Hope everyone is having a great start to 2020! Now that the Holiday Season is over, we think it’s a great time to see if you can add some (we think relatively easy) things to your life to help you get stronger, healthier, and better looking naked.
This list isn’t in any meaningful order. It is somewhat all over the place to show that there are relatively easy things you can do in areas you probably aren’t aware of, like nutrition and exercising for example. There are also some in areas you might not have considered, such as the temperature of the room you sleep in and getting blue light at the appropriate times. These are all examples of things that we believe fall into the 7 parts of the #LiveHealthierEveryDay life (Movement, Nutrition, Tribe, Recovery, Stillness, Nature, Edification).
We’ll go into more detail about the 7 categories in future posts, so stay connected if you’re interested in learning more about them. This is just intended to be a few practical examples of how to implement the LHED7 (Live Healthier Every Day 7 Categories), we won’t go into a great deal of detail, but we will give you a little taste, so hopefully you understand why, and want to learn more about each of these.
With all of that said, here is the list!
Nutrition
- Eat veggies 3+ times a day.
- A common resolution to have is to “eat better”. Way too often people jump to a trendy diet and try to eat the least amount of food they possibly can starving themselves of nutrients needed to fuel themselves. For most fat loss is their goal. We would agree you probably need to look at your intake, however very few people that come to us for fitness, eat enough veggies. We like to build habits and confidence when approaching nutritional behavior change and adding in something (like veggies) is a great start to being successful on your nutritional path.
- Switch to black coffee. Or lattes (plain).
- You know all that junk you put in your coffee isn’t great for you. Switch to black (or with some milk/cream if that will get you there). A plain latte is one of the best things on earth.
- Add in some locally sourced foods to your diet.
- As humans we used to eat the food that was from the few square miles around us. We also had different foods each season because that’s how plants work. Even hunting had peaks and valleys for different food sources. This is just one of the pieces of the puzzle for why the population is struggling with diabetes, heart related deaths, and even things like depression.
- Fast once a week.
- This might be a little controversial but we think skipping a meal (which is what “Intermittent Fasting” is) once a week is good for you. Without getting into the deep science wormhole, even the mental benefit of learning what hunger cues actually feel like is a great way to help with your nutrition. Sometimes you feel hungry but you’re bored. Or sad. Or angry. If you want to step it up a notch, mix in a 24 hour fast once a quarter.
Tribe
- Join a group fitness program.
- This hits 2 of the 7 pieces of the puzzle, so you’ll get a little extra credit when you nail this one. Adding a fitness regimen like CrossFit (shameless plug) to your life will undoubtedly move you towards a fitter you. Additionally you’ll develop a tribe of people that care about you and have similar interests and goals as you. Which helps you get better. If you really are looking for the one thing we think would benefit the most people the most, it’s joining Ransom (or a place with awesome people, coaches, and good safe training).
Recovery
- Get rid of your LED bedside alarm clock.
- This may not feel super fitness/health related but it can really help in the recovery process. There are plenty of studies documenting that we sleep better when the room is as close to pitch black as we can get it. That means no TV, no phone in bed. So getting more sleep isn’t going to help much if it isn’t good quality sleep.
- Take a cold shower before bed.
- This is a great way to prep yourself for quality sleep. A cold/cool shower drops your body temperature, which in turn, helps you sleep better. The cold water stimulates the vagus nerve which increases parasympathetic (the rest and digest part of the body) nervous system activation. For more information on this just ask us, or we recommend the book Sleep Smarter by Shawn Stevenson or his podcast or really anything from him ; )
- Go to bed 15 minutes earlier.
- Yes, baby steps. When we tell someone that they would benefit from 8 hours of sleep they either laugh or eye roll. We get that you are busy but don’t tell us you can’t get in bed 15 minutes earlier. Maybe this will help, fat loss is correlated with amount/quality of sleep. If you really want to lose some fat, you (most likely) need to sleep more.
- Get a massage once a month.
- Everyone is stressed. Add in the benefits of soft tissue work to your anatomy and time to be still, this is a great combo piece as well.
Stillness
- Spend 3 minutes a day being still.
- This is one of those “hippy” sounding things, but taking time for yourself either at the start of your day, maybe while you are having your coffee, or the end of the day before bed, allows you to prepare/review the day, breathe, and relax. This might be one of the ones on the list that makes way more of an impact than you’d guess. The Breathe app is a good way to start this if you’re an iPhone user.
Nature
- Buy a state park/Stone Mountain Park/etc pass.
- This is another thing on the list that hits multiple categories. Going on hikes will check the Movement and Nature boxes for sure but it could also check the Tribe box if you go with your family or friends. There are a few state parks within an hour of the gym and the annual parking pass is $50, that’s a great deal even if you only go once a month.
- Travel somewhere you have never been before.
- And walk. Or rent a bike or a scooter to see the city. Or go skiing or hiking. Travel can hit so many parts of our 7 sections of the good life. It doesn’t have to be expensive or fancy or far away. Just go somewhere new and walk around.
- Spend time outside for at least 10 minutes a day.
- Especially late morning or early afternoon. It helps set your circadian rhythm so that you sleep better, it helps you get vitamin D, and helps fight off depression. There are other benefits if you spend that time in nature (versus just eating lunch on the porch) but to start, just get those 10 minutes anywhere.
Edification
- Take your significant other (or someone you care about) on a date twice a month.
- Make sure the important people in your life feel important. Go on a date as often as makes sense. If you’re married/dating, that means you and them. Not a group. Not the kids. And no phones. Talk and build that relationship. Strong relationships are the #1 predictor of life expectancy. How wild is that?!?
- Buy a cookbook or follow a new YouTube cooking channel.
- As adults we use are learning skills less and less. This is a fun way to learn new things and eat better food (and if you do it with the family that’s a 3 category point score…grill outside and make it 4).
- Read for 5 minutes every day.
- Preferably on paper. Like a book. Or newspaper or magazine (those both still exist right?). Odds are if you find something you like you’ll read more. But the key is starting and if you are super busy, 5 minutes is still doable. Read about one of the EDB7 topics for added bonus.
- Download an audiobook or find a podcast you like.
- Traffic sucks. But so does a lot of the garbage you hear on morning talk radio. Use your commute to learn something, or listen to something funny. This is a hidden area in your day you can do something productive. I personally listen to audiobooks and/or podcasts every day, but the idea is to try and learn something new every day for me.
Movement
- Get 1,000 more steps a day in than you currently do.
- If you have an activity tracker, this is an easy challenge. Look at the average amount of steps you’ve been getting during a normal day and do 1,000 more than that. If you don’t have a wearable device, your iPhone or Android device tracks this as well. Or buy a wearable, you can get good ones for under $75.
- Lift weights:
- We will be hollering this until we die (or everyone is lifting). Lifting weights is the single best thing you can do for your fitness and makes the biggest change on the looking better naked front too. Lifting weights can help prevent osteoporosis and build strength and mobility, these things keep you out of the nursing home. It can make you a more capable person. It can build your self esteem. It can shape up your booty or give you nice guns. It can do more things for you than any other one fitness related thing. In a perfect world, your fitness has other aspects as well but it is tough to imagine a great fitness program with no weight bearing movements.
- Reduce your social media usage by 25%.
- Ok. We are writing on social media to tell you to use social media less. We get it. We aren’t saying delete it, we get that isn’t practical. But most people who tell us they don’t have an hour to workout or 30 extra minutes to sleep also have 4 hours of social media usage a day. Install the Moment app on your iPhone to help with this. (Want to see something scary? Go to “Settings” then “Battery” then click “Last 10 Days” then scroll down and click “Show Activity” to see how much time you have spent on each app. It will blow your mind.
Have any questions about these? Ask us in the comments and we will get back to you! Think this will help a friend? Share it with them. Try a few of these for a month and see what happens!
