When it comes to exercise, we often think to ourselves, “what’s the fastest way I can lose weight?” Starting out, however, is not the problem. The problem is maintaining a good, consistent, exercise routine and diet. We all get caught up running on the hamster wheel of life and we forget to consider if where we are at in life is truly where we want to be. We all know we should be doing more, but how do we maintain a truly healthy lifestyle with regular exercise?
Well, I’m here to inform you, that it’s not all about high-intensity training and extreme diets. Staying in shape is easier than you think. It’s as easy as finding ways to keep your body moving instead of simply sitting stationary. Standing itself is better than just sitting because your body has improved circulatory function when everything is in alignment. Walking more instead of just sitting or standing allows for even more circulatory improvement and is a healthy way to burn extra calories. In fact, walking burns a higher percentage of calories from fat sources than some of the more intense forms of cardio. Lucky for us, Southern Utah has some of the most beautiful, scenic routes to walk.
The foundation of effective weight loss actually starts with getting good sleep. See, I told you it was easy! Getting your sleep in order is a huge make or break for weight loss because it affects how well your metabolism functions. Large swings in your sleep schedule create conditions for your body to hold onto fat. So getting a consistent sleep schedule down is super important.
We’ve talked about the importance of moving your body and getting good sleep. Now let’s talk about the importance of getting good nutrition. Some of today’s nutrition fads such as the keto diet, the Atkins diet, the Paleo diet, and so on are standardized diets that are not made to fit your body type or your lifestyle. Along with intuitive eating. Intuitive eating is the idea that you eat whenever you have the urge and eat until you feel adequately full each time you eat. Binging and feeling depressed leads to overcompensating which brings you to an unhealthy relationship with food.
To lose body fat you need to be in a caloric deficit, there is no getting around that, this is a key to fat loss. Calories in versus calories out. No, I’m not telling you that calorie counting is maintainable. What I am saying is what you eat and how much you eat affects your health and your performance every day. In order for us to live a normal life outside of a diet, we just have to focus on what we fuel our bodies with. You don’t have to starve yourself or throw away all things you eat that make life a little more enjoyable. It can be as simple as swapping out a few foods to make healthier choices.
Last but not least, let’s talk about strength training. No, this does not mean you have to step inside a sweaty gym filled with stinky people to lift weights. Although, picking up weights won’t turn you into the hulk. Strength training is used to build muscle to help emphasize parts of your body and deemphasize other parts. The reason strength training is important is that building as much muscle as you can helps with fat loss. The more muscle you have the easier it is to stay in shape.
Weight is such a hard subject to look past in society, but know that it is a mental game. In all reality, you are not fat! Fat is energy, therefore your body is holding onto energy that is not being used. I have never been in favor of talking about someone being overweight and I hold strong to my opinions on body positivity. What I don’t believe in is being unhealthy. Not only physically, but mentally and emotionally unhealthy.
Running to the gym and sitting on the treadmill for 2 hours because you ate a doughnut, is not healthy. Eating an entire box of Double Stuffed Oreos because you haven’t eaten carbs in 4 weeks, is not healthy. Sleeping for over 13 hours because you worked out 3 times every day this week, is not healthy. Your body crashing, is not healthy! There are always small “hacks” to losing weight fast, but that doesn’t mean it’s healthy. Most of the time these quick tricks will bounce back and you will be more out of shape and more unhealthy than you’ve ever been in your life, physically and mentally.
The trick to a maintainable healthy lifestyle is creating healthy habits. Swapping out those small things in your everyday routine will make the biggest impact on your life. Now, are these small steps to a healthier lifestyle going to turn you into a lean, mean machine? No. But is it maintainable? Yes. Will you be able to live a happy, healthy lifestyle? Absolutely!
