Are you treating yourself right?

Thanksgiving. Holidays parties. New Year's. Let's not forget about all that Halloween candy. It's probably the least healthy time of the year, and the time we're most likely to get on our own cases about health, exercise, weight loss, resolutions, etc.

This is a complicated topic, and I'll try to stay off my soapbox (wait, would that count as jump squats?), but I want to pass on some wonderful advice from virtual personal trainer and fitness coach Rachel Nigro , who came on Sales for Nerds recently to discuss how we can treat our bodies better so we can feel better, look better, and perform better.

Beyond living in a society where the default, easy choices are unhealthy, conventional wisdom tends to make the problem worse.

We try to cram exercise into an already overfilled schedule.

We go on drastic, unsustainable, life-force-draining diets.

And then we wonder why it doesn't work.

Rachel flips the typical script on its head. While she specializes in personalized fitness plans, here's the general outline you can apply to your life:

1. Start with sleep. This is the body's rejuvenation time. If you don't get enough good sleep, asking your body to do more isn't helpful.
2. Next deal with stress. Stress is supposed to be a temporary response to an emergency, not a default state. Most of us, especially small business owners, parents, children, etc, will never have stress-free lives, and that's okay. We just shouldn't be in chronic stress.
3. Then get to food. Eat real food whose ingredients you can pronounce. Balance your macronutrients (carbs, fats, and protein-- more details in the episode). Avoid carbs from added sugars and refined carbs where possible. But don't be the person who can't have a slice of cake at grandma's on Thanksgiving. We're supposed to enjoy life.
4. Exercise. Do it in a way that brings you energy and doesn't add stress and self-loathing.

Do these things for the long term, and for yourself, so you can live a full, active life.

(I have gone through the process of making the mistakes and coming around to Rachel's viewpoint over the past couple of decades. You don't have to take that long. Just check out her interview here.)