My philosophy on health and fitness is simple – do what is most sustainable for you. But what does this mean in practice?
In my opinion, the biggest thing missing from the fitness world is sustainability. To be sustainable means to be able to maintain.
Maintain weight loss. Maintain a gym routine. Maintain an eating schedule. Maintain a healthy sleeping pattern. Maintain healthy relationships. Maintain mental health. Maintain strength.
Yet we don’t see a lot of people sustaining these things. That’s because we are sold misleading solutions.
Let’s say, the dieting industry sells Mary a 6 week weight loss plan. Mary has to 5 high intensity workouts a week for an hour, completely change her entire diet, cut out any food deemed “bad” (oh crap no more pancakes on Saturday?!). Oh well, it’s ONLY 6 weeks, right? No biggie. She figures she can do that for 6 weeks, even if it sounds miserable.
Mary reaches week 6 and has lost a significant amount of weight. Let’s say it was 10lbs (although most of these types of programs encourage losing more). YAY, she’s ecstatic! But oh man, does she miss pancake Saturday with her spouse. She’s tired, hungry, and can’t bare to do another burpee or look at another rice cake. That’s it, this is too hard. Mary go back to what she was doing before.
She gained the weight back and more. Damn.
This is the mistake people make. I call it “going 0 to 100 to 0” and it’s not actually Mary’s fault. It’s designed this way to keep people coming back to lose the same 10lbs over and over again for a profit.
These types of programs don’t teach people what to do AFTER the diet. There was no exit plan. They don’t show you the whole picture because weight loss is such a marketable term. Sustainability isn’t quite exciting, but it’s the piece of the puzzle that fell off the table and no one noticed. These programs don’t even ask if someone is in a good place to enter a fat loss phase (this is an important question because the answer isn’t always yes). Basically, we’ve been set up to fail.
So here’s my philosophy in action:
- Make small changes, one at a time, that will add up to big changes
- Learn how to make room for the things you enjoy while also working towards your goals. Learn what balance means to you
- Identify your “why” and find your intrinsic motivation
- Be flexible. No one is perfect and health/fitness isn’t about being perfect. It’s about the habits you engage in the most.
- Focus on the “Big Seven”: vegetables, adequate protein, daily movement, stress management, alcohol/tobacco reduction, sleep, and water.
Instead of thinking about how to lose weight as fast as possible, think about how to make exercise enjoyable; think about how to get in more veggies into more of your meals; think about how you can improve your sleep quality; think about making your body stronger instead of smaller. Don’t worry about the small details that people nitpick over on Instagram. Chances are, if you’re not doing the big things, the small things won’t make much of a difference.
The more and the longer you can do the “Big Seven”, the more results you will see over time. Because fitness and health goals take time. So buckle up. And enjoy the process.