9 Strategies to Become Healthy Immediately
Whats up everybody,
I went with my son this past week to a local Yemeni coffee shop to get a Chai tea. He is a little past 1.5 years old now, and he loves when I take him on short car rides places. The 2-3pm excursion has become something of a habit for a us.
As my wife is very much a homebody, and I am by far the more adventurous and extroverted one between the two of us, I consider these little outings to be valuable as well for my son to see how to interact with people in public. All things are learned by imitation, and your children always watch how you behave around other people.
As it happened today, one of my followers happened to be at the coffee shop at the same time. He is local Houston real estate broker who preferred to kept anonymous.
He recognized me, and we struck up conversation while my son was having a juice box and eating a cookie.
He was doing some work on his laptop, and he asked the common "what would you tell someone who is trying to get healthy?"
He took notes as I was speaking, and the resultant strategies were pretty good after they were organized. I think you all will find them valuable as well
How to Get Healthy Immediately
1. Health is Wealth.
You have to start with the mindset that your health is the most valuable resource you have. A lack of health is worse than a lack of money. Your energy, your vitality, your drive to get things done, that all comes from your body.
You should LOVE to be healthy, and want to be as rich as possible in your fitness. A new way of life wont come from your previous mindset.
2. Start Waking up at Dawn
Circadian Rhythm is real. Entire textbooks could be written about circadian rhythm, but the most practical strategy and daily action is to rise with the sun, and coordinate your schedule during daylight hours. This is the master mechanism that ensures good sleep, and good sleep energy, and energy means you can attack your priorities, and priorities mean you follow a schedule, and so on and so forth.
Dont argue with it, just do it. Wake up with the son, go to sleep with the night. You have at least 12 hours of daylight minimum to get done what you need to get done
3. Whole Food Diet
Whole foods only. No added sugar. No processed foods. To quote Jack Lalanne, "If a man made it, dont eat it!
Protein first every meal, 2 fist sized portions. Green veggies, prepare them however you want, so long as its not frying. What about fruit? One piece at a time maximum. No more than that. Make breakfast or lunch your largest meal, dinner the smallest. Once its dark outside, NO MORE EATING.
4. Fermented Foods and digestion
Im not a gastroenterologist, the only strategy Ive seen make an observable difference in digestion is simply avoiding what does not digest well, and increasing what does digest well. If digestion is poor all around, increase your intake of picked and fermented foods. Having a small serving of yogurt, sauerkraut, pickled veggies of some kind with every meal.
5. Water Only
No calories in beverages. Coffee with milk and honey at maximum, once daily if you must. Drink filtered water, mineral water, spring water. Get a BRITA filter for your home, or something similar. Inexpensive investment. No alcohol, no sugary beverages, no soda. No liquid calories of any kind.
6. Walk daily
As much possible. 10k steps is a good target, thats about 5 miles. Dont sit for longer than an hour without walking. 10 minutes walks, get in as many as you can. Always walk after a meal. Go for a longer 30 minute walk in morning or evening. This isnt "cardio" it is activity.
7. Increase Lean mass, Reduce Fat mass
Invert the "whats your bodyfat?" question. What we should be asking is "what is your LEAN MASS?". Excess fat is unhealthy, thats established. What matters for permanent metabolic change and being healthy is lean mass, MUSCLE. More muscle is more strength is more robust and functional living. Permanent fat loss requires permanent muscle gain, thats the next point
8. Lift weights, resistance training
Work your whole body every week at least once, all major muscles, twice if you have time. 3-4 days a week, Keep lifting simple, total body, upper/lower, push/pull/legs, follow a program that you understand. Establish objective bench marks for getting stronger, pushups, pullups, squats, lunges. Track your reps and weight. Do a little more each time. Hire a trainer if you are clueless about lifting
9. Cardio
Your body's bloodflow and ability to use oxygen is fundamental to health. Do at least 150 minutes a week of an activity gets your heart rate up for 30 minutes or longer. My favorite is incline walking for 30-60 minutes. Set treadmill to 8-12% incline. Walk at 3mph. Just get it done, dont overthink it.
If thats not possible because of time constraints, aim for 75 minutes a week of INTENSE cardio, high heart rate the entire time. That is three 25 minute workouts. Running, exercise bike, airdyne, stepmill, jump rope, anything INTENSE that you can do intervals with for 25 total minutes. Airdyne is my favorite. Pedal hard as you can for 1 minute, pedal slow for 2. Keep repeating until you've been on the bike 2 minutes.
That was everything
I think this was comprehensive, but maybe there is something else I should add? Reply and let me know your thoughts
I work with a small number of individuals to get them into their best state of Health
Hell yeah!
haha also has Preethi not told you "chai tea" is repetitive