The most essential things to get fit and stay healthy, whether you are 16 or 66.
Before I rattle off another endless list of things anyone can do to improve their health and shape and feel better, if not today, then at least a week or two after it starts, I invite you to answer two major questions (no e-mail or name required):
Now you understand me a little better, it wouldn’t be very fair to you if you gained 10 kg for 5-6 years and now you want to lose it in 2 weeks, right?
Thank you for taking a minute to join bestefficient – I will do my best, and sometimes a lot less, to get you interesting, useful, and very rarely entertaining information for you to benefit from at the moment or when you decide that the moment has come – to get fit and stay healthy.
And since 2023 is slipping away from us a little bit, I want to raise our eyes and focus not so much on the form, but above all on health. Whoever sacrificed what for last summer, sacrificed. You were starving, running at sunrise, and drinking sometimes too until then.
Photos are extra (because those that aren’t – we delete them), memories are sometimes, but the important thing is that you are on the line for some small and not-so-small details every day.
Let’s start first with the things that are so quick and easy (even though we love to be hard and slow) that you’ll be embarrassed you haven’t done them yet.
The easy steps to success:
1. Drink water, it’s easy to get fit and stay healthy!
I am writing it 301821 times and I have said it at least 10 times more and again when I ask someone in the hall “Okay, but do you drink enough water?” and receive something like “I drink, even yesterday I drank a whole liter”.
“Wait, my friend, you can’t have drunk a whole liter, so you drink more beer on a Friday night?! If you weigh about 30 kg and don’t exercise, one liter is just perfect, but otherwise, you are on about 20% of your needs. Do you know what your phone does when it’s at 20% battery? It asks you if you want to enter emergency mode, so I’ll ask the same – do you want to enter emergency mode?!
You don’t?! Do you want to get fit and stay healthy? Check your water intake needs and not only on our fascinating calculators!
2. Take short (or not-so-short) walks, light exercises, and stretch as often as possible during the day
I have a friend who has been an athlete for years and works out almost every day. And yet, he told me that whenever he has the opportunity and time, he parks relatively far from his work, in order to guarantee a 10-15 minute walk both on the way there and on the way back. Let’s just say he’s not the best example.
I have recently been working with a man, his work is in an office for more than 8-9 hours a day. He sought me out because he wanted to start training more correctly, more consistently. After the last year, he had lost 15 kg and now weighs 78. When I asked him what he changed in this one year, he said that he only started walking more. Understand about an hour a day. “Well, I became skinny fat, that’s why I came to you”.
Yes, it has reached a stage, which I will talk about a little further down, but for many people who will read these lines – can you imagine if you do even just that? So that’s 15 kg, in his case 20% of the weight. Do you have any idea how much better you’ll sleep, how much more energy you’ll have, how much less stress you’ll put on your heart? It seems like the easiest action to get fit and stay healthy – just move a bit more and walk around during the day!
3. Recycle the junk food in your daily snack
It’s not the easiest thing to do, but if you try to replace the usual options – let’s not call them junk, but they certainly fall into that category. Firstly, I’m sure you might find it challenging to switch from a bag of potato chips to a handful of almonds, even though their calorie counts are equivalent. Or perhaps you’d prefer opting for water over a sugary soft drink.
For the record, almost all carbonated or non-carbonated drinks have an average sugar content of between 7 and 12g per 100 products, which shows that with each one, instead of a glass of water, you guarantee yourself between 30 and 50g of sugar and reach the equivalent of half breakfast 150 cal from just one cup.
Focus on fruits, nuts, and yogurt to get fit and stay healthy while you have a snack.
4. To get fit and stay healthy you should practice conscious eating
I’m sure that you think about many things all day long, and maybe you don’t think at all, just maxing out yourself to do all TODO’s on the list. Do an experiment with yourself by paying attention to how much food you eat at one meal, enjoy each bite without rushing for the next one, and if necessary, leave the utensils between individual bites. I am sure everyone can try to do it 1-2 times, so why not 1-2 days? It has been found that in this way a person consumes up to 30% less food.
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I’m not saying starve yourself by any means, be sure to satiate your appetite but not at all costs to eat it all. True, you may have some left over. But think about where you’d rather that food stay – on your plate or on your stomach and thighs, and around your internal organs in the form of visceral fat?
5. Eat a balanced diet. I don’t mean a chocolate in both hands.
For this purpose, the portions in your menu must include a variety of food, with all the necessary macronutrients – proteins, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats. I pay particular attention to the group of people who have focused on eating “I only eat”. Eat a variety of food to supply your body with everything it needs. Any exclusionary or restrictive diet rests on the glory of quick results, but its foundations are related to severe chronic changes in the digestive system, the physique, the psyche, and even the social skills of the people who practice it.
Over the years, I have made and continue to make tremendous efforts to “clothe” such forms of extreme deviance in acceptable frameworks, so that I can really help, and not short-term, one or another person.
For example, a while ago I phased in vegetables and fruits in the diet of a person who was too extreme in his keto adventures, which no doubt contributed to 2 kidney crises in the last 6 months, bowel problems, and high cholesterol levels. There are things that one does not realize while one is focused on a certain goal. Even more so, when the means give quick results, especially at the beginning – it acts as doping for him, a rush of hormones of happiness, increased self-esteem, and satisfaction with what has been achieved. But then comes the bill, and you pay with your health.
To get fit and stay healthy you could use our calculators:
6. Sleep tight to get fit and stay healthy
One of the biggest stimulants of good health is sound sleep, and at its core is having a rough idea of when to go to bed and when to wake up. And while for the second the majority of people by definition understand “at the last possible moment”, for the first things are one idea more willful. In other words, if you’re going to get up at 7, you can’t expect to go to bed at 2 and get some sleep.
The general recommendations of 8 hours a day are as accurate as they are incorrect because there are a number of other factors that have a serious impact on the quality of sleep in addition to its duration – personal weight, alcohol intake, screen time immediately before sleep, bedtime range and waking up, the amount and type of food taken before sleep are all significant factors that can play a positive or negative role.
And if personal weight is not something you can experiment with within a few days to a week (well, today I’ll go to bed 100kg, and tomorrow I’ll go to bed 80kg, obviously it will take a little more time and effort) That’s we won’t mention your personal weight as a recommendation, but still take care of it. To get fit and stay healthy is a function of your body!
However, there are some that you can try today to judge for yourself whether you slept better, whether you were more rested, such as:
- to go to bed before midnight, so as not to wake up in a pumpkin (no matter how fashionable, it is still approaching October)
- drink less alcohol or wait it out – horror – don’t drink alcohol at all before bed. Scientists have discovered non-alcoholic cocktails, beers, and, oh my, even water! Leave yourself a window of about an hour to an hour and a half until bedtime in which you do not eat. I know, now you’re going to say
“Hungry eyes, are they falling asleep?”
Yes, have dinner, just don’t drop crumbs in bed!
7. Screen time over and over again
To improve not only sleep but also your health, it is important to set limits on the time spent in front of the screen before sleep. A good starting point is to make a smooth transition from falling asleep with your phone to leaving it out of the bedroom, or at least one hour before bed without spending time on it:
- instead of watching content try listening to a podcast
- use your phone settings to define/restrict access in advance for your sleep and rest times
- turn off the internet or set it to airplane mode or sleep-focused mode
- don’t charge your phone on the bedside table, if you can don’t even charge it in the room and use an alarm clock instead – this will drastically reduce the temptation to skip the bans to check your mail, social media, and whether that pair of shoes is for sale somewhere else at a better price
- try reading a book instead of the phone before bed. I know, it’s very archaic, but if you’ve come this far in the article, you don’t look lazy at all. Here I will make a few recommendations, among which I also see potential evergreens such as Atomic Habits by James Clear, Thinking Fast, and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, Total Recall (Arnold Schwarzenegger’s autobiography, worth reading), American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (because it’s modern, but also because I’ve read a few things and liked them)
- Instead of getting weak and ill try to get fit and stay healthy.
8. Meditation instead of medication
I begin this point with the clear thought that it is not for everyone, because I myself experience my inhibitions about meditation. But there are proven methods of relaxation that definitely reduce stress, and heart rate and have a good effect on a person’s psyche.
For example, I sometimes practice what is called square breathing, or a deep breathing and relaxation method, which helps to quickly bring the body into a state of rest and drastically reduce stress levels. Which as everyone knows is strongly related to our desires to get fit and stay healthy.
With it, at equal intervals, we inhale through the nose, hold the air, exhale through the mouth, hold the air, and repeat from the beginning. Each of these intervals is 4 seconds. (see picture below) You can start with 3-4 min and go up to 10, which I find to be quite enough and acceptable to achieve some baseline values.
9. Regular Health Check-ups
Monitoring and addressing any health concerns. In order to get fit and stay healthy you should first stay healthy. I know that each of us has at least one old relative who has never met a man in a scrub and still it seems he’s gonna outlive the universe. As a matter of fact, over-sterilization truly is not such a good thing due to possible negative effects like Reduced Microbial Diversity, Weakened Immune Responses, Increased Allergies, and Autoimmune Disorders.
Regular health check-ups play a crucial role in maintaining and promoting good health. They help detect and address health concerns early, provide guidance on maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and contribute to overall well-being and physical shape.
Get fit and stay healthy – wrap up
And there you have it, the roadmap to “Get fit and stay healthy” is now in your hands. Just remember, even the longest journey begins with a single step – and you’ve just taken that step!
Pack the back-pack – hydrate, walk, snack smart, eat consciously, balance your plate, sleep well, tame your screens, zen out, and give your body the occasional spa day. It’s not a manual; it’s your life-saving kit for a healthier, happier you! Now go rock that wellness journey to get fit and stay healthy all the way long!
If you’ve enjoyed this journey with us, why not make it a regular thing? Join our newsletter for a steady supply of tips, tricks, and laughs along the way. And don’t be shy, come say hello on our social channels! We promise we’re more fun than a treadmill.
Here’s to a future filled with more energy than a kid in a candy store, sleep so deep it could rival Sleeping Beauty, and a body that’s ready to take on the world. You’re on the right path, keep it up! Cheers to a healthier, happier you!
Best as always,
Coach Stef
