How to start a healthy lifestyle? It only takes one yes for success!

We only have one body, one life and we have to give our best to live it the best we can. We will always upgrade our homes, we will clean and repair our cars on a regular basis, and we often invest in everything else except ourselves. I often see people with back pain early in their life, and more and more people are overweight, dealing with problems they shouldn’t have had in the first place. Lots of people who want to become fitter and healthier, want to achieve some goals, but they do not know how and where to start.

How to start

The truth is that it is not easy to be fit. It is not easy to wake up early and work out, it is not easy to drink water instead of alcohol (or soft drinks) or to eat healthier meals at home instead of going to some fast food restaurants. But on the other hand, it also isn’t easy to be overweight. It is hard to go on a hike with friends. You want to pick up your kid or nephew but your back hurts and you can’t? It is not a good feeling to know your body cannot physically do that.

Yes it is hard, it is a long process, but it is a long term solution. You have to start slow, you have to go step by step, day by day, workout after workout. But the start is simple. You have to start small. We will give you some advice on how to start. Let this blog be the trigger for you to start.

Motivation & Consistency

Motivation is simple. This will get you going, you just need to find your why. Why do you want to change yourself? Why do you want to get rid of that back pain? But remember, motivation is only a part of this. You can be really motivated, but sooner or later there will come some days when you just won’t feel like working out. That’s when consistency comes in. You have to be committed and consistent. We’ve all been there. And even if it is the hardest thing in the world, you just need to get up, push through this feeling of not doing it and get that workout in, even if it is just a short walk! When you do that, working out becomes a habit and it is not a problem anymore. 

Exercise

There are many aspects to a healthy lifestyle. Exercise and moving your body is one of them. In the upcoming blogs, we will discuss about different types of workouts, muscle groups and we will also give you some training plans that you could use for yourself. But first, let’s talk about the basics.

Unfortunately, we can’t just go run 10k or lift 100kg on the first day of working out. We have to take this step by step and we need to let our body adapt to this kind of stress. Exercise is an activity that raises our heart rate and requires some effort. So everything that we do in regards to raising our heart rate is an exercise. We then have aerobic and anaerobic exercise. Each has different properties and goals. Aerobic is a longer type of exercise, where our heart rate is lower, just like a walk, run or bike ride, while anaerobic is shorter, but the heart rate is higher, like weightlifting, sprints, etc.

We also divide exercise by goals, for example, we can go for a run to improve our cardio-vascular system, going to the gym is going to improve our strength and muscle mass. We will go into the details about this topic in another blog.

For now, I just want you to start small, start with the basics. Go for a walk, get more steps in a day, do your first push-up, go to work with a bike instead of a car. Try to do these little things and be consistent, you will see the change really soon.

Nutrition

It’s a really important thing. You don’t have to completely change your diet and don’t think you’ll need to start eating only salads and drinking smoothies. Like with exercise, we also have to change our nutrition step by step and most importantly, in a balanced way.

You will workout more, that’s why it is essential that you have enough quality food to fuel your body. We’ll also talk about this aspect in our future blogs, so stay tuned if you’d want to learn more about it.

Like workout, start with small steps in regards to your nutrition. A good start would be to remove those night snacks. Include more fruits and veggies in your everyday life rather than chips and candies. Try to have more home cooked meals and stop with liquid calories. Those are just some small steps you can easily implement. You can have a drink or eat out, that’s not a problem. Just have in mind to reach for more healthier versions of foods and drinks in general.

Rest

Lots of people underrate rest. Your body needs sleep for optimal performance. Just try to have a regular sleep schedule for 14 days. Your body will thank you for that. Try to set the hour that you will go to sleep and the hour that you will wake up and keep them the same for 14 days. Believe me, it is a game changer!

Since you’ll be working out more, you will be more active, so don’t forget to give your body the time to regenerate and get ready for the next day. 

Equipment

We’ve already written about the equipment that you need for your complete training. You can read about it here.

After some time, you’ll notice that getting yourself a squat rack and some weights will help you get great results, because after a while, your body gets used to your body-weight. So in order to build your muscles or improve even further, the right equipment is needed. And new gear is always a great motivation!

It is actually really simple. REMEMBER: Start small, try to make exercising a habit, implement the right nutrition and you will see great results. It is a process, but don’t forget - great things take time. Your body will thank you in the long run.

We believe in you!