Chances are you overcomplicate your health and fitness.
Simplicity is the best way to ensure success for everyday people (you) just looking to live a healthy lifestyle, drop a couple pounds for a wedding or vacation, and generally look and feel their best.
Part of feeling your best comes from not overextending and beating yourself up over your fitness and nutrition. But sadly, this is the case for so many people.
It’s a common mistake that nearly everyone has made at one point or another. Wasting time and energy focusing on minor things which have minimal (if any) actual effect on health and wellness.
It’s not your fault.
Blame social media, influencers, quick fix supplements, and big corporations pushing lousy foods and products to make a buck. Ignore the noise, and strip it down to what is actually important.
Below are a few common examples:
Stop avoiding Fruit. People worry about how much fruit they’re eating, because of the “fruit has sugar” boogeyman. Yes, fruit contains sugar, but in minimal amounts. As you hopefully know this sugar is natural opposed to the added sugar found in candy. Besides, the benefits you get from the fiber, vitamins, and micronutrients in fruit outweigh any effect the sugar might have. Fruit is light in calories but leaves you feeling full and satisfied longer than most alternative snacks. Simply, any extra weight you’re carrying is NOT because you’re eating too much fruit- it’s because you’re not eating enough.
Ignore the hottest “shred belly fat in 14 days” exercise you saw on Instagram, just move often, and move well. Get your heart rate up. Regularly practice compound lifts that efficiently train multiple muscle groups such as the squat and deadlift. Do plank and hollow body holds instead of crunches. Play sports. Go for more walks. Go for longer walks. Gradually progress and use heavier weights. Push the pace and intensity of your workouts over time. Just get out of your head and keep moving. Over time, your results will show
Stop prioritizing your post workout shake and focus on consuming adequate protein throughout the entire day. Doing this will give you actual results, and fast. “Adequate” protein can be defined as .7 to 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. Now, obsessively counting your grams of protein is getting too much in the weeds, but it’s worth tallying up how much you consume on an average day for a ballpark figure. Assuming you’re coming up short, start by adding a little more to your diet each day and go from there. If that post workout drink helps get you there, cool, but don’t assume your protein obligations start or end with the shake.
Speaking of protein shakes: EAT MORE REAL FOOD.
Stop agonizing over which brand of powder is better. Eat more fish, chicken, pork, vegetables, fruits, and nuts & seeds than you currently do. Eat less processed “foods” that come in boxes and wrappers. As a rule, if you cannot identify the entire ingredient list, back away. The longer the list, the more processed it is. Emphasize nutrient rich vegetables that genuinely heal your body, reduce inflammation, promote organ function, boost your mood and on top of it all, are low in calories.
Become a master of the basics. After you master the basics, get even better at them. Then become more consistent. Remember that complexity dilutes success; simplicity ensures it.
