Step 1 reminds you that exercise can and should be fun, no matter how negative an attitude about exercise you have had in the past.
Step 2 teaches you that when you slow your approach to exercise, you can actually progress faster. You will learn how to develop an effective pace.
Step 3 shows you the value of making plans to exercise and keeping those plans visible, how to schedule your exercise at home and while you are on the road, and how to take advantage of unplanned opportunities to move your body.
Step 4 teaches you how the support of friends and events can help you develop more consistency with your workouts. You will discover ways to seek healthy support.
Step 5 teaches you how a balanced exercise routine strengthens your incentive to stay active. You will learn to identify and shore up the weak links in your workouts.
Step 6 explains how an active vacation can turn you into a regular exerciser for life. You'll learn about active vacation options, how to choose the right active holiday, how to prepare for it, how to get the most out of it and how to apply what you learn to your life at home.
Step 7 explains why, if you want to get active for a lifetime, you absolutely must make exercise a priority in your life. If you think you are a long way from ranking exercise high on your life's list, don't worry. The first six Steps will gently steer you toward that big commitment, and Step Seven will take you over the top.
How To Use This Book
Read this book in an active manner. At the end of each page, sit up straight or stand up and stretch. At the end of each chapter, take a quick walk around the block.

When you come to the assignment at the end of each Step referred to as Your Ten-Minute Solutionples in this book are worthless if you don't use them.

Since perfectionitis is not encouraged here, do not feel obligated to use every tip in this book. Some simply won't work for you. But be open to ideas that might work-even if they force you out of your comfort zone. As you move from step to step, try to embrace at least the essence of each step. Then modify the idea to fit your situation.

For instance, when I suggest that you devote ten minutes every Sunday evening to scheduling your exercise for the upcoming week, read "Sunday" as any convenient day. Whatever day you choose, however, stick with it-be consistent.

Expect key ideas, often supported by stories, examples, tips or quotes, to jump out at you in bold print.

Read every quote. They will inform, amuse, enlighten or inspire you. Quotes credited to JS are from yours truly (Joe Sweeney), but think of the initials JS as a reminder to Just Start. As you trek through this book, let Just Start be your mantra.

Follow the Seven Steps outlined in this book and you will succeed. You will get active, finally and forever. Follow the Seven Steps and you will never again utter that familiar phrase: "I know I should exercise, but"

If we were meant to move our bodies, we would have been born with arms and legs. -JS

Edition details

• Publisher: Pacific Valley Pr
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0966616324
• ISBN 13: 9780966616323
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 176