Important impact of lifestyle on health and fitness

When thinking of weight loss, most people immediately think of food/nutrition,  and going to the gym/ working out. But there is a third critical element to it, and that is all around lifestyle. Picture it as a three legged stool: Food/ nutrition, working out/ gym AND lifestyle. If you focus on just one, or two of these, you won’t succeed as the stool will fall over, or you won’t be balanced and won’t make sustained progress.

Lifestyle could be things likes:

Stress

Sleep

Smoking

Relationships

Drinking

Work

​So what do we mean by lifestyle impacts weight loss/ gain?
When stress is down, and if sleep is good, there is no smoking, little/ no drinking, relationships and work are good, then overall lifestyle is good. We feel much better, we have more energy and we tend to eat better.
 
On the flip side, if for example we are under stress, maybe we are under pressure as we have a major work project/ deadline, then we tend to eat more often, and eat more “bad” food (e.g. more takeaways, more processed food).
 
Often it is a vicious cycle. We feel stressed, so we may drink more, and we sleep less. We are fighting it on multiple fronts at the same time and it is inter-related.
 
What can we do?

1. Be conscious that lifestyle plays key part in your overall health/ fitness and well-being and how we feel.
2. Control and be deliberate on the choices as much as possible. For example: Don’t smoke, or if you currently smoke, reduce the amount you smoke. Likewise  drink in moderation.
3. Get as much sleep as you can. Measure/ track your sleep pattern. It isn’t just the amount you sleep, but it is also the quality of your sleep that counts.

 
In order to make sustained weight loss, one must focus on lifestyle as well as food/ nutrition and working out/ gym. Keep thinking of the three legged stool – you must work on all of them at the same time in order to make progress!