5 Daily Habits of the Super Healthy
I tell all my Personal Training clients that health and fitness is a long term and never ending process. Wow, that sounds depressing. No no, I mean that being fit, lean and healthy isn’t a pet project you just do for 3 months and then move on. It’s a goal that is lifelong. Think about it, no matter how old you get, do you ever stop wanting to be fit and healthy? Do you ever give up? (My personal health and fitness goal is to be able to play soccer with my grandkids. I’m definitely playing the long game).
That seems daunting right? No matter how much work you do or how hard you try you maintain a good diet, the work is never done. So what’s the point then? Being a trainer for over 15 years I’ve seen my fair share of frustrated clients who put in a great effort of training and fitness, who then loses it all after a 4-week European trip (ahh, Europe. Seems like we won’t be able to go there for a while. But that sucks so let’s move on).
So how do the super health people maintain their lean bodies all the time and always stay in shape? The answer is habits. The little things we do day to day that require no thought at all. I’m not going to spend a paragraph telling you what habits are. There are way better and smarter people than me who can explain it better. I’m currently reading “Atomic Habits” by James Clear and it’s an awesome read. He basically says that overnight complete change is B.S. and that through good habits, we can aim to be 1% better every day. If we aim to be 1% better every day, then at the end of the year, we’ll be 37 times better than when we start.
The really cool thing is that these 5 habits the Super healthy people do is so easy anyone can do them. Anyone. These aren’t earth shattering and mind blowing, but I bet that when you read them you’ll think to yourself “yep, I don’t know why I don’t do that”.
Enjoy these 5 tips, and hopefully you can implement at least one, if not more. And see the difference it makes.
1) Plan, plan, plan
Benjamin Franklin said it best. “Failure to plan is planning to fail”
The super healthy not only plan when they’ll do their workouts, but they plan their food ahead as well. By planning your food ahead, for example, you take the decision making out of your head and it’s already set. When you haven’t planned, and you have to decide what to eat for lunch/dinner for example, then it’s up to your willpower to make the healthy choice. As you know, willpower goes up and down, and on a bad day, even though you intend to eat healthy, you’ll probably make a bad choice.
Super healthy people pretty much always take their lunch to work and prepare a healthy breakfast with a morning routine. Something I personally do is make a massive big ass salad on Sunday night, and have a portion of it every day for lunch. Yep, I eat the same breakfast and lunch every day. Overnight soaked oats and a ¼ of the big ass salad I prepared on Sunday night. People ask me if I get bored eating the same thing every day. Nope. Because I run my own business as well as being a father of two toddlers, I enjoy not having to make extra decisions that day.
2) Be Accountable
Again with the willpower thing. Some days you feel like working out and some days you can’t be bothered. How many times have you skipped exercise because you didn’t feel like it? Guilty.
Even us super healthy people get the days where we don’t feel like working out. So what do we do? We make sure we’re accountable to someone else by asking them to train with us. Having someone waiting for you at the gym means you are way less likely to skip that workout. I try and rope as many friends as I can into joining me for my workouts to ensure I never skip workout sessions.
3) Get uncomfortable
I don’t know who said it, but I love the saying “You should get comfortable being uncomfortable”. I wish I came up with that. You need to push yourself and get outside your comfort zone if you wish to ever achieve anything in training (and in life! See this is deep stuff).
I love going to a big commercial gym every now and then and watch the people do the same exercises over and over again, without changing. Then the complain in a few months on why they’re not getting any results. You need to do the exercises and routines that are out of your comfort one if you are to make changes.
So if you’re a runner and you only run. Great, you’ll get really good at running. But then if you struggle to touch your toes because you don’t stretch or can’t do 10 push ups because you don’t do any strength training, then you are limited. Or if you’re the awesome body builder who only lifts weights and have heaps of muscle, but can’t run for the exit if the fire alarm goes off.
Now, I’m exaggerating here but you get the point. The super healthy get out of their comfort zone and do things that they’re not naturally good at. Swimming, weights, yoga, running, etc.
4) Focus on the start, not the finish
This is a really good habit for training. When approaching a workout, sometimes you think to yourself “Ah man, I can’t be bothered to train for a whole hour”. Yep it can seem daunting when you’re not up for it that day.
But what if you said to yourself, “Ok, I’ll just warm up for 5 minutes and focus on that”. Or “I’ll just focus on the first 1km of the run” Seems easier right? For those of you whom have exercised regularly, you know that the warm up increases blood flow, gets the endorphins going and increases your energy. So you’ll feel great to continue the workout.
(Quick tip. Get on a rower, spin bike, Cross Trainer and go hard for 2 minutes and notice what it does to your physiology. It’s way more potent than drinking coffee. You’ll be pumped)
This works in all walks of life. Read 2 pages of a book, do a 5 min meditation, do one set of push ups to failure, journal for 5 minutes. Set yourself up for the start, and the rest will flow.
5) Be kind to yourself
Yes, finally you have to be kind to yourself. Everyone falls occasionally by having a blow out meal or skipping a workout. We all do it. Even the super healthy.
There are two ways to react when you fallen off the wagon. 1) You can forgive yourself, know that you’re human and quickly reset, or you can 2) get into a funk, hate yourself, and sink deeper into a hole.
Please be kind to yourself. No one is perfect and results are never linear. They are always up and down. The only thing you need to know is that in the long run, you are better off than when you started.
So be kind to yourself, and other whilst you’re at it (see now I’m giving life advice).
And finally, here’s my dad joke for the week:
“So many people these days are too judgmental. I can tell by just looking at them”
Jerome Samaha