Health & Fitness Made Simple
Health and fitness are usually made to seem too complex.
If you read health and fitness magazines and blogs there's a confusing variety of complex advice in them that makes your head
spin.
You’re told that eggs, butter and meat are bad for you. Then another
crowd will tell you those same things are actually good. Then you’ll
hear running is good for you, and the bodybuilding and primal crowds
will scoff at longer-distance running. You’ll hear that lifting weights
is the best way to get into shape, and others will laugh at that.
You’ll hear a million variations of the best workouts, of when to time
your nutrition, of how to periodize your workouts, of how to measure
fitness, of what supplements you need to take, blah, blah, blah.
It’s enough to make you want to give up.
Fortunately, fitness doesn’t have to be that complex.
In fact, you can boil it down to two simple rules:
- Get your body moving on a regular basis; and
- Eat a moderate amount of real, whole foods (with occasional indulgences).
I believe if you stuck to those two rules, and stuck with them for
awhile, you’d get fit. Doing one but not the other will result in an
improvement in health for many people, but it would be an
incomplete health. Do both most days of the week and you’re on your way
to health and fitness.
But what about specific macronutrient ratios (fancy way of saying
the breakdown of protein, carbs and fats)? What about meal frequency
and timing? What about workout frequency, splits, timing, reps, and
more? You could add all these types of rules and many more, but the
truth is, all the complexities are usually a way of masking some simple
truths: if you want to lose fat or weight, you have to have a calorie
deficit. If you want to build muscle, you’ve got to use exercise to
get stronger. The other stuff pretty much boils down to guesswork, and while these
complicated programs probably work, they usually work because they
promote one or more of the principles in this post, not because of
their complexities.
The two rules above are really all you need but most of us need a
little more information, so here’s a more complete set of simple fitness
rules. As always, remember that 1) I’m not an expert — this is just
stuff that’s worked for me and lots of other people and 2) this is for healthy adults — people with
health problems should seek the advice of professionals.
1. Get moving. Try to do some kind of physical
activity 4 or more days a week if possible. If you
have an aversion to exercise, don’t think of it as exercise. Just think
of it as a way to get your body moving in some fun way. It can be
walking, running, dance, yardwork, hiking, swimming, basketball, rugby,
cycling, even housework if you do it vigorously enough. And it doesn’t
have to be the same thing each day. It's also helpful if you find a regular time slot you could do your
daily activity.
2. Enjoy yourself. Whatever activity you choose, it
has to be fun. If you don’t like it, move on to something else. Focus
on the fun part, not the hard part. Or learn, as I have, to enjoy the
hard stuff! Again, make it fun, or you won’t keep it up for very long.
To make sure it’s not too hard, start easy. Focus on just getting
moving and enjoying the activity. Start small, and build up with baby
steps.
3. Slowly add intensity. Once you’ve been doing an
activity for a little while, and you’re in decent shape, it’s good to
add some intensity. But slowly — if you add intensity too quickly
you’ll risk injury or burnout. So let’s say you’ve been doing some
walking for a couple months — you should be ready to add a little
jogging or fast-paced walking, in small little intervals. If you’ve
been walking or running, try some faster-paced intervals (take it easy at first)
or hill workouts. If you’ve been strength training, be sure to add
weights (safely) or decrease rest time or add more reps or sets. If
you’re playing a sport, really speed things up, or focus on explosive
movements. Intensity is a great way to get yourself in shape and have
an effective workout in only 20-30 minutes.
4. Minimal equipment. There are a million different
exercise gadgets out there, from ab machines to elliptical trainers to
a whole slew of weight machines at the gym. Keep it simple.
You can do amazing things with bodyweight exercises — in fact, if you
are a relative beginner, you shoul
d start with bodyweight exercises for
at least 6 months before progressing to weights. You don’t need cardio
machines or barbell or dumbbells. Just get
outside and do sprints, pushups, jump over things, pick up big rocks
and throw them, do pullups from a tree, climb up rocks, swim, do a
crabwalk or monkeywalk, take a sledgehammer or pick and slam it into
the ground, flip tractor tires, and generally get a great workout with
very little equipment.
5. Just a few exercises. Bodybuilding routines will
have you doing 3-4 different exercises per body part. That’s too
complicated for most people. Keep it simple in the weight room: squats,
deadlifts, presses, chinups or pullups, rows. You can do a lot with
just those lifts. Of course, you’ll want to mix it up eventually with
some variations, but no need for 10 different ab exercises or things
that focus on your rear deltoids or use swiss balls. If you’re doing
bodyweight exercises do things like pushups, burpees, squats,
lunges, pullups, dips, planks. Pick a few and do some circuits with
little rest.
6. Eat real foods. One of the most important rules
on this list, because if you don’t eat right (most of the time), it
doesn’t matter how much exercise you do — you’ll get fat and unhealthy.
Aim for real, whole foods that are as close to their natural state as
possible. That means stay away from processed, refined, fatty, sugary
foods. Veggies, fruits, lean meats, dairy, nuts, beans, whole grains,
eggs, seeds. Personal Chef To Go menus are loaded with these things! If you follow this diet — with the plant foods making
the bulk of the diet — it’s hard to go wrong.
7. Eat less. Most people eat too much, and
eventually it shows up as fat. To lose that fat, we need to eat less —
it’s really that simple. Of course, if you eat the real foods mentioned
above, you’ll probably consume fewer calories, but even so, it’s smart
to reduce how much you eat overall, at least until you reach a healthy
level of body fat (and even then, you shouldn’t let it all go). One way
to do that is by eating slowly and mindfully until you’re just satiated
(not stuffed). Another way is to eat smaller meals and watch the
portions. However
you do it, be sure to consume the real food in moderate amounts, and
reduce your calorie intake if you’re looking to lose fat.
8. Give it time. This is what gets many people —
they expect to see results immediately, within the first month or so,
because the magazines they read make it seem so instantaneous. But real
fitness rarely happens this way — it’s a process and a lifestyle
change. Accept the fact that it takes time. You didn’t gain
the fat overnight, and you won’t lose it that way either. Learn to
enjoy the process, enjoy the activities, enjoy the healthy, real food,
and you’ll get healthy and fit almost as an afterthought to this new,
amazing lifestyle.
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