During my time playing college football, we would have meetings every Sunday to review the previous game. We had three big boards in the team meeting room: one for offense, one for defense, and one for special teams. Each board tracked different metrics for each group. For example, the offensive board tracked yards gained and points scored and the defensive board tracked yards given up and points allowed. Two metrics we put a lot of emphasis on were total yardage differential and average field position. The total yardage differential measured the difference between how many yards we gained and how many yards we gave up and the average field position showed us if we spent the majority of the game on their side of the field or ours. If we spent more time on their side of the field and we had a high yardage differential we were very likely to win the game.
This analogy applies beautifully to health and fitness as well. We can track as individuals and communities as a whole, how we are doing with regards to our “offensive” and “defensive” approaches to health and fitness. Many people have just forfeited the game all together. They neither try to gain health and fitness nor slow the decline of it. Not only do they not exercise at all or try to make improvements to their nutrition, they do not follow the doctor’s recommendations to try to control their diabetes, they smoke, and they don’t take their meds for hypertension and high cholesterol. We all know the consequence of this is an early death, but for some people playing the game is too hard and too painful and they’d rather just forfeit instead.
Many others just play defense. When the doctor tells them they have hypertension, they’ll take the blood pressure meds. They’re active, they don’t sit on the couch all day, but they don’t exercise with purpose. They’re not eating junk food all day and they try to watch their weight but they’re not maximizing their potential through nutrition. They’re willing to put in some effort to slow their own retreat but they’re not trying to gain ground.
If we applied either of these approaches in football, we’d get the same result: a loss. You can’t win if you quit and you can’t win if you only play defense. You have to be billing to play offense as well. You have to be willing to gain ground. You have to be willing to implement intelligent strategy through great effort to make forward progress. That is what playing the game is all about and, in doing so, is something to be proud of. Where do you sit in all of this? Are you playing the game or have you hung up your cleats? Are you using strategy and effort to maximize your offense and defense? If not, it’s time to change. We can help. Let us show you how to get the most out of your health and fitness and win this game.