The Tortoise and the Hare

Welcome to afitnewyou!  Today I would like to use a fable to emphasize the importance of making fitness a lifestyle as opposed to something that you do from time to time.  Fables are used commonly to teach lessons, and the one about the tortoise and the hare is no exception.  Most people are familiar with the story about the slow and steady tortoise beating the speedy hare; and this story can be used as a metaphor with how some people try to meet their fitness goals.  If you train and diet like the hare, quick and when needed, you might get some immediate results, but they might not last in the long run.  On the other hand, if you making exercise and the maintenance of a healthy diet your day-in and day-out thing, you will win in the long run.  And when the prize on the line is a healthier, fitter new you, this is a race you want to win.

Over the many years that I have been training, I have met time and time again, the type of person that “hits the gym” at certain times of the year, but does not exercise regularly.  This is the same type of person, and often the same person, who also goes on crash diets over and over again.  This way of reaching fitness goals is like the hare in the fable…quick and speedy.  But remember the ending of the story, the hare loses!  The same will be true with your fitness goals if your try to meet them this way.  You may get some quick results, but if the routine and/or diet are maintained regularly, those goals will soon be lost.

In the fable, the tortoise eventually wins the race by setting for the finish line by going slow and steady.  By not starting and stopping over and over again, the tortoise beats the hare.  And with fitness goals, if you keep at them with a slow, and more importantly, steady pace, you too will achieve them.  Rather than going on crash diets that are hard to maintain, and even unhealthy, over the long run if you maintain a regular, healthy food plan, you will not only reach your goals, but hold on to them thereafter.  The same is true with exercising.  Instead of trying to hit the gym every day of the week, by setting realistic goals for yourself, the practice of going to the gym becomes the norm.

I have said this many times before, fitness should be a lifestyle and not a fad.    Trying to improve upon your health in as short a time as possible will not yield lasting results.  The healthier way to reach fitness goals is by making small, manageable changes that can be maintained as part of your lifestyle, and then improving upon them with a steady pace.  The hare may be better at running a sprint, but as the analogy goes, life isn’t a sprint but a marathon, and here you need the slow and steady pace of the tortoise to win that race.

If given the option between losing 15% body fat in one month’s time, but to gain it all back two months later, or to lose 1% body fat each week for three months and then keep it off most people would choose the latter.  This type of body change comes with making long term lifestyle changes.  While it may take you a little bit longer to get there, the goals that will be achieved will be enduring.  Trying to sprint to a finish line that in actuality is always ahead of you will cause you to tire out and drop out.  But striving for that finish line with a slow and steady pace will keep you going and going.  It isn’t counter-intuitive, striving for your fitness goals with the tortoise’s slow and steady pace will be the lasting way to maintain a fit new you!