It’s time to gear-up and crash into the five most dreadful mistakes of a healthy lifestyle.
This is a full-contact topic. Do you want into the game, or are you comfortable on the sidelines?
Keep in mind that many of us fall victim to these mistakes. Odds are you’re making some of these mistakes now.
So let’s not take our healthy lifestyle for granted nor fool ourselves with false logic.
And imagine how much stronger and more confident you’ll be once you learn about these missteps!
Alrighty then, game on!
1. You justify eating gluttonous crap with “going to the gym” excuses
Time and again I observe folks justifying some insanely gluttonous indulgence with the “oh, it’s okay. I’m going to the gym later” excuse.
This is faulty logic. It doesn’t work – plain and simple. It’s far more “excuse” than it is a reasonable “argument”. Why?
Because gluttonous crap is gluttonous crap. There is no escaping that fact. Nor can you escape the serious health ramifications of highly processed foods. At best, this is a one-step-forward, one-step-back dance. But the average ratio is probably closer to 1:2. That’s a recipe for the wrong direction.
Further, take note that nutrition is far more important than exercise. You cannot out-run or (generally)out-exercise a poor diet. It’s science. Believing otherwise is science-fiction.
Your health is a intricate and integrated asset. Compartmentalizing “nutrition” away from “fitness” just doesn’t add up. They must all live in harmony in order for a prosperous health empire to survive and thrive.
Worst of all, this rationalization promotes an unhealthy mindset. A lifestyle (and lifetime) of vibrant health requires consistency. Precisely the opposite – inconsistency – is gained with this insidious logic. Good and proper health is not turned on and off. It’s not episodic. It’s a consistent journey.
Your Battle Plan for Positive Change:
I take this matter seriously because faulty health logic and fake science are serious indeed.
With that said, there are no overnight solutions. Instead, start building a proper health philosophy. It’s not complex, but it isn’t necessarily easy either.
The point is progress. Get yourself oriented in the right direction with solid health beliefs that you can stand behind. And then begin making more actionable traction forward.
And make these efforts fun. Yes, fun! Good health is happy health! And when a pursuit is so joyous you’re far more likely to stay with it – and that’s the goal entirely!
2. You believe your workout is more important than your recovery
Many go to the gym to “loose weight” or “build muscle”. Many subscribe to the notion that you need to “feel the burn” as evidence of meaningful fitness. Hogwash!
Not only are these shallow ideologies but they’re also entirely inaccurate.
First, you do not loose weight or build muscle in the gym. Working out (I prefer the term “training”) puts your body and biological systems under a lot of stress. You actually tear down muscle – not build muscle – while exercising. And while you may stoke your metabolism while training, you certainly aren’t nuking any fat in the throws of your routine.
Second, “feeling the burn” is an illusion used to market wacky fitness regimens and sell nonsensical personal training advice. Granted, you need to push yourself during your workouts. But achieving the “burn” state is nothing magical. It doesn’t translate into loosing weight or building muscle. Sorry.
The real magic of training occurs AFTER your routine is done. Welcome to the glorious realm of recovery!
(Proper) recovery allows your body to rebuild the damaged muscle and make it stronger. Recovery allows your body to utlize your fat stores for fuel, thereby saving your muscles from futher degration. In the end, recovery makes you stronger, faster, and leaner for your next training session.
What is “proper” recovery?
Proper recovery promotes the healing process of both mind and body. It begins with an understanding that recovery is far more important than exercise, and that recovery is where you get stronger and leaner. From there, you concentrate on stretches for your muscles and quality nutrition for your metabolism. You also engage wellness tactics – such as reading, yoga, sleep, etc – to recover your mental and emotional energies.
Mind you, I’m not a “certified personal trainer” nor medical professional. So, if you seek a structured recovery program, please consult one of these persons.
Your Battle Plan for Positive Change:
You’ve probably figured out by now how to better recovery after your training regimens. But I’ll toss out a few more tips.
First up is not training to “failure” – or “the burn”. If you reach these points they can somtimes mean that you’ve over-trained. Over-training puts your body into a negative condition, compromising recovery. So, instead, end your training early when you still have some gas in the tank.
Second, experiment with various wellness recovery tactics until you discover those most enjoyable and beneficial to you. As always, your healthy lifestyle crusade is unique to you. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Take responsibility for your health, and make it meaningful for you.
3. You focus on “what” health results you want rather than “why” you want to be healthy
This fallacy is the worst of them all.
Genuine and sustainable healthy lifestyles don’t lust after vanity results or other “rewards”. Those that flourish are instead rooted in reinvigorating beliefs. Such is the fundamental difference between “why” you want to get healthy versus “what” you desire to achieve.
The healthy lifestyle mindset promotes a foundation of proper health beliefs and behaviors that serve to catapult you in the direction of greater and more enjoyable health. This mindset is an integrated approach to health vitality. It’s also a choice – as are any lifestyle mindsets. So choose wisely!
The issue, of course, lies in pitfalls of instant gratification. Many in the status quo lust for overnight weight loss success. That’s not going to happen! My story of health darkness is evidence that. Don’t fall victim to these seductive dangers as I once did.
Your Battle Plan for Positive Change:
Simply put – focus on all the positive reasons “why” you desire vibrant health. Etch those reasons into your memory so that they become your guiding principles.
And always remember that you’re at the helm of your ship. You can steer it in any direction. Sailing after shiny results is a fools errand. Seek the meaningful path instead. That’s the one that will (eventually) lead you to the holy grail of health you desire.
4. You forfeit today as a lost cause and vow to re-start tomorrow
Nobody is perfect, least of all me. All healthy lifestyle crusaders will have their good days and their bad. But those committed to the cause of lifelong health and happiness get up when knocked down. And most importantly, they don’t knock themselves down.
Sadly, many would-be healthy lifestyle knights do sabotage their own crusades. For example, they’ll have a stressful morning and because of it condemn the day as a “bad day”. Such condemnation is then often used as “justification” to indulge in unhealthy behaviors (see healthy mistake #1 above). Of course, they commonly vow to re-start tomorrow. But how many really do?
Momentum is the lesson here. Momentum is a powerful force that can either help or hurt you. Positive momentum will set you on a course for healthy lifestyle euphoria. Negative momentum will plow you down and crush your healthy lifestyle dreams.
So, “taking the day off” is a positive momentum killer. And that’s at best! At worst, it begins to turn momentum against you. Each day you forfeit is more negative energy. Eventually, if you forfeit enough days, the negative momentum will be too much to bear. And that’s when healthy lifestyle dreams die.
Your Battle Plan for Positive Change:
Choices matter – each and every one of them. Just become you had a “bad” morning doesn’t give you healthy just cause to begin making consciously poor decisions.
Further, each choice is powerful in its own right. If you made an unhealhy choice or two earlier then stop that tide immediately with your very next decision point. Don’t wait to “re-start” your healthy decisions tomorrow – that’s insane. Start now!
When in doubt, ask yourself if the decision you’re about to make will aid or harm your momentum for a healthier, happier life. Use that thought-process as your compass. The choice itself I leave to you!
5. You judge your health exclusively by quantitative measures
This idea may sound counter-intuative. After all, quantitive metrics are important, right? And aren’t things you can measure more important than those you can’t?
There is some truth here. For example, your weight does matter – as does your body mass indexand body fat percentage. But my question to you is – do these metrics define your health and happiness? Are they ALL that’s important?
I perceive the quantitative metics of health as the planets in the solar system. They are the obvious objects that most see and study. So, yes, they are important.
But space itself is far more expansive and important. Space envelopes everything. It’s the fabric of the universe. Without it we’d have no planets, and we’d have no life.
To me, space represents the qualitative measures of our healthy lifestyle. Such concepts as happiness, excitement, vitality, etc. live here. Sure, we can strap ourselves to brain-scanning equipment and begin to measure our brain activity when happy. From there we can certainly dervice some “hapiness metrics”. But are you really going to tell me that such statistics tell you how happy you are? Or, instead, is true happiness a feeling beyond measure?
The moral – don’t belittle the qualitative elements of your healthy life. They are deeply meaningful, perhaps the most meaningful elements of all. I assure you that no machine can justly measure how important my health means to me. I trust you feel the same way.
Your Battle Plan for Positive Change:
Don’t completely neglect the quantifiable metrics of good health. But don’t over do it. Just focus on the core few. We’re taking an 80/20 approach here.
Then, begin to qualitatively measure the more meaningful elements of your health – your happiness, exuberance, positivity, vitality, etc. Though subjective, I believe these are far better beacons to follow when navigating your healthy lifestyle crusade. Give them a try yourself. I doubt you’ll be disappointed!
What did I miss?
This was my list of the five most frequenly made healthy lifestyle mistakes. There are certainly many more.
So, what others would you add to the list? Are there some that you feel are more impactful than the ones listed here?
Let’s get the commentary going everybody! I look forward to reading your ideas!
Photo: Ace Armstrong
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