Commitment and the Benefits that Fitness has on your Mental Health

Last summer, I experienced a breakthrough moment in my fitness journey. After months of following different fitness accounts, watching weight-loss videos, and 10-minute convenient home workouts, I decided to stop messing around and bite the bullet (or eat the frog, or whatever old adage applies) and finally do something about my declining physical health.

You see, I spent a long time coming up with excuses on why I couldn't commit to my fitness: from my work being too stressful and demanding, to it clashing with my studies... I found so many reasons for me not to be accountable for my own health, and displaced the blame.

This led to an underlying anxiety of not going anywhere and being a man who couldn't commit to his own thoughts and desires. It made me realise that this was bigger than just committing to a new routine, but actually challenged the principles I thought I had as a man...

Luckily I have a network that exposes me to beneficial content from decent influencers that actually helped me in dealing with my commitment issues. And I'm not talking about the 'Liver King' or 'Papa Swolio', but influences such as Jordan Peterson and his book '12 Rules to Life'. He taught me:

• to get my house in order before critiquing others;

• the importance of telling the truth to yourself;

• and that your only measurement is who you were yesterday.

These are the lessons that resonated with me, but I implore you to read his book and discover your own meanings.

I also discovered an article by international journalist Lisa Elia who simply summarised the parameters of one's commitments and the psychological deterrents you can put in place to keep you on track. She encouraged us to confront ourselves when doubting our commitments by asking:

Would the other party be happy to change the commitment? Sometimes that person you’re supposed to meet for dinner is just as tired as you and is hoping you’ll cancel. Call and discuss it.

Why don’t you want to keep your commitment? Have you changed your goals? Are there other changes in your life that make it impossible to do so? Or, are you just taking the easy way out?

What happens if you don’t keep your commitment? Will you disappoint someone? Will you disappoint yourself?

But I digress...

Near the beginning of Summer, I invested £150 in a remote personal trainer by the name of Jack Seymour who helped me tremendously with my fitness journey. Jack helped me plan my workout routines, aided me with my tempering my diet, and gave me the tools to manage my calorie count and physical performance. Most importantly, Jack kept me accountable for my own progress with weekly catch-up calls and constant communication throughout.

If you struggle with starting your journey or want to break out of your current lull of a routine, get yourself someone like Jack. Get a friend or family member to join you on your journey and keep each other accountable. Even if you read a book or follow a fitness page on Instagram; just make sure you do something.

Whatever you do today makes you a better person than you were yesterday.

One digression after another! Back to how fitness can benefit your mental health (from my experience)...

Mental health is an important aspect of overall health, and it’s something that should be taken seriously. Unfortunately, many people underestimate the correlation between their physical health to their mental health, which can lead to problems down the road.

Here are some of the main benefits I experienced during my journey:

• Improved Mood: Exercise releases endorphins, which have mood-boosting effects. When you’re feeling stressed or down, working out can help lift your spirits and make you feel better overall. Even if you've had a crap day, you at least achieved your physical health goal.

• Enhanced Concentration: One of the main reasons people turn to sports and fitness is because they need a boost in concentration. Athletes require incredible focus if they want to win; likewise, those who engage in fitness activities can also benefit from improved concentration levels. As someone who works from home where there are many distractions, keeping to my daily workout routines broke up my day and left me feeling 'mentally sound' for whatever task I had to complete.

• Reduced Anxiety: For some people, anxiety can be crippling. It prevents them from living their lives to their fullest potential. Fortunately, exercise has been shown to reduce anxiety levels in individuals who suffer from this disorder. This personally affected my sleep: due to physical fatigue, I literally couldn't stay awake overthinking things because I was too tired. I ended up sleeping at reasonable times and feeling more refreshed come the morning.

So overall we can say that Sports And Fitness activity has a great impact on our Physical Health & MENTAL HEALTH both...

All cards are on the table, this isn't a success story. Although I lost 10kg over the summer, dropped from 'overweight' to 'health weight', and physically looked and felt better, I am now writing this after a month of not working out having gained back 2kgs...

I am writing this as a testament to myself using my new found learnings to get myself back on the 'bandwagon' after this festive period has passed. I hope this article inspires you in some way to do the same.

I'm glad I got that #Offmychest