Top Health Habits

It seems like every day there is a new health trend taking over. I'm not here to debate the legitimacy of any of the new things out there, I am simply making a case for the few habits that I know for sure work and should be prioritized over everything else. Having a short list of the most important things helps to keep us focused. If you're getting bogged down by vitamins, supplements, cold plunging, sauna, red light, etc, as long as you take care of these 4 habits your health will improve more than anything else you can do.

1. Water: When I was in the Navy there was a running joke that when you went to medical they pretty much just told you to hydrate and maybe (probably) gave you some Motrin. What's funny though is being hydrated really does make a big difference. If I'm feeling tired or low energy simply downing a 32oz water bottle will make me feel way better. Workouts are better, recovery is better, mental clarity is better, digestion is better, etc. It's also good if your trying to lose weight, it curbs appetite and just helps your body function better. So how much? My goal is 1 gallon a day, I think minimum should be about 96 ounces. So drink your water.
2. Sleep: When you're lacking sleep you're not recovered, you're not as sharp, your body is going to feel achy, and your hormones are going to be out of whack. Your body needs sleep, and there's a lot going on to rebuild and clean up while we sleep. Athletes try to get 10+ hours a night of sleep because of all the performance enhancing going on. If the benefits of sleep could be sold in a bottle it would be the most effective performance enhancing drug ever created, and there's no side effects, it's all good, and it's free. So Get your sleep, 7 hours minimum.
   1. Keep the room cool
   2. No phone/computer in bed
   3. Keep room completely dark
   4. White noise machines are very helpful.
3. Diet: So here's the thing with diet, if you really want to eat healthy you have to plan it. If the plan is just "I'm going to try to eat healthy" that's usually not a very good plan. When you look at what high performers do and how they eat, they are very dialed and pretty much eat the same thing every day. While that might not sound like something you're very interested in doing. I do suggest doing it for a little bit just to get yourself used to eating what you should be eating. So take a little bit of time and plan a default day, your breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with any snacks and shakes. Count the calories, the protein, the carbs, and the fats and determine if it fits with your goals. Then get in the habit of eating it, what you'll find is that it's kind of nice not having to decide what your going to eat, you already know and it's going to be good for and fuel your activities. Side note - I would stay away from hardcore diets, just pick a balanced healthy day of eating that is sustainable.
4. Exercise: I believe this is the most important habit, I think all of the habits are actually easier if your exercising as well, you're more likely to eat well if you're exercising, you'll sleep better because you'll be physically tired at the end of the day, and you'll be drinking more water. Aside from being a foundation habit, there are so many benefits to exercise, you'll age better being able to do more for longer, you'll feel better, you'll be more confident, higher energy, higher testosterone (which is good for men and woman), healthy bones, move better. Just overall exercise will make your body be able to do what it's designed to do. Start easy and be consistent, get your body used to moving, it won't take long, but in the beginning it's important to build the habit and keep it very doable.

So before you go down the rabbit trail of the latest trend out there try to focus on building these four basic health habits first. Reach out if you have any questions about getting started with any of them.