Fitness is simple. It’s not always easy, but it is simple. And we, for years, have broken it down into four pillars. Four concentric circles, if you care to visualize it that way. The four pillars (read: circles) are lifestyle management, sleep, nutrition, and exercise. Here’s what you need to know.
If you think of these four pillars as concentric circles, lifestyle management comprises the outermost ring. It does so because lifestyle management is made up of two distinct components: stress management and daily activity. To you, this might mean steps and meditation. It could also mean taking the stairs instead of the elevator or choosing to create down-time in the middle of your workday.
Lifestyle Management
Lifestyle management creates the outermost ring of our fitnessphere because it so deeply affects all that which is held within it. With chronically elevated stress levels and chronically low activity levels, it becomes much more difficult to sleep at night. Stressed folks typically make poorer food decisions, especially in the quest to pursuit of relief from long workdays and micromanaging bosses. Sedentary folks have a difficult time making appropriate food choices to create energy balance. In fact, their own hormones tend to work against them.
I’ve said for years that if you only have $100-200 to spend on your health, get a step tracker like a FitBit. Don’t buy a couple of hours with me – it won’t be worth it. Instead, get a step counter and double your steps. Get 8k, 10k, or even 15k steps each day. Increased daily activity levels (as measured by steps) are consistently associated with lower mortality risk.
When it comes to stress management, just try and find some personal zone time. Find a new hobby or discover something you enjoy doing that can help distract you from the mundane of the everyday. It’s not feasible to find a new job. You can’t always fix financial or relationship problems with the snap of a finger. But you can find small ways to enjoy life.
Sleep
If there’s one way to supercharge your fitness, look no further than sleep. A good night’s sleep is the best preworkout in the world; nothing else even comes close. And if you’re looking to feel good while you diet, sleep will optimize your hormones to help you feel less hungry. This one simple trick will allow you to get more out of the innermost half of your fitness target, namely nutrition and exercise.
Sleep is judged both by it’s quality and quantity, so don’t neglect either. Put the phone down a bit before you go to bed, don’t eat right before your head hits the pillow, and try to go to bed at a consistent time every night. Most adults need at least six or seven hours, but you’ll do better with eight or nine.
Nutrition
As we close in on the center of our bulls-eye, we reach nutrition. Nutrition intake can be boiled down to a few simple principles: energy balance, rough macronutrient breakdown, and and overall consistency. Without nutrition, our workouts suffer. And when our workouts suffer, well, I’ll explain at the end.
Energy balance simply refers to calories in versus calories out. No matter what anybody tells you, calories still matter. Low-carb diets work because of decreased food choices and, thus, decreased calories. The same goes for keto, paleo, carnivore, and veganism (if they help you lose weight). The best way to balance your calories is to start logging with a calorie counter. There are numerous ways to calculate your basal metabolic rate and total daily energy expenditure. Then you simply subtract by 10-30%.
Rough macronutrient breakdown means eating protein at each meal, getting fiber in every day, drinking water through every day, and adding in carbs & fats to round out the rest. Proteins should often be of the leaner variety to avoid overloading yourself with fats from your protein sources. Fiber comes from fruits and vegetables; no need to get picky with which ones. Water should be consumed in a quantity roughly equal to 20% of your calories, in ounces. Carbs and fats can basically come from anywhere, but complex carbs and unsaturated fats are better than sugar and saturated fats.
Exercise
To start, let’s be clear that I think exercise is a fairly small part of the entire fitness picture. Strength training, cardio, stretching, Crossfit, pilates, yoga, group classes, personal training, walking outside – it really doesn’t matter. Just move your body a bit each week, each day preferably, and you’ll see results. Your body was meant to move.
But to directly contradict myself, exercise is also at the core of all that we consider health. Exercise is the nuclear weapon at the center of the Earth in the movie The Core that sends the Earth back into rotation.
Exercise helps with glucose utilization, improving our relationship with carbohydrates. It also gives us wiggle room by using up a few extra calories here and there. Exercise helps us sleep better by building daily fatigue. It adds to our daily step count while also giving us a break from work and chronic stressors. Exercise can be the catalyst that helps us bring the rest of the fitness picture into view.
Conclusion
So yes, abs are made in the kitchen. But they’re also made with lifestyle management and proper sleep. Fitness isn’t always easy, but it is quite simple. So go join a gym. Get a trainer. Hop in a group class. Get your body moving and then build your nutrition, sleep schedule, and lifestyle around your new routine. Your body will thank you.