2 Simple Traits 95% of Incredibly Fit People Have in Common
No, not dieting, exercising, or calorie-counting
Most fitness “gurus” will never reveal to you that…
Fitness is 90% mental and 10% physical.
Simple behavior changes will take you farther than any “miracle” diet or $199 supplement.
I’ll share 2 such traits — that the fittest of the fittest folks I know have in common.
These aren’t “quick fixes” or “hacks”—they’re ways of rewiring how you think about and approach fitness.
The Most Problematic Word Today Is “Foodie”
Our pre-historic ancestors earned food by hunting mammoths and foraging in the bitter cold.
Our medieval ancestors earned food by sowing crops, fighting wars, and operating heavy lathes.
Today, we earn food by thumbing DoorDash on our smartphones.
They ate out of hunger; we eat for pleasure.
Big Macs. Double macs. Doritos. Cheerios. French fries. Pastries. Donuts.
So much food and so many options that romping around hogging different cuisines is now a “hobby.”
The US obesity statistics are alarming.
42% of adults are obese. 86 million are prediabetic. 610,000 succumb to heart disease in the United States annually. Every second person has high blood pressure. 1 in 6 suffers from coronary heart disease.
The gym bros will chime in, “That’s why I eat only broccoli and chicken breast all day, every day.”
That’s neither enjoyable nor sustainable — it’s only self-torture.
Instead, change how you view food — from pleasure to fuel.
Even a brand-new Maserati will sputter if you fill it with filthy gas. Your body’s similar — what you eat dictates how your brain and body function:
- Healthy nutrition-rich foods enhance your well-being.
- Junk, heart-choking foods weaken your quality of life.
Prefer the former. Avoid the latter.
Strike a balance with the Pareto rule — get 80% of your calories from clean whole foods and 20% from whatever you wish.
The #1 Thing Evolution Wired Us to Do (But We Don’t)
We were never meant to glue our buttocks to a desk from 9 to 5 and a couch from 5 to 9.
Evolution programmed us to move — to escape predators, hunt game, and forage for wild berries.
We’ve stooped so low that modern society calls walking 10k steps “exercise.”
Fit people move by default — they tap their feet, stand & stretch, walk around, toss the ball, shadow box, hang off railings, toy with monkey bars, and jump up to tap the ceiling.
Research shows such Non-Exercise Activity (NEAT) can account for up to 50% of our total daily energy expenditure (TDEE).
Here are 10 ideas to get more movement in:
- Walk while talking on the phone.
- Walk or cycle instead of driving for errands.
- Go grocery shopping — and buy healthy whole foods.
- Drum your fingers. Rap your knuckles. Shake those legs.
- Get off the subway or bus a stop earlier — and walk the rest.
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator — or get out of it a floor earlier.
- Bang out a few squats every time you visit the washroom.
- Deliberately park your car farther away.
- Take post-meal strolls.
- Track your steps.
To put your NEAT on autopilot, rewire your mindset to:
Movement = Our Default Mode
Sitting/Sleeping = Our Resting Mode
Bonus: The Mother of All Fitness Mindset Changes
Treat fitness as a lifestyle and not a seasonal fix.
Once you do so, exercising and eating (mostly) clean will feel as natural as breathing.
A 15-minute daily workout will beat a brutal 2-hour once-in-a-blue-moon workout.
Long-term consistency puts short-term intensity to shame.
“Every day it gets a little easier… But you gotta do it every day. That’s the hard part.”
— Jogging Baboon in BoJack Horseman
Make fitness a lifestyle, view food as fuel, and make movement your default mode.
You’ll never be unfit in your life.