Fit For Life: Practices for Success

Saturday, February 03, 2018

Matt Espeut, GoLocalWorcester Health +Lifestyle Contributor

I was reading a chapter in a book written by one of my mentors, Todd Durkin and he was talking about a time he spent with his two sons at a college football game. He was comparing football to his life experiences, so with the big game coming up this weekend, I decided to write my own version of how football compares to life.

1. Mindset

How you program your mind determines how you play the game and how you live your life. You need a winner’s attitude and need to believe in yourself that you can accomplish any task you set out to do. With a positive mindset you see all the possibilities and when you see the possibilities you believe anything is attainable. On the other hand, if your mindset is negative you will find every reason why something can’t be done and weather you believe you can or believe you can’t you will always be right (Henry Ford).

2. Preparation and Hard Work

Football, business, and fitness all require this element in order to succeed. Fail to plan means you should plan to fail. No team will ever win a game without preparation and hard work, and neither will you. Try winging it with your fitness routine by not prepping meals and working hard in the gym. I can guarantee failure. Try taking an exam at school without studying and you can expect a big fat F on the top of the page. When Tom Brady is asked about his success, he never claims to be a gifted athlete, but he attributes his victories to hard work and preparation. There are no exceptions to this rule, regardless of what you are trying to achieve.

3. Overcome Adversity

We are all going to suffer losses and beat downs on occasion. It’s unavoidable. It’s the ability to bounce back that determines the winners and losers. If you can get off the canvas, brush yourself off and jump back in the game, your chances of victory are far better than the ones that stay down and feel sorry for themselves. Wallowing in self-pity and possessing the “poor me” attitude will just dig a deeper hole. The ones that look ahead and put their past failures behind them are far more likely to taste victory on any level of life.

4.Be Ready To Call An Audible

Life sometimes gets in the way and the path to success sometimes requires taking a different route than originally planned, therefore you need to be able to solve problems quickly. When a star player goes down, someone else needs to step in and fill the role. When a quarterback steps up to the line and the defense looks different than the one they prepared for, he calls a different play. When you plan on working out in the morning, but your car doesn’t start, you either find another ride, or change your workout time to later. When an ad doesn’t bring in the expected amount of business, you change the wording, add a different picture and run it again. Yes, you need to plan, but things don’t always go as planned. So rather than give up, you need to find a plan B.

Regardless of whether you are playing football, growing a business, striving for better health and fitness. Implement these practices in your everyday life and success will be more likely. Live everyday like you are trying to win the Super Bowl and you can guarantee that you will take everything to a higher level.

Matt Espeut, GoLocal's Health & Lifestyle Contributor has been a personal trainer and health & fitnesss consultant for over 25 years. He is the owner of Fitness Profiles, a one on one, and small group personal training company, as well as Providence Fit Body Boot Camp, located at 1284 North Main St., on the Providence/Pawtucket line. You can reach Matt at (401) 453-3200; on Facebook at "Matt Espeut", and on Twitter at @MattEspeut. "We’re all in this life together – let’s make it a healthy one.

Related Slideshow: The 7 Best Health and Fitness Apps

Here is a list of some of the most obsession worthy health apps.

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MapMyRun

MapMyRun is the number one selling running app for a reason: it is easy to use, offers community support if you want it, and tracks and stores your exact routes for you. If you are training for a race or a serious runner, users say that the extra perks in the upgraded paid version are well worth it.

Made for iPhone, Android and Blackberry

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MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal seems to be the clear favorite amongst everyone polled. It is helpful not only for the fitness tracking aspect, but everyone polled mentioned how much they loved the food/diet aspect as well. From carb counting for diabetics to recipe ideas to complement your fitness goals, users love this app.

Made for iPhone and Android

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JeFit

JeFit is another fitness app that has rave reviews. It not only tracks progress for you, but offers a huge database of workouts. While many apps offer community support, JeFit allows you to sync workouts with friends who use the app, offering a (real) virtual buddy system.

Made for iPhone and Android

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Strava

Strava gets the highest mark of all the cycling apps. While it is also great for runners, the cyclers seem particularly inclined towards the fierce competition that can be ignited by this app. You can track all of your rides via GPS, then you can compare your efforts to those logged by others in the community on the same stretch of road. You can also join ongoing challenges that can net you great prizes (in addition to bragging rights).

Made for iPhone and Android

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YogaStudio

YogaStudio gets the top vote for Yoga apps. It has a lengthy collection of full class-length videos available at your fingertips. Unlike many other apps, this one also allows you to customize your own video yoga class. All of the poses are done by qualified yoga instructors, and you can find classes suitable for all levels of yogis.

Made for iPhone only

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SimplyBeing

SimplyBeing meditation app offers the best of both worlds. You can choose to run this app as a background for your meditation with soothing music or natural sounds that run for a set amount of time. Conversely, for those of you who have trouble focusing during meditation, you can choose a soothing voice-guided meditation.

Made for iPhone and Android

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Fooducate

Fooducate is an app all about educating people so that they make healthier food choices. Although not perfect, this app is easy to use (you can even take pictures of bar codes to instantly find foods in their database). It gives food a letter grade, tells you the pluses and minuses, and gives you better ranked alternatives. You can also use it as a weight loss tool by tracking your daily calories.

Made for iPhone and Android