Four pillars to a healthier and energetic life
Living a full and fulfilling life is what everybody wants. But being in an optimal state of being is something not easy to obtain. Many people are tired a big part of the day and don’t have energy left on the end of it. People end up binching their favorite Netflix serie and minimizing physical activity because lack of energy and motivation. I see many people trying to make their lives better by working on them selves to look better on the outside. They feel like they should look better so that they will feel better. Going to the gym and cutting on calories is what is very common. But this often doesn’t work. Most people can’t push themselves to stick to diets or exercise or only do one of them properly. I hate to bring it to you but doing only one thing will never get you that good look and happy state of being. Also, just looking good will not bring you that happiness as well.
I saw a huge change in my life and people around me that started to focus on four things. To obtain a healthy productive en energetic life, I advice you to start with focusing on these four things that can’t properly work without one another. You need to focus on:
- Diet
- Physical exercise
- Mental Health
- Sleep
You might think that is easy to say but what should I do to optimize these things? I will go in full detail in articles in the near future about how to fully optimize these pillars. I will now explain the pillars and why it is important that they come in a pack.
Diet
These days you hear so many different things about what to eat and what is healthy for you that you don’t know what to believe anymore. Things like don’t eat egg yolk, fat is bad, red meat is bad, Don’t eat gluten! You have so many different diets like Slow carb, Low carb, ketogenic diet, paleo diet, vegetarian diet, veganism diet and I will go in further detail about all of them in later articles. What we should realize is that there is not ONE diet that is best for everyone. Every person is different and reacts to food in a different way. Plus changing your diet completely in one go is doomed to go wrong. I started implementing a couple rules to get a healthier sustainable diet.
- Change your diet slowly, so that you still enjoy it
- Start with eating more vegetables in as many colors as possible(eat the rainbow)
- Try to avoid Trans fats and refined sugars.
- Try to eat natural, not processed or packaged food.
And the golden rule:
First add healthy foods in your diet and after that cut the unhealthy ones bit by bit.
Start with these things and you will find the change in energy level en emotional stability.
Physical exercise
One of the biggest misconceptions that I hear a lot is that people are going to the gym because they think that that is the biggest factor for losing weight and get that beach body. I hate to break it to you but exercise is only a 10-20% the reason why you lose weight. The rest is purely diet. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t exercise because it is a very important factor. Exercise can be understood in many different ways. Exercise is basically putting your body on stress so that it can resist that stress the on the body the next time. There are many different forms of exercise but the first thing you should do is picking an activity that you like to do so that you can sustain it for longer periods of time. I see many people want to obtain a goal and going to the gym doing weights straight away, and often they don’t like it because they don’t have the results they thought they should have and as a result they don’t like it. Start with something you like to get some results and you will find that exercise will become a lot more fun to do.
It doesn’t really matter at first what you do, It can be bike riding, swimming, walking, climbing, lifting weights or any other activity or sport. It Is important that you make it a routine in your weekly life. Try to at least start with 2 times a week for minimal half an hour and work your way up from there. Increase intensity, quantity and frequency regularly. But make sure you like to do it because only then will you be able to keep on doing it. Further details about different kinds of exercise and the effect on the body will follow.
Mental health
Mental health is not something many people pay attention to but is a really important factor in daily life. There is so much negativity out In the world and so many people that don’t understand how emotions come and go and how to handle them when they arise. People are getting angry over nothing all the time and complain about things they can’t control or influence. People act and react based on previous experiences and often times are not aware that that is the case. You act in a way that you think is good because of everything that you experienced. But that is often where it goes wrong. We led us influence by our emotions and feelings and have a lot of suffering because of it. We worry about everything and can’t detach ourselves from our emotions. And that is where mindfulness can play a big role. By implementing mindfulness in your life you can start to focus on all the good things in life and observe your emotions instead of being taken and steered by them like a big wave takes you where it wants to go without any control over it, sometimes ending you up on the seabed spinning you around like a washing machine.
You could start with things like meditation, journaling, standing still when passing nature and just enjoy the beauty of it. The thing that worked for me was downloading the app headspace and start with doing a guided meditation 10 minutes a day. Just focusing on your breath and noticing all the silly thought that come by that simple have no meaning and seeing them objectively can make a big change in the way you experience the now. Live in the now not in the past or the present!
Sleep
Many people underestimate the importance of a good night sleep. So has sleep deprivation been linked with:
- degrease in immune function
- higher risk of heart deceases and stroke
- higher risk of type 2 diabetes since it has an affect on your glucose control
- You tend to make poorer food decisions, more refined carbohydrates and sugars
- Degrease in athletic performance
- Harder to handle emotions and feelings
- Degrease in productivity and motivation
- Gain weight faster(fat)
I used to sleep 6-7 hours a day and I thought I was doing fine, because I was used to it. I was tired now and then but that was just how my life has been the last couple years so it didn’t seem of to me. That was until I got the 8-9 hour sleep that my body needs everyday. I noticed a big change in my concentration, energy levels and overall performance. Without a good night sleep your simply not ready for the next day. Besides getting your 8-9 hour sleep every day, you should go to sleep the same time every day. Consistency is key to a rich sleep. Try to not use mobile phones or other devises one hour before bed since the blue light messes with your circadian rhythm, which is your natural clock.
Why do they only work together?
Getting healthier, happier and just feeling better is not obtainable by just one thing. You can eat better but if your not sleeping and exercising well you will have minimal effect. You can try to lose weight by going to the gym and changing your diet, but if your in a stressed and unhappy state of mind with not enough sleep your hormone balance will be off and you might have no effect at all. You can also have this stunning beach body eat healthy and sleep 8 hours a day but if you can not find the joy in the now and only think about the past and the present you will still feel like you didn’t reach your goal yet. Happiness is found in a combination of all of them. Be mindfull and have control over your own mind, eat a healthy diet, exercise daily and get your 8 hour sleep and you will find an immense change in your whole life. Even for people that think that they are happy, and everything is fine like it is. If you don’t have these four pillars under control yet there is still so much more quality of life to gain. But remember take it slow, step by step. Don’t do to much at once because you will fail and than your demotivated and probably fail at all the pillars.
This was the basic principle that I use and that helped me a lot. A more detailed explanation about all the pillars and how to optimize them will be coming soon.
I hope you find this helpful since my mission is to bring happiness to world.
Thanks for reading this and stay healthy!