Never before has health and wellness information been so widely available and easily accessible.
A quick search on the Internet brings countless meal plans and exercise routines with catchy names like “Break fast!” Or “Overnight Six Pack Abs!” It’s all right, but it seems to shine on the basics: basic aspects of a healthy and fit lifestyle that can’t be negotiated.
When it comes to fitness, there are certain requirements that, if implemented, can immediately improve all aspects of life.
The ability to move without aches, build muscle and loose body fat, walk long distances and prevent inflammation are all basic strength requirements that everyone would want – it should not have unique goals for professional athletes.
These foundations must be the foundation you build in your life, the rock that underlines everything in your life.
Circumstances of life are constantly changing, but with these fundamentals of fitness you can create a body and mind that will withstand every storm.
The following are the greatest fitness and health laws of all time. Take them seriously, treat them with respect, and in turn they will take care of you like nothing else ever has before.
1. Walk 10,000 steps per day
The number of steps per day is directly related to mortality – the more you walk, the greater your chances of survival and longer life.
Walking is something that must come first because your life depends on it. The National Institutes of Health found the following results in the study:
Compared with people who took 4,000 steps a day, those who took 8,000 steps a day had a 50% lower risk of dying from any cause during follow-up. People who took 12,000 steps a day had a 65% lower risk of dying than those who took only 4,000.
It was also found that the number of steps, as well as the total number of walks, is more important than the intensity of these steps. For example, running 12,000 steps at a slow or moderate pace has higher benefits than just running or sprinting 2,000 steps a day.
If you are just getting back in shape or going to the gym regularly every day, then the priority should be to run 10,000 steps a day.
Start walking after each meal or every night before bed. Or maybe you can go early in the morning or go somewhere instead of driving there.
Make walking a normal part of your day and your body will thank you.
2. Stop buying processed foods
Out of sight, out of mind.
If you are used to having fun all day, it is a difficult habit to try to stop suddenly. If you leave it first, it probably won’t take long.
Instead of trying to end the habit of snacking, focus on the type of snacks you can get. Swap out those chips and pretzels for fruit and nuts. Stop buying cereals and granola and buy hummus and carrot sticks instead.
Don’t let soda and fruit juices cross the threshold of your house — choose walnut milk or enjoy delicious sparkling water.
By eliminating the possibility of eating processed junk food, you have no choice but to eat healthier.
It is far easier to remove yourself from a harmful environment than to change many habits at once.
3. Break a sweat
It can be as simple as taking 10,000 steps a day or having to do bodyweight calisthenics on your own in the morning.
Start with the basic goal of breaking through sweat. It’s easier and more comfortable than other goals, such as lifting weights every single day or running 5K a day.
There is time and place for higher goals, but the basic idea is to break a sweat.
Exercise or move just enough for your blood to flow, your muscles to be warm and sweat to run down your face. Being this victory every day can change your life.
Gradually, as sweat breakdown becomes routine and expected, higher intensity and longer workouts can be combined. Things like lifting weights or running or cycling.
Start with the basics: break a sweat. Get stronger and fitter. Then increase intensity, duration, and effort to get even stronger and even fitter.
4. Drink 1 gallon of water per day
This may sound ambitious or ridiculous, but it is not.
Most people do not drink enough water. It just escaped our daily thoughts and hydration became a forgotten concept.
Every system in our physiology depends on water to work efficiently and productively – dehydration is one of the worst things that can happen.
Without enough water, it can be harder to think, lose weight and build muscle. One of the reasons why many people do not drink enough water is that they do not measure how much water they have drunk in the first place.
What gets measured gets managed.
What measures can be taken — Once you start measuring how much water you drink (or not drink) a day, it will serve as an alarm clock from which you can benefit.
In reality, one gallon really is not that much water over the course of an entire day.
For me, I used a refillable 1-gallon kettle to measure how much I drank. I refill every night and the next day I just make sure the whole pot is done. It’s simple and effective, and it measures exactly how much water I drink every day.
Drinking more water means you will be able to build muscle more effectively, lose fat more effectively, and perform better in every avenue of life.
5. Make sleep a priority
Getting enough sleep every night is as important to your health as exercising and eating well.
Without enough sleep, your body will lose efficiency and your mind will be exhausted. Minority and heavy burdens are coming, and your health and productivity will pay off.
If you want to wake up early, you need to be disciplined and wise so that you also get up early to sleep. One cannot do without the other.
For many people, 7-8 hours of sleep is a good and healthy amount. Adjust your sleep schedule by starting each day at what time you want to wake up, and then subtract 7-8 hours to set your sleep time.
(Every fitness guru and professional athlete has a specified bedtime — it isn’t just something for little kids to complain about to their parents).
Set your sleep and wake time each day and try your best to avoid deviating from this routine.
Once you develop a sleep habit, it will be easier and easier to fall asleep at the same time every night and also to wake up at the same time every morning.
Without enough sleep, you will not be able to exercise as effectively as you, and you will not be able to do it intellectually at school or at work.
Make sleep a priority and measure it (and control it) to literally improve your health throughout the night.
Conclusion
Find something you enjoy doing — then do it often. Make it sustainable over the course of years and decades.
The idea of automating healthy habits in your life until they become second nature, inseparable from your character and life, is a philosophy that can help you achieve a better and better life.
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