Keeping Things Simple for Your Health and Fitness….4 Focal Points Without Overwhelming Yourself
Have your ever felt overwhelmed with your health and fitness prescription, or that it’s unsustainable? It been really motivated to try and change too many unhealthy habits at the same time only to find yourself back at square one with one or even all of the things you tried to change? It can be tricky to know how or what to do exactly, but chances are you may be overcomplicating things.
This may be because you thought or were told you needed to. Maybe you saw someone on social media doing ALL the things and what seemed daily. Maybe you have also seen or read about some really elaborate daily routines that are a perfect orchestration of nutritional culinary masterpieces paced in between masterful looking strength training workouts to later finish the evening with a sauna and family time just before bed. You may rightfully be wondering if you indeed also need to do ALL THE THINGS health and fitness to then be at your ‘A’ game. It’s an understandable question and curiosity; and it can often seem like more is more. Many fad programs and products in health and fitness industry are sold to people this way as they often think that this new niche thing to add in is the way to finally create a solution or edge. We want to think that more is more, or a more complicated version of an old idea is really going to work this time. However, the answer most of the time to all of this is a resounding NO.
Elaborate VS Simple:
While there are definitely certain things that we need to have in place to be able to push the needle forward with our health and fitness, it does not need to be complicated and certainly not perfect. However, it can still be challenging to know what those things are, to feel like we have all those pieces in the right place, and consistently give the necessary attention and energy to them each day. What things or actions are the real deal and give the most back for what you put in? Again, aside from complex, it can also be easy to think we need to do MANY different things or an elaborate routine to be our healthiest self. The reality is that doing ALL the things or maintaining an elaborate routine is not feasible for most people. Life can be fairly unpredictable for many of us during any given day with work schedules, kids, appointments and other obligations without any curve balls getting thrown in. Complex routines are probably not necessary for you at all and can actually backfire if you take on too much or too complicated a routine. We see this to be the case more than ever with clients who do have a very busy or hectic schedule and then try and do too many things at once or something that may just be superfluous but they didn’t understand at the time that it was. Ideally, we want to save people those headaches and give you the most simple and effective advice we can. After all, most people don’t have time for fancy and sophisticated.
But there’s a problem we have to fight here sometime. The problem is that fancy and sophisticated can be enticing. Especially when it’s a cool new product or seemingly novel strategy. They catch the eye and make us wonder. It also would seem that we are constantly being shown or told to DO MORE, to add in extra things for an edge, or that there are minimum requirements that set the bar pretty high. This may be because we are indeed being told this message from outside influences or we can just much more easily find things to read or learn or be advertised to about in this day and age of instant in your face everything. The other part to this is that intricate and complex can actually work for a small minority of folks who have the extra time and energy to devote. WAIT?!…What?! Yes- they can; but it isn’t reality for most people (probably more than 95%+) and likely not you either even if you think you may be that minority. The likelihood is that you’re not, and guess what? Even if you were, you still probably don’t need to!
The reality is that to live a long and healthy life, even one that most would consider being pretty darn fit (read VERY fit), does not require as much as we think. Even some of the most elite level athletes can heed this because many elites that made it there with hard work or perhaps gifts and genetics would do themselves a favor in returning to simple basics. Many are likely not checking all the simpler boxes as well as they think they are before doing complex ones. Arguably anyone who has gotten to an elite level in their health and fitness has probably begun with VERY SIMPLE and has either just maintained it with the utmost consistency and hard work, or only after having it completely dialed in has then tried things that are more complex or novel. A perfect example is anyone that you may consider to appear incredibly fit in appearance or performance. While that person may have some genetic predisposition that has helped them in their pursuits, in all likelihood the majority of their success came from mastering basics and doing simple things with a religious tenacity. If you can master a very simple and basic routine and maintain consistency that does not waiver much, you can likely attain higher heights than you can imagine possible.
Think of this comparison of complex vs simple like an intricate house of cards vs a simple reinforced bridge.
Complex routines can be just that, a fragile house of cards (as can be the folks practicing those routines for a variety of reasons). The house of cards can collapse with the gentlest gust of the wind or jostle. Yet, a reinforced and simple buttressed bridge can support heavy trucks all day long and withstand being blasted by hurricane force winds. Meanwhile that bridge can also be a connection to more places you want to go and things you want to do when firmly in place. A simple activity or practice that fosters your health and fitness can be just that. When it becomes more habitual, it is easy to take that and expand on it, strengthen it, and even morph or connect it into another healthy practice. This indeed is how those at their A game are able to add on more if they absolutely want or need to. But, again, most of the time this is completely unnecessary.
The key is keeping things SIMPLE… like unbelievably simple. When you have even just one simple action or behavior that becomes habit from each category below (routine and second nature without thought), you will likely be farther ahead in your pursuits than you thought possible.
KEY ELEMENTS TO HAVE IN PLACE:
1. MOVEMENT
2. NUTRITION
3. RECOVERY
4. CONNECTION
Why? Because each one of these elements is absolutely essential to be healthy both in body and mind; and taken a step further in health and fitness language everyone likes to use, to be “FIT”. BUT, each one of these does not need to be elaborate.
This isn’t to say that as you get more comfortable with having a movement practice in place that you can’t add on to it, or make it a little more intricate, or tweak it in some way. Again, you will likely not need to! AND, fair warning, this can also be where many people go astray. Why? Because as you get comfortable with a routine it can be enticing to look at how you may get more from something else. Boredom can breed curiosity and intrigue for something else or more. This is where something fancy may steal away your efforts. Most likely what is needed is just MORE CONSISTENCY and PATIENCE with your current simple NOW habit. Change takes time and more change will continue to take more time. It’s the rule of mastery. Have you ever heard that to be a master it can take 10,000 hours of practice? At the rate of nearly 3 hours of practice a day that would be 10 years! Do you have that kind of game plan and patience with yourself? This doesn’t mean it will take 10 years to reach smaller goals along the watt in your health and fitness category; it just means to have patience and consistency focus. And guess what helps with that long journey, simple tasks you can do with the near daily consistency required.
PICK SOMETHING... Really anything will work that results in a net positive change from what you are currently doing. All this means is that the thing you pick does something for you rather than takes away. For instance, adding in whatever the thing is doesn’t detract from itself or make life so difficult that the end result isn’t worth it, or you need to give up and stop doing it. For example, trying to follow an incredibly complex and time-consuming fitness program or unsustainable food preparation practice like growing and preparing every food item you consume (pretty tough unless you’re in agriculture, but even then..). What does it look like then? Prep and cook veggies on Sunday at the beginning of each week for about 30 minutes. Costs 30 minutes now, but saves hours during the week when added up and it contributes to your overall health since you might otherwise not have had them or perhaps had something with less nutritional value. The same goes for movement as mentioned. A 2–3-hour gym routine after work that then infringes on your time to connect with family or ability to get a good night’s sleep. This would be considered a net negative since it will probably be unsustainable or detract from other essential elements of deeper health. You may consider sticking with 1 hour or so 3 days a week if that is what is sustainable for you.
What these look like vs what they don’t:
Movement:
Nutrition:
Recovery:
Connection:
Again, this is what it CAN look like for MOST people. There are ALWAYS exceptions. It doesn’t mean that it HAS to look this way but we do find this is usually the most successful way to approach long term and for health (and even performance). While this is not an exhaustive list and more of an example of how to simplify, hopefully this has been helpful in defining what simple versus complex can look like, add-ons are needless without the simpler basics. For instance, adding in a bunch of restorative practices when you only sleep 4-5 hours a night and have a different bed time every night, would likely not do you any good. It’s not to say that another restorative practice won’t help in that situation, but more so that if you aren’t tackling sleep and starting simple while trying other things, it’s likely not the way to go.
If you have been or tend to find yourself taking on more or making things more complicated than they need to be, see what activity or habit you can create from the categories above and try to do it for the next month. Know that it won’t be easy to always tackle every category 100% every day, but the simpler you make your activity, the more likely it will be that you CAN do them all eventually. Also, try shooting for 80% rather than 100% and remember that change takes time to see. If you can do one thing from each category 80% of the time you are going to be WAY ahead in the next month than if you try to craft a more elaborate and inflexible plan that has you 50% in. Make it enjoyable but see what you can do to make it as simple as possible and see if things get easier while pushing that needle ahead.