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2021 is here and that means everyone and their mothers are making all these"new year, new me" resolutions. A lot of them pertain to health & wellness while others deal with careers, finances, relationships, or something else completely different. Well, today we're going to breakdown the first of these goals; health & wellness. There's so much sh*t out there right now that it gets crazy hard to figure out where to even start, but don't stress fam, we've got you covered because we're going to give you our 5 biggest tips to help you start off 2021! So, enough of the chit chat; let's get going...
When it comes to goals, especially New Year goals, we're often motivated at the time with crazy amounts of excitment and determination, so we find ourselves making HUGE goals that may be slightly unrealistic. For example, if someone who has never worked out a day in their life decides to compete in a bodybuilding contest it's going to be hard as hell. Impossible? No, but its going to be an uphill battle from the beginning. Which any goals is already an uphill battle, so why don't we make it a little bit easier and rewarding?
So, how would we apply this to living a healthy life? For starters we could make it a goal to be active at least 30 minutes everyday or even just a couple days a week! Notice how we said to be "active" and not "go to the gym"? Living a healthy life is so much more than working out in a gym. We can get healthy with our own bodies and without needing fancy pieces of equipment. Take the dog for a walk, run around the park with your kids, go skiiing/snowboarding, surfing, hiking; literally anything! The goal here is to just move; don't overthink it.
To go along with starting small, we can also break up our big goal into smaller monthly or weekly goals. Let's say you want to lose 30 pounds by July because you and the family are going on a fun boating trip and you want to feel good in your bathing suit. Instead of just putting 30 pounds out there; break it down monthly. If you start now, you have 6 months to hit your goal. 30 divided by 6 is 5. So, rather than 30 pounds as your big you now can focus on 5 pounds each month. This will be an easier way to not only track your goal, but to keep the motivation high. At the end of every month when you've hit your 5 pounds, you then are re-motivated for the upoming month. Catching on?...
You read that right, drink your water! This may sound weird or completely from left field, but water has so many roles in our bodies that if we aren't getting enough; it (our bodies) won't perform or respond how we'd like it to. From less than optimal training sessions, plateaued weight, or constant headaches; water plays a role. So, how much water should you be shooting for? Again, let's keep it simple: take your body weight, cut it in half, and that is how many ounces you should shoot for everyday. No matter if you're a guy or girl this easy to follow rule can be applied to you. If you're 180-pounds, then shoot for at leasy 90 pounces of water everyday. See how easy that is?
So, grab your hydro, shaker cup, water bottle, or canteen; fill it up and go! Yes, the first couple weeks of doing this you may feel like you're living in the bathroom, especailly if you haven't drank this much water before, but we guarantee you'll be feeling better! Want to learn more about how water plays a role in your health? Download our new nutrition e-book, LTG Nutrition, where we dedicate an entire chapter to this subject.
One of the worst things we can absolutely do when we're looking to improve our health is to go to the grocery store without a gameplan. Walking around like a mindless zombie looking for brains will lead you to grabbing just about anything that looks good! More often than not, this will lead to a bunch of sub-par foods and a higher bill💰. Instead, write down exactly what you need before you get there. That way you can be in and out, back home to prep your meals, AND still have time to get your 30-minutes of activity in.
Oh, and another thing to watch for when you go grocery shopping is to stay more on the outside of the aisles. Typically, this is where you'll find the "fresher" and "healthier" options. As you move more towards the center of the grocery store, the food choices often get worse. Does this mean all the food in those areas are bad? No, but this is just another little tip to help keep you on track when gettting your shopping done.
Now, that you know how to break down your goals, drink water, and grocery shop like a pro; it's time to move into the last two tips. These last two tips, in our opinion, are the most important in helping keep you on track to a healther lifestyle.
One of the absolute worse things we can do on our journey to a healthier life is to try and do it alone. We need people in our corner helping us out. Now, we don't need these people to tell us how amazing we're doing or successful we are (that is a bonus), but more importantly, we need someone in our corner calling us out on our sh*t! When we keep our goals to ourselves that means there's no one to call us out if we happen to slip up. No one to re-focus and motivate us, but ourselves, which no matter how hard we try, usually doesn't work out.
This is why we need to use the people around us to keep us accountable to our goals. From friends and family to talking about your goals on social media or hiring a coah😉, having someone there to keep you accountable when times get tough can be a huge bonus to you. Yes, it might hurt getting called our on our sh*t, but in the long run it can help you succeed!
Time for the Godfather of all tips; making a schedule! This may sound like an oxy-moron, but there are so many people who make goals, but never put end dates on them or plan out their days/weeks to actually get them to said goal. That's why we need to plan out each day so that we know exactly how much time we have for our goals. This can be as detailed or simple as you want; it just needs to be something. The more you do this, the easier it will become and you'll actually find yourself having more time in your day for things you enjoy like reading, longer workouts, or spending time with the kids.
When we typically think of everything we need to get done in a day, we can sometimes feel overwhelmed especially if the list seems long. Now, if we write down our schedule or put it on our phone, we can actually see where we have time. We see where we have time for workouts, cooking, stretching, or something else we've been wanting to do.
For example, I currently own 2 seprate business' and run a third business, so it would be so easy for me to say "I don't have time" when it comes to eating healthy or getting my training sessions in, but it's not. Want to know why it's not? Because there are 24-hours a day and that is plenty of time to get everything done if I'm organized. Here's what my scheudle typically looks like:
7:15am - Wake up
7:30am - Read
8:00am - Cardio (if it's a cardio day)
8:30am - Breakfast
10:00am - Office work/programming
12:00pm - Train
3:00pm - Start with clients
9:30pm - Get home
Boom; that's it. Notice how I didn't schedule every minute of the day, but rather scheduled the key things I needed to get done. Sometimes the tasks get done quicker or take longer, but that's ok because there is still more time in there from me over planning on time. I don't workout for 3 hours (12-13pm), but I schedule a big window so I can get it done and still have time for myself to make lunch, hang w/ Jess, or do anything else I may have forgotten about.
No matter how you schedule your day, the moral of the story is that there will almost always be time. At the end of the day it will come down to your committment to your goal and what it is you really want to achieve. Do you want to take 20 minutes and go for a quick run to help you lose that last 5 pounds or would you rather scroll mindlessly on Instagram? The choice is yours...
Well fam, there you go! Those are our 5 Simple Tips to a Healthier Lifestyle that you can use everyday. It doesn't have to be crazy complicated or expensive to lead a helatheir life; it just takes priortitzing and committing. Now it's time to stop reading and to start doing. Get out there and make your goals a reality💯
Disclaimer: The health information provided in this blog is provided for general informational and educational purposes only, and is not a substitute for professional health advice. Accordingly, before taking any actions based on such information, we encourage you to consult with your doctor or other medical/healthcare professional. The use or reliance of any information contained on this site (www.awayathletics.com) is solely at your own risk.