Most of us want to be healthier. Most of us try, from time to time, to become ‘fitter’ or ‘more healthy’. But what does that mean? And how can we manage it in a sustainable way? Let’s talk about the easiest ways you can build health and fitness into your life.
It’s easy to start a new gym routine or meal prep for a week or two, but it’s also easy to flame out. Let’s talk about the easiest ways to build sustainable habits that will really last.
A clue? You don’t have to be perfect all the time. In fact, expecting perfection is a huge part of why people often feel they’re failing at their health and fitness goals. If you’re getting overall healthier over time, that’s a net positive! You’re doing great! And that starts with building routines.
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Easy Routines – One Step at a Time
Routines don’t have to be set in stone. You can build them up over time. How about going to the gym twice a week, even if ultimately you want to go four times? Get used to twice, or even once, and go from there.
According to the Mayo Clinic, if you build fitness into your daily routine – like walking to work a couple of times a week – then you’re also more likely to keep on keeping on with your new routine.
Healthline tells us that increasing protein intake (eggs for breakfast, for example) will keep you fuller longer. As will drinking water throughout the day. Isn’t carrying around a water bottle a pretty easy ‘first step’? I think so!
Don’t Count Out Meal Prepping
Meal prepping can sound like a faff. Do you really have to spend all of Sunday making seven days of meals? And do you have to eat the same thing every day?
Well, no. Not at all.
You can prep ingredients – like veggies – to use in a variety of different ways throughout the week. Or you can just prep healthy lunches (because that quick work lunch is where many of us slip up.
It’s all about working out what works for you. But having something available to grab from the fridge at all times is key to combating late-night cravings or those excessive meal-deal lunches 5 days a week.
Just make sure you never have an empty fridge, basically. Shopping well is the first step in a potential routine of meal prepping!
The Joy of Apps
There are plenty of apps out there that can help build health and fitness into your life. Meal-prepping apps include PlateJoy (for weight loss), or Paprika for general recipes and excellent prep ideas.
For fitness, Centr is great for slow changes that will build up to a lot while Freeletics allows you to build a ton of workouts to your own specification. You might notice that these apps are all pretty specifically named – it’s usually a good rule of thumb that a well-named app is going to be well thought out. I mean, app developers can use plenty of resources to come up with wellness business names, so why would you trust a badly named app?
Don’t Give up at the First Trip-up
Finally, one of the most important things to remember about tying health and fitness into your life is that perfection is impossible.
Maybe you’re tracking everything with an app, or maybe you’re just trying to get more walks in at lunchtime. Either way, if you miss a day. Miss a week. Miss a month. That’s okay! You can get back into things, one day at a time.
And if you make those small changes we talked about, you’re less likely to slip up in a big way. And each slip-up will be easier to fix.
So, good luck on your journey to health and fitness! One foot in front of the other, and you’ll get there. But routines, and well-designed, well-named apps might just help.
Grant Polachek is the head of branding for Squadhelp.com, 3X Inc 5000 startup and disruptive naming agency. Squadhelp has reviewed more than 1 million names and curated a collection of the best available names on the web today. We are also the world’s leading crowdsource naming platform, supporting clients from early-stage startups to Fortune 500 companies.
