We have all gone through the cycle of trying to get into shape. Between New Years resolutions and challenges from peers we buckle down for a couple weeks or until the challenge is complete to fall off the bandwagon and fall back into our old habits. We find the newest fad diet, weight loss program, and exercise video to follow only to eventually lose everything we spent all our will power to gain. The problem with crash dieting and exercise is that it temporarily fixes the symptom but not the cause. Changing our habits and prioritizing our health on a daily basis is what will keep us from trying these crazy commercialized products.

Taking on too much at one time is something that we also need to train out of our minds. I understand the feeling of “hey these things are too easy I can do much more than this”. But this only ended with me eventually compromising one habit at a time until I’m right back where I started. Habits take time to form, because we have been doing something different for such a long time that retraining our minds to do something different will take time. The goal is to find the diet and workout program that we can do consistently for the rest of our lives. So how do you find the routine that is right for you? The right modes of diet and exercise that you can do for a long time? Let’s explore the different variables that allow us to find the right routine for our individual lives.

Focus on how you feel and not the number on the scale

The time has come to stop focusing on the number on the scale. Let’s shift this focus to our healthier habits and how we feel. We often think that the lower the number on the scale the healthier we are. However, if done incorrectly this is definitely a false statement. The scale only tells us how much we weigh. It doesn’t tell us how healthy we are, how happy we are, or how strong we are. There is such a thing as “skinny-fat” and this term can describe a number of people I’m sure you know. You always run into the people that eat anything and everything that they want and not gain an ounce (even in more advanced ages). This might not seem fair but despite how good they might look, they might not look to great after a full physical and blood work.

How do you feel? Is standing up and down from the couch easier? How about getting up off the floor? Do you feel more energized throughout the day? Can you complete your daily tasks like cooking and cleaning without feeling exhausted after? Does taking a dump stress you out less because you can stand up easier? These are the questions that are much more important to evaluate as opposed to the number on the scale. The performance that we have on a daily basis has the strongest chances of defining our health. These are all things that you should be feeling and taking notice of how much easier each day feels.

There is no one-size-fits-all diet or exercise program

Everyone’s sustainable diet and exercise routine is going to look different from everyone else. We have all lived a different life and we are all very different people. Therefore, we each require a different diet that we are able to sustain for a long period of time. So we each need to find exactly what works for us individually.

Example #1: You are a single person that lives alone and has only immediate family that lives near by. Majority of the time you are cooking for just yourself and will only occasionally go to see your family since they are still working. You have no problem eating the same simple food and you don’t like to change things up too much. Someone like this wouldn’t mind small changes to their diet even though they’re already set in their ways.

Example #2: You live with a significant other and you have loads of family in town. It feels like you have a family event every single week and sometimes a few times a week. Every week is a changing schedule and you enjoy the abundance of delicious restaurants we have in the world today. Cooking is something that you will do once, maybe twice a week. This person will have a slightly more difficult time dialing down on their nutrition and creating a routine for exercise.

There are a variety of different variables that play major factors for everyone. You just have to find what works for YOU! You can see that these two individuals lead completely different lifestyles. Person #1 will probably have an easier time working in a routine for their exercise and picking healthier choices for them to eat. Person #2 will have a harder time implementing healthier habits into their lifestyle, but it can be done. They can try to eat out a little less or make healthier choices earlier in the day. They can find times throughout the week to exercise, or they can do shorter sessions that work for them. They can go to healthier restaurants, pick sides of vegetables, and substitute a healthier option such as grilled chicken instead of fried chicken.

You don’t have to give up everything that you love. We all have our comfort foods that we will definitely crave from time to time. I still love my burgers, pizza, and Hawaiian barbecue mix plates. These meals where I will typically fall into Polynesian paralysis don’t happen nearly as often as they did before. Now I don’t consider these “cheat meals” I just simply have a craving for it and I will satisfy that craving. The rest of the time I am conscious of my eating and my movement throughout everyday. I still make sure I keep up with my exercise as well as my daily activity of 10,000 steps.

Take baby steps, don’t take on too much at one time

Changing your entire life around by implementing all these new habits at the same time will only lead to failure. You can likely start off really strong, but eventually everything starts to fall apart. This doesn’t mean that you are a quitter, or you didn’t try hard enough, or you aren’t motivated enough to get what you want, it just means that you are HUMAN. We aren’t robots and we don’t live in some apocalyptic society where every single day is the same.

Take it one step at a time. One step done consistently will lead to more results than ten done sporadically. Life isn’t a sprint to the finish line. You already know that life is the longest marathon ever so becoming healthy is no different. Focus on one task that you are ready-and-able to do with full confidence that you can do it will lead to success. It doesn’t take nearly as much will-power to add a handful of veggies to your dinner as it does to change your dinner completely. Each baby step creates a stronger and stronger foundation for your new health lifestyle. Once your foundation is complete it will be unbreakable.

Love yourself and everything else

I don’t mean to get all hippie over you, and I know you are well aware of what that era was like. But you really do need to learn how to love your body. This changes the entire perspective and mindset of how you look at nutrition and exercise. This change in mindset will make you feel more confident in yourself which will change your perspective.

Examples:

“This food is bad for me” vs. “This food doesn’t align with my goals”

“I hate my body I have to punish myself” vs. “I only get one body so I want to take care of it”

“I ate pizza so I have to workout as punishment” vs. “I satisfied my craving now I want to workout to stay on track with my goals”

You should be able to see the difference in how you can love your body over hating it. Your mindset on how you see food and your training takes a major turn. You will no longer look at pizza and burgers as bad food. You won’t go to a restaurant with your family on a special occasion and stress over what to eat. The key here is to relieve yourself of the stress of trying to be perfect and just to be happy. The motivation that comes from the scornful look you give yourself in the mirror will only last so long. The love that you give yourself when you see yourself in the mirror will last forever.

One additional variable that will ensure your longevity

Always challenge your strength

Becoming stronger will provide the biggest benefits to your body. Cardio like walking and running are good things to keep in mind too, but strength has a lot more benefits. Strength training is the only way to challenge your body and send it the signal to grow and build more muscle. Muscle also takes a lot longer to go away compared to cardio. This doesn’t mean to stop doing cardio, but cardio isn’t the modality that will let you keep the ability to get up from the couch or floor. Cardio isn’t going to help protect your bones from injury, or help catch yourself when you are falling. Strength training builds stronger bones, builds more muscle to protect your joints, and more power to move quickly if you need to. I won’t go too deep into the benefits here, please refer to my blog post “Why you should start strength training” for more depth.

Longevity is the way

I am not putting down those that have made tremendous progress in a short period of time. Those transformations of losing 50 lbs. within a few months is an amazing feat and I do applaud those that have the will power to achieve such accomplishments. But the transition from that strict diet and exercise regime back to your normal lifestyle is difficult without regaining that weight. This is what is typically referred to as yo-yo dieting. Take it one step at a time, build your strength, love yourself, and don’t buy into all the crazy fads out there. Find the healthy lifestyle that works for you, and the healthy habits that you can do consistently for years and years. Training for longevity will increase your quality of life of those years, and all the years following.