Episode 68 – Stay On Track For Optimal Health and Fitness
After mindlessly scrolling through your Instagram feed, there are always particular photographs that capture your attention. This is especially true in the health and wellness industry, where you can easily recognise and admire the glowing skin and toned muscles of your biggest fitness idols. These images always ignite a little spark inside your belly or a feeling of I can be that person too. You receive a healthy hit of inspiration and all these great ideas start flowing to your mind. Then you quickly realise just how busy your life is and how little time you have for a workout or correct nutrition plan. It takes a little more than an Instagram pic to truly get your inner fire burning. So how the heck do these wellness superstars stay on track for optimal health and fitness anyway?
Forward planning – Prioritise blocking out time to train or eat healthy
No not next week or next month. Start pencilling in specific time slots now! This is where you dedicate energy towards a workout or time to learn about a new aspect of nutrition. Is your goal to tone up and put in the hard yards at the gym? Or do you feel you’re lacking in know-how about what type of diet best suits your body type? Get moving in creating healthy auto-pilot habits!
More time at the gym
When is your best time for a workout? Everyone is different, perhaps you’re not a morning person or just don’t have the energy to spare at the end of a long day. One of the main problems of our modern day society, is just how sedentary we have become. This is where popular clichés come into play like “A one-hour workout is 4% of your day- no excuses!” or “Use it or lose it”. Studies prove time and time again that physical activity is the key to a long and happy life free of disease.
Increasing your knowledge on nutrition
There are endless ways to learn more about correct nutrition and a great starting point is time blocking for that education. Do you commute to work and often choose to get lost in social media? Use that time instead to listen to an educational podcast, or read a book on a chosen health topic. These little windows of opportunity became invaluable for creating the best version of yourself. So use them wisely!
You can never know it all
Once you’re at a point where you feel you’re really knowledgeable on the topic of health and fitness, don’t treat that as an endpoint. Even if you hold a diploma or been through 84 years of experience! There’s so much new information in this field that’s evolving day in, day out. Continue to put yourself out there and attend seminars, read books and most importantly challenge your thoughts. These are the techniques that reveal new shortcuts, to better yourself and inspire others to follow in your inspiring footsteps.
Want to know the keys to staying on track for optimal health and fitness? Read on below.
The keys to staying on track include:
- Spread the word about your upcoming health journey. Let your supportive family and friends in on what you’re up to. They can help you to stay accountable to your health and fitness goals. And make bad jokes when you have a few too many cheat days.
- Prepare the night before – I promise you this helps in your motivation and maximising your valuable time! Whatever it is you need whether gym shoes, your yoga mat or clothing – get it all out, ready to grab and go.
- Because planning is the key to action. You’re going to feel a lot more motivated if everything is lined up, booked in and ready to go, than if your only pair of gym shoes are MIA.
- Meal prepping is a popular recommendation among many successful fitness buffs. Why do you think the convenience food and fast food chains or so wildly popular? People are short on time and want everything prepared and ready to eat. Ignite your inner hunter-gatherer by sourcing the best ingredients and block out a few hours on a Sunday evening to prep for the week! Trust me you will thrive off this advice.
- If you consider yourself to be visually prompted, externalise your mind into your physical space at home or work. This means printing out motivating quotes or pictures to stick around the house. Life can get busy and sometimes out of “site” out of mind comes into play when you have so much to juggle. Reminding yourself daily of your end goals helps to change past ingrained habits that hold you back.
- Create an exercise log, food diary or any other notebook on all the important things you’ve learnt along the way. This is an important step to tracking your progress and reminding yourself of the key standout points to your success.
- Celebrate the wins. I cannot emphasise this enough! All the little goals you accomplish along the way to the bigger goals, give yourself a pat on the back because you most definitely have earnt it. Always, always, always appreciate where you’ve come from and how far you’ve come. Don’t get caught up in the frustration and impatience of not reaching the end goal quick enough as this only slows you down and creates resistance. Don’t be that guy.
- Trust in your role models. They had to start at the bottom and know all too well that there are no quick fixes or shortcuts to success. The beauty of the internet these days, is that it’s so easy to source inspiring role models. Many successful people are able to express themselves and share their own personal stories through blogs and websites which are easy to find.
Reward yourself with time out when needed
Our Western society can be go-go-go and sometimes that results in you feeling like you’ll fall behind, if you don’t constantly strive towards your goals. But you need to know when to apply the brakes and take time off. The human brain is an incredible tool where you can achieve almost anything you put your mind to. However, consistency is always the key and a fresh mindset works wonders after a well-deserved break.
On a final note, work out your why! Is what you’re striving for truly for yourself? Or is it to impress or prove yourself to others? You can only feel 100% fulfilled at the end of your accomplishments, if your heart is in the right place.
With this being said, they are some key points to staying on track for optimal health and fitness. I hope you enjoyed!
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Need extra help?
- My PURITY Protocol is an amazing resource packed with 6 secrets to detox your life and supercharge your energy. It’s my personal wellbeing philosophy. Check it out here.
- The First Five Fitness program is a complete 35 day guide to nutrition, mindset, and fitness for beginners and intermediates AND it only takes five minutes blocks to start. Click here for details.
- Don’t know what or how to cook and prepare food?! Check out My Meals & Recipes book here. It’s packed with loads of practical, healthy and simple to make breakfast, lunch, dinner options as well as snacks and drinks.
- Want live coaching? Click here to contact me. I look forward to working with you soon.
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Bibliography
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- De Bono, E. (2008) Six Frames for thinking about information. Vermilion London
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- Kausman, R. (2004). If not dieting, then what? Allen & Unwin
- Levitin, D. (2014) The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload. Plume Printing
- Mahan, L. Escott-Stump, S. (2004) Krause’s Food, Nutrition & Diet Therapy (11th Ed.) Saunders
Chris Everingham lives and breathes health & fitness.
Hi, I’m Chris Everingham.
I’m sharing the holistic performance secrets that I both personally used to overcome racial scrutiny, escape poverty and depression, AND taught others so that they too could bring proven success and happiness into their lives.
Learn more about my time competing in international sports, in front of media and speaking with live audiences of thousands of people to discover my high performance secrets. Click here to grow your mindset, rewire your habits and transform your life.
