It is difficult to deny that as the years roll by, it's not as easy to stay as lean as when we were younger. As we get older, certain hormones decrease, making it harder to maintain muscle mass. Loss of muscle mass equals a lower metabolism and this will affect how many calories we burn when resting. It's very easy to blame age as the main reason for gaining weight. However, it may not be as simple as that when we look closely at how our lifestyle changes through the years.
I was thinking about this last week, when I realised how little walking I do. This led to me thinking about all the other general activity I used to do compared to now. I still exercise most days at a specific time. But the exercise I used to do on top of my sport or training was so much higher. I remember a day at the age of about 16 years old:
This day started at about 7am and finished at 11am. I was probably running on bread, crisps, chocolate and a homemade dinner at night. Not great nutrition, but the calories I burned compared to the calories I consumed left a massive gap. Hence me being pretty skinny! I must have walked about 8 miles on that day.
The above day wasn't a regular occurence, but at the time I didn't think much of it. I walked everywhere, played lots of sport, started hitting the gym, worked, etc. I didnt even class walking as exercise then! It just got me to where I needed to go! Nowadays, we seem to take the car everywhere. I often wonder how much leaner we would be if for 6 months we ditched all cars!
As we get older, more often than not we get more responsibility at work. This often leads to us giving more orders than taking them. A prime example was working in the warehouse, when I worked part time for a courier company. This was temporary whilst studying, but people would soon move from the warehouse to supervisor. From supervisor to the office. And from the office to a management role. Lots of lifting and moving would eventually turn into picking up the phone and sending emails.
If you feel you move less and less, the next step is to find ways to build activity into your lifestyle again. This can be the case for yourself and your kids. Lots of kids are active. Others spend their life living through social media sites. This is sad, because there will be a lot of time for computers when they are older. They should be enjoying the freedom of life and getting outside as much as possible.
For the rest of us, lets simply add more walking into our day. Walk as often as you can. Get off the tube one stop early, walk to work, walk to school, walk to the local shops instead of the supermarket and carry the bags home, etc. Saying to somebody, "try and do an hours walking a day" seems like a lot to build into a busy schedule. 4 blocks of 15 minutes however, doesn't.
If you are struggling with your weight, take a serious look at your lifestyle. When do you move and how often for?
Why not see one of our instructors for a lifestle consultation!
I was thinking about this last week, when I realised how little walking I do. This led to me thinking about all the other general activity I used to do compared to now. I still exercise most days at a specific time. But the exercise I used to do on top of my sport or training was so much higher. I remember a day at the age of about 16 years old:
- Walk to the station - 2-3miles
- Catch the train to school - walk half a mile to school
- General walking around school inbetweeen lessons
- School football match in the afternoon (90 minutes)
- Get the train to work after school - walk half a mile to station and then half a mile to work, once off the train
- Worked in a large warehouse for 4 hours, lots of heavy lifting, wrapping pallets, walking etc
- Walked to the sports centre - 2 miles
- Played 5-a-side football for an hour!
This day started at about 7am and finished at 11am. I was probably running on bread, crisps, chocolate and a homemade dinner at night. Not great nutrition, but the calories I burned compared to the calories I consumed left a massive gap. Hence me being pretty skinny! I must have walked about 8 miles on that day.
The above day wasn't a regular occurence, but at the time I didn't think much of it. I walked everywhere, played lots of sport, started hitting the gym, worked, etc. I didnt even class walking as exercise then! It just got me to where I needed to go! Nowadays, we seem to take the car everywhere. I often wonder how much leaner we would be if for 6 months we ditched all cars!
As we get older, more often than not we get more responsibility at work. This often leads to us giving more orders than taking them. A prime example was working in the warehouse, when I worked part time for a courier company. This was temporary whilst studying, but people would soon move from the warehouse to supervisor. From supervisor to the office. And from the office to a management role. Lots of lifting and moving would eventually turn into picking up the phone and sending emails.
If you feel you move less and less, the next step is to find ways to build activity into your lifestyle again. This can be the case for yourself and your kids. Lots of kids are active. Others spend their life living through social media sites. This is sad, because there will be a lot of time for computers when they are older. They should be enjoying the freedom of life and getting outside as much as possible.
For the rest of us, lets simply add more walking into our day. Walk as often as you can. Get off the tube one stop early, walk to work, walk to school, walk to the local shops instead of the supermarket and carry the bags home, etc. Saying to somebody, "try and do an hours walking a day" seems like a lot to build into a busy schedule. 4 blocks of 15 minutes however, doesn't.
If you are struggling with your weight, take a serious look at your lifestyle. When do you move and how often for?
Why not see one of our instructors for a lifestle consultation!
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