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Where fitness and outdoors meet. In this space we chat all things hiking, exercise, wellness, adventure, motherhood, and metabolic health from a female perspective! Get ready to learn + be inspired to live your fullest, most adventurous life!
10 Small Habits that will Transform your Body + Health
Hi, my name is Brady and I'm a long time fitness professional and Midwest girl turned mountain living hiking addict. In combining my knowledge of fitness and passion for hiking, I've helped hundreds of women get lean and strong for the trails. Think of this as your one stop shop for both education and inspiration on all things female wellness, trail talk and adventure. Hiking, female metabolism, motherhood, nutrition, travel and fitness are all topics you'll hear discussed here. If you are outdoorsy and active, looking to level up your health, unlock your potential, and become inspired to live your most vibrant life, you're in the right place. You're listening to the fit for Hiking podcast. What's up everyone? Welcome back to the show. My name is Brady. I have been in the fitness and health space now for, um, 13 years. Kind of crazy. That has been well over a decade now, but more than ever I have seen this trend in the fitness industry. It's kind of shoved in our faces right now of optimize. We have to optimize everything. You have to do all these fancy things. Right now, the big craze is like peptides. And what I've noticed with these crazes is that while people are trying to optimize, they are skipping over the most foundational things that will actually get them the lifelong health, longevity and leanness results. And a lot of this, you can kind of look at how other cultures and other countries do things. Um, this is why other cultures seem to stay lean more effortlessly while America is getting less healthy and has more lifestyle diseases than ever before in history. Um, this is not a coincidence. Okay. The way that we are approaching fitness and health in the US is not actually making people healthier because we are trying to do these fancy things, we're trying to optimize, and we're oftentimes skipping over the most healthy things that we can actually be doing for longevity, for better energy, for more optimized body composition, lower body fat, all of these things that will reduce your likelihood of having these lifestyle diseases ending up on a million medications, all the things. Okay, so today we're going to actually talk through ten small habits that you can start doing literally today that will transform your body and health without having to get fancy, without having to take these extremes or purchase any crazy injectables and things like that. Okay, so I want you to actually. Do these things, okay? Not just listen. I feel like oftentimes we just consume. We here, we see. We see these lists. We see these these freebies and all of these, you know, like lists of things that we should be doing. But actually implementing them is another story. So my challenge to you today is to not simply hear these things and walk away and say, okay, sure, good ideas, but to actually try this week to start implementing even just a few of them. If you're coming into this and you're doing none of these or 1 or 2 of these, then maybe you just add in a few and then over time you see if you can add and stack these habits. Because I promise you, these are the things that are proven to actually improve your blood sugar balance your energy, your muscle mass, your longevity, your bone density, your fitness levels, your mental health, like all of these things. And of course, body fat percentage as well, which I know that, you know, getting and staying lean is a big lifelong goal for many people. So tons and tons of benefits here. Let's get into this. This is going to be kind of a rapid fire, quick and dirty. Episode ten Small Habits to Transform Your Health and body. Okay. So number one is to simply go for a ten minute walk or pace around, do chores, something that has your body moving after each meal. Okay, ten minutes for ten minutes after every single meal. You're not just going to go straight from eating and sitting at the table to go in and sitting on the couch or going and sitting in the car, ideally, right? It might not work every single time, depending on your schedule. Try to walk around for ten minutes every after every single meal. And this doesn't have to be a formal walk, but maybe you're standing and you're doing dishes, you're picking up your house. You use that as an opportunity to do the things you already have to do in your house, carrying laundry up and down the stairs, whatever that looks like. And you do it after a meal that's going to help your blood sugar balance, that's going to help you not have these energy crashes. And if you already struggle with any sort of blood sugar related issues, or, you know, maybe you've been told that you are pre-diabetic or something like that, this is something that you're definitely going to want to do. Okay, so that's an easy one to implement, right? Simple. Number two is to have protein with every single carb slash sugar source. Okay. So. Sometimes we have carbohydrates and we don't think of them as sugars, but the way that they break down in our body is into simple sugars. So this is especially carbohydrates that are considered simple versus complex. So simple carbohydrates are going to be things like white bread juices, sugary things like pastries or bagels, even if they don't taste super sugary to you, if they are mostly just a simple carbohydrate meaning they digest quickly in the bloodstream, they're going to break down as sugar. Okay. So that's going to create a big blood sugar insulin spike. So again when we're looking at balancing blood sugar, one thing that we can do other than going for a walk after we eat is to pair any carb or sugar source with protein. Okay. So simple. Just eat them together. And this will also help you get your protein intake up, which is another thing that will absolutely improve your body composition, your satiety, not having you overeat all the time. Okay, so the more protein that you can be having, you're going to see health benefits. And especially when you pair with a sugar or carb source. Okay, so no naked carbs, no carbs by themselves, no sugars by themselves. No more just having like a a juice for breakfast. Okay, that is not going to do you any favors when it comes to your energy maintenance throughout the day. Blood sugar balance, body composition. Okay. You have to be pairing everything with protein. Number three. Do at least 30 minutes of dumbbell work three times a week. Okay, this might be the most, like challenging one. If you're someone who just has never liked to work out, or if you do work out, you always do like biking or swimming or running. Okay, but I need to challenge you here. If you are not lifting any sort of weights. And this can even be lightweights. Okay. If you're not doing that at all, you are actively losing muscle. You're choosing to lose muscle over time. It is a choice. Okay. So you're either choosing to maintain muscle, which will completely change your capabilities as you get older. Your bone density, your ability to not fall and break a hip when you are 60 years old. This is important stuff. And not only that, but you're going to have way better muscle tone, way better body composition in the here and now. So yes, there's long term benefits, but for those of you who are like, I just want to look good, this will also contribute to that. I promise you, nothing has changed my body the way that mainly just focusing on strength training has in a way that it never changed with running. It never changed with circuit training or hit or things where I was just kind of burning calories. Okay, so I know that it can feel daunting if it's new to you, but that's why I'm challenging you to just start with 30 minutes three times a week. Even if you just have one dumbbell at your house and you're doing some squats with it, right? Start small. Get a plan that actually fits where you're coming into this from that fits your current fitness level. If you're working out at home, if you're working out at a gym, what your goals are, what your limitations are. This is where personalized plans and coaching are superior to just trying to piece it together on your own, and it doesn't actually fit your life, right. But start somewhere, okay? You got to start doing it now. Otherwise you're just going to keep putting it off. And then in five years, ten years, you're going to say, why didn't I just start back then when I knew that it was important for my health? Okay, so start there. Even if you just have one dumbbell and you're doing some some workouts on your deck, whatever that looks like for you. Number four alternate non water beverages with water. Okay. So every time you have a beverage that's not water. So say you start the day with a coffee. Your next drink that you have is not going to be another coffee. It's going to be a full glass of water. Okay then. Sure. If you want to have something else that's not water, you have to alternate. What this will do is this will naturally make sure that you are at one actually hydrating your body, which most people are severely dehydrated all the time, which is going to impact many metrics of your health. Um, but let's not get into all of the details there. Just for simplicity's sake, alternate every single non water beverage with water. You can do this if you're out, even if you're having like alcoholic drinks, instead of just going from one drink to the next pours, have a full glass of water. This is going to slow down your consumption. This is going to drastically decrease your total calorie intake throughout the day, because liquid calories are so easy to over consume, especially if you've been doing it for years and it's not something that you really even think about anymore. Okay, so if you're someone who always has to have some sort of drink in hand throughout the day, you're going from a coffee to another coffee to a soda to an energy drink to juice, whatever that looks like for you. Okay, this is going to be very, very important to bring down your total calorie intake throughout the day, actually hydrate you. And you're probably going to way, way lower your sugar intake as well. Number five, I want you to start doing one big active thing on the weekends. Okay, so just one day. It doesn't have to be the whole weekend. But instead of spending your whole weekend sitting down, going to restaurants, sitting on the couch, being kind of lazy, I want you to pick a hobby. Something that you can do with your significant other, with your friend group, with your family, whatever that looks like for you. Okay, something that you enjoy doing that you are on your feet for at least an hour at a time. Bonus points if it's like 2 to 3 hours. Awesome. Okay, but have an activity that you are trying to do almost every weekend. Maybe it's multiple hobbies. Maybe you actually have a lot of different things that you like to do that are active. You're just not really doing it right now. And I want you to be intentional about setting times to do that for me. I love obviously hiking is like my main one, but I also love things like pickleball, dancing, playing tennis, swimming. Okay, so those are things that I could implement more often that I just kind of don't. Um, I would say I hike and walk outside more than I do anything else, but I really am trying this year to be better about implementing these other activities that bring me joy. Fill up my cup I enjoy, like doing them with loved ones, and also I'm burning more calories. I'm staying active and I'm not just sitting on my butt all weekend. Okay, so have something that takes up a couple hours of your time every single weekend, even if it's as simple as like going to the park with your kiddos and throwing a ball around. Okay, it does not have to be anything crazy. You don't have to be an athlete to do this, or live in the mountains, or be doing anything crazy like mountain biking or rock climbing. Okay, just start simple and build from there. Okay. Moving on to the next one. Number six actually eat a serving of veggies and fruits every day. This sounds like so elementary, so basic, but let's be honest with ourselves. Are you actually eating at least a fistful of veggies and fruit every single day? I would say most people in the US are not doing this, and I even find that there are days when I'm like, I did not have a veggie today or yesterday. Okay, so it just takes mindfulness. It takes practice of saying, okay, when am I getting my veggie in today? Am I having a salad for lunch? Am I having asparagus with my dinner? When is it happening? You can absolutely shoot for more than one. I'm just saying, if you are not getting any right now, we're not doing this consistently. Your goal is just one serving of each every single day for better gut health, better micronutrient absorption. You're going to see health benefits here okay. So make sure that you are having those things stocked in your house. You have to have them available to you. So actually grocery shopping with these goals in mind and then just taking a couple seconds every day to plan out, when are you going to actually do this? Okay, a little bit of mindfulness with your diet goes such a long way. Number seven. Find excuses to move throughout the day and kind of make a game of it. Okay? We all hear, oh, we need to be getting 10,000 steps. We need to be moving more. But the reality is our bodies want to conserve energy. We want to basically minimize the amount of work in our day. And we do this by trying to sit more. We don't want to have to walk places, so we drive. We sit down at our desks all day and work. Then we sit on the couch and relax after dinner. Okay, so really, if we're honest, we can spend so much time sitting, especially if you don't live in a city where you're walking places and the US is not super walkable, okay, compared to a lot of other countries. So the reality is you have to be very actively looking for opportunities to stand up and move. One way that I kind of reframe this in my mind, because I'm in a very exhausting season of life with my little kids, I run a business. I am almost always doing something. I never just get to chill. I almost never get to sit down. But the way that that has benefited me is I tried to think of it like, yes, I don't really want to stand up and fold laundry right now, but I'm getting more time on my feet. I'll do a thing, or I'll put a pile of laundry on one side of the room, and then I'll I'll stack it up once it's folded on the other side of the room. So not only am I standing, but I'm pacing back and forth. I'm getting more steps in picking up my kids toys. Do I want to do that at the end of the day? No, not really. But I think about like, okay, my other option is just to sit down right now and kind of be lazy. I'm going to stand up. I'm going to do all the things in my house that I know I already need to do. I'm getting more steps in. Okay, so just kind of make a mental game of it of like, yeah, do I want to have to do all these things? No, but I'm being more active. My total daily energy expenditure is going up. So it can be in boring ways like that with with chores and just the daily things that you have to do. Or you can just try to make it more fun if it's not necessarily in that area. So one way that I do this with my kids in this season of life is instead of just having them watch a TV show, I'll say, let's put on like a dance song where it gives you cues and we're doing a dance together. We're standing, we're moving around, we're being silly, we're making memories, and I'm moving my body with my kids instead of just sitting on the couch with them and watching TV. Okay, so you can make it fun. Look for ways to move more instead of looking for ways to sit more. Number eight. Find a fitness goal that has nothing to do with your weight. This might sound silly, like if you have a big weight loss goal, doesn't mean that you don't want to strive for that anymore, but you need another goal that is going to excite you and push you. Okay, so something like I want to hike a big mountain, I want to hike a 14, or I want to do this one day backpacking trip with my kids, and I know I'm going to have to carry a heavy pack, or I want to be able to play pickleball again. So I'm going to start, you know, exercising accordingly. Find something that is actually fun for you to strive for that will push you to get to the gym because you're like, this hike is coming up. This sprint try is coming up, this half marathon is coming up. This event with my family is coming up, whatever that looks like for you. Okay. But the more fun, the more excited you are for that thing, the more likely you are to actually show up to your workouts. It also changes the mindset that you have with workouts. When I was just focusing on weight loss and just getting as small as possible and burning calories, I didn't like working out. I found it kind of, um, I don't know, like frustrating, discouraging. I felt like I was punishing myself, and all I was trying to do was just sweat and burn calories. Now that I actually train with fitness goals that are revolving around my outdoor activities, my hobbies, the things I'm excited to do and that bring me a lot of joy. It's changed my perception and my outlook with my workouts. Okay, so I definitely recommend this. If you're wanting to start a fitness journey, you need to have a goal that excites you, one that doesn't just revolve around trying to lose weight. Number nine. Box up half of your meal when you eat out. Even if you are not trying to actively lose weight, our portion sizes are typically huge. Unless you're getting like a salad or it's a really small portion size, right? Of course, use your discretion, but if you're eating and you're like, this is way more than I need, box up half of it, okay. We do not need to be eating these massive portion sizes for two people at every single meal. And that way you can actually go out to eat, enjoy your time, and not feel like you have to be super particular with what you're ordering. Or you can never go out to eat. If you do want to lose weight or stay healthy and lean, okay, so it's kind of a win win in this stage of life. I'm just focusing on weight maintenance, and I actually find that I still go out to eat a ton, but because I don't feel like I have to clean my plate every single time. Okay, so taking away that mindset of I have to eat the whole thing, I have to make the most of this. And just saying, like, okay, my objective here is not to eat as much as humanly possible is to enjoy the experience, enjoy the company, fuel my body, and I'm actually going to feel worse if I just try to stuff myself for the sake of like, doing it because I'm eating out and the food is yummy. I'm number ten, have a protein fruit smoothie for your daily snack, so swap whatever snack you're typically grazing on, like maybe before dinner or whatever time of day that you struggle with snacking. Maybe it's after dinner, whatever that looks like, or one meal a day. Okay, especially if you are focusing on losing weight and getting leaner. This is such an easy thing to do. You get some sort of protein powder I like way you can also do like vegan protein powders, whatever works best for you, and you're just going to mix it with water, ice and maybe a banana. Okay. Super simple. It's going to be a very low calorie option. You're still going to get really good fiber from the fruit and protein okay. So it can be kind of a meal replacement if you're trying to lose weight. Or it can just be a snack to keep you full and balance your blood sugar between meals versus just grazing on a bag of chips or grazing on something sugary, that's not going to sustain you, and you're just going to kind of rack up those calories throughout the day by snacking and grazing on those things. Okay. So that is a super simple one. Okay, a bonus tip, you guys, is to order your groceries for pickup. This is free. It's so easy and it makes it just a lot faster to get your groceries. You get in a routine of just ordering the same things and you're not walking the aisle, getting distracted by the things that look really good in the moment. Okay. It really does save you not only money, but you're going to choose healthier options, and it's going to make it a lot easier to show up for each week. So I recommend doing this on maybe a Sunday. And then you're going to pick a couple of the proteins that you purchased. And you're going to do a big bulk grill session. Put them in an Instant Pot, cook them in the oven, whatever that looks like for you, cook a bunch for the week, and then you have protein to put on your lunches or whatever that looks like. Okay, I typically I like to to use those protein sources for my lunches. So like for example, I smoked a ton of salmon yesterday on a Sunday and now I have smoked salmon to eat on my lunches every single day this week. I'll probably do salads every day because I like to keep it simple. I like to just kind of do the same stuff so I don't have to overthink it. And I'm going to have a really good, healthy protein source every single day for lunch. Okay, so just little things like that will set you up for such better success with your eating throughout the week. Okay, guys, those ten and plus our bonus habit will seriously transform your health and your body. And I'm not kidding. I'm saying this from experience, from my own transformation of losing £30, completely transforming my body, increasing muscle tone while decreasing fat. Even after having two kids and now maintaining it for years, helping hundreds of women do the same. In my program, we keep it simple with these types of easy to apply principles. Instead of trying to get fancy, do these extremes and be miserable. Really, none of these are going to require misery. Okay, that's the nice thing about it. You're much more likely to do these things long term because they're not going to feel super restrictive or cause you to hate your life. So I hope that this has been a very practical and helpful episode for you. If right now you're not so much struggling with the what to do, you're struggling with actually doing it, showing up for yourself. Which let's be honest, as humans this is the hardest part. This is the part that keeps us stuck and spinning our wheels is without external support. Without true accountability, we tend to not really do the things that we say we want to do. And then years later, we're still stuck in the same spot. So if you're kind of stuck in that rut and you know that you just need a season of true support, accountability, investing in yourself so that you have something on the line and it matters to you to show up for these goals. Then you can apply for coaching at the link in the show notes, and we'll set up a time to chat to see if it's a good fit for you. All right. Thanks so much for tuning in, you guys. I hope that you liked the episode. Give us a shout out on social media, drop us a rating and review. It is so helpful for little shows like this. I appreciate each and every one of you. Um, we love our listeners. You guys are the best and I will chat with you in the next episode. Thanks for tuning into this episode of the fit for hiking podcast. As always, I hope it leaves you feeling inspired and informed on how to take your health and adventure into your own hands. For more content like this. Be sure to follow along with my daily posts at Ponytail Underscore. On a trail that's ponytail underscore on a trail. You can also stay up to date on my new episodes being released at Fit Underscore for hiking, and find more free resources at ponytail on Etrailer.com. Happy and healthy trails.