When people think about getting into fitness or maintaining a fit lifestyle, most are overwhelmed with the “amount of work and time” one has to put in order to achieve their respective goals.
It can be daunting to think of allotting 3 to 5x a week for running or going to the gym and it can be scary to commit to a diet which will require you to cut off some of your favorite food (i..e rice, sweets, etc.)
But what people often miss out on is that getting into a fit lifestyle is also about building small habits day by day that will someday result in a healthy routine.
Sure, exercise and proper diet are the primary driving factor of achieving your fitness goal, but the general quality of life that you are living will also greatly affect how your body will respond to those diets and exercise! That’s why we listed 5 Fitness Habits that will help you achieve a more fit and healthy lifestyle!
1. Sleep Early
Ever wondered why you feel tired every day despite eating right and working out? The most common answers to that question are: one, you are not sleeping enough (i.e. less than 7 hours) or two, you are not sleeping early!
As humans, our natural sleep pattern and physiological processes dictate the need for 7-9 hours of sleep a few hours after the sun has set, which is most likely around 10 to 11 pm at night. This really just means that the quality of sleep that we get by sleeping from 10 pm to 6 am is far more superior than sleeping from 2 am to 10 am, despite both resulting to 8 hours of sleep.
Sleeping early does amazing benefits to your daily productivity as you have more energy to spend in the day to move around, work, and exercise with proper sleep. Not to mention the fact that it is a vital factor in muscle recovery, weight loss, and muscle gain!
Related article: Why Sleep is Crucial in Losing Weight
2. Move a lot!
Unfortunately, having an 8-5 desk job burns very few to zero calories despite the mental stress that we experience in work or school. Given that we spend 8 hours of the day sitting on a desk already, it’s always a good idea to keep moving to make up for those hours spent sitting.
Walk to your destination if it’s less than 15 minutes away, take the stairs instead of the elevator, park a little farther, and walk around the office when you’re taking 5 or 10-minute breaks!
Putting in those few thousand steps will do wonders to your cardiovascular system and general health!
3. Make sure you drink 8-12 Glasses of Water!
Before you opt for that iced tea or soda as your lunch or dinner time drink, ask yourself if you’ve drunk enough water for the day? And maybe at that point, you can choose water over high sugar/high-calorie drinks.
Drinking enough water is vital to our bodily functions and it has so much benefit in helping us become more fit and healthy! It keeps our muscle energized, it’s good for our skin, it helps our kidneys, and generally improves our physical performance!
Related article: How to be H2O-K Despite Your Busy Schedule
4. Track your food intake!
Monitor what you eat! This simple habit can greatly affect your food choices by helping you become more mindful with what you eat.
It’s easy to overeat without feeling full at all! The culprit to those extra 5 lbs can be the chocolates that were given to you at work before lunchtime, or maybe the popcorn in the cinema before dinner, or the junk food you were eating while driving!
Tracking your food keeps you more in control and conscious about what you put in your body. You can use food tracking apps like MyFitnessPal or you can do it the old school way, by jolting it down in a notebook!
Whichever way you choose to do it, seeing a list of the food you consume will help you find out what’s ruining your diet and help you decide if the food is good for you and/or if “it’s really worth it”.
There’s only so much food that we can eat without gaining extra weight, make it count!
5. Schedule your workouts
It’s easier to be consistent when you plan things ahead. Take time every week to decide which days of the week you’re going to work out and at what time of the day.
The few weeks of working out can be hard because setting aside a few hours each day might seem to be unnatural and time-consuming. But through scheduling ahead of time, you’ll soon find yourself effortlessly prepping yourself for a workout!
We know that these things are easier said than done. There’s a lot of factors that can affect where we are in life and how well we can manage our fitness level. But fitness is all about taking care of yourself and it doesn’t have to be an “all or nothing” attitude.
When it comes to building habits, there’s nothing more powerful than being consistent day by day. You don’t have to establish all of these habits at the same time. You can choose to commit to one habit only and do it consistently for a month or so before incorporating another habit. This way you’re sure to not be overwhelmed and are more likely to keep at it for the long haul.
Care to share some fitness habits that you have? Share and comment on this article for us to get to know your take on this!
