It’s about the little things, done consistently.
Quarantine got the best of me. I’m going back to the basics- The health and fitness tips that worked for me when nothing else did. The tips that allowed me to sustain my progress, and not fall back into bad patterns after a week. The tips that allowed me to be the fittest I’d ever been.
The truth is, these tips weren’t things I had heard others talk about. They are tips I discovered through personal exploration.
I sincerely hope my personal journey can help you too. And I hope this article shares with you at least one thing you haven’t considered before.
They’re the small changes that make a big difference over time.
1. Combine Your Exercise With Your Guilty Pleasure
I love working out for the endorphins, sure. But I never love STARTING to work out. Besides the advice, I’m sure you’ve heard of getting to the gym first thing in the morning before you have time to talk yourself out of it, what helped me succeed was by making the gym FUN.
I combined exercise with my guilty pleasure- watching TV. I go on the elliptical, lift weights, and use the machine to watch my favorite shows or youtube videos.
Not only am I entertained while I’m working out, but I also am more productive throughout the day because I get watching tv out of my system.
2. Don’t Eat “Just in Case”
I can’t be the only one who would chomp down on a granola bar before I left the house “in case” I got hungry while I was out and about.
It was the simple switch of bringing that granola bar with me in case I got hungry instead of eating it before I left as a precaution.
Most of the time I could easily wait till I got home before I ate.
There is an abundance of easily accessible food. I won’t starve to death even if I DO forget to bring a snack with me when I leave the house. And eating when I’m not really hungry “just in case” was leading to me packing on the pounds as if I was going to hibernate for winter.
3. Don’t Plan Rest Days
We need rest days for our bodies and our minds to reset. But life happens. There will be days you can’t work out because something unexpected comes up.
I don’t plan rest days because I know I will have unintended rest days anyway. They’ll be a sporadic brunch with friends I want to join or a busy day studying for exams that disrupts my typical routine.
If I plan rest days, I’ll rest on those days AND on the days when life happens (which it does). As a result, I end up with much less than my 5–6 day a week exercise target.
If I don’t plan rest days, I rest when life happens (typically one to two days per week).
Another perk of this system is that it allows you to work out when other people typically rest (Saturdays and Sundays). That means an empty gym, totally yours for the taking.
4. Go, Even if Your Workout will be 15 Minutes Long
Routine is critical. People say it takes 21 days to form a habit. I’m not sure if this is true. But I AM sure that consistency is key. When I’m out of the routine, I aim to go to the gym every day. That means even if I have a very busy schedule and can only squeeze in a very short workout, I still go.
The hardest part is getting into the pattern of going, not what you do when you’re there.
5. Put Absolutely 0 Limits on the Amount of Fruit and Veg You Consume
When we are trying to get fit or lose some extra pounds, we have to restrict much of our typical routine. Calories have to be cut (even if you’re not counting them), more exercise must be done, and we have to begin eating our favorite things in smaller quantities.
Allow yourself complete abundance when it comes to fruit and veg.
Not only will this help you stay satiated, but it will help you feel less restricted in your fitness journey.
6. Sleep
After a year of getting fit, I hit stagnancy. Nothing worked. Until that is, I started sleeping more.
My body was conserving energy because I wasn’t letting it rest.
I increased my sleep to 8 hours a night and I saw the last few pounds I wanted to lose drop off.
I’m sure there’s a scientific reason for this and I don’t have that reason to share with you today. But what I do know is — sleep is important for so many reasons, and it just so happened to help me lose weight.
7. Go Today
This may be the most important tip of all.
It was a Friday afternoon when I decided I needed to get back into my health and fitness journey. I told myself “I’ll start next week on Monday, and get myself back on track.”
Then I told myself, “no. I’ll go today.”
I signed up for a gym membership that very day and completed a workout. Then I went on Saturday and then I went on Sunday.
I started my routine then and there.
It’s the same with eating. Don’t tell yourself you’ll eat healthy starting tomorrow. Start at your next meal. Start at your next snack.
Each action you take impacts your health. Your fat cells don’t know that it's evening. They don’t know the time.
Don’t wait to start. Don’t give up a full day of healthy eating if you’ve had one bad meal. Time doesn’t matter. Your actions in each moment do.
Of course, there’s other tips I could share, but I’m sure you’ve heard of them before. Don’t deprive yourself of the things you love, just eat them in moderation. Eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full. Drink more water. Any movement is better than no movement, etc., etc., etc.
But these tips above are what have truly made a difference for me. I hope they make a difference for you too.
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