For many people every day is an off-day. There seems to never be enough energy to make it to the club, not enough will power to keep at a low fat low carb diet, not enough belief in supplements to keep on taking them day-in day-out. Consequently, the vast majority of those who start in on a fitness lifestyle, quit in under three months.

Perhaps the best advice to these types of people is to simply stay at it for six months no matter what. That means they should continue to workout, diet and supplement even if the mirror (or how they look in their jeans) seems to say that they are doing nothing. Regularity and persistence are the only things which ultimately cause change. These are little more than the result of doing the basics every day, always refusing to miss.

Nevertheless, some people have been at their routines for much longer than six months. They have gotten into new habits, into a new way of living and find themselves happily unable to think of going back to their old patterns. Perhaps they even spend a fair amount of time trying to understand how their friends cannot be just like them.

These types of people do what they do because it makes them feel good. They love the feelings of relaxation and tiredness after a good workout. They love the excitement of doing one more rep than yesterday or running with just little bit longer stride. They are into the feelings of just enough (never too much) food, which converts itself into energy and the stuff of muscle repair. And, because they can pin point the difference that each supplement makes in how they feel and perform, they never miss their daily capsules.

People who are that much into their routines almost always feel great. Furthermore, they are perceived as being healthy, fit and generally enthusiastic by those closest to them. But almost always feeling great is not always. That is, there are days that are simply not as good as the great normal days. Generally, this is reflected in the quality of their workouts but it can also extend far into the recovery period.

In other words, now and then, their daily routine does not go quite as well as is expected. For those who are heavily into fitness, this is a very real, almost frightening concern, even if it is laughed at by their unfit friends.

Conventionally healthy others- those who are not ill or obese, but also not into everyday fitness regularity- have their own adamant beliefs about feeling good. On the basis of presumed vast experience, they say that everyone goes through ups and owns. Therefore, it is unrealistic to expect that every day will be optimally great. But these critics have presumably never stayed at a routine for a long enough period or they would find it hard to say this (especially when their number of great days is less than ten per month.). The truth is that those into a fitness lifestyle feel great virtually all of the time.

For fit people, off-days are almost always the result of having eaten something which did not digest well. In other words, the food is still in the stomach waiting to be utilized by the entire body. Conceivably, this may be the result of an unknown allergy to a particular type of food or possibly not enough of a particular enzyme in the system. But the chemistry is not all that important. What is crucial is that this problem is not a silent indicator of fitness days being over for good. (There are far too many who feel that it may really mean just that.)

If digestion is the problem, as it probably is, the cheapest and quickest remedy is to take a tablespoon or two of cider vinegar. This is the least expensive digestive aid, but not the only one. Jack Lalanne, if he were still alive, would recommend drinking fruit or vegetable juice made with his juicer. Whichever, or whatever (as some prefer papaya or even yogurt), getting your stomach back on track should get your workouts back to where you want them.

For further thought on the maintenance of a fitness lifestyle order my book "Think and Grow Fit."