The fitness industry is a multi-billion-dollar business that unfortunately is often failing to promote sustainable health and fitness behaviors for most people. Instead, it more often than not promotes unhealthy and extreme images and messages that are not going to work for most people looking to get started or maintain their fitness in the new year.

Mental health has become an increasing focus and reason to exercise as of late with more and more scientific literature showing the many ways the brain/mind can benefit from a variety of types, durations, and intensities, and for different reasons. These days (and not just the holidays and transition to a new year), people deal with a considerable amount of stress from day to day and so I thought it might be nice to review just how incredible exercise can be from another perspective. Instead of “getting six pack abs”, “running a marathon”, or “shedding some holiday pounds” perspective we can all try shifting things a little for the new year.

The issue with many of the messages around nutrition “how to change” articles (including our own at times), is they lack a key component: YOU NEED TO OVERRIDE PART OF YOURSELF IN A VERY EFFORTFUL WAY…you need to actually pull the plug on a part of yourself and you need to be able to do it DAILY and MAKE PLANS BEYOND SHORT TERM GOALS.