Is Fitness the Best Solution?
If you’ve exercised over the last 20 years you’ve probably heard a trainer or friend say, “You can’t out train a bad diet.”
Unfortunately, that’s true. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to eat whatever you want and still be really healthy?
We all have dreams, don’t we…?
The good news is you can still make progress towards your health and fitness goals, improve your body composition or performance without dieting like a crazy person!
By understanding the parts of the metabolism and factors that affect its function you can put the pieces together to live a healthy life without relying EXCLUSIVELY on exercise and nutrition (they’re still part of the equation)!
Here are the things that matter when it comes to metabolism:
1) Exercise, both intensity and frequency
2) Non-exercise activity, steps & daily movement
3) Diet, quantity and quality of food
4) Hydration, drinking enough water each day
5) Stress Management, managing all of the above + emotional/situational stress
6) Sleep, both quantity and quality
7) Hormonal and Micronutrient deficiencies, imbalances take us out of a physiological state to look, move or feel better.
Now, does seeing that list feel a little overwhelming?
We get it but don’t panic! Here’s the really cool thing!
Most people assume the ONLY ways they can drop fat and be healthier is through diet and exercise. So when motivation dips and you don’t feel like focusing on those 2 things, what are you left with?
Work harder on one thing and neglect the other?
Take a break completely?
Just suck it up?
Knowing that there are SEVERAL things you can focus your attention and get better at hopefully gives you a little comfort knowing you don’t only have to workout 8 days a week and eat rabbit food to look, move or feel better.
Balancing these 7 things is what helps our members achieve what they never have before but also allows them to decide how they want to live throughout the year.
Do they have more time to focus on exercise and steps? Great!
What about the opposite? A busier time? Can you focus on maintaining hydration and sleep and reduce the frequency of your workouts?
What if you feel motivation slipping? Assess what thing(s) on this list you are not doing and what action steps you can take to work on them.
If you’re still feeling confused, that’s okay. This is really complicated and it’s not as cut and dry as I make it out to be. That’s why our members have access to a coach as often as they need to to feel confident they can execute on the their action steps.
They’re not alone and neither are you!
To wrap it up, diet and exercise aren’t your only tools in being a healthy adult, and honestly, they shouldn’t be and can’t be. Only focusing on those two things leads people down the same path they’ve been down before:
Exercising their ass off;
Depriving themselves of any pleasure from food and not knowing what to eat;
Hitting the wall and not knowing where to turn next.
Sound familiar?
People have been mislead or uninformed for so long and we hope educating our community gives people context on what’s important in your health and fitness journey. You have options. You have the power. You can do it!
A coach can help you balance the blocks!
If this actually sensible and you’re wondering what you can do to help yourself our #1 recommendation would be to find a coach that can perform a thorough assessment and help you set a long term plan to slowly chip away at improving these 7 categories.
Hint: We’d be happy to be those coaches. Click here!
If you’re not ready to commit to working with a coach, pick one of the 7 categories below and start to make some headway yourself!
1) Exercise - Don’t pick the maximum number you can do. Start by choosing a sustainable frequency (ex: 2-4 each week) and consider tracking the intensity of your workouts and your recovery with tools like a heart rate monitor and the Oura Ring.
2) Non-exercise activity - Start tracking your steps with a tracker like Oura Ring, Apple Watch or Fitbit. If you’re below 7k steps per day, start by working up to this number.
3) Diet - Consider tracking your food. Tracking your food with an app like Cronometer is a great way to learn more about what you’re eating.
4) Hydration - most people that exercise should drink around 1oz of water per pound of bodyweight. If you weight 200lbs, and you notice you’re only drinking 20oz of water per day, start by increasing 10-15oz per week until you feel you’ve hit your sweet spot.
5) Stress Management - Start keeping a thought journal and consider stress reduction activities like meditation, gentle movement, or some form of creative expression.
6) Sleep - Investing in an Oura Ring will give you real objective data here. At the very least, commit to a set night time routine, bed time, and wake up time. Letting your body get back to it’s natural circadian rhythm is a great first step.
7) Hormonal and Micronutrient deficiencies - Go to your doctor and ask if they can test for these. If not, ask if there is an endocrinologist or other specialist that they can recommend to help you gather more information about your specific hormonal and micronutrient profile.
In our next blog, knowing what you know now, we’ll jump into the parts of the metabolism and how they play a role in reaching your goals!
Our members are people over 40 with busy lives and careers who are sick of searching for answers only to find dead ends! I you want to be the healthiest version of yourself but don’t know where to turn or who to trust, we’d love to help!
Fill out the form below and we’d be happy to chat, risk free, about your experiences with health, exercise and everything in between!
Your Fitness After Forty Specialists
It’s difficult to change on your own but we’re here to help! We want to learn about you.
If you’re ready to become the person you dream of fill out the form below and we’ll contact you within 24 hours to see what we can do to help.