Fitness.....a Destination or Journey?

The name of my blog is "Steve Cooksey’s Journey".

Why did I name it that?

1. My name IS Steve Cooksey....helloooo! (sorry...sometimes I just can't resist)

2. ...but more to the point, I named it a "journey" because fitness should be a lifelong journey not a destination.

What does this mean?

Too many times most of us (myself included) have treated Fitness as a destination, we arrive and then we move on. It is a pitstop along the way. Once we achieve a desired fitness level, we move on to other things. We forget to eat healthy foods and we forget to exercise and pretty soon we have fallen back into bad habits, gained weight and have become physically UN-fit...again.

Of course there are other times we don't even make it to our desired fitness level, we get side tracked before we even arrive....some times before we even start. It's easy to get side tracked with all the clever marketing campaigns and the fast paced lives we live.

BUT we all MUST treat fitness as a life long journey. Yes, we may veer off course occasionally but if our compass is set in the right direction and we stay “on the road”, we should be able to live longer more fulfilling lives than had we not stayed on the path to proper health and fitness.

At least twice I have gotten into good physical condition, back in 1990 and then again in 2000. In both instances, after I had achieved a desired level of fitness…I went back to my old habits and before long all the exercising, all the dieting was for nothing. I had gained all of my weight back and then some.

As I gained more and more weight...I probably started a diet every week (if not every morning when I looked in the mirror) but until I had major health problems I could not find the motivation to do something about it.

I hear this ALL the time when I try to talk someone into eating right and exercising. "Steve, it took a hospital stay to get you motivated." They actually use me as an example of how they can play the game!!!! Eat whatever you want, get fat and when health problems come...then you'll get fit???

Why that is wrong!!!

1. I almost screwed up so bad...I almost didn't have a second chance, don't assume you will.

2. If you are obese or significantly overweight...you will have health problems at some point. It WILL reduce the quality of your life or reduce the length of it. It may just be increased joint pain, it may be diabetes type 2 or it could be a heart attack or stroke....don't wait for an ambulance ride to begin your fitness journey.

Housekeeping Issue

Sorry about this but I have to take up some space here with some “housekeeping” duties.

1) Yesterday, the blog had over 100 page views so that was cool, an all time high.

So for those of you who have passed this on to family or friends…. I thank you.

2) Blog Layout

a. I don’t like the way the blog “archive” is laid out here…so I am working on a solution. One solution may be html code to create my own archive listing…I’d prefer an option that allows you the reader the ability to review titles more quickly.

b. One option is the Label section, on the right hand side. Check it out, you can click on a label and it will pull up posts associated with the label.

c. Also, on the right hand side, there is a “subscribe to the blog” and “search the blog” sections. If you subscribe, you will receive updates via email. The "search the blog" should be self explanatory.

3) Comments / Suggestions / Questions – if you have any of these, please let me know.

THANKS FOR READING!

Steve