Yes, this a total click bait blog title. I try and keep these things short to make it easier on people to read, plus I enjoy reading lists as opposed to novel like blog posts. I get a lot of questions from people about how they can make some easy changes to live a little healthier. Finding healthy habits you can do consistently is going to lead to long term results. Here are my top 5 responses:
1-Environment-This is the biggest thing for me. They say you are the average of the 5 people you hang around most (or something like that). If you want to live a healthier lifestyle, joining a walkers group or a gym group is a good way to get with people who live a healthy lifestyle. (Might have to ditch your Tuesday and Thursday night dart league)
Also, open up your pantry, fridge, and freezer, do you have fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, lean meats, and healthy snacks? Or does it look more a frat house pantry? First thing you can do is get rid of all the junk food in your house. As Dr john Berardi of Precision Nutrition says “If you have junk food in your house, you or someone you love will eat it.” If you don’t have it in your house there is a really good chance you won’t eat it (0% actually). Instead store apples and peanut butter, Greek yogurt with granola, lean meats and veggies. If you have kids, limit the processed food, again if its not in your house they won’t be tempted to eat it.
2-Set easily attainable “Micro-Goals”– Most people will give you some crazy outcome goals like “lose 30 lbs in a month” or “Exercise every day”, setting micro goals makes it way easier to attain. If you don’t exercise, something like 10 minutes of walking 4 days a week, you will be surprised that this 10 minutes turns into 20 minutes pretty quickly. After you achieve a few micro goals then bump them up a little bit, it starts a healthy upward spiral that gets addicting.
3-Move first thing in the morning- Its so easy to run into obligations as the day goes on. Try and plan your workouts for first thing in the morning. There are studies that show this wakes your body up and your brain up (we could all use a brain wake up in the morning). Even if it’s something simple like 20 push ups 20 air squats 400m walk. I personally like the 100 rep morning challenge ( I may have invented this, im not sure) I do 100 reps of anything first thing in the morning. Example would be 20 air squats, 20 push ups, 20 sit ups, 20 burpees, 20 lunges. You can mix and match anything to get up to 100 reps.
4-Plan every meal out for the week-Failing to plan is planning to fail. This cliché has always resonated with me and I used to be horrible at planning stuff. Now I plan out everything and feel so much less stressed out. One day on the weekend write down everything you plan on eating for the week. Make a shopping list of things you need and shop for the whole week.
I give people this unique infographic from Precision Nutrition that is a how to guide of meal prep. Make it easier on yourself not harder. https://www.precisionnutrition.com/weekly-meal-prep-infographic
5-Brush your teeth after dinner– I stole this from a podcast I listened to this week. After you brush your teeth the chances that you are going to snack on desserts or treats significantly goes down. Sounds kind of silly, but I have heard time and time again about people who eat very well all day and binge before bed. Give this a try if that is a guilty pleasure of yours.