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10 Things ALL Fit and Healthy People Do

45m 8s

10 Things ALL Fit and Healthy People Do

The transcription outlines ten habits of fit and healthy people, focusing on three key areas. First, they integrate constant movement into daily life, such as walking, standing, and fidgeting, which significantly increases calorie expenditure and improves metabolic health. Second, they adopt a mindful approach to eating, listening to hunger signals and choosing foods based on satiety and need rather than eating out of habit or social pressure. This shifts the mindset from restriction to intentional choice. Third, they consistently measure progress through metrics like body weight trends or performance data, using tracking as a temporary tool to gain insight and adjust habits, not as a lifelong obligation. These habits emphasize building sustainable systems over relying on willpower, making health and fitness an automatic part of daily life.

Transcription

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English
If only there was a secret code or some kind of set rules you could follow that would guarantee you live and look fit and healthy guaranteed. Well, today we're going to let you in on that little secret or giving you the 10 things that every single healthy and fit person is doing on a daily basis at this point almost automatically from specific actions they take to how they start their days or even how they see their food differently from the rest of us. And if you can do and emulate these 10 habits, you won't have to worry about much else when it comes to looking better, living longer or just feeling great overall through the day. But before we get into that, if you need a bit more structure, remember that you get access to every single one of our complete 12 week training programs that are programmed out into Google sheets. So you can track and guarantee that you are making progress. You get all that by joining FS premium. The premium version of this podcast for just five bucks a month. You also get other perks like weekly AMA episodes that we drop every single Friday with our members and it takes less than 60 seconds to sign up. We'll leave the link to do that in the show notes down below this episode. And if you haven't already, you can follow us on Spotify to stay up to date on every new episode. You could also drop a comment. So if you have a question or recommendation for a topic you want us to cover that helps us reach more people, which is the goal at the end of the day. Before we get into this episode, quick shout out to our sponsor or day one, Legion athletics. They are having their entire site by one get 150% off. And on top of that for the month of February or code FS pod also gets you free shipping on all US orders as well. So make sure you use that a check out. We will leave the link in the show notes below so you can restock on all your staples or try something new that you've been looking at. I personally, I go through these modes where I'm like, I fall off my supplement routine. I don't even take a bunch. But I've been really good about mine. I've been really consistent. I'm really proud of myself. I'll let you know if I'm same in hell. I got one of those little grandma pill packers. Do you use one of those the Sunday Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, the little boxes, AMPM? Oh my God. Like when do you filled them? See, that's one problem I have running to remember to fill it. But on Sundays now, if I can make myself do it, I don't miss a day. It is so stupid. That's how my brain just works. But get a grandma and pill packers got like AM and PM automatic automatic. My ADHD. If it's out of sight, it's out of mind. If I can't see it, I'm going to forget. So I just started keeping them all on my bathroom counter now instead of in the cabinet. Then they're just like a nice. They're in like a cute little crate. But I also hate how the fish oil, the Legion, fish oil. I always gag on them because I have to take four, the Triton and bigger what they're huge. Okay, they're not that bad. Have you ever taken what was it? Probably not optimum nutrition had their creatine pills before like that was the thing like Legion has them in their normal size. Have you ever by chance taken one? No, they are horse pills. The anyone who's taken the on creatine, you know what I'm talking about. Biggest freaking pill that exists. It's like I don't know what it is because I don't struck. I've never struggled to swallow pills. It's not that I struggle. It's just like they're uncomfortable going down and it's the only one and I have to take four of them. We got 10 things to go through that 10 things. It all comes down to habits. We talked about habits a long time ago, but we kind of are off our game, the habit game. It all comes down to habit, imagining the fittest and healthiest people you know, they're rarely doing the extremes. They're rarely just constantly doing extreme diets or sprint like efforts 24/7 outside of, I mean, maybe like the ash and holes or, you know, a couple on Instagram, but imagine the fittest healthiest people you know, it's not like they're doing the most extreme things. They've just built a lifestyle where becoming fit and healthy. It's automatic. So it comes down to the systems that you run every day. All the decisions that you just have to stop leaving up to willpower or chance. And that's what we're going to go through today is the 10 habits that every single healthy and fit person does in no particular order. These are all habitual, not any crazy playing after restructure, starting off with number one. Every fit and healthy person, they are extremely active through the day. They're pacing when they're on the phone, they're standing at work, going on walks through their breaks. They're doing chores when they have free time. Every part of their day is structured around movement, almost as a byproduct. Even if they have a sedentary job, every little opportunity they have, they are moving. And why this is so massively important to staying and getting fit is two main reasons. And one that we've covered plenty of times before our metabolism is broken down into four parts that make up our TDE, our daily energy expenditure. There's our exercise activity. There's our thermic effective food. There's our basal metabolic rate, which is huge, but the most malleable part, the most that you can move around, the increase in squeeze as much out of is our needs, the non-exercise activity movement. All the things throughout the day that aren't going to the gym, the walking, the fidgeting, the standing, the everything. And research has shown that the same person could burn up to 2000 calories extra in a single day, just depending on this one variable. They're non-exercise movement. And that the difference in just fidgeting, someone who fidgets a lot or fidgets not a lot, can add up to an extra 800 calories burned per day. People who are constantly moving around, they're not only burning more energy by a lot, but they're also improving their digestion and their gut health is insanely better. Their cardiovascular and metabolic health is better. Their energy levels have a much higher baseline through the day, and they just live longer, with daily step count being one of the closest high metrics to how long you will live. If it's so much, I am such a fidgeter. I thought I was until I saw my fiancee 24/7, and if she like, cuddles up on me, sometimes I'll have to push her off because her foot is going like this. My leg is always going down here. My leg is always on, and I'm always doing something with my hands. I hate when people point it out. They're like, "Why are you?" People usually in my YouTube videos will always point out, "Why are you always touching your hair or moving your hands?" I'm like, "Well, I don't know." Because I have, I just fidget and I move around and I have a beard. I think you're a talent. I want to tell you. I am a talent. I think that's what it is. I think a talent is just move. Have you ever noticed that when you die at heart, I know you're not like a heart, like extreme cut person. No, no, no. If you ever in the past, have you ever noticed when you cut calories pretty low? It only has become noticeable to me once or twice, where I am very not still dormant through the day, and I've never noticed how much I fidget until I stopped fidgeting. Because my energy intake was so low, I was kind of just sunken down on my hands. Because you're conserving energy. Yeah, it's crazy how much of that just gets suppressed when you do that. But it's easier said than done sometimes. How you actually implement this is you take advantage of every little opportunity for micro movement. So this is not just talking about walking 10,000 steps a day, all at once. That's not feasible for a lot of people. But you can do small things that break up your day. You could try standing versus sitting, standing burns approximately 50 more calories per hour than sitting does. So even if you do work at a desk job, get a standing desk for a couple hours a day. A few hours per day can add up. Take walking breaks throughout the day. Identify opportunities for micro movement everywhere. Even if you work a sedentary job from let's say seven in the morning until five at night, I guarantee that you have at least several five to 15 minute breaks to the day. Maybe even as short as three minute breaks where I think usually people would just sit back, take a breath, maybe pull out their phone, scroll on Instagram, on TikTok, whatever. But that is an easy opportunity to get up and move. I know it sounds trivial only three minutes. But so many people who work and will say that use it. I want to say as an excuse, a sedentary job. They'll have five, ten breaks spread throughout the day. Get up, walk down the hall and back. Those small little micro movements add up. 10,000 steps usually takes about 60 to 70 minutes of walking. So if you take advantage of even just let's say a few of those little three to five minute breaks and one to two 10 to 15 minute bigger breaks, you're leaving your workday with six, 7,000 steps. And getting that extra few thousand to cross over 10,000 when you go home. That's easy at that point. But you have to take advantage of those little micro movement opportunities. That's where I see most people just calling it quits. You know, I'm talking about like five minutes and it's not enough time to do anything. I'm going to sit back, check my Instagram, see what the group chance pop enough. That's where I see a lot of people just not taking advantage of it. I go insane when I don't move though. People swear by walking paths. I can't do much work walking because the bouncing up and down from my vision, I can't like focus or read. Well, the people swear by like it makes the biggest difference. I love that. What's number two? No. What else do all fit in healthy people do? They view food as optional. So this is more so like listening to their hunger cues. Like if you wake up in the morning and you aren't hungry, you might opt for something light like a piece of fruit, a protein shake, rather than eating a full meal just because it's breakfast time. If someone is coming into the office for work and they are you don't know, it's a pastries and stuff. If you don't want to, you don't eat it. If you're not genuinely hungry, you're not going to eat. It almost sounds very simple, but it's so impactful and so many people don't do this. When you go out to eat, you don't feel like you have to eat everything on your plate. If someone's getting an appetizer, there's bread on the table and you want to save room for for your meal, like you're not going to eat it. If you are full after dinner, you're not going to eat dessert because you're full. It really changes everything. And it's very different from being like, no, I can't have this. This is not what we're saying. It's not the mindset of, no, this is off limits. I can't have this. It's, no, I'm genuinely, I'm not hungry for this. And when you are hungry, you eat. But you lean into the foods that are going to be more satisfying, are going to satiate you, rather than saving pleasure foods because there are pleasure foods. You just eat them to taste good. For when you have that craving, but that craving isn't on top of this extreme hunger or extreme fullness, it's like really not feeling like the food is controlling you. Like you have the food power over it. Yeah, like this is what I'm going to eat. And this is what I'm not going to eat. But based off of your hunger cues and based off of what your body needs, not based off of like some external black and white way of thinking. And I think it's this, it is a part of mindful eating. And we've talked about this a lot before. Like mindful eating, I think is really misunderstood. Mostly because it's not explained properly. Or you just see these really fucking skinny people on the internet being like, oh no, I just eat intuitively. I just eat mindfully. Like I don't track my calories. And you're like easy for you to say because if I just ate mindfully, I'm going to be sitting on my couch every night with canes and extra dipping sauce. I just feel like it's, I don't know, misunderstood and over. I don't know, it's simple, but it's not that it's over simplified. Like it's one of those simple, not easy things. For sure. Sounds so trivial. Like why even talk about it? But you have to retrain your brain. You do, like for most people, you have to train your brain to pay attention. Yeah. Yeah. And it really just means like eating in the moment and being fully present for your eating experience and also eating for what your body is telling you you need. Like really, that's the intuitive aspect of it is how hungry am I? And what it like, where's my energy out? What am I doing later in the day? How do I want to feel? Like what's going to satisfy me versus what isn't? Like I was talking about this, I think last week, like I still, it is, it's never used to be, but it is now subconscious for me after dinner. Like I really will sit down for a second before I'm done eating it. Like do I want to finish those last few bites or do I have a craving for dessert and want to save a little bit room? Like how is that going to make me feel like I'll go out to eat and I'll be like, do I need to have this piece of bread on the table or am I actually pretty, pretty full and it's just there because I want to reach for it. And it's like that sounds like it's so, but that's just intuitive. That's just my way of thinking because it's just become more of a habit for me, but so many people eat just to eat. And this rule is like people are not eating just because food is there, just because it tastes good. Food is there to serve a purpose. And you listen to what that is at that point in time. You can go to our episode from last week where we talk about like how to lose weight without tracking calories. And we talk about like how to be more mindful when you're eating and just to be more present, but just really thinking about like am I distracted in reaching for food? Am I even listening to my body at all? Am I putting my fork down? Am I taking a breath? Do I even want this? Have you ever just sat there and been eating something just right in front of you and then you're like, why on earth am I eating this? You know what I mean? So many people eat on autopilot, like just what's on the schedule. I did for the longest time. I think probably most people do. I'm a creature of habit where I would just dial in my breakfast. It used to be like a soluble, which was pretty big. It was like decked out, had chia seeds, oats, all that. It was not gonna lie. It was delicious. But it was like six to 800 calories and I would just eat it every single day because I would prep it. It was ready. It was good. For some days, I just woke up not hungry. And it's nice to have a backup in place where I started to learn. I don't need that big, even though it's delicious. Big plate. Just because it's there. Having a protein shake in an apple or a protein shake in banana. Something like when I'm just not hungry. It's the difference because it lets you feel the rest of the day out. Because if you're not hungry in the morning, that's probably gonna mean it's gonna come up a little bit later. So if you just force yourself now, it just catches up to you. So it is hard. Yeah, it gives a train your brain to pay attention because so many people aren't. That was last week in that episode on slowing down and being more present during it. Sound so foofoo, but it is crazy how big of a difference makes a big difference. Yeah. Unfortunately, it's one of those things where it's like, you know, that actually does work. I feel like a lot of people think there's this pressure to eat in crowds or like if someone offers it to you. It's like, it's okay to turn down food. Culturally, sometimes I know special occasions, like I don't want to be ignorant to that. Like for me personally, like if I go to my grandpa's house and he's cooking meal for me, I have to eat it. I can't say no. It's a respect thing. But that's not all the time. I'm saying like a majority of the time. If you go into the office every single day and someone always brings in a food or snack and like, it's okay to turn it down, even if they made it. Like it's okay to do that. Like it's. Some people are like, I forget annoying and push you, but it's okay to say no. It's okay to say no. Just don't fit. Next on the list, this one's out there different than what people might expect. But fit and healthy people, they are always measuring something. Even if loosely, they are always measuring something. Most people aren't failing because they lack discipline. They are failing because they are flying completely blind. But people don't guess. They don't hope they have feedback. And I'm not talking obsessive tracking or spreadsheets forever. Some people that works for them, for most people, it just crushes them. But just some form of signal telling them is what I'm doing actually working. And why measurement matters and why this is something constant that they're doing. Even if it's not for their body composition, they're just constantly paying attention to something because they realize how important data and feedback is. Your brain is horrible at judging progress in real time, especially when it comes down to body composition. Fat loss happens slowly. Muscle gain is even slower. The day-to-day fluctuations lie to you and your feelings change faster than your physiology. So without data, it can feel like you are doing all of the right things and not seeing progress and it gets frustrating because you don't actually know if what you're doing is working or not because you're not paying attention. But people don't trust motivation. They trust patterns over time. An important distinction I think to make is that measuring something does not mean tracking everything forever. I think that's what people hear when we bring up tracking or tracking your calories or something like that. That's not what this means. Measurement is a temporary tool to learn how your body works, to calibrate portions, to catch when you are drifting early and to remove the guesswork. But once you've learned the pattern, you can loosen the grip. That's the good thing about tracking. Same thing with tracking food. Once you start to really get a good grip on food and tracking calories, you don't need to weigh every gram of food that's going into your mouth after years of doing it already, unless you are competing for a Mr. Olympia physique where your job is kind of on the line. Most people you don't need to do that, you can loosen the grip. Think training wheels not handcuffs when it comes to tracking. And what they measure is always different, but it's always aimed at what their current goals are. Some big ones are body weight trends. Even if I am not actively trying to gain or lose weight, I'm still stepping on the scale virtually every single day, weighing in at the same time every day under the same conditions, looking at weekly averages, not single days. Fit people understand that water, sodium, stress, sleep, carbs all move the scale so they don't panic over a Tuesday morning, weigh in. And it went up or down a couple of pounds. They ask, what is this trend doing over two to four weeks? This is unbelievably easy, especially on the scale. If you get a smart scale that just sinks to your iPhone, it's like 20 bucks for a decent one on Amazon. It automatically sinks to your apps. You don't even have to look at it every morning. I'm half awake. I just literally mosey out, use the restroom, step on it, open my little app, sinks and I move on. Half the days I don't even pay attention to it because it leaves to track the data. That can be a huge help. Even if it's not the scale, strength and performance, finding metrics there that you can track because muscle doesn't lie, is your squat getting stronger or your reps going up? Can you handle more volume? Is your cardio getting easier? If performance is improving while your way to stable, you're probably recomping. Good job. If your strength is crashing, that can tell you that something's off your recovery, your calories, your programming, even just tracking your lifts, let you see how accountable and consistent you've been. There are keeps of behavior-based metrics that you could track too. This is where even non-tracking people win. Think average daily steps, protein servings per day. How many meals were cooked at home this week? Alcohol or how many drinks you've had this week? Your bedtime consistency. You can choose to measure anything that you're working on. Not every form of tracking has to be calories. You manage the input and the output just follows. I don't even think that people realize how simply tracking something pertaining to your health rewires the subconscious part of your brain. In one trial out of Japan, they simply just split overweight adults into two groups. The only difference between the groups is that one was told to take daily weigh-ins every day for six months while the other was given no instruction to weigh themselves. That's it. No dietary, no lifestyle, no exercise intervention. After six months, the group that just took daily weigh-ins lost almost 7% of their body weight. Naturally, compared to the control group who lost nothing, simply starting their mornings by stepping on the skill, slightly rewired their brain. and what they were focusing on the rest of the day. It just reminded them what's important. They ate fewer calories. They moved more. That's what you got to realize about all of these habits. They're not massive movers. They're not going to make a difference in two weeks. But it adds up crazy over time. And simply tracking something will improve it. That was one that I didn't think a lot of people would expect. What else they do? What else? Hey, to break it to the you. But they don't drink or smoke a lot. And this isn't a secret. Like this is just I feel like this one's obvious. Alcohol is not good for you. There's no way around it. It's bad for you. The less you drink, the better, not drinking at all is best. That there you go. Like the easy answer. It impacts your sleep, your mental health, your hormones, your stress levels, recovery, gut health, and can make losing weight or building muscles so much more difficult. That's just objectively true. We're not saying that healthy people don't drink at all. Maybe they're having a drink when they go out of social life does not revolve around drinking. Drinking regularly will just make achieving your health and fitness goals more difficult. That's just the reality of it. You realize it's nearly impossible to maintain a fit or healthy body while you're consistently drinking. It becomes next to impossible for most people. When you're younger, you have some forgiveness as far as like your body composition goes. But you feel like shit most of the time. That's a trade-off for sure. And then they're smoking cigarette smoking. I mean, I feel like this is very well known by now. cigarette smoking causes about one in every five deaths in the US each year. Crazy. It's insane. So just a reminder of some of the stats if you're not familiar with them. It's estimated to cause the following. Let's just run through them. More than 480,000 deaths annually, including deaths from second hand smoke. And every cigarette a man smokes reduces his life by 11 minutes. So each carton of cigarettes thus represents a day and a half of lost life. So every year a man smokes a pack a day. He shortens his life by almost two months. And like that one against me, like that one always gets me. And life expectancy for smokers is at least 10 years shorter than for non-smokers. And some people might think like if you are addicted to cigarettes and you're like, well, it's too late for me. And like I've already, you know, messed up my health. I've already been smoking. That's not true because even quitting smoking before the age of 40 reduces the risk of dying from smoke-related diseases by about 90%. Oh, well. Yeah. And even people who smoke fewer than five cigarettes a day can have early signs of cardiovascular disease. We know that cigarette smoking is bad for your health. It's not good. That I think is a normal understood fact that people have. Cigarettes are bad. They know they it's ingrained. They don't even have to consciously think about it. I think alcohol is getting there closer. I don't know if it ever be where we look back or we're like, oh my god, how did people drink ever? But I think it's kind of getting there. Like people are just realizing, kind of makes me feel shitty. It's awful for my health, not demonizing it. Like you can never do it. But it was just such a piece of culture where just for so many people's lives, it's ingrained in the weekly schedule or routine. And I think it's slowly becoming a thing that people question. They're like, why is this here? I don't need to drink on a Wednesday night going out to dinner or a Thursday night with friends. I don't need to be doing this. I think people are finally starting to question that part, which is good. What else do they do? They are obsessed with water. How much water? I said this one time. Let me put it this way. You're not a real water drinker. Unless you're also willing to be a real pisser. Oh my god. I literally so annoying. I have to be right now. You will know you're drinking enough if you are getting up to pee every one to two hours. There's not a magic out goal of gallon a day. Everyone's different. Their movement, their body size, everything. But you will know because you are constantly pink. You can't ignore how much you are pink. That's how you will know you're drinking enough water. But because of this, you will never confuse hunger for thirst. Again, if you are constantly drinking, if you are obsessed with water, the part of the brain that regulates hunger, the hypothalamus, also regulates thirst. And because of this, it can send similar signals for both needs. So when you're dehydrated, even by as little as one to two percent, you might think you are hungry. Your brain is signaling and you are interpreting that signal as I am hungry. I need to eat. I need to snack. When your body is really just trying to signal that it needs a little bit of water, you need to sip on something. But it's not just that you might confuse thirst for hunger. We're talking about your overall health here too. Like your cognitive function. And the stance of how little dehydration it takes to cause a massive swing of effects on your brain, on your body, on your metabolism still blow my mind. Like being dehydrated by just one to two percent below baseline makes it harder to concentrate. It significantly reduces your short-term memory, making it harder to retain and recall information. It causes mood changes like increasing your ability, anxiety, and stress. It impacts your metabolism and digestive health, impairing and slowing down the amount of energy or calories you spend doing daily activities. Another thing we were talking about with meat and fidgeting, if you're dehydrated, you're naturally just going to be moving less. Your body's not going to be full of spontaneous movement as much as it would be if you were up to capacity. And I think the biggest impact is when it comes to your energy and fatigue through the day. So many people who are just constantly fatigued and dragged down and tired are just not drinking enough water. They have like a cup of coffee for breakfast and haven't had anything at two in the afternoon. They're just sitting there exhausted wondering why? Your body's empty. It impacts your skin health. All these other things to name a few. But when you start drinking a ton of water, your cravings will start to disappear. The food noise goes down and sticking to a deficit or just not overeating becomes easy. So do what you got to do. It's different for everyone. I have one of these water bottles, which I'm not recommending hydroflask, leaky as POS water bottle I've ever had in my life. I've had two of them. I thought the first one was just broken. No, they just are crappy water bottles. But it's big. It's like 64 ounces with a straw. Something with a straw, I don't know why it makes you drink more. My arms get a big old blue one. Find one. What's the other one? People like a lot of old adwala, awala, but get one. Just get one that you are constantly having. Start your morning with I told everybody about this a long time ago. A little belly bath, big old tall glass of water. The first thing you do when you wake up puts in lemon, a pinch of sea salt in there, maybe some meow, whatever if you don't like the taste. Start your morning by shugging 16 ounces of water because you wake up dehydrated. Like you might be confused. You sleep in a cold house. You're not sweating much at night. Do this. Just breathe on your hand. Exhale on your hand a couple times. You are losing hydration through breathing. You wake up dehydrated even if you don't sweat at night. So start your morning off with water. If you don't like the taste, like one, I don't know, grow up to what do you mean? Like it's so easy to cover up the taste of water now. The vegetable one is still a little bit like grow up, but water's water. Like it's water, but there's so many I don't like the taste of water. You know how good water tastes like when you're thirsty? Like I I'm with you. Oh, like it's like, oh, when you're so thirsty and you have to, do I mean nothing is harder? So good. It tastes so good. Nothing hits harder with them. When you are freaking thirsty, then just a cold little condensation. It's kind of sweating on the outside. Oh, nothing hits harder. I love water. So if you're someone who doesn't like the taste of it, either grow up or get me a zero calorie flavor, do whatever you can, but just constantly be drinking constantly be drinking every aspect of your health. It will amplify. Let me tell you, they take their stress seriously. Me not doing that. But just I mean, how bad chronic stress is for your overall health when it comes increasing irritability, anxiety, depression, headaches, insomnia, your eating behaviors, your hunger levels, reaching for food because you are stressed as like a soothing mechanism. It can also like have physiologic implications as well that could hinder muscle growth. So like again, chronic stress, like super high stress levels over time consistently, because a certain amount of stress is good and is important to have. But chronic stress can decrease and a bulk process to use. And it's not something that you would like notice over time. That's how it could impact you. And then also just your digestion, the brain has a direct effect on your stomach and intestines. So stress can also affect how food moves through your body, which can lead to really, really poor digestion, irregular bowel movements, bloating discomfort. This is a thing if you're constantly stressed out about food and you go into your meal and you're so stressed about it, what's in it? What type of oil is this? Is this too much to look? You're not putting your body in a state that is optimal for digestion. There are so many levels in which stress genuinely impacts you at multiple points in your day and really hinders you when we don't even think about it, because people are just so used to being stressed out all the time. And it really comes down to how to recognize your stress triggers and respond to them with with something, have something to relieve your stress, whether that's you know, you're going to therapy, you're doing yoga or meditation or breath work, read a book an hour at night before bed, you journal, you go for walks, limiting your screen time, just like little things, setting aside things that you do for yourself that genuinely make you feel good. I feel like people get so stuck in this rabbit hole of being miserable all day, coming home and not really doing anything for yourself or just feeling like you're on autopilot and you're not really doing anything to lift you up because of your environment. And I just think it like really, really, really hinders people. That's where I see it more as it prevents you from making progress. I've seen that with like clients. They're so often when they're crushed with stress, they can still go to the gym. They can maintain where they're at, but it is a wall that's standing in front of them because you're, I mean, you build when you recover, when you're in a state of recovery. And if you are constantly just tense and stressed out, your recovery is going to suck. Your training is going to suck. It prevents you from making strides. It's too massive of a mouth. It's tough to communicate because it's not something you can measure directly as easy as like the scale or calories or something like that. But the impact should not go understated. And I'm even thinking this, we always talk about things to do. Meditation or therapy. Sometimes you take a hard look at yourself and you have to say, I'm going to give up something that's no longer serving me. I've got to do less. If you are just trying to balance and juggle a million different things, adding a five minute meditation probably isn't going to help. Dropping a few of those plates and just holding what you can actually balance is what needs to be done. Like if it's not serving you, sometimes you do have to let things go. Not always, but I've seen that with too many people where they try to add something else on top of to manage it. And it's like, you are just doing too much. I see that so often. Me too. What do we always say goes with stress? What's their best friend? Sleep. Sleep. I'm like, this is such a question because I literally don't know. Guess what else? Fit and how the people do. They love. They share. Rish. They prioritize. They're sleep. What is love? It's putting something first ahead of your own needs and desires. They treat it with love. It's an action. If you could buy what good sleep does for you in a pill, it would be a band substance. You can't directly measure it, but the effects it has on your body and health are massive. Like consider that just sleep. That one thing, one significantly reduces the effort it takes to build muscle and cut body fat. It makes it so much easier. It completely changes how much energy you have through the day. What you can balance. It improves your mood, your emotional reactivity, even mental health disorders like anxiety and depression. It elevates your learning ability, your creativity, almost every method of measuring cognition we have. It improves. It boosts your libido. That's before we even touch on the metabolic and hormonal improvements that you also see, which are again massive. Sleep is the closest legal thing you have to steroids and every fit and healthy person knows that and they take advantage of it. I don't shut up about how one of the best purchases for my health I've ever made was when I first got my oral ring to track and fix my sleep. One of the hands down if you look back at it, one of the best investments you've ever had. We were just talking about credit card benefits. If you have amics, I think platinum, you have to have platinum. They have an oral ring credit now. I think it's $200 off. Something crazy. Like there's so many ways to get it more affordable. And I know it's a steep price tag when you look at it. But if you use it on a cost per use basis, you are using this every single day for years, three, four hundred bucks spread out. You're spending pennies a day on one of the most important aspects of your health, not just physical, but mental and social, just everything. It is massive. What sleep can do for you? And it's something that you don't really know until you fix it. You're like, Oh my God, how did I go this many years without paying more attention to my sleep? You know, I'm talking about like when we first started this podcast and you were a freaking vampire. I thought you were. Yeah. Dracula's cousin didn't sleep. And you functioned. You got things done. But then when you started paying attention and fix it, you're like, holy crap. Looking back and imagining going back, you're like, there's no freaking way I could do that again. It's wild. What's so bad? So pay attention to it. Fix it. Even last week, we talked about putting together a nighttime routine that would solve like 90% of sleep problems. We had the entire episode, episode 83, how to fix your sleep, dedicate legitimate time and resources to fixing this problem. And it can change your entire life. So that's always a couple of stress, but prioritize. Love it. That was one of the reasons why my hunger cues, they were many, but like my hunger cues were just so off. I wasn't sleeping. So I was like, all messed up with that as well. My internal clock and circadian rhythm was just so messed up. So that's going to mess up your hormones. I did love hearing about it though. Because my sleep wasn't perfect. So I'm not judging. It wasn't perfect. But I remember when we first started and I would just ask, I used to love last night. And it was always something different and crazy and random. Like, oh my god, I actually haven't slept since two nights ago. I'm like, what the, what are you talking about so casually? Oh, no, I haven't slept in like 48 hours, but it's so fine. It was a form of literally, but I'm chillin. I'm so glad I can entertain you. All right. We got three left. What's up, Dex? Next is eating a high protein diet. Primarily, that is mainly Whole Foods. And this is just a no brainer. One of the more intuitive ones you associate with people is like, yeah, they're healthy people. Like they're eating their vegetables. They're eating their protein. They're cooking at home. I feel like that one, even if you don't fully have the straight up why intuitively and rationally, it just, yeah, that's got to be one of the biggest pillars there. Structuring your meals around protein. It doesn't mean that you're tracking your protein forever, but you're always prioritizing it at meals. I even remember when I quote unquote was eating probably what someone might think is the healthiest diet when I was begin and like eating literally every single vegetable and fruit and never eating anything process. I was in that phase. I was eating so little protein and I have never felt worse in my life. That was one of the lowest points. So protein is that pillar. If you've taken protein away and you're eating a bunch of vegetables and whatnot and fruits, like, yes, there's still good for you. However, without like protein at that centerpiece, you're never going to feel as best as you possibly can. Is that too much of a bold statement to say? No, no, no, no, obviously, but yeah. Yeah. But keeps you fuller longer and it provides you with so many health benefits besides that. So like, yes, it's really helpful for appetite and hunger levels and keeping cravings at bay, improving bone health helps lower blood pressure. It's essential for muscle recovery, reducing muscle loss associated with aging. So yeah, protein got to be there. And then also fiber has to be there as well. Those two pieces. And then if you are doing that, I've said this over and over again, you don't need to worry about the little things because if you're prioritizing protein and fiber, again, if you have a calorie goal, that is a big thing that you need to be meeting for whatever your specific physique goals are at that point. But when it comes to just diet as a whole, you are going to be covering the majority of your bases if you are having a high protein high fiber diet because fiber is coming from fruits, vegetables, whole grains, like you've got you're going to be cooking your meals. Like you're going to have to be eating a variety of whole foods. So it just helps you do that without getting stuck in the weeds about all these little tiny, tiny rules. Top of that, something you notice if you ever spend time with someone who is just the immaculate picture of health and fitness, if you go to their house, one thing you also notice is they set their environment up to where that's not that hard to do. Like getting in protein to proteins anger to fiber anchor each meal. It's not like they have to consciously plan it. It took me a while to get to that place. But I would always have one go to dinner every single week, for an example, that would be high in protein. But my dumb little brain sometimes like variety and I'll get to the end of the day. I'm exhausted. I'm whatever and just one thing that I had prepped out of its lean turkey tacos. I've had it for three nights in a row. It might just not sound good on the fourth night. And I'm just going to take the easy route. And I don't have any good backups in place. So I'm going to eat something low in protein, low in fiber, probably pretty processed like not the best choice. But you realize when you spend time around these people and this is what I started to do is like you just keep so many options that you can find. And it might take a couple weeks for you to find things that you like, but find three, four, five things that you like that are high protein that are high fiber that you enjoy and that you can plug and play in. I don't know exactly what I'm having to for dinner tonight, but I've got multiple options. I've got lean beef. I could make Greek heroes with that are high protein. I've got lean turkey that I could make turkey tacos with. I've got chicken that I could grill with cababs and bell peppers on the grill. I've got options. So if my first plan just isn't sitting right with me, oh, I've got something else I can be excited for. Same thing with fiber, fine things that you can set up in your environment to where if that one option is not sounding fantastic to you, you're not just screwed to left. Last one's pretty simple and we're not going to beat it into the ground and this shouldn't come to a shocker, but all fit and healthy people. They lift heavy things several times per week. They lift heavy things up. They put them back down every single person can benefit from lifting weights. Regardless of your goal, weightlifting will significantly improve virtually every metric of your health, your longevity, your quality of life, not just the increased strength and muscle mass, but the increase in bone mineral density, reduce risk of osteoporosis, increase endurance that most people don't even think about just by lifting weights. It is a form of cardiovascular activity, prevents you from getting injured as you get older, but beyond physical health, your longevity sky rockets with strength. We talked about this last week, thick lives, save lives, right? Your quad muscles and grip strength and things like that that are so closely tied to how long you will live. You'll also just be happier. Your mood will be better. Your mental health will be better. You will feel better day to day and I don't think that can go understated for what it is. So I know that might sound obvious, but we can't say that this list is complete without it. They lift heavy things a few times for weeks. It doesn't even have to be, you know. at a crazy competition level, but they just make sure to lift heavy several times per week. What rounds out? I'm just like, this one, yeah, is having, when it comes to like diet, like having some sort of plan for what you're going to eat. Like, yes, some days you wing it a little bit. Like, I had a plan in mind for what I was going to have for dinner last night and I went against the grain. But the reason why I was able to do that is because I planned out my protein and my veggies that I was going to have prepped. So I could have the ramen and I did have a way to make it like more satisfying and nutritious. But just like, at some point you sit down and you're like, all right, what am I going to be eating this week? And maybe you don't plan out the whole week. Maybe you just need a few days. It kind of depends. But planning out your meals, I rough idea, breakfast, lunch, and dinner Monday through Friday. What am I having? And it doesn't mean not everyone meal perhaps breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I'm not that's why I didn't put here like prepping I think is going to make your life so much easier and is so helpful for so many people. But some people can totally get by without having to prep and that's totally fine. It is the plan that is the most important. If you have the time and don't need to meal prep, nobody has to meal prep. But I think it's a smart thing to do. But when looking at this list and thinking of like, okay, who's healthy versus on how it's like, well, not everyone needs to meal prep. And I think you just have to figure out your schedule and your real list, what's realistic for you and what's going to work for you and you're a big grown adult and you can make that decision. But if you don't have a plan, you're not going to get anywhere. Nothing will set you up for failure better than the mindset of all cross-separage when I come to it, when it comes to figuring out what you're going to eat. And that's a thing like one of the big things about the plan plus the prep is it makes it harder to make a shitty eating decision. That's not the best phrasing of it, but it's just the blunt truth. It's just like I already have it there. I already put it in the work. It's a little bit harder. And if you know, okay, these are the proteins that I'm going to have. And this is what breakfast I'm going to have. You don't have to put that thought into it. It's like take an hour, plan out what meals you want, plan out what groceries you need from those meals. And it's you already know. I put it in my notes app. I mean, there's definitely apps for this that you can do. But I just do like Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and I be LD. What am I going to be having? And then I make my groceries from there. And it's just that is already taking off the mental load during that day of the decision fatigue when it comes to eating. That's the hardest part. Pick a day where you know you have an extra free time to plan that out. And your life is going to be so much easier. And then if you know, okay, I am on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I am always so busy. And I always order food no matter what plan I have. Okay, on Sunday, I'm going to meal prep, I'm going to meal prep dinner. So I know on my busier nights, it's already there. It's just be it's the smart thinkers. They're strategic. It's not just the point. It's the strategy behind it. And thinking about what friction you're going to have that's going to keep you from having a good nutritious meal and trying to tackle that as best as you can. Having a plan B and yeah, I think does that make sense? And honestly, this has got me thinking even further, they usually have some sort of a plan for everything. Like it's not just a meal planned out that they have. Like it's everything. The pockets in their schedule where they might be able to fit in some lifting through the week. What their meals will look like to a degree. What time this sounds silly, but they might go to bed. So when potential plans get presented, they can keep that in mind instead of making it an afterthought and dealing with that later. Like they they have some sort of a loose plan. I'm not talking that every five minutes of their G cow or Apple calendar is stacked to the brim, but they know the structure that they're working with. And they know what's important and they know what can fit in where. So they can preemptively adjust for when things change or their schedule is off. You know what I'm saying? It's not just a they plan for their meals, which they do. Or like we talked about to a degree. Like I'm not prepping my meals before. But I know I have a plan in my head for what's going to be there. So I'm not caught off guard. Yeah, I think that's what everything they do. There's some sort of a schedule in their mind for everything. Definitely. Fitting healthy people. Definitely. Cool people usually. Most of the time. Sometimes not. Most of the time though. They're usually some pretty cool people. But let us know in the comments what we left off. What habits do you think every fit and healthy person does that would fit on this list? If you had to extend it, add one in thing that we missed one, or just disagree. I think we had a pretty good list too. If you disagree with any, let us know in the comments too. But that's what we got. We'll talk to everybody in premium into a couple of days with this Friday's bonus episode that happens every single Friday where we answer your questions. So if you want to join us over there again, the link to do that is in the show notes. It tastes less than 60 seconds. And we get bonus episodes every single Friday on top of all of the training programs that you get for free by joining. So we'll talk to you guys then everybody else will be back next Monday. But yeah, love you. That's it. Bye. Bye.

Podcast Summary

Key Points:

  1. Fit and healthy individuals prioritize consistent daily movement, including non-exercise activities like walking, standing, and fidgeting, to boost metabolism and overall health.
  2. They practice mindful eating by listening to hunger cues, viewing food as optional rather than restrictive, and eating based on bodily needs rather than external cues.
  3. They regularly measure progress (e.g., weight trends, strength metrics) using data to inform habits, treating tracking as a temporary learning tool rather than a permanent burden.

Summary:

The transcription outlines ten habits of fit and healthy people, focusing on three key areas. First, they integrate constant movement into daily life, such as walking, standing, and fidgeting, which significantly increases calorie expenditure and improves metabolic health. Second, they adopt a mindful approach to eating, listening to hunger signals and choosing foods based on satiety and need rather than eating out of habit or social pressure.

This shifts the mindset from restriction to intentional choice. Third, they consistently measure progress through metrics like body weight trends or performance data, using tracking as a temporary tool to gain insight and adjust habits, not as a lifelong obligation. These habits emphasize building sustainable systems over relying on willpower, making health and fitness an automatic part of daily life.

FAQs

Fit and healthy people incorporate movement throughout the day, listen to hunger cues, and regularly measure progress. They focus on building sustainable systems rather than extreme efforts.

Take advantage of micro-movement opportunities like standing desks, short walking breaks, and fidgeting. These small actions can significantly boost calorie burn and overall health.

Mindful eating involves paying attention to hunger cues and eating based on what your body needs, not external triggers. It helps you avoid overeating and build a healthier relationship with food.

Measurement provides feedback to ensure your efforts are working, as day-to-day fluctuations can be misleading. Tracking trends over time helps you stay on course without relying on motivation.

They see food as optional and eat based on genuine hunger, not just because it's available or time to eat. This approach helps them maintain control and satisfaction without strict restrictions.

NEAT, like fidgeting and walking, can burn hundreds of extra calories daily, improve digestion, boost cardiovascular health, and increase energy levels, contributing to longevity.

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