Content Focus: Lifestyle

Coach Joe Walsh

As you heard we will be rotating through 4 content topics. Week 1 will always be Training, week 2 will always be Mindset, week 3 will always Lifestyle, and week 4 will always be Nutrition.

I really like this topic because forming habits are such an incredibly important part on your road to success for anything that you want to achieve in life, at least the long lasting achievements.

Now unpopular opinion, habits are easy.

By definition a habit is:

hab·it
/ˈhabət/

noun

plural noun: habits

1. a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.

Habits are habitual, it’s something that isn’t hard in itself what’s actually hard is not doing said habit. Imagine that for a second… think of something you really want to be doing in life like maybe eating healthy and working out… think about how much of an effort this is now to do it routinely. Now imagine it being harder to not workout than it is to actually workout or imagine it’s harder to not eat healthy then it is to actually eat healthy. This is absolutely a realistic state and that is why I say: ”habits are such an incredibly important part on your road to success for anything that you want to achieve in life.” - Joe Walsh

Now great, I basically just told you anything you want is easy so why do you struggle and put so much effort into anything you want to achieve? It’s because you are skipping one HUGELY important step… CREATING THE HABIT. Creating the habit can be difficult. “On average, it takes more than 2 months before a new behavior becomes automatic — 66 days to be exact. And how long it takes a new habit to form can vary widely depending on the behavior, the person, and the circumstances. In a study, it took anywhere from 18 days to 254 days for people to form a new habit.”

Now hearing that information can be overwhelming but it shouldn’t be. It should ease your brain knowing there is a light at the end of the tunnel and everything in your future can be easy and achievable if you do your diligence in the beginning to form said habits. You might have to use will power in the beginning but take steps to ensure success while forming habits.

What-ever-your habit is:

1. Do it everyday. Not every other day. Not every week. Everyday.

2. Schedule your habit for the same time, every single day. If it’s scheduled into your day not only do you not have to remember to make time for it but there is nothing you could possible do besides (*insert your habit).
   Me: How do you brush your teeth everyday?
   You: “What do you mean how?” “I just do it, I have to brush my teeth”
   Me: “Exactly.”

3. Reward yourself for doing your habit. Whether you need to eat a small piece of candy after you workout or go shopping for new workout clothes after a week of working out, train yourself to be the person you want to be.
   Me: “How do you train your dog?”
   You: “What? I don’t know, I give him a treat when he sits”
   Me: “Great do the same thing for yourself.”
   You: “Okay but I am working out to lose weight not gain.”
   Me: “First off your long term success and positive habits are so much more important then 1 small treat. Second off debatably sugar right after your workout could be great timing and help shuttle nutrients like amino acids faster so you can reap the rewards of your efforts working out.”

Okay now for my favorite 5 habits:

(in no specific order)

Habit 1:
Wake Up At The Same Time Everyday

Waking up at the same time everyday combats stress and anxiety with consistency. You always know what your morning will look like and you know what to expect. This is a great gateway habit into morning routines and starting your day off on a healthy note. Most people dive into habits with some crazy expectation like waking up early to train for a marathon, eat healthy, bring the kids to school and still get to work on time. Give yourself a break. Waking up early is a habit on its own and you can use that time for just yourself. You know how nice it is to have an extra hour in your day when everyone else in your house is sleeping and the only thing you have to think of is: “how slowly do I want to drink my coffee this morning.” Achieve this habit and then add to it later.

Between the world pandemic, moving, gyms being closed (and if this doesn’t seem like a big deal imagine you are a personal trainer and your previous source of income is entirely based on gyms being open, lol) and just life in general. I have fallen off of my normal routine. My first habit I am doing for myself is waking up at the same time everyday. I am waking up at 5 am. And what do I do at 5 am? I do what ever I want because it is 5 am and everyone else is sleeping. Right now I am just making sure I am awake and sometimes I just sit down, drink a coffee and watch Netflix for an hour. Does that matter? No because if I watch Netflix for an hour guess what it is still 6 am when I am done, I am wide awake and I feel mentally good. I will absolutely start to add healthy habits on top of this in the future but for now I will drink my coffee and watch Netflix until waking up at 5 am becomes the easiest thing in the world for me. At that point yeah maybe I’ll stretch or workout at 5 am, we shall see.

Habit 2:
Make Monday’s Matter

I saw the chance of an alliteration and I went for it lol. What does this mean? Well, Monday’s generally suck. They are overwhelming, they are the start of a work week, they are a reminder that you are behind on everything you wanted to accomplish and didn’t yet (*cough.. cough… because you didn’t form habits). What ever the case Monday’s generally are a harder day for most people so I do one thing every week to make Monday’s just a little bit easier. I can’t control a lot of things in life but I can control when I go to bed. I make sure Sunday night I go to bed early no matter what so I know that I get at very minimum 1 great night sleep a week.

Now this slightly contradict 1 of my original 3 opinions: “Do it everyday. Not every other day. Not every week. Everyday.” I like everyday habits because they can potentially form faster and when your struggling time is in the essence to start building healthy habits. The reason early Sunday bedtimes made it to my top 5 habits spite the contradiction is just because having a good start to my week helps all of my other goals so much. So yes this habit might form slower being once a week but be consistent with it and it will aid to all of your other habit forming efforts.

Habit 3:
Workout Every Single Day

You: “What workout every single day?” “Literally none of your programs ever say that”

I don’t actually mean lift weights every single day. Most of the time you won’t have enough recovery for that and that would just be a negative. But what I do mean is to have your workout time scheduled and be consistent with that time and insert something for your health in that time every single day. So let’s say you workout everyday at 6 am. If you are on a 4 a day workout program you should lift weights for those 4 days, possibly Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday are reserved for 6 am lifting. Now Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday you should still wake up and do something for your fitness but the intensity doesn’t have to be as high and the duration doesn’t have to be as long either. What you could do is walk or stretch at 6 am on Wed, Sat and Sun. They could be short walks or short stretching sessions but the consistency in schedule will help your workout consistency tremendously.

Habit 4:
Eat Veggies Always

I know you have heard me say this one a million times and at this point I probably sound like a broken record or at least I should sound like a broken record. I will forever and always repeat this so that is life. Eat veggies at every single meal, this is an easy 100% decision that’ll make your life healthier in so many ways. If you are eating chicken wings eat the celery sticks that come with the wings. If you are eating eggs make it a veggie omelet. I want you to get so use to veggies that it becomes second nature to you to eat veggies and when you go to the fridge to grab a snack chopped up carrots and bell peppers are a real option you consider and not something you force upon yourself. How is it every going to be a real option you ask? The definition of habit is my answer.

Habit 5:
Breathe Everyday

At this point you probably think i can read minds because again I know what you are thinking: “I do breathe everyday, I have to.”

When I say breathe everyday I mean pay attention to your Breath at least once a day. Breathing is an essential part of living and yet we normally ignore it. For something so essential to life you would think we would pay a little more attention to it. Paying attention to your breath once a day every single day and again at the same time everyday will drastically improve your mental and physical health, reduce stress and anxiety. You can couple this one with waking up early and your morning coffee if you like, that’s what I personally do. Is your breath short and choppy or is it long intent and relaxed. Are you using your traps to breath or are you expanding through the diaphragm. Are you breathing through your mouth or are you using your bodies natural filter and breathing through your nose.

An intent breath a day will change your life both physically and mentally.