4 Foundations to starting a Healthy Lifestyle

The Holidays are over, and crazy good calorie rich food is hopefully dwindling down to a minimum. But now, you don’t feel the hottest and your pants don’t quite fit as good as they did before. You’re possibly tired, bloated, and feel like napping constantly. 

Well, you have two options. You can go on ebbing your way through the week tired, and unmotivated. Or you can put your foot down, and start a new Healthy lifestyle starting with your very next meal! After all, your never any farther than your next meal to getting back on track nutritionally. But, it’s not just about nutrition right? Right! Theres more to the puzzle than just what you stuff into your gaping maw. 

As Personal Trainer and Health Coach, I have seen the most success when people adopt a new lifestyle not just a new fad diet. In fact I don’t like the word diet, it feels restricting rather than enjoyable. “Nutrition” is Enjoyable baby! So here my top 4 Foundations to starting a new 2019 healthy lifestyle.

1.Eat Real Food 

This isn’t about going Keto, or paleo, or vegan. This is simply about eating real food, Organic if possible. Focusing on food that Nourishes our body will detox us, create healing, and allow us to function at a higher level. I like drinking a nutrient dense smoothie in the morning, a Vegetarian plate for lunch, and a nice Real food plate at dinner with Steak, Salmon, or Poultry. 

2.Detox Yourself Regularly

The above mentioned foods and way of eating will help your body to regularly detox and clean house. This clears up the burden that is on our liver, which is our major fat burning organ. When the liver becomes weighed down with lots of toxins and crappy food, then it starts to regulate blood sugar and fat burning poorly, which leads to weight gain and fatigue. Also, Pooping, Peeing, Sweating, and Deep breathing are things we should be doing everyday for regular detox of the human body. If you are not pooping everyday this will lead to recirculation of toxins and estrogens which will throw off the bodies systems causing a world of problems. 

3.Move your Body A Lot

This doesn’t mean go kill yourself on a treadmill everyday for an hour after you have sat at your desk all day. That will not make up for the time you spent sitting at your desk barely moving. This means moving your body frequently! I try to set a timer for every 20 minutes I sit at the Computer that I get up and walk around for 5 minutes. Go for a walk in the morning, at lunch, after dinner. Frequent low level movement has been shown numerous times in the scientific literature to promote a lower body fat percentage, and more energy production. Follow this simple principle: 1.Move at low level all day, as much as you can. 2. Lift heavy things a few times a week (resistance training). 3. Sprint/Run/Jog/Play  a couple times a week. The more we move the more Mitochondria we make, and the more we make, the more energy we create, and the more fat we burn! Who doesn’t want to have more energy, and less body fat?!

4. Improve your Sleep

If you get nothing else out of my rambling, get this: Improving your sleep quality will improve the quality of your life. Improve sleep has been shown to decrease your risk for diabetes, obesity, Mental disorders, Alzheimer’s, Dementia, Parkinson’s, and Heart Disease. Focus on dimming your house lights before bed, because artificial lighting has been shown to lower melatonin. Focus on keeping your room cool and as dark as possible. And Lastly focus on eating your last meal at least 3 hours before you lay down for sleep. This has been shown to improve sleep scores dramatically. Besides it creates more opportunity for your body to burn it’s own fat stores for fuel.

In Summary

Don’t get overwhelmed that you have to uproot your entire life just to bounce back from this last 6 weeks of Holiday eating. Just focus on eating real food as much as you can. Learn how to make a nutrient dense smoothie that you look forward to. Then just focus on eating lots of Veggies, Tubers, Squash, berries, Nuts and Seeds. Along with SOME good grass fed, wild caught, free range protein sources as well. Enjoy some fruit, or honey. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t do it perfect.

Next make sure your pooping, peeing, and sweating everyday. Move your body on a consistent basis. And focus on creating a sleep routine that you accomplish every night. 

It Takes small steps to make a large Journey, So don’t feel like you have to change everything all at once. Focus on one thing at a time. Add one new step each week if you have to. I hope someone gets some benefit from this. Thanks for reading and have a good day, and good year!

Zach Johannsen

CPT, WMA, WLC

 

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