Fitness Addiction — More Than 12 Steps

A balanced fitness program is very advantageous for our health and quality of life, however, too much fitness can be just as bad for us as too little fitness. Speaking from my mentality, however, I side with the error of having too much fitness in my life, and I have definitely paid for that multiple times in my life. When I tell people that my only addiction is exercise, they quickly state that they wish they had that problem, but as addictions go, I have to be careful with this one.

There is clearly great evidence that supports the benefits of regular exercise for improving and maintaining our health, but remember that doing too much can actually cause the body to revert to survival mode. Just like when we go on diets that are essentially similar to starving ourselves, our body goes into starvation mode and tends to hoard every calorie and fat deposit that it can. As evidenced by many poor countries, longer-term starvation can eventually waste away our bodies, so I am not speaking lightly about this topic; this example was only brought forward as an example of how our bodies fight to survive. The title of this article, which includes “More Than 12 Steps” is really about the attitude of addiction to exercise.

Many recovery programs across our nation use a semblance of 12 steps in their strategy, but I was alluding to the mentality that more exercise…