Busy Parents Guide to Health and Fitness

Being a single dad of a 6-year-old daughter and a 2-year-old son I completely understand the challenge that having limited finances, time and energy can have on taking care of yourself. But it is important that we as parents’s take care of ourselves in order for us to be the best version of ourselves for our families. Building Better Habits This is always the first place to start when making any health or fitness change. This is done most successfully by making small changes in the right direction rather than trying to make big changes all at once.

The great Strength Coach Dan John uses flossing, which is imperative for our dental and even cardiovascular health, as an example for this he states: “People tease me about one of my key training principles: I recommend that you floss twice a day. Yes, floss. Why? Well, if you ask any dentist or dental hygienist, they will tell you that not only does flossing save your teeth, but new research tells us that it might be the best thing you can do for your heart health. It seems that keeping small dental infections at bay is a great thing to do for the rest of your system, too. But there is a point beyond the issue of cardiovascular health. If someone asks me to design a multi-year training program that peaks with an Olympic championship or a Mr. Universe victory, but can’t set aside two minutes or less a day to floss, well, then why are we all wasting our time? And that is the issue here: what are the secrets to long-term fitness? Sadly, most of us “know” this already, but let’s decide right away to rededicate ourselves to taking these simple concepts and running with them.”

How do we start to build good habits? I took a lot of this information from James Clear the Author of the Book “Atomic Habits” 1.Start with a habit that is so easy you can't say no. The most important part of building a new habit is staying consistent. It doesn’t matter how well you perform on any individual day. Sustained effort is what makes the real difference. For that reason, when you start a new habit it should be so easy that you can’t say no to it. In fact, when starting a new behavior is should be so easy that it's almost laughable. For example, if you want to create a healthy eating habit start by eating one healthy meal this week. Other examples are slowly replacing less healthy foods with healthier choices starting one meal at a time. Focus on simple changes to how you approach eating such as things like eating slowly, drinking lots of water, only keeping good food choices in your home, meal prepping and having healthy snacks on hand during the day. It's easy to compare yourself to what others are doing or to feel the urge to optimize your performance and do more. Don't let those feelings pull you off course. Prove to yourself that you can stick to something small for 30 days. Then, once you are on a roll and remaining consistent, you can worry about increasing the difficulty. 2. Take some time to understand exactly what is holding you back. The people who stick with good habits understand exactly what is holding them back. You might think that you’re the “type of person who doesn’t like working out” or the “type of person who is unorganized” or the “type of person who gives in to cravings and eats sweets.” But in most cases, you’re not destined to fail in those areas. Instead of making a blanket statement about your habits, break them down into smaller pieces and think about which areas are preventing you from becoming consistent. Once you know the specific parts of the process that hold you back, you can begin to develop a solution to solve those problems