As a personal trainer in Boston, one of the question I always hear is “Why does staying in shape have to be so complicated?”.

Staying in shape doesn’t have to be that complicated. It’s really as simple as moving the body and eating right. Yes, there are different levels of fitness where you need need more advanced fitness programs and diets, for example if you’re an athlete. But if you’re an average person who is only interested in staying in shape it’s not that complicated.

Let me try to explain this in an imaginary and fun way. Our bodies function very much like a car. The car like our bodies was made to move. For the car to move it requires fuel.

Our bodies were made to move, to get us from one point to another. Our bodies were also made to pick up stuff and move them around (this is also called work).

To produce the energy for our bodies to do all these functions, we need fuel, which we get from eating food.

Let’s go back to the example of the car.

What makes the car move is fuel. You add fuel and the car burns that fuel and the car moves. When the car burns all that fuel, it requires more fuel to move again. Now imagine that you kept adding fuel, and you didn’t use the car. What would happen? Well, the tank would get full and accept no more fuel.

Now let’s imagine that the car had the capability to store extra fuel that it didn’t use.

So back to our example. The car has a full tank. The owner then adds more fuel, but this time, the car stores the extra full – let’s say in the wheels, then the trunk and then maybe somewhere in the engine. What happens? Well, the car is now heavier and bigger from all that stored fuel that it’s not burning.

That ‘s the same thing that happens to our bodies. If you’re not burning the food you consume, your body is storing it in your waist, butt, belly and some other unwanted areas. The result is a rounder and heavier body.

One of the reasons why I love watching the reality show “Dancing with the Stars” is that after five weeks of the show running the celebrities start looking slimmer. Even the ones that started out overweight. They start seeing the results of all the dancing and moving they did during those 5 weeks.

This proves that when you start moving your body, whether it’s walking, dancing, jogging, etc., you will lose weight.

So don’t be like that car that sits in the driveway doing nothing and the owner keeps adding fuel to it. Get out there and move. Burn some calories.

Don’t make it complicated. Just get out there and do something as simple as walking around the block or taking the stairs instead of the elevator. If you are motivated to jog, bike, take dancing lesson, lift weights, go hiking, do yoga, take Zumba fitness classes, take martial arts or some other more advanced fitness activities, even better.

To your success,
Aimee

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