The 3 things to be healthier and fitter!

Start here to be a healthier fitter you.

A client turned to me mid-session and said, “You give us all this info on how to be fitter and healthier. But where do we start? Can you give me one thing to start me off?” It stumped me because I couldn’t give them the one thing to do to get started there and then. I had many things I knew would help that client but which one was going to give them most bang for their buck?

I don’t like not giving an answer to anyone so sat down for weeks thinking about this. Mulling over so many things to come up with the one. I finally came to the conclusion there isn’t just one thing, but three things that are so intertwined you can’t improve one without the other two.

The 3 Pillars of health and fitness

3 Pillars of Fitness and Health

Sleep, exercise and nutrition are so inextricably linked I couldn’t give anyone a single thing to work on without it being impacted by the other two. Sleep well and you choose good food and quantity, plus you exercise with more duration and intensity. Exercise and you sleep better and use the nutrients you eat better. Eat well and it supports good sleep and great exercise.

 However, this means working on three things at once, which most would say is really difficult and destined for failure. Making it more important that each of the work ons is as simple and effective as possible. So here goes!

Sleep

I’ve started with sleep due to it being so impactful on the other two and especially nutrition. The aim is 8-9hours per night. With two very simple tactics to help achieve this:

1.     Set a bed and stick to it. If you need to be awake at 7am go to bed 9 hours before. So 10pm make sure you are in bed. If you are a poor sleeper try and do this a religiously as possible even at weekends to help get your sleep back on track.

2.     Read in bed with a low light level before going to sleep. This relaxes and helps wind down. Do not read on phones or tablets that have other apps on that can distract you. Turn those off and get them out of the bedroom. Read anything, books, text, paper, comic etc.

Exercise

This may be the challenge if you don’t exercise already. Find time to be able to move enough to stimulate the body. More evidence is showing the importance of resistance training. Muscle is hugely important as it gives strength that declines as we age and helps metabolic health. It also has cardiovascular benefits.

1.     Resistance train minimum 2 times per week, 3 is ideal. Each session 30-60mins. The resistance should be enough to stimulate hard work. Exercises ideally want to big whole body compound for efficiency. Could be using weights, bands or body weight as long as it is challenging.

Nutrition

I couldn’t pick one but this has a number of tactics that will help and can seamlessly slip into daily habit. The main thing is to get energy balance in order. If you are putting on weight you are eating more than your body needs. Losing weight you are eating less than your body needs. There is a really simple way to manage this without having to record all your food and work out calories etc.

1.     Weigh daily and average over the course of 7 days. This average will give a more realistic idea of your weight. If that average is dropping you are in a deficit and will lose weight, increasing you are in a surplus and gaining weight.

2.     Photograph everything that you eat and drink and review in the evening. Because food is so available more and more we are mindless eating. So photograph to be aware of everything you are eating and can make objective changes.

3.     Plan plan plan. Challenge yourself to do 1 shop per week, plan all your meals for the week in advance. In this you can buy the fresh ingredients to make more of your food. This makes less waste and will find it is more nutritious and potentially cheaper avoiding ultra-processed food.

Be religious about them for at least a month!

Whilst I couldn’t pick one thing hopefully you can realise how sleep, exercise and nutrition are so inseparable and you need to address all three at once. They are also at different stages of your day so shouldn’t be as daunting as multiple things needed to be done first thing in the morning.

If you would like more information we have recorded a podcast series explaining each of these in more details (click here for podcast). Plus also please feel free to contact FAST to see how we can help you towards your health and fitness goals.