WHO'S WORLD OF FANTASY WILL YOU DIVE INTO NEXT?

OKAY, BEFORE WE GET down to the questions, check these out:

“The languages that we (Kenyans) are most fluent in are English, Kiswahili and Silence”. Do you agree? Send me your thoughts on this statement.

“Take each new day as a new challenge instead of a continuing struggle”, a response to the previous article on approaching a potential career or recreational sport. This sounds like a philosophical thinker…I don’t know, what do you think?

Keep the comments coming in; they form a basis of solid discussions. As you think of what to add to the comments section, allow me to tackle some questions that have been shot my way. 🙂

QUESTION 1: How does someone keep up their motivation to exercise? I started working out some time ago and now I can’t seem to find the motivation to go on.

Good question…and a tough one. Motivation. Really, it’s the biggest factor that gets us doing something in the first place. But it’s like a snake: unreliable, or like we say, ‘nyoks’. I think the best way to beat it at its game is by building habits. The advantage of habits is that our brains are able to get the ‘autopilot’ upgrade. Think of the convenience of using a washing machine or dishwasher – there’s literally no effort required, except maybe loading and unloading the clothes or dishes respectively; otherwise, it’s pretty effortless. Autopilot.

However, there was a cost incurred when these machines were purchased, right? Your wallet probably wasn’t too jazzed about the decision, but hey, look at the benefits being reaped! You no longer have to hand-wash your clothes or utensils…awesome, right? Similarly, to create a habit of exercising, you would need to make some tough decisions.

For example, if you choose to workout every morning before you go to work, you’ve got to wake up earlier than you already do. Getting up that early for the first week is pretty easy – yaaaaay! Getting up during the second week feels like the world is against you – the bed seems that much more friendlier, especially in this super cold weather of July and August – but do it anyway! Getting up the third week, well, systems are shutting down and looking for a way to bribe you out of getting up; get up anyway! And I kid you not, if you can keep this up for a month and a half, your body will begin craving the early-morning exercise, and your mind will start preparing for the autopilot upgrade – possibly as frequently as Windows asks you to update itself (even if we have no idea what they end up updating, lol).

The other thing to consider is the workouts you are doing. In the sporting jargon, there’s the FITT acronym, which stands for Frequency, Intensity, Time taken and Type of exercise. This is the foundation of what we were discussing earlier on ‘progression’.

You know what? Why don’t I do an article on this, then you could see how to incorporate it into your workout routine. Either way, the ultimate goal is to make exercising a LIFESTYLE. And since you have been alive this long without getting here in a ‘get older-quick scheme’ (doesn’t sound as catchy as ‘get rich quick’, but okay), a lifestyle similarly takes time to develop. Look out for the article on FITT very soon. 🙂

QUESTION 2: You mentioned changing your environment to suit your workout plan. How can I change mine without having to move location, or even at an affordable level?

Awesome, thanks for asking that. Truth is, in this tough economical times, relocating is just something else. So why don’t we start small, in your home, perhaps? All right, a small disclaimer: first, this answer will boil down to the habits that have been discussed in the previous question (hopefully you’ve seen it), and second, my response stems from applying what I read in James Clear’s book on “Atomic Habits” – a great read, if you ask me.

Well, first, we’ve got to make your current environment make exercise look really appealing. There’s lots of ways you can do this. A few examples: you could create a bigger space in your room between your bed and the door so that every morning you wake up and want to go about your day, you can get down and complete a few stretches or pushups or jump ropes; you could also arrange your sport shoes the night before at your bedroom door so that after you wake up and are about to leave the room, you see them on your way out and put them on to do your workout.

If you can afford to go to a gym, in addition to working out, socialise! When you begin hanging out with people who you can exercise with and push each other on, slacking off becomes a no-no, almost like an unwritten rule. Another example could be watching sports videos before you go to bed (after watching news or streaming Netflix, hehe), then wake up and try to imagine yourself being the ‘star’ in one of those videos. We live in a world where we feel validated by the likes we receive, so why not create a million likes in your imagination as you complete your workout? (which by the way is a technique athletes use called “imagery”).

Do you have a sports icon you are following? Put a poster of them on your wall on a spot you can never miss when you wake up or go to bed, and they could just motivate you to get in the work the following morning.

Try everything that you can since it’s all pretty much trial and error until you find the one that works for you. Or, you could look for an awesome coach like me 😉

Branching off a little, when the World Rugby U20 Trophy was going on from 15th to 30th July, I got to interact with the referees on one of their training sessions. Truth is, I was hella late and so missed the core physical activity, but we still managed to do something together. Remember when I asked you to socialise in the gym? I am willing to bet that as fit as these guys are, working together on the field when preparing to ref games or keep up their fitness levels is a huuuuuge morale booster to put in the work. I mean, when you have people you can joke with while hurting, that’s a whooooole other level of awesomeness.

Think about it.

QUESTION 3: How quickly can I achieve my workout goals if I were to start today?

As much as this is an excellent question, I am going to break your heart. It would be unfair if I wasn’t honest with you. That word, quickly, it just doesn’t happen here. Pole! If you want fast results…well, let me be kind, uh, you may need to consider other options like pills and surgery (which I totally would not recommend!). Remember when I said that sports and healthy living is a lifestyle? Consider a goal of losing 10kgs. Okay, so you work at it for a certain duration and voila, you become 10kgs less…and then what?

Will you stop exercising? That would be a bad idea because you might end up gaining more than the 10kgs you lost! Will you keep at it? Well, I hope so, because then losing those 10kgs will begin to look insignificant to the new objectives you’ll set along the way such as to keep fit and maintain your figure. Just so you know, sexiness doesn’t happen by itself, and it also doesn’t wait around for anyone – a bummer, I know.

Do you know why if you stopped you could end up at a worse spot? Well, because after the ‘hard work’ of working out, slacking off comes as a huuuuuuuuuge relief – almost like an instantly gratifying reward – and even the thought of getting back to exercising will just be torture…and even if you end up missing the euphoria you experienced as you exercised, the trauma and the relief you felt will become limiting factors.

Honestly, it hurts. And there is no quick way about it that would be beneficial to you in the long run. The good news is, the hurt can be managed to the point where you may not even feel it as much as you otherwise would. Having a great coach who is fun and creative and dynamic is one way of keeping up with the – I know you almost said ‘Kardashians’, lol – active lifestyle. Following the FITT Principle is another. Boredom and monotony are the two biggest killers of exercising. Well, those and comparing ourselves to others.

And again, ‘quick’ is relative: if you’re having fun while at it, you could well be asking, “Where has the time gone?” Please look out for the article on the FITT Principle. It could help effectively answer your question. 🙂

QUESTION 4 (and last for today): Where can I find a good coach to help me with my fitness?

Well, that’s the question, isn’t it? I would say that your choice of coach would depend on the fitness goals you have in mind. For example, if it’s strength training (or even becoming a body builder), then gym instructors are your best bet; they know their craft so well that they could almost have names for each of the weights in their gym (example: Rower, Silver, Barrista, Miller…), hehe.

Similarly, if you’re looking to practise a particular sport like tennis or swimming, looking for coaches in these areas would be the best idea. Basically, the best are most probably those who have specialised in that field. Then again, you do also have the quacks looking to make a killing here and there. Be vigilant! Don’t always take a person’s word for it; if you are not sure, ask or research for yourself. Otherwise, you could end up injured or worse 😦

Oh, and before I forget, there’s me. Remember when I spoke about the creative, fun-loving and dynamic coach? Sometimes I still surprise myself and my clients with some of the activities we come up with and do. Do you remember how to be a child? Well, you would get to relive those fun moments with me 🙂

Awesome, it’s been great hanging out with you. Please keep shooting your questions my way, and I will dedicate entire articles to feature them. All the best!

Cheers!