Last week I injured my ring finger on my left hand by snagging it underneath my dog's collar while he was trying to escape my grasp. It hurt like crazy! For the next few days, it was swollen, tender and bruised. I couldn't really use my hand properly and it was super annoying to try to play golf, type on my computer, lift weights, even walking made it worse.
It occurred to me as I was trying to solve this issue that even small problems can make a huge impact in our normal lives. And how much more in our health and fitness?
For instance, let's say you don't sleep well one night. You wake up groggy, grumpy and not ready for anything complicated. Over the course of the day, you continue to decrease in energy, productivity and positivity. Your hunger is stronger. Your energy is weaker and your stamina is down the drain.
All from one little wrinkle in your lifestyle.
These seemingly small issues that make life uncomfortable, even if they don't sideline us, are really not that small. Much like my bruised finger that curtailed any activity with my hand for days, lifestyle habits make or break our fitness.
If you're looking for ways to hack your systems, perform and feel your best without revamping your whole life, try to dial in these 5 habits and you'll start functioning better:
- Sleep — we all know sleep is necessary…blah, blah, blah. You know the drill; so many hours a night, so much of quality, so much of a sleep routine. But here’s what you may not know: sleep is one of the areas your body talks first. Interrupted and low amounts of sleep force our metabolism to lean on sugar more than fat for energy. You’ll notice more hunger, cravings, distractions, irritability and low energy. And the fix is to sleep. It’s not caffeine, food, exercise, tv, social media, water or more work. Just sleep. Work on how you get ready to sleep, when you eat and drink before you sleep, how you manage stress before sleep, how you wake up from sleep and what you do when you rise. Adjust what’s broken, and you’ll sleep more.
- Stress — reducing and managing stress takes action; it’s not a passive, lay-on-the-couch-and-try-not-to-think solution. We have to work at handling the stress of life by counteracting it with behaviors and habits that relax and revive us. I’ve seen lists of over 150 proven stress reducing activities. That tells us that there’s more than one solution to our inability to manage stress and we have to find what works for us individually. So do that.
- Hydration — or lack of, has sneaky little symptoms you might recognize as hunger, fatigue, distraction, tightness, bloat, hunger again, lack of focus, skin changes, joint pain….etc, etc. Our bodies don’t just scream that we need hydration (and probably electrolytes, too). It tells us in other ways that are more subtle and seemingly unrelated. This is one reason why it’s important to be aware of your water and fluid intake before thinking some other reason is causing your discontent. It may seem that our current obsession with water is new, and water bottles and bottled water have certainly capitalized on it, but the truth still remains that dehydration leads to serious problems with a very simple solution. Drink up.
- Nutrition — suffice to say, this may be the most tricky habit to feel successful at and it may also take the longest to find your best solution. So, knowing that foods with nutrient density are mostly real and full of what our bodies need to survive, we should eat those. And there’s a lot of them. What we also know (more recently at least for me), is that looking exclusively at nutrient and caloric density cuts out the other important factor about food: hormone messaging. Our bodies use food because hormones signal to the cells what to do. Without considering that part of eating, we’re pretending we can control the intricacies of metabolism with a simple math equation or ratio. I think our bodies are more complex and complicated than that, don’t you? And wouldn’t it also make sense that if calories and macros were the only things that mattered to nutrition, that we would all be able to calculate exactly how much we need and use very simply just based on mass? We know in fact, that all those calculations are estimates and while they are better than nothing, they are a blunt tool trying to manipulate the most beautiful and complex system in existence. When choosing what to eat, also consider how often you eat and when you eat if you want the full nutrition picture to come into focus. It can be very simple but not obvious.
- Lastly, exercise — this may be the most common place to look first when you don’t feel great. We believe (or I used to) that exercise was THE answer to feeling better. And it goes a long way, but not on its own, and not at all in the way the fitness industry makes it seem. I’ve written this before, but it’s worth repeating; moving even small amounts more than we currently do is enough to make a difference in our metabolic health. We won’t be winning any fitness competitions but in reality, how many of us actually want to? Here’s what I hear the most often, “I don’t feel as good as I used to or as good as I want to. I don’t want to live my life feeling this way, and I know I can do better.” By moving even just a little bit, exercise can help us feel better. And while we won’t lose all our extra weight or fix all our life’s problems with a little moving, we will succeed in feeling better. And that’s a great start. It’s the momentum we get from exercise that can be a catalyst for changing the other 4 habits we need. So maybe begin with moving if you’re not. And if it’s just a little, add some more, especially strength work.
If you'd like more personalized help, that's what I do! Connect with me to learn more about how I can coach you to feel and be your best. www.klivfit.com
