Fitness Success in 2020

It’s late here at The Educated Dieter HQ. I’m writing you this blog as I realized today after talking with several new clients, many people are searching for helpful fitness information. Placing them in the driver seat of their health in 2020. It was just 10 short years ago that I was in the same position as you, looking for helpful information around this time of the year and that hunt would ultimately change my life forever. Fast forward two years working as a full time global nutrition coach I have conversations with clients everyday addressing their personal frustration or the frustrations of a family member that needs help and they don’t know where to turn. With endless amounts of conflicting information saturating the internet, I’m here to help you start 2020 off right. In this article, I’m going to give you our five top tips to achieve your fitness-related goals in 2020.

Move Your Body Everyday
As a general rule, we recommend 30-60 minutes of some physical activity daily for everyone. If your already inactive or work a sedentary job, we couldn’t recommend this more. Ensuring you are prioritizing movement will help you burn off stored energy in the form of fat and glucose. Improve blood flow, promote mental clarity, and release endorphins to encourage a positive attitude. Chose exercise based on your activity level, don’t just jump into something because your neighbor is doing it. Do it instead because it’s right for you. It could be something as simple as walking around your block a few times. Or as extreme as lifting weights five days a week. Whatever it is, make sure that you can adhere to the frequency of the activity. Many new years’ resolutions will fail because they start out too aggressive in the beginning. Just like the turtle and the rabbit race, remember steady progress will lead to long term success, taking on your 2020 goals to aggressively will lead to burn out and frustration.

Nutrition Education
While it may sound like I’m asking you to go back to college, don’t worry. This nutrition education won’t put you 100k in debt. Many advanced university-educated nutrition coaches and registered dietitians have spent hours, days, and years editing video footage. Uploading that content to Youtube so many of you can learn from it. Lucky you, evidence-based nutrition information is in abundance all over the web and is becoming more popular in published books & e-books like Layne Nortons “Fat loss forever.” https://www.amazon.com/Fat-Loss-Forever-Lose-KEEP/dp/1794510109/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= Some of you may have also heard the term “Macros” or “Macro Nutritients” and it’s for good reason. This calorie tracking system has been used by millions of people, if applied correctly with the help of a nutrition coach has the power to change your life forever. You see your metabolism is specific to you and dynamic in nature. We gather data metrics such as your weight, adherence to the calories, consistency with tracking macros, accuracy with tracking, biofeedback, and many other variables to provide you the data you need to be able to learn more about your energy balance. This is necessary for creating a plan of action that will set you up for achieving sustainable fat loss. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPm6IvBTQq8&t=376s

Drink more water
A quick google search will tell you that many Americans drastically under consume water, the reported average in the states is shy of 4 cups per day. That’s the equivalent of a 2-16 oz water bottle daily. This amount isn’t near enough for any adult. Our bodies are made up of roughly 60% water and adequate amounts of water consumption aid us in many physiological benefits that you will feel almost immediately once water intake is increased. Benefits include;
-Aiding in your digestion to avoid constipation
-Improves absorption of nutrients
-Improve energy and feelings of fatigue
-Improves circulation
-Transports nutrients throughout our body and delivers nutrients to our tissues
-It helps regulate body temperature.
To ensure adequate hydration, we recommend 3-4 liters per day for active men and 2.5-3 liters per day for busy women. Many variables play into this, but this will provide you a quality starting point to start feeling the benefits of hydration immediately.

Ensure adequate sleep
Are you always on the go? Hustling and trying to make it happen, but in doing so, neglecting your rest and compromising for a messily 4-6 hours per night? The reality is that your lack of sleep could be the main reason why you aren’t seeing the progress your working so hard for. Lack of sleep causes disruptions in your circadian rhythms. During a regular 24 hour cycle, you wake as the sun rises and set as the sun sets, but if you’re a night owl like some of my clients. Your sacrificing opportunity to allow adequate recovery of various hormones that only take place when you sleep. Physical recovery also happens when you sleep, so if your constantly sore and tired, chances are you need to sleep more.

Incorporate personal time to cope with life stress
This is one of the most valuable things you will ever hear me talk about. Many of you are busy; in fact, you’re so busy that you forgot about yourself and the little things that bring you happiness. To avoid excessive stress and the various distractions life throughs at you, try committing to yourself for just 15-30 minutes per day to have some time to yourself. What you choose to do with that time is up to you. Still, it could be something as simple as reading a book, drawing a picture, going for a walk, calling a close friend, praying, or simply just being in silence and thinking about your goals and manifesting them in your mind. This 30 minutes to you could be the game-changer that allows you to avoid stress building up in your life. Many of our past clients have also reported that the main reason why they made poor eating decisions was due to stress in the world place or with close friends and family. Ensure your taken care of before anyone else in 2020 so that you can go out into the world and give freely to others.

Will you use these 5 steps to improve your health in 2020?