Have you been in perfect health your whole life? Been CHISELED since the womb? Then go ahead and close this tab. This article is not for you. This article is for the people like me who come from families with tons of health issues, who have battled with healthy eating habits, and who didn't know where to start when they wanted to TAKE CONTROL of their health and fitness! If you have gotten this far in the article, CONGRATULATIONS!!!! You are my PEOPLE!
Disclaimer:
As I'm writing this, I am sitting on the edge of my bed recovering from a hernia surgery, and I'm not where I want to be, but I now KNOW where I am going because of 60+ hours of research, and development of the understanding of the Fitness Building Blocks. I put in the WORK to understand why my health was where it was when I was most happy with it. This article is a BENCHMARK for me to look back on, and a REFERENCE for you to use so that you don't have to do hours of painstaking research like I did. If you're cool with that, I'm cool with that. Let's begin!
Baseline understanding
I'm about to lay out the "3 Fields of Fitness" you need to pay attention to to be rewarded for the action you are taking in your journey. Before I clarify them, I want to mention that when I use the word "Fitness," I am referring to "the condition of being physically fit and HEALTHY," as defined by Oxford Definition. I don't just want to be jacked. Don't get me wrong. I want that, but I want to be happy with my blood test results, and my lung health, and my heart health, JUST as much as I want to look good naked. If you are like me, and READY to take control of your FITNESS, and be your HEALTHIEST SELF, it's not about looking at a scale. It's about:
knowing where you currently are,
knowing where you want to be,
drawing a map between here and there,
and taking action that you track each step of the way.
That's my goal in writing this article. Helping you be happy with your fitness on the inside and the outside. When it comes to tracking, I use 3 apps pretty regularly:
MyFitnessPal(Free app),
Eufy Body Fat Scale(Free app with purchase of $40 scale), and
WHOOP(Paid membership with free strap)
Set a Goal
So, what is your goal?
Do you want to lose weight, or LOSE BODY FAT?
Do you want to gain weight, or GAIN MUSCLE?
Do you want to lose body fat, gain muscle, or both?
Whatever that is, let's focus on doing that!
Let's get into it
Now that we have a common understanding, these are the basic building blocks you need to consider in your personal fitness plan: FUEL, MOVE, and REST! In each category, I will define it, explain it, and show you how to measure/track it. What you measure grows. What you want to attack, you have to track! Ready to Attack? Let's go!
1. Fuel
This is where it all starts! Your diet makes up about 2/3 of the results you will find in your fitness. Remember fitness is about the inside AND the outside. You can be ripped, and have a leaky gut where no nutrients make it to your brain, becasue of poor nutrition. We're not here for that. We're here to be HEALTHY, right! So what we eat is going to be important in helping control that! By the way, every pound of fat in our bodies is simply 3,500 stored calories (units of energy). If you want to lose 10 pounds, you simply have to burn 35,000 calories more than you consume! Spread that out over 10 weeks, and that's 1 pound a week, if you burn 500 more calories than you consume each day. Spread that out over 5 weeks and that's 2 pounds a week, if you burn 1,000 more calories than you consume each day.
Understand the Fuel Formula
(In Daily Calories)
Metabolic Basal Rate(MBR) - Food + Exercise = Remaining Calories to be Burned
Metabolic Basal Rate (MBR)Â - This is how may calories your body is going to burn in one day on auto-pilot. If you don't do anything, this is how much your body needs to survive based on your age, weight, and normal activity level.
Food - Simply put, this is how many calories you eat that day.
Exercise - The amount of calories you burned by moving your body (covered in the next section)
Remaining - This is the net number of calories you have burned(blue)/stored(red) today.
2. Move
This is a lot more simple than people make it. Consistent time in your schedule to MOVE is what's most important here. The workout plan doesn't matter so much. What's the best workout plan? The one that you'll actually DO CONSISTENTLY! That's all! Nowadays, most people have a tracker on their wrist (Apple Watch, Fitbit, whoop, etc.) that will tell them exactly how much they moved, what kind of workout they did, how long they did it, and how many calories (units of energy) they burned. THE MOST IMPORTANT PART IS ASKING YOURSELF WHEN YOU CAN SCHEDULE THIS INTO YOUR DAILY ROUTINE! Morning, afternoon, or evening. I know people that have lost 75+ pounds in a year simply walking a few miles a day. You can also plan for gym workouts, fitness classes, etc.
Again, this category is not supposed to be complicated, just consistent. What days will you move, and how many extra calories do you plan to burn on those days. Your weekly goal is to create enough movement to create the calorie deficit you need to hit your weight goal, OR to work your muscles enough to make them consume energy to create new muscle.
3. REST
Last and CERTAINLY not least... REST! This Field of Fitness is often extremely underrated. Sleep is when your body recovers from movement you've done, to prepare it for further movement. Rest days, or Sabbath days, are when you give your body the break(s) it needs to recover properly, and prevent injury by overuse of your body. I highly recommend regular rest days (guilt-free) where you give yourself permission to get ready for upcoming days with much more movement.
Conclusion
If you're giving yourself opportunities to fuel your body with the right food, at the right amount, and you are moving frequently, and resting adequately then there is no reason that you should not experience fitness long-term. This is a great place to start, and it allows you to make adjustments as time goes on. Most importantly, expect to win in your fitness, and stay consistent! The results are SURE to come. If I told you to meet me in the parking lot everyday for 90 days and I would pay you $100,000, chances are that you would do whatever it took to get to the parking lot every day. PROMISE YOURSELF that there is a reward for your consistency. It is sure to come. Let's Take Dominion of our Fitness, and enjoy the fruits of a healthy body!
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