It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again

The fundamental formula for health and fitness bears repeating because there’s no way to overstate this message:

1. Eat modest quantities of unprocessed, mostly non-starchy veggies and high-quality protein (sorry, vegans); go light and aquatic on the animal protein for longevity or ethics, and more and land-based if strength and mass are mission-critical
2. Exercise nearly every day, preferably outdoors, including strength and not-too-repetitious cardio; if you love an activity, never stop
3. Eyes closed to wakey-wakey, 8 hrs minimum nightly
4. Breathe or meditate every day; ditto for studious journaling
5. Socialize, because we’re primates, and because we need others to curb our innate pride, stupidity, and regret; this includes regular therapist sessions, and seeing a healthcare provider as periodically as you can stand

Simple. And your risk of heart attack, cancer, stroke, depression/stress/anxiety, autoimmune conditions, debility of the elderly, dementia, and loneliness will collectively drop like a stone.

Pretty good return on a 5-point investment plan.

But I don’t have time to do all that

Oh, yes, you do.

Here’s another way of looking at the time element.

How long does it take to start seeing progress, in any field? If you get serious, in about a month, with minor variations. Strength gains from weight training come within a few weeks, weight loss with proper dieting ditto, and cholesterol reduction from medication after about 4–6 weeks. But this also holds true for nonmedical fields. Whatever matters in your corner of the world, it takes about a month to start moving them in the right direction.

How long before you’re running with the pack? This depends on consistency: it might take years if you dabble, but if you make something your prime directive…about 3 months, with a fudge factor if you’re older and stiffer of mind. I’ve seen motivated immigrants who can barely speak English start a home business and generate positive, self-sustaining income within 3–4 months. Your efforts may not be pretty, but if you are driven, you can achieve what others settle for within months of starting.

How long before you become remarkable? With a no-holds-barred attitude, excellent coaching, an Avengers or Jedi-level support crew, and an exponential improvement strategy…6 months, give or take. If you don’t get thrown down the stairs and Fortune Smiles Upon You, you can achieve what most mortals dream of within half a year. Getting recognized for being the top sales rep, creating or selling a profitable company, flipping a house or two, achieving single-digit body fat percentages. 

I’m not insane, and I’m not trying to sell anything. There are absolutely factors outside of one’s control — particularly this little thing called other people not wanting you to succeed. Some things cannot be rushed, but many things can be expedited if you are dedicated, consistent, and constantly looking for a better way.

From one to three to six months, going from the proverbial zero to hero. Most of us could spare that time to get major results. 

So, why don’t we?

In a word: baggage.

We have other fish to fry.

Finances. Parents. Children. 

Unresolved issues with finances, parents, and children.

Anxiety about this lump or that weird new pain. That pain might be cancer, cancer would mean the end of my ability to earn an income, no income would mean my family would become homeless, if my family becomes homeless I’m a failure, if I’m a failure —

You get the picture.

This is where compartmentalization comes in. Other factors deserve our attention, but so does health. So, we put the scary thoughts in a quiet little box, and create another box for our daily efforts to exercise, eat right, etc. And turn the other 90% of our attention to the important stuff.

But the more crowded our lives get with career and family demands, the more compact the “healthy time” needs to be. Meetings while seated for hours, business meals with alcohol and suboptimal nutritional choices, high stress/low control confrontations, sleepless nights — the more this makes up the fabric of our lives, the more our health efforts must become a concentrated, bitter pill to compensate. Intense yet brief workout sessions. Highly restrictive diets. Effective yet foreign self-reflection practices.

All necessary. But the more bitter the pill, the harder it is to keep swallowing it.

Alignment is simpler than compromise

If you walked 10 miles to work every day, you wouldn’t need much cardio.

If work involved heavy lifting and multi-directional movement, you wouldn’t need to spend hours in the gym.

If you only ate what you cooked, and only cooked what you caught or grew — with your family and friends — you could teach most dietitians a thing or two, while staying thoughtful and grounded.

The more the rest of your life clashes with healthy habits, the more likely you will need prescription pills to wrench your physiology back onto the rails. And 40 minutes on the Peloton, meal delivery services, and guided meditation apps, while no doubt less intrusive, are still compromises: efforts to balance out the unease and disease in the rest of our lives.

Pull up stakes and become a farmer?

If you have the option to do aikido at sunrise on the beach, Brazilian jiu-jitsu midday with friends, yoga and journaling in the evening with family, while pot lucking meals with everyone, do it. And drop me a postcard.

But barring that, keep in mind the 5 principles above. 

Move the needle in those directions every day, just a bit.

Most important of all, Keep it simple, dude. Channel the sea turtle from Finding Nemo, or Chicken Joe from Surf’s Up, I’m not serious but kinda serious.

The health checklist is short, and frankly, so is any critical checklist. 

Life doesn’t have to be about controlling outcomes and advancing plans, though many people make it so: there’s a stunningly long list of variables we can’t control, much less outcomes the way we imagined them. Spoiler alert: YOUR IMAGINATION ISN’T THAT GOOD.

There’s nothing more wasteful than railing against the universe, unless it’s making other people miserable and having them rail against the universe (if you do that, you really should work on stopping). There are no blue ribbons for slamming doors and white-knuckling it.

Unless you’re watching an old Arnold movie, the best revenge isn’t driving your enemies before you and hearing the lamentation of their women. It’s living a good life. Which is mostly about attitude, but if you pin me down for specifics, see the List of 5 at the top of this post.