The best four health tips for a busy schedule.
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My Father was always an exercise fanatic. He would get up at 5:00 a.m. every morning, Saturdays and Sundays included, and pound the road for at least an hour before he went to work.
I would accompany him for some of these runs (okay, perhaps only on those rare, full moon occurrences) and we would use the time indirectly to bond.
I learned was the importance of regular exercise and weight management.
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In late 2011, my Father died of melanoma cancer. He was young and it shocked his young family. What I learned from him during the twenty-two years I was fortunate enough to have him in my life could fill a book, but one of the greatest lessons I learned was the importance of regular exercise and weight management.
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The following health tips are for time-crunched Dads—those who may not have an hour every morning to pound the pavement. They’re not intended to form exhaustive advice, but merely some helpful pointers to reinvigorate your health and wellbeing.
Tip one: It’s all in the diet
Search Google and you’re bound to find an array of opinion-based percentage stats on how important a good diet is to your weight loss or weight gain (muscle hopefully) goals. Most say that diet accounts for between 65% and 90% of your potential success or failure. I agree with them and mark it at about 83.48194% (because the Internet needs more postulated precision).
More than any other weight management tool at your disposal, the ability to control what you eat will have the greatest effect on your capacity to lose or gain weight. My advice is to diet without going on a diet. In other words, don’t follow the fads, stick to the basics. Bodybuilding.com’s Meal Plan For Every Guy is the perfect start. I stuck to this plan for thirty days without skipping or altering any of the meal templates, and was able to lose five kilograms of fat, and add about a kilogram of lean muscle.
Tip two: Get moving early in the morning
If you don’t know how important an early morning routine is to your day, listen to this podcast episode by Pat Flynn. Within the context of weight management, an early morning exercise routine is absolutely vital. A research study out of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre found that those participants who exercised in the morning were able to sleep better than those who exercised at night, or not at all.
The important ripple effect of a good quality sleep is that it triggers the hormones in your body that control your appetite. Morning exercise sets off your metabolism, and a morning exercise routine—that is, a consistent program of exercise undertaken at the same time every day will teach your body to trigger hormones and release endorphins necessary for weight loss before you wake up. The triggering of these hormones will kick start the regulation of your body’s blood pressure (vital for exercise) and the release of the endorphins will ensure you wake up feeling energized.
Tip three: Exercise efficiently
The focus for too many people who exercise is on exercise longevity. They strive to exercise for a specific length of time (the longer the better) and measure their success or failure by how long they managed to run without stopping, etc. The problem with this attitude is that it leads to exercise complacency. How often do you prepare yourself for a long session of exercise and then succumb to feelings of sluggishness half way through? You subconsciously reduce your output in order to achieve the exercise time threshold you set for yourself.
Research consistently shows that high-intensity bursts of good quality exercise are the key to weight loss management. Sure, if you can workout at peak performance for an hour a day, go for it. But for most of us, our intensity capacity reduces the longer we spend doing whatever exercise we’re doing.
Change your attitude towards exercise output from ‘exercise longevity’ to ‘exercise efficiency’. Don’t aim for an hour if you can’t give 100% over the course of that hour. Wake up tomorrow morning and commit to ten minutes of a high-intensity workout. If you can’t make ten minutes, try five minutes or even just one minute. Just ensure your output stays at a consistently high level during the workout. On day two, up the workout by a minute and repeat every day until you’re a high-intensity, endurance machine!
Tip four: Have weekend control
Even the best dieters among us fall on our swords when the weekend rolls around. Busy weekday working schedules that distract the mind from its eagerness for food can turn into two days of idle couch and channel surfing. To ensure your weight loss management goals are achieved, have a solid and defined plan for your weekend time.
For the next 30 days I want you to practice these tips.
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Schedule your weekends during the week and pack them full of activities that require the output of your energy. Taking the dog for a walk, pruning the hedges, going for a bike ride with the kids are the types of activities you should be scheduling. Also, don’t succumb to the temptation to depart from your weekday meal plan. Have your healthy meals cooked ahead of time so that when you get hungry over the weekend you have them ready to go. Oh, and avoid the alcohol.
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For the next 30 days I want you to practice these tips. Your first step should be to download the Meal Plan For Every Guy and listen to the podcast episode by Pat Flynn. Track your performance over the 30 days and make whatever changes and alterations are necessary to help you to consistently improve as 2015 progresses.
And, hey, if you have the time—force your kids out of bed at some ungodly hour and take them on an exercise journey they’ll never forget.
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Flickr/ UNE Photos
Thank Tom for the nice post, I learn something from it.
Great Article! I TOTALLY agree with the exercise in the morning ideas. I started just doing 5 minutes of exercise after waking up and it changes everything! I don’t know if it definitely helps me to sleep better ( maybe I’m not taking enough exercise for that) , but definitely I would suggest something short and simple in the morning!! I do skipping as it means I don’t have to think or plan too much ( or take time). In adiditon I can do it anywhere- even if I’m away for a weekend….