3 Steps to Being Healthy and Fit
Your heart’s pumping after your workout, and you’re glistening with sweat. You try to recall a moment when you didn’t feel this good. There was a time when you didn’t have the motivation to be active – Back when you had that nagging back pain and struggled to catch your breath after taking one flight of stairs.
Let’s revisit what led to your ideal state of being.
The three steps you took to become healthy and fit.
Mindset
Your mindset – the unique way you view life – determines your ability to manage stress, overcome challenges, and live a healthy life. You may have heard the phrase “a healthy mind can’t exist in an unhealthy body”. The opposite is also true.
By knowing and changing your mindset, you can be more resilient when the rug is pulled up from under your feet.
First,
Find the biggest mindset blocks that are limiting you from growth:
- Negative thoughts / Stinking Thinking
- Not taking responsibility for your health / Playing the blame game
- Refusing to receive feedback / My way or the highway
- Not accepting mistakes / Finger pointing
- Unwilling to be uncomfortable / Growth happens here
The great news?
With a growth mindset, you change over time. You can become more open to reflect, learn, and grow from challenges. Just like lifting weights to get stronger in the gym, you need to put in the reps by practicing healthy mindset habits.
When you do, you won’t struggle living a healthy life, it will feel natural.
Nutrition
According to Nielsen BookScan, about 5 million diet books are sold in the U.S. alone every year. Yet, we still don’t agree on what healthy eating looks like.
Nutrition can be a complex topic to discuss. For general health and fitness, I don’t think it has to be.
Let it be said that one should not downplay the key role nutrition plays in our health. A poor diet is linked to costly and debilitating conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis, and more. When we eat in a way that supports our needs, we thrive.
So,
The first step to living a fit and healthy life is to first become aware of what you are eating and how it makes you feel. This is where food tracking or using a food journal becomes a powerful tool. It may sound too simple, but tracking what you can can lead you to deep reflection and learning.
Move More
Movement animates life. If we’re not moving, we’re not living.
To maintain a healthy weight, be strong, have endless energy, we must incorporate daily movement. The right kind of movement will depend on the individual’s preference for exercise and how they adapt to their training.
Simple ways to start
Sit less and move more every day. Looking for opportunities to walk more. Never sit for more than 2 hours without stretching. Dance in the kitchen. Take a walk after lunch. Little habits like these add up in your healthy life.
Start including strength training 2-3 times per week. Lifting weights helps build strong bones, lean muscle, and fortifies your mental health.
Aerobic Training strengthens your heart. It speeds up heart rate and breathing as it burns calories. Activities like walking, hiking, running, jogging, jump rope, stationary bike, and swimming are excellent. It’s recommended to do aerobic training 5 days a week. Starting with at least 10 minutes.
Regular physical activity will turn your life around.
The Best Tip
I recommend these three steps for living your healthy and fit life. It’s normal to feel overwhelmed when starting to take control of your health. That’s why I suggest focusing on one habit each week that you believe will make the greatest impact.
Once you build one healthy habit, it becomes easier to build more.