6 Micro Habits to Implement today to Elevate Your Fitness Game
Consistency is crucial for fitness success. Weight loss requires a sustained commitment to a diet rich in lean protein, vegetables, and healthy fats, combined with at least 3-4 workouts per week. While this can be challenging, several healthy habits can help you achieve your fitness goals more easily.
1. Drink A LOT of water
When it comes to hydration, most of us are not doing as good of a job as we need to be. Most of us are dehydrated on the day and don’t even know it. Signs you are dehydrated include lethargy, dark colored urine, lightheadedness, increased thirst and dry mouth.
The recommended amount of water we should be drinking falls along the lines of 2-3L of water a day. The more diuretics we drink, (coffee, teas) the more we need to counterbalance for water loss. It helps to have a refillable water jug you can carry around with you throughout the day so you can monitor your intake and make small attainable goals.
2. Sleep 8 hours a night
The more studies come out about sleep, the more we’re learning just how important sleep actually is. Anything under 6 hours is not enough. Not only does sleep help with our cognitive function and energy, but it helps with fighting off sickness and long-term chronic diseases.
Things to implement better sleep at night include:
Making sure the room is below 65 degrees
Making sure the room is completely dark
Not looking at any electronic devices two hours before bed.
Cutting off caffeine after a certain point in the afternoon.
Sleeping naked.
Going to bed at a consistent time every night.
Check out this Joe Rogan video with special guest speaker Matthew Walker who is Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of California, and Founder and Director of the Center for Human Sleep Science. LOTS of good info in this two-hour podcast- check it out when you have some time.
3. Meal prep!
Meal prepping can go a long way in helping you stay on track throughout the week. Even if it is one time a week, it can help you with having things on hand when you get home from work late at night and don’t feel like cooking. Meal prepping can also help in bringing some healthy lunches with you to work throughout the week which will save you some calories and money! Check out some of my easy vegetarian meal plan videos to help you come up with specific yummy ideas!
4. Limit the amount of alcohol you drink
I get we all like to have a good time once in a while but if you are trying to make some serious strides towards any specific health and fitness goal, alcohol can seriously deter us.
Our liver prioritizes ridding the booze once it enters our body so everything pretty much gets put on the back burner as a priority, including everything we eat that day and after.
So foods and things we eat that our body would normally burn up and use as energy are actually stored as fat. Not only that, the next day we feel like shit and become tempted to eat like shit because our bodies are fatigued and dehydrated.
By no means am I advocating you to live like a nun, BUT if you are trying to put in work and reach some goals, cutting out alcohol for at least 30-days can do you and your body wonders.
Regardless, if you choose not to cut booze out, then I would recommend limiting it to 1-2 nights a week while drinking maximum two drinks out of those couple of nights to stay on track and not do too much damage to your gains.
5. Cut off caffeine after a certain time
Most of us drink coffee or tea of some kind. I don’t know about you but my routine morning cup of joe literally gives me LIFE. If you are working long hours and are up early, chances are you are having a second cup of coffee sometime later in the day. Studies show people who drink coffee after 3 PM tend to have a difficult time falling asleep at night. Try and get your daily caffeine fix in more so in the earlier part of the day to ensure your nighttime routine is not disturbed by the caffeine.
6. Walk more often
Walking has MAJOR health benefits- especially if you are someone who sits a lot during the day. Walking can improve our mood, help with increasing energy, helps with increasing creative juices, helps fight off chronic diseases and helps to maintain our weight.
The older we get, the more important it becomes to lead active lifestyles. Our bone density tends to decrease as we age so it becomes more important to continue to move. Luckily, walking is enough to help us maintain healthy bone density. I usually recommend walking at least 8-10K steps a day whenever possible.
If you are someone who sits a lot during the day and can’t find the time to get walking, try some of these stretches you can do during the day to break up the monotony of sitting.
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