4 Things I’ll Never Let Go of To Constantly Stay Fit and Healthy

I exercise whenever I want and consume the foods I love

Any fitness enthusiast knows this best.

The best way to stay fit and healthy isn’t to work out every day, put in maximal effort every rep, and control your diet to consume foods with the lowest calories and the highest protein.

I believe that’s what most people think and of course, that’s the ideal case if you’re a robot.

But as a human, the point of working out is to stay fit so that you can build muscles, lose fat, and build your cardiovascular health so you remain healthy over a longer period, especially as you get older.

Whereas for eating, it’s to be able to enjoy foods that you love, flavors that you cannot live without, and unique tastes that your body craves.

Otherwise, you’re missing the whole point of living.

Because that’s what living is about right?

Yet, if you want to take it a couple of steps further to build your body up towards:

• A chiseled chest
• Jacked arms
• 6- pack abs

By all means, strive for it, but you’ll need to make a couple of restrictions in your life for that to happen.

For me, I’ve found a middle ground between achieving the physique I want and living a life that I truly love. This middle ground includes a couple of non-negotiables that I’ll never let go of to constantly stay fit, healthy, and look good at the same time.

These habits have helped me for the past 6 months of my life and I truly believe anyone who can incorporate these habits can transform their body and their view of life as well.

So here goes!

At Least 100g of protein

Studies have constantly found that you need a high-protein diet every day to build muscle and lose fat. It’s mentioned that:

“consuming protein pre- and/or post-workout induces a significant rise in muscle protein synthesis”

This is because protein helps with muscle growth, muscle recovery, and muscle retention, so if you don’t consume enough protein each day, whatever workouts you’ve done so far are basically useless. Since your broken muscles aren’t able to stitch themselves back up, they’ll likely stay where it’s always been.

The rule of thumb is to consume 0.7–1g of protein per pound of body weight per day especially if you have specific fat loss or muscle gain goals.

And trust me it’s not easy to hit that number.

Standing at 78kg, I’d need to consume around 120g-172g of protein each day but each scoop of protein shake is only 20g of protein and that’s already the cheapest source of protein. If you want to consume more protein throughout the day, it’s not that easy unless you’re willing to break the bank a little.

Otherwise, Jeff Nippard recommends the lower range of 0.7g/lb to be sufficient, and based on experience, consuming ≥100g a day has worked out for me too!

Show Up

Having a workout plan only works out well if you stick to it consistently for a long time.

I get it, life happens and plans can change over time. Or sometimes you just get lazy and don’t feel like working out at all. We’re all humans and it’s normal to feel that way.

But being able to stick to your plans and show up even when you don’t want to is a strong habit in itself.

Luckily there are 2 potential fixes that I’ve incorporated:

1. Show up even when you don’t want to — Stick to your plan because more often than not your body will feel better after the workout itself
2. Plan for workout sessions, not specific workout days — Being flexible with your workouts can help you to stay on track for your workouts even if you miss a day

The last bit here is to plan your workouts so your body can go on auto-pilot and do what it needs to do without thinking twice about it.

It’s the person who shows up consistently who wins over time.

Prioritize Recovery

It should already be clear why recovery is non-negotiable.

It’s when your broken-down muscles take the time to recover so that they can come back stronger and bigger over time. It’s how muscle building works, otherwise, you’ll likely stay at where you’ve always been.

That’s why there is a ton of research talking about training efficiency and how “less is better”. Imagine training the same muscle groups every day for 7 days a week, you’ll think that you can constantly make progress and you’ll reach your goals in no time.

However, studies found that:

Percent improvements in lean mass was 1.9% for HFT (High Frequency Training) and 2.0% for LFT (Low Frequency Training). There was not a significant effect for changes in lean body mass within groups for HFT.

And it’s because your body needs time to recover.

This means you shouldn’t be training every day and you shouldn’t have too many late nights each week because sleep is where recovery happens as well.

I know how fun it can be sometimes when you have late nights but if you want to make good progress, you’ll need to balance your tradeoff sand give your body sufficient rest to recover.

Focus On The Fundamentals

Being fit and healthy outside of the kitchen doesn’t mean you’ll need a gym to do it.

That’s a misconception that most people have. They think that bodyweight exercises like push-ups, pull-ups, and squats are basic and are ineffective in helping your body build muscles.

But basic exercises can build a strong foundation for other advanced movements

If you’ve looked at the bodies that calisthenic workouts, gymnastic workouts, and prisoner workouts can give you, you might think twice about what these exercises can actually provide you with. Most of them use bodyweight exercises as their core movements to help them build muscles consistently and progress in the long term.

Eventually, they can even do superhuman feats such as your planche push-ups, front levers, and muscle ups because they’ve better control over their body even when they don’t have a gym to train in.

As long as you know how to make progress with these fundamentals, you can continue making progress outside the gym.

Stitching Them All Together

The longer you work out, the more you’ll realize the fundamental pillars of being fit and healthy that will hold as long as you stick to those daily habits.

These things just work.

As long as you stick to these daily habits, you’ll stay fit and healthy too. You don’t have to rely on crazy workouts, health hacks, and diet fads to achieve your goals.

Instead, just rely on the basics like how I’ve done by focusing on:

• Showing up
• Prioritize recovery
• Hitting ≥100g of protein every day
• Fundamental exercises especially when you’re outside of the gym

That’s how I exercise whenever I want and consume whatever I love.

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