The Busy Person's Guide to Starting a Health Journey Part 1

Welcome back! Last week I went into detail on how I got started on my personal fitness journey, and this week, I am here to help you do the same. Because this is such an important topic, I will be breaking this into two parts. Today, I will highlight the first steps that are necessary for anyone looking to improve fitness and health within their lives and provide few sustainable changes that can help you start with an early sense of accomplishment. So, let’s begin!

(Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional and strongly encourage you to discuss any changes you make in regards to your health with your primary care provider.)

As Americans, we have very busy and sedentary lives. Frequently, jobs require us to be stuck to a single chair for hours on end day after day. For musicians, this is made even worse by the hours outside of the job that we must spend practicing. It is simple to blame the lack of activity on your circumstances, but unfortunately, that is not what will happen today. We have every ability to care for our health while maintaining a busy schedule.

Step 1: Adjust your mindset.

Acknowledge that you have time and ability.

The first step to starting your health journey as a self-proclaimed busy person is to adjust your mindset on your circumstances by first acknowledging that you have time. To give yourself power to move beyond your circumstances, you must take ownership over them rather than continue to be a victim. This is the most difficult step when making any lifestyle change, and this is the step where majority of people fail.

Prior to taking this step, we often make excuses for why we may “want” to start exercising but “can’t.” It took me years to take this step. I often believed that I didn't have time to do anything to benefit my health. I made myself a victim to my sedentary lifestyle as a musician, and did not own up to the fact that I was not doing everything I could be doing to change my situation. Being a victim enabled me to continue making choices that I knew were sabotaging my health without taking action to change it.

With the internet, everyone has access to all the information needed to live a healthy lifestyle. Most people are probably aware that you must eat less and move more to lose weight (follow the hyperlink for one of my favorite articles!), but very few people develop the mindset that allows them to feel empowered enough to live with the information. If you want to live a better, healthier life, you must believe that you can do it. Without fully believing in yourself and taking responsibility for your own actions (or inaction), you will not succeed with any change you attempt to make.

Ask yourself:

1. Am I really too busy? The odds are, if you are reading this post, you have time in your day that's being wasted on social media. That is time that you can be using to change your circumstances.

2. Is there anyone actually telling me that I can't do something? It's easy to assume that someone or something is in control of a situation when it is truly you. What is really preventing you from standing up for a lap around the room every hour other than yourself?

3. Would I want to raise my child like this? People tend to treat themselves lesser than anyone else in their lives. Think. If you had a child and let them to sit down in front of a screen all day while consuming junk food, would you feel good about yourself as a parent? The odds are, you probably wouldn't. Why continue to treat yourself in a way you wouldn't treat someone else?

These three questions only scratch the surface of this step, but they may enable you to see that you have control over your own choices.

If after this, you still don't believe you can do this, I am here to tell you that I believe in you. Everyone is capable of making themselves better. Self-growth is a skill we are all able to cultivate.

Once you have accepted that you are in control of your circumstances and that you can do this, it is actually time to begin making changes.

Step 2: Determine sustainable changes you can make and execute them

The key word here is sustainable. Often times, people gain weight back because they start spending 5 hours a day blasting HIIT workouts and cut carbs from their diets (sorry Keto) in order to have a “quick-fix” solution. These changes are not sustainable, and in the end, a return to your normal sedentary life along with the rebound feast when the “diet” is over, results in a “quick fix” to reverse all progress made in that period. I know this from experience, and unfortunately many Americans do as well. These terrible “solutions” are also the same solutions that lead people believe it is impossible to have a healthy lifestyle without hours of cardio or cutting all the foods you enjoy from your life.

You do not need to spend hours sweating at the gym in misery, and you do not need to stay away from your favorite foods for the rest of your life.

Find sustainable things that will work for you. Sustainable changes may yield slower results than the others, but there is no deadline for taking charge of your health, so there should be no rush in getting things done. Some people take years to lose weight, but those are the people who ultimately keep it off in the long run.

Here are some sustainable changes that can help you start:

1. Stand up and move for at least a minute each hour

The phrase “sitting is the new smoking” has been on the rise recently. While this is part of it, the ultimate problem is a lack of movement. Getting a standing desk and standing still is honestly not much better than sitting down to do the same work. Make sure you break up your sedentary time with some movement. Even shaking your arm for a minute to trick your fitness tracker is more than nothing!

2. Aim to increase your average step count by 500 steps a week

Invest in a fitness tracker to see how many steps you are actually taking. The average American takes around 5000 steps—that’s only two miles! If you increase your step count by 500 a week, you will see progress similar to starting a regular exercise routine. To increase your step count easily, park in the furthest parking spot, take the long way to the bathroom, pace when talking on the phone, and consider walks surrounding meals.

3. Add a 5 minute walk before or after each meal

Want to exercise and increase your step count? Start with a 5 minute walk. Everyone has 5 minutes. Rather than scroll Facebook or read the news, take a lap around the block (or around your house if going outside is too much). Over the course of the day, this adds up to 15 minutes of exercise you weren’t doing before. If you do 10 minute walks, that’s the recommended 30 minutes of exercise a day without even breaking a sweat! Additionally, pairing these walks with meals will better enable you to stick to the habit.

4. Drink more water

Water has plenty of health benefits for no calories! Aim to drink at least half a gallon a day of pure water. It will make you feel more alert, have clearer skin, and the trips to the bathroom increase your movement and step count for the day.

5. Prioritize whole foods and protein

Whole foods are the way nature intended us to eat. The obesity epidemic coincides with the rise of processed foods. As processed foods are engineered to make you consume more than intended, switching them out for whole foods will immediately result in a drop in consumption. For example, a bag of potato chips contains about five potatoes. Could you eat five baked potatoes in one sitting? I highly doubt it.

Along the same lines, consume more protein! I love protein! It takes more energy to digest and your body uses it to make muscle which speeds up your metabolism. Simply centering your meal around a protein source over carbs and fats will probably result in you feeling fuller faster, and consequently eating less.

6. Write down or take a picture of everything you eat and drink

Diet is the most important aspect of weight loss and health. Most people, even me, mindlessly eat throughout the day. Just writing down what you are eating will bring awareness to how much you are actually consuming.

I hope these tips can help you get started! I will continue this health and fitness series next week with part 2 of this guide--the steps to take to keep your journey going. I will also probably post an activism and/or mental health feature in the next few weeks since it is Black History Month.

Please share, comment, like, or subscribe if this post helped you. And as always, reach out to me if you need any help or have any questions!