December 2, 2019
What are the Pillars of Your Health & Fitness?
This Topic always manages to “Offend” someone reading every time, and I promise you that is not the Goal.
The Goal is for you to Assess just How Important your Health/Fitness is to You, personally, as reflected by Your Actions, not your Thoughts, Wants, or History.
As for a Working Definition of Health/Fitness, it is always dependent of the Individual.
Everyone is different, and has unique needs relative to Family-History, Goals, Injury, Work, Energy, Fun, etc,…
For the Purposes of this Article, lets establish these Characteristics as the “Foundation” of Health/Fitness: Structure, Habits, Plan and Accountability.
Please Understand, your Pillars (think in terms of the 4 most “Necessary” + “Important”) are what Makes You Function and Live with the most Efficiency and Success.
As always, the best place to start is with the person in the mirror, so here is my Outline for my PASHion for Fitness.
I like to start with “Working” Definitions of the Pillars before I relate to my specific Personal Situation:
Plan: What Is your Desired Outcome? How Do We get there? What are the stages that we need to link together to proceed on that course? Where do we begin? How do we “Write” your Book, starting with Chapter 1?
Accountability: How, and Who do You “Report Back To”? How do You indicate whether there has been Success or Failure, Excuses or Reasons, Steps or Set-Backs? Having a Person, on a Schedule, that will be Honest with You so that you can Be Honest with Yourself is very Important!
Structure: What is Your current “System” in place to allow you to Sustain or Improve Your Health? This pertains to your Nutrition, Recovery, Training, Dr. Visits, Mental Health, Attitude, etc.,
It may be Broad, but it is your Overall Health System.
Habits: What are your Actual Actions? What “Familiar” Patterns do you fall into? Are they Leading you to Success? Are they preventing you from Achieving?
Then I write my Outline, not the Individual Breakdown of what I do Day-to-Day or Week-to-Week.
For more on the Specifics on exactly What I am doing, please see + Read “What I’m Doing to feel Better” in our Pulse Section @ Ipfitness.com
Plan: Specific Goal = Better than Last Year (as defined by “Years Best”: % Fat, BW Weight, Chin-Ups, Push-Ups, Medical Testing Results, Daily Energy and the Mirror)
Desired Outcome = Continue to Stay Healthy and Enjoy Movement, Training and Life.
I enjoy laying out my Training Phase by Phase, in ~3-Week Blocks.
I have Goals for each “1/4” Quarter of the Year with my Training that influence my Nutrition.
For Example, Quarter 4/2019 (Oct-Nov-Dec)
Increase Overall Fitness, emphasize in Workouts + Measured Qualities
Sustain Body fat Reduction from Previous Quarter
Keep Caloric Intake High, Sustain Body fat via Exercise Food Quality
Quarter 1/2020 (Jan-Feb-March)
Muscle Mass Acquisition (Get Bigger)
Increased Caloric Intake w/regards to Protein + Totals (300gs Daily)
Sustain Movement Quality
Accept Diminished Fitness @~20% Reduction
This is how I begin to “Write My Book” for 2020.
Start with my Big Picture Goals, and then Work Backward.
Accountability: This is typically the “Trickiest” Characteristic of my Process. Ultimately, We are all Accountable to Ourselves, but it’s also not that Simple or Easy.
Who Do I Report To?
Myself, My Wife and Son, My Co-Workers and My (Deceased) Parents.
I may not always “Like” what I hear, but I will always Respect who it is coming from. My “Inner-Circle” is Valuable to me is so many ways, but particularly because they will help me “Right my Wrongs” by pointing them out as fast as they occur.
Accountability permeates every aspect of my Training and my Life.
Not paying enough attention, Put the Phone Down (my Son)
Is this the Path you really want to be traveling on? (my Wife)
Where are we headed with the Business and Why? (the Staff)
Are you the Man You Want and were Raised to Be? (my Parents)
Are You a Man of Your Word (Myself)
Structure: What are the Beams that will Hold your Process in Place? What is the Backbone of your Success?
My General Structure: Addressed in Weekly + Monthly Increments for each of the Following:
Training (Frequency, ~Time of Day, “New” Additions)
Nutrition (Meal Plan for each Week, Awareness of Meals “Out of Home”)
Recovery (Sleep)
Wife Work Schedule (Travel, Games, events, etc)
DaddyCare (Pertaining to My Time with My Son)
Work @Gym (Gym Schedule + Development)
Work Out of Gym (Games of Athletes, Travel, etc)
I sit down with my Calendar and write out the Outline for the Month.
Once completed and checked, I give a little more Detail to each Week, based on the individual changes and nuances that the Schedule indicates.
Every Sunday I Update the coming Week while Reviewing the previous.
I also spend 5-8min each Evening, before I go to Bed, “Previewing” the next Day.
Structure is the Steel Beams of my Plan, and extremely important for me based on my Personality.
My Personality is a Function of my Attitude/Mindset + my Actions, and you could see both very clearly as my Habits
Habits: Consistency is only a Blessing if your Actions, the ones that are necessary and performed routinely, lead you to Success.
Your Habits are always Revealing: they Reveal why you Succeed, Struggle, Stagnate, or Soar.
Your Habits Reveal Who you “Currently” are, and Who You are “Becoming”.
Whatever your Methods for “Change”: Creating New Patterns, Pairing Behaviors Together, Living in Extremes, Taking 30-Day Challenges, Identifying + Removing Obstacles and/or People in your Life, Therapy, Meditation, etc., your Habits will indicate where you are headed.
My Habits are typically built around Simplicity or Success, and are subject to Change when I am presented with better Information or Opportunities.
Many of my Habits are built into situations where Time + Efficiency are equally Important…
Example 1: ~40min Home Trip (during Work Day)
I have a Break built into every Workday that exists because I Live so closely to Work (~4min Drive)…
Bring a Dog Home, Walk + Feed other Dogs, Start New Load + Switch Previous Load of Laundry, Prepare my Son’s Room for the Evening (Make Bed, Clean, etc.,) Clean Kitchen, Empty Dishwasher, Vacuum, and Set House Up for Evening Success.
That entire Process may sound like a lot, but because it has become a Habit, it is completed at a high rate of Speed, ~40min.
It became a Habit once I recognized it saved me about Hour each Day, immeasurable Frustrations, and Made the Dogs Lives Better.
Example 2: Get Out of Bed when Your Alarm Goes Off.
I have 60sec to get to the Shut my Alarms Off, Make my Bed, and Get to the Bathroom (to turn-on shower) once my alarm goes off. I have made a Habit because it starts my day with 3 Things I Need:
- An Accomplishment: I make my Bed so that it is Neat, Ready for my Return that Evening, and Organized as part of My Life. It sounds Simple, but makes a huge difference.
- Efficiency: I am literally “Walking into my Process” by getting out of Bed. I have already done 4 Things in the 1st Minute I am awake each Day (Made Bed, Turned Shower On, used the Toilet and as soon as I step into the Water, I am “Alive”… My Clothes are already laid out, including my footwear, and I walk downstairs for my Breakfast not needing to return to my Room. The ~15min I save by “Bundling” all of my initial Routine together gives me an additional 15min each to use as I choose. Time is only valuable when you use it…
- An Attitude of Achievement: I gain Confidence and Excitement from my Morning Routine. I believe in my Process, in my Efforts, and that they lead me to greater success throughout the other day… I have a saying, “Its hard to get an A if you start with a C” with regards to starting each day…
Habits, be they Individual Actions or Intricate Processes, are woven into the Fabric of your Day, and your Success… Make the most of them!!
These are my 4 Pillars (for this Article, we all Reserve the Right to Change our Support Systems and Emphasis as our Lives Change), and even as this was written, I reformed, changed and evolved what was important to me.
And truly, that is what New Information should do!!!
It should Challenge You to redefine or refine your own Views, Process and Mind-Set.
Don’t Accept anything “blindly” and don’t universally Dismiss, but try to find something that works for you in everything you Read, Hear or See.
Let’s Get Better!!!
