The new year has just started and what better way to make it a successful one than to incorporate these 7 rituals that every fit person does. These healthy habits will help you feel and look better.
Include most of your protein in your breakfast
The typical breakfast is usually comprised of some kind of cereal, some candy, orange juice and some other type of processed food that is devoid of any healthy nutrients. It comes to no surprise then that those that eat this kind of food as their first meal of the day have a hard time getting through their training sessions and fail to be efficient throughout the day.
This type of food can also cause blood insulin levels to spike which leads to periods of low energy and increases the chances of accumulating more body fat. Those who are knowledgeable about fitness and nutrition know that eating protein is the number one strategy to build muscle, reduce sugar cravings and that it should be consumed in your first meal of the day in order for it to be productive.
Take your food supplements on a regular basis
As the name itself says, supplements exist to supplement an already functional diet. They need to be taken when there are to fill some macronutrient or caloric gaps in your diet, which you would find hard to fill in from your regular daily food consumption. If you happen to be someone who has a full-time job, like most of us do, have a family, but you also care about your health and fitness, supplements will be the ultimate tool to help you achieve success at building a phenomenal physique.
The misconception many people face is that they should start seeing results as soon as they start taking a supplement and easily get disappointed if they don’t see any dramatic change. Supplements aren’t magic pills or powders and should never be regarded as some quick fix. Supplements need to be consumed on a regular basis if you are to see results in the long-term. Examples of good supplements are BCAAs (Branched Chain Amino Acids), multivitamins, various protein powders, creatine and many others. All of these supplements will help you get excellent results if you incorporate them into your diet on a regular basis.
You should plan and prepare your meals in advance
If building a beautiful physique and maintaining good health is your main goal you need to make a thorough plan. Failing to plan is planning to fail. This is especially true for meal preparation. You have to know the exact foods that you will eat each day. The most diligent will start their day with the majority of their meals already prepared or they will a general idea of what products they should buy or how to cook them.
This is the exact point where the majority of people fail to follow through with their plan. They just forget about the planning and the preparation of their food and when the cravings come they won’t be able to resist. Then, they start eating fast food because they have failed to make it a habit to always plan and cook their meals beforehand.
You need to drink a lot of water
This is one of the most important things to remember and is vital to your fitness success. Water is the most important substance in our body and plays countless major roles in every function in your body. Water is essential in everything including, detoxification, recovery, digestion, production of energy etc. Those who strive to get fit should drink at least a gallon of water per day and should make water their most common drink.
You should take walks or do any kind of movement and do it every day
Fit people plan their diet and training accordingly, but sometimes it’s not all about breaking personal records or going hard and heavy every time you walk into the gym. Fit people also prioritize movement throughout the entire day. This movement can come in the form of a brisk or long walk with your dog early in the morning, several sets of pushups before going to take a shower or doing some yoga stretches.
That movement doesn’t have to be just doing bodybuilding in the gym or doing powerlifting. It should be a habit done on a daily basis and should be done no matter what. The fittest always keep moving.
You should sleep more
Getting an optimal amount of sleep is essential to maintaining your health. Those who are leading a fit lifestyle know that sleeping is a prerequisite to having a low level of body fat and having an optimal hormonal balance to building muscle. That’s because sleep offers recuperation to your muscle tissue, optimizes hormones like testosterone, insulin and GH (Growth Hormone), which are essential to repairing damaged tissue and production of energy.
If you lack sleep, you increase the chances of eating junk food or skipping a training session because you lack energy. This habit should be at the top of your list since it’s the number one reason to go spiraling down if you don’t develop it. If you don’t sleep enough, you don’t lay the groundwork for all of the other habits that need to be developed if you are striving to build an amazing body.
Make it a habit
The main thing you need to remember about having a good overall health and achieving a rock hard body is that it all comes down to what kind of habits you have developed over the years and if you’ve consistently followed a good nutrition and fitness regimen. Habits are an ingrained practice or tendency to do certain things, especially things you would usually find it very hard to give up on or make it a practice in the first place.
Habits you’ve developed on a consistent daily basis will be the greatest factor to your fitness success, and this doesn’t apply to fitness only, but for all aspects of life. You can choose to do any of the hundreds of two-months cutting diets or four-weeks biceps programs and they will only provide you results that will be as good as the habits you’ve developed over the course of the program.
This is the main dividing factor between those who will be successful in their endeavors and those who will keep looking for the magic pill. The successful ones make health and fitness their lifestyle, not just some short-term pursuit. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they stick to the new habits 100%, they may slip occasionally, but that doesn’t frustrate them, they just keep on going until they develop strong habits, which in the long-term increases the likelihood of achieving success exponentially.
One way to think of it is in this succession: first, you need to ask yourself why you want to achieve your goal, then work on developing strong habits, try to stay consistent and just wait it out till you start seeing the results. Guaranteed! Your decision, choices, discipline, and habits will give you the end results.