The Components of Health

We are screwing this up.

We have 2 things going on in society and they are both wrong when it comes to health.

The first part that is wrong is people eat nothing but garbage and do not move or workout. This does know one any good.

The second part is doing either extreme diets or workouts or both.

I will address the second part in this as the first part is mind boggling. I am not sure if people are just that lazy or have zero pride. On one hand you have the health side but what about looking like a slob? Apparently, that makes me insensitive for saying it but I am open to other reasons why people choose to be unhealthy and look like crap.

What can we agree on when it comes to looking and feeling good? For the most part all the “gurus” can agree on these principles:

• Get good sleep
• Move more
• Eat less
• Eat more whole foods
• Strength train
• Do some cardio

The list above is nothing earth shattering but no one argues with it. From here things get crazy, especially with diets.

You have the keto camp, vegan camp, carnivore camp, gluten free camp, paleo camp, fasting camp and on and on.

Then you have the PHD’s who just sit back and shit all over all of them about no evidence but at the same time the solutions they offer are the same for the past 20-30 years yet we are in way worse shape as a nation.

It’s a mess and I think it just makes the situation worse as the consumer doesn’t know who to believe so does nothing instead.

Let’s get back to the components of health.

In my opinion, the basics of health are moving daily, staying hydrated, eating quality foods and the right amount to maintain your weight, and getting enough quality sleep.
For most people, if they just did the above things on a consistent basis, they would more than likely avoid health related issues.

Crazy enough, that is a hard ask for a lot of people. Notice I didn’t even put in strength training, cardio or a specific diet.

For the majority of people, they need to nail those basic things before moving onto the other things. That is not to say that they can’t workout or try a diet but if they can’t do the little things consistently how successful are they going to be if they can’t even nail the little things?

To take that to the next level would be to add in strength training, moderate cardio and get more specific with their nutrition plan. Most clients I work with have the first part down and are looking to take it to the next level.

The next level is where people complicate the hell out of health and fitness. This is where they might go down the “diet” rabbit hole and do a fad diet.

They might decide to do “insert X” extreme workout.

For the majority of my clients, I put them on a strength training program, moderate cardio, and dial in their calories and protein. If they follow it 90% of the time, they get great results.

Keep in mind everyone is different and has different starting points but this simple formula works well for most people.

The takeaway message is do the little things consistently before moving on but don’t take anything to the extremes with diets and exercise.