Your Life is a Marathon, not a Sprint!

You probably have heard this saying somewhere, but what does it have to do with living a healthy lifestyle you might ask?  Well, a lot.

Has the thought of running a marathon ever crossed your mind or has been sitting on your bucket list for years?

Or do you think running is a waste of your time, and that is why they invented cars?

Either way, I encourage you to continue reading. Being a sport- and nutrition coach I have worked with both groups. And whether you chose actually to run a marathon or not, is not important. What is important is that along the way you will learn to create your personal healthy lifestyle, (I like to call it a “MarathonLifestyle”) and that is the key to a long-lasting healthy life.

Creating your healthy lifestyle

Have you tried many different diets and sports regimes to improve your health, lose weight or just gain more energy and vitality? And has it given you the LONG TERM results you were hoping? Or are you still looking for that magic pill?

In the past years, I have worked with many different types of people, and I do not believe in “one size fits all”.  We are all different, and it is in recognizing our bio individuality where the secret to a healthy lifestyle lies. Finding out who you are with regards to food, nutrition and exercise is pivotal. What works for one person like magic may be like poison for someone else. Many clients in my practice have tried diets that work for other family members and friends with no results sometimes even opposite results with them. The bias created by the media also genrates a lot of confusion with the result that people have no idea what to do or eat anymore. I believe one starts first by finding out what is right for you and what suits you best, regardless of what the media says or what has worked for family and friends. So how do you start finding out what is good for you?

Finding out your bio-individuality

To help you out I have included two tests on my website that you can download for free to help you find out which diet best suits you.

• The seven day breakfast experiment
  During these seven days, you will try out different types of breakfast and journal how your body feels afterward.
• The metabolic typing
  A simple test to give you an indication of whether you are a carb, protein or fat type and what diet best suits your type.

An important aspect is to learn to feel & listen to your body. How do you feel after eating certain things? Even if you do the metabolic test and find out you are a given type, it is important to keep listening to your body. Your needs might change with age, pregnancy, sickness, stress level and exercise regime (different sports different needs).

Even things like whether you are a morning person or not may have an effect on your diet & exercise regime. I, for instance, start every morning with a protein-rich smoothie. My girlfriend, on the other hand, has a more intermittent fasting regime and postpones her breakfast till around 12 o’clock. The thought of starting her day with a protein smoothie does not appeal to her and does not suit her lifestyle. And that is what this is all about, finding a healthy lifestyle that suits you and making it your own.

After you have found out which foods are the right ones for you, it is important to choose for quality above quantity. Make sure your food is as close to it’s original form as possible. The more processed and refined the food is, the less nutrition & health value will be in it.

Have a clear goal

Besides your bio-individuality, it is even more important to have a clear goal.

To achieve anything in life, you need first to start by finding out what you want and where you want to go and more importantly, why. Especially when it comes down to living a healthy lifestyle it is important to figure out what that means for you. What does a healthy lifestyle mean for you? Some questions that may help you are:

• Why do I want to live a healthy lifestyle?
• How does a healthy lifestyle look like for me?

Combining these two elements (bio-individuality and an explicit goal) is the key to creating and living a long lasting healthy life, a “MarathonLifestyle”. And here is where the marathon component fits in beautifully.

The most important thing about planning to run a marathon is a great focus for an extended period of time (It usually takes between three to six months to train for the marathon). The laser beam focus of training to run the marathon has had a significant impact on the lives of my clients: get more energy, their business improve, their time management skills increase, they are more creative, their skin lookes better, they lost weight & much more.

Until I started coaching clients to run a marathon I never thought about this effect from training for a marathon. However, now I realize that that period of, depending on your level of fitness, between three to six months, is a period that actually changes the lives of people. Research has also shown that it takes about 90 days to create a new long-lasting habit.

As I mentioned above, it is crucial to learn to listen to your body. When you are training for a marathon, you will get a direct response from your body whenever you eat or drink something that is not good for you. You will notice that your training feels harder or that you feel more tired after training. Those are all signals which will help you find out what foods work for you and which don’t.  Also the fact that you exercise has a great impact on your body. Exercising can help you detoxify & energise your body. Eating only healthy food without moving your body will result in expensive poop & nothing more.

Having a marathon as a goal is a great stimulus and works like a charm. Running a marathon takes determination, perseverance, long-term commitment, and becoming conscious about your diet. These are all aspects that will not only help you finish the race but are all elements that will help you create and sustain your new healthy lifestyle way after the finish.

Whether you decide to run a marathon or not, I would like to encourage you to start taking some time to find out what your ideal healthy lifestyle looks.

Some tips that can support your Lifestyle quest:

1. 1. What Exercise do you like, e.g. Yoga, Kite Surfing, Mini Rebounder, Swimming, Pilates, Dancing and so much more. Just try any and see if it suits you.
2. 2. Use the 80/20 principle towards food, which I have translated into: One day a week eat EVERYTHING you like. And I really mean EVERYTHING and enjoy it!
3. 3. Find time for relaxation. eg. get enough sleep, breathing exercises, meditation or just going to the theater or movies.

An energetic, vibrant & feel good lifestyle is a combination of nutrition, exercise, relaxation and spirituality.

Evaluate each component and find out where you want to be in 3 to 6 months and start taking the steps towards that lifestyle. You do not need to sprint, just take one step every day.