As soon as we’re born, we depend on the people around us to care for us.
To feed us, and teach us everything they know – the ropes of life.
But what if the teacher is teaching us the wrong things – even if they believe it’s true?
And I’ve found this is especially true for health and fitness.
It’s vault vs responsibility
Because it isn’t our fault that we’ve learned and believed the wrong information from people that we trusted
But it is our responsibility to change our habits for the better, once we do become aware.
I grew up on fast food and sugary drinks. Mcdonalds, pop tarts, gatorade, and soda were the norm. Pretty much, the quicker and more convenient the better.
As I grew up, I started looking at the people around me – in all areas – especially how they look.
I thought that we were given our bodies and how we looked was simply how we looked
But I learned that if we eat right and workout (or move as I like to call it) daily that we can ultimately shape how we look. We may not be able to get the world’s smallest waste but we can keep our gut tight no matter what our type is.
We may not be able to be the world’s strongest person, but we can keep our bodies toned.
SO, with all that being said: here are simple practices – habits if you will – that if done daily, will change your life forever.
To preface this list. It covers three simple areas: what we eat, what we drink, and how we move.
- The less processed the food is the better.
The ultimate goal should be to eat the food “whole”, from the source. Think fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes. Processed foods would be candy, pretzels, meats, etc.
Food is medicine and it’s what’s in the food that counts. Yeah, a squeeze of lemon may be unnecessary but it’s what’s in the lemon juice that is so powerful. This goes for herbs, spices, and the food categories listed above too.
On the other side of the spectrum, food can be empty and addicting calories, sugar highs and crushing lows, causing mood swings, dehydration, disease, aches, and a whole slew of other issues.
Starting out this eating clean goal may seem impossible, but after some time – it’s hard not to hit because just like anything, it’s a habit.
- Drink a gallon of water a day
Water is life, and the more the better. This is easy to do if water is the only liquid you are drinking. What we make our “go-to” drink is a habit, and for me, that go-to drink is water.
- Move daily
Most people make this workout thing way too complicated. That’s why we don’t say workout anymore but instead, we say move. Working out is something you do, movement is a lifestyle and we need health and fitness to be a lifestyle for it to be effective. This isn’t a one time thing.
So how can we move daily? I keep it simple and have three areas of concern. Stretching, strength, cardio. I do a 30 – 60 minute movement session in the morning, which is usually strength or cardio based. I also stretch 10 minutes when I wake up, 10 minutes before bed, and a few 5 – 10 minute yoga sessions throughout the day to “grease the groove”. I hyper-focus the workouts and stretching on a specific area to get the results I want.
Practical tip: the most important thing is carving out the time everyday, it doesn’t even matter what we do during movement time as long as we do it the best we can, with everything we got, with the right mindset, even if it’s just a walk.
And that’s it.
- The less processed the food is the better
- Drink a gallon of water daily
- Move daily
Make it happen!
Joe DiAndrea 