3 STEPS TO SUSTAINABLE HEALTH
If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably tried your fair share of diets: Whole30, Paleo, Keto, Atkins, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Vegan, and Plant-Based. You’ve probably followed all of the top fitness influencers on Instagram and tried their daily workout videos, googled “workouts plans”, played some Jillian Michaels DVD’s in your living room, and hopped into some sporadic cardio classes at your gym. But how many of these things have you stuck to for longer than 4-6 weeks? Have you been able to stay consistent and make it a lifestyle or have you failed at another fitness resolution? This is the problem with the health and fitness industry. They’ve done an impeccable job of selling the newest diet and trendiest workout program. We pay the money for the vegan cookbooks, the “personalized” diet plans, and 6 days/week workout programs at the promise of the newest, fastest way to lose weight, only to realize it’s not actually sustainable. We quit and reinforce the cyclical failure in our health and weight loss journeys. But let me ask you this. What if there were steps to create a lifestyle bursting with health that didn’t require a new diet and an hour in the gym every day of the week? I have good news - THERE ARE. I’ve tried a lot of diets. I’ve lost a lot of weight. I’ve gained a lot of weight. I’ve fallen off the bandwagon many times, until I realized that healthy lifestyles are easier actually easier than I once thought. Here’s my most tried and true steps that have allowed me to ditch the unsustainable, restrictive diets and aimless workout programs that have created a lifestyle I’ll carry on for the rest of my life.
EAT FOOD. NOT TOO MUCH. MOSTLY PLANTS.
When people want to lose weight, the first thing they try and do is restrict their calories. This is actually counterproductive and damaging to your relationship with food. If you want to ruin your relationship with food, becoming obsessive with what, when, and how much you eat, this is how to go about it. I don’t think God created Adam and Eve to whip out MyFitnessPal whenever they ate an apple. Food is meant to fuel. It is not a torture and deprivation mechanism. That being said, you must eat enough. It’s counterintuitive, but your body needs adequate food to lose weight. Obviously, if you’re eating more calories than you burn, you will gain weight. As a rule of thumb, eat when hungry and until satisfied and don’t eat when you’re not hungry. Listen to your hunger cues. Your body intuitively knows how much to eat as a survival mechanism. You can trust it, but a lot of. us have to learn to trust our body’s intuitions again. When you eat, aim to fill your plate with mostly veggies and attempt to get 7 total servings of fruits and vegetables every day. A balanced meal will have a protein, carbohydrate, and fat source. An easy clean meal is a sweet potato (carbohydrate) topped with ground turkey seasoned with taco seasoning (protein), broccoli, salsa, and avocado (fat). This meal is mostly plant based, takes less than an hour to prepare multiple servings for the week, and will keep me satisfied for several hours at a time. I’m not giving you a strict meal plan to follow. Load up on veggies and eat when you’re hungry (not bored). Start here and make a habit out of it. You’ll find it much easier than hours spent on MyFitnessPal.
INTENTIONAL WORKOUTS.
Most people don’t see fitness progress because their workouts programs don’t follow a principle called progressive overload. A good workout program will make you compete with last week’s results. If last Wednesday you squatted 100lbs for 10 reps, you should either be trying to squat 100lbs for 11 reps this Wednesday or squatting 105lbs for 10 reps. If you ran 5 miles in 37:43 this week, try for 37:33 next week. The goal is to always be competing with yourself. If you’re aimlessly walking around the gym every Monday-Thursday doing any exercise you feel like doing at random weights, you won’t see progress. Find a workout program and stick to those same workouts for 4-6 weeks as you attempt to push harder every week. This is progressive overload, and it’s the key to favorable changes in body composition. I also think it’s important to note that you don’t have to workout every day to be healthy. Start with 3 days a week and aim to complete a strength workout on at least 2 of those days. If you can do more, that’s great! But you’re better off to start small and overdeliver than to overshoot your goals, fail, and quit. Start with 3 days, create a habit, and add another day once you find yourself at the gym 3 days a week without thinking.
SLEEP ENOUGH.
One of my favorite fitness mantras is you can only train as hard as you recover. Think about your recovery like a phone battery. You can only use your phone for as long as it stays charged. If you don’t charge it overnight, the odds are that you won’t have a phone to use for much of the next day. Our bodies work the same way. If we don’t recharge, we won’t have enough steam to get through our day-to-day activities, much less our workouts. And if we’re not recovering, our body is going to put all of its efforts into our basic body functions - breathing, proper organ function, etc., not weight loss or body composition changes. If you’re looking to better your athletic performance or to change your body fat/muscle percentages, rest is not optional. You need 7-8 hours of sleep a night to fully recover. I can tell a difference in my workouts if I get any less than 7 hours of sleep. I quickly start to crash and burn. When I’m consistently under those 7 hours, I can’t gain muscle or lose body fat as easily either. Start by getting to bed 30 minutes earlier and not using your phone while in bed (the blue light emitted from our phones makes the body think it’s still daylight, which can make it more difficult to fall asleep). This might be the most easily controlled and attainable step you can take to create sustained health.
Take a hard look at your health and fitness goals. If they feel impossible or if you’ve tried and failed at them many times over, it could be time to reevaluate. The more you set unreachable goals, the more discouraged you will feel in your repeated failure. Start with goals that are attainable, master them, set some harder ones, crush those, and keep repeating the process. Wouldn’t you much rather have a sustainable health and fitness routine rather than the constant failed diets and aimless workouts? I know I would! Start with these 3 steps and go from there. If you make these daily habits, you can create a healthy lifestyle that sticks for years to come!
Let’s seek the lifestyles that will lead to longevity for ourselves, our current families, and our future families. I would love to help you discover what works for you and coach you along the path to good nutrition and sustainable fitness by setting up a time to talk through your goals. From there I can create a personalized nutrition plan and workout program just for you! Go to my training page to begin the conversation and I will follow-up with you shortly. Let’s create and crush your goals together!
— K