Continued Thoughts On Personal Health, Diet, Exercise

I am a big believer that personal health starts with taking responsibility for our own lives. This means we understand that we alone are in control and there is no one else to blame if we go off course. The only thing that matters is getting back on course as soon as possible. But what if one has not set a course? Well, it is much harder to achieve a goal that is never set. So we must understand what is needed to live a healthy lifestyle and work each day toward achieving that goal.

It’s so simple yet so often overlooked: The belief that anything other than our individual health and the health of our loved ones should matter. Sure there are other areas of our lives that are important to focus on and The Minimalists do a great job of touching on five very specific and very important areas. But as they point out the number one most important thing, our own personal health, is number one for reason.

Imagine if we had everything one wants: a vast fortune, great job, perfect spouse with amazing children who get straight A’s and everything money can buy to boot. As The Minimalists and other wise women and men before them have pointed out, none of this will matter if your health fails. There is no amount of money that can bring you back in time to make you healthier. You have to make a conscious, intentional effort now for the best chance to be healthy in the future. Improving your diet and increasing your workouts are simple things that many people inherently are afraid of out of a naive believe that they are too hard to do. 

I consider myself very fortunate that years ago a good friend recommended Live a Meaningful Life to me as the book was just what I needed to be inspired to put my health first. I am not going to try to summarize their teachings as it would be doing you an injustice. Do yourself a favor: buy and read this book. The information you will learn is invaluable in terms of dollars.  

Here are a few pithy thoughts to help correct common myths about diet & exercise

When you hear the word “diet” do not think of some plan or scheme or panacea to magically make you thin and healthy over some predetermined and arbitrary time period. Diet should refer to your overall choice of what you put in and on your body on a daily basis from now until the rest of your life. Unfortunately most people go through life without ever learning about the proper way to nourish the human body. It is sad that children in this country are taught things in a way it’s been mentality where they learn how to sew a pillow but they do not learn about proper calorie intake, the dangers of sugar, and how to eat a balanced diet. While I am no expert I do consider myself slightly more knowledgeable than I was before now that I have spent over a decade studying the proper way to eat as well as tracking everything I put into my body. 

While tracking what we eat & drink sounds scary and would have been quite hard to do just a short time ago, it is actually incredibly simple now. There are a plethora of applications for your smartphone that pretty much do everything for you. After researching I went with MyFitnessPal and after 2700 consecutive days of use I am still pleased with the app!

Now I have a clear goal for caloric intake every day as well as things like fats, proteins, sugars, carbohydrates, and more. I have always enjoyed visual representations of my goals so this kind of tracking is right up my alley. Also, tracking every single thing I eat and drink makes it harder for me to do those things poorly. When I know that it is going to be in my diary forever and visible to my friends and family, it is much harder to eat a Snickers at 10 o’clock at night. As a matter of fact I am happy to say that I simply do not snack like that anymore. By only purchasing healthy, low-calorie and low-fat snacks those are the only things I have to snack on. I have burned my metaphorical snack boats! Granted I try not to eat snacks close to bedtime and I only eat snacks if I have calories left to spend…but I am also human and I do not let perfect be the enemy of good! (In other words, once in a while I treat myself!)

Tracking my food and drink and improving my lifetime diet is just part of the battle. It does not matter how good we eat if we sit around on our butts all day we are surely going to put on weight and do our bodies poorly. That’s why exercise and movement is so important. Combining frequent exercise with a healthy diet is the key to a well-rounded treatment of our bodies.

For most of my life I was not a fan of working out. The thought of going to the gym and spending long amounts of time there gave me anxiety and was bad for my overall health. But thanks to The Minimalists I realized a couple of key things. First, any exercise is better than no exercise. Second, exercising does not have to take a long time! In fact I typically only work out for ~:30 minutes in the morning. I do a plethora of core exercises and calisthenics in my home. Things like push-ups, pull-ups, kettlebell exercises, planks, sit ups, yoga and unconventional things like walking on all fours and running around my basement as well. The key is that I go hard for the time I’m working out and I get my heart rate up and break a major sweat. Then as part of my healthy lifestyle mindset, throughout the day I try to walk as much as possible, tracking my steps with an Apple Watch (game changer of a device!) Having these visual representations of my goals inspires me to hit them. Finally, while retiring from squash, golf & cycling, I continue to run, walk & play pickleball!

Now, weight is just a number and how I feel is more important to me. I never weigh myself anymore, realizing the number on the scale will just lead to bitterness or vanity. I would rather ask myself “do I feel good in my clothes & light on my feet?” If the answer is anything other than yes I need to reevaluate recent trends!

Make your healthy a priority. Now. No one else will.