◔ 5 minutes read
Conquering your body will equip you with mental strength, energy and determination to achieve anything...
I heard the phrase "Your first achievement should be your body" in a video from Diego Dreyfus and immediately made sense to me. After reflecting on it, I realized that it was actually my first achievement and the breaking point for the beginning of my journey towards self-improvement.
I came to understand why it was so important for me and many others: to conquer your body, you must invest considerable time in learning about nutrition, developing mental toughness and practicing physical activity regularly.
It's probably the biggest act of self-love you can make for yourself. Investing that much time to build up a healthy and endurable vessel will not only provide you with a healthy body to fuel your mind but also with tools such as motivation, self-confidence and determination, which are necessary tools to improve in many other aspects of your life in the present and the future.
How to achieve it
For me, these are the 4 pillars for achieving a healthy body:
Nutrition
You don't need to eat like Arnold Schwarzenegger, you just need to eat a variety of healthy food every day and avoid crappy food as much as possible.
What to eat
- Fruits and veggies
- Cereals (real ones not processed ones)
- Legumes (beans)
- Lean meats
- Nuts and seeds
What not to eat
- Processed food: If it's made by men and doesn't come directly from mother earth don't eat it, period.
- Lactose and gluten
Physical activity
Move your body at least 30 minutes 4 or 5 times a week.
You don't have to train like an elite athlete or even less, look like one. Just put your body under some kind of physical stress for half an hour.
If you feel you can go for longer go for it. If you feel that you are tired just go for 5 minutes, a little bit of something is better than 100% of nothing.
If you feel you don't enjoy that physical activity just try others until you find the one that suits you.
Resting
Sleep 8 hours a day. This will have your muscles and mind recovered for the next day.
If you have trouble sleeping well do a meditation or Mindfulness session before bedtime.
Also, if you are like me and you tend to get kind of obsessed with training and train too much, learn when to take rests when your body is asking for it.
Consistency
Consistency is the key to achieving anything, as it also is to achieve a healthy body. Eating healthy or training a few times a week is not enough.
Focus on effort, not results. 90% of consistency is just showing up, the rest comes alone.
Training daily will make you gain momentum and feel motivated every day. If you rest on weekends, Mondays will probably be your most challenging days. Remember yourself Mondays are the key to having a great week. Take your Mondays as a warm-up for the rest of the week.
"If you skip once, don't skip twice". The key to not losing momentum is to not let yourself break a habit more than once.
Conclusion
Achieving a healthy body will not only provide you with the energy to fuel your mind but also with tools such as motivation, self-confidence and determination, which are necessary tools to improve in many other aspects of your life in the present and the future.
To achieve it you will need to take care of your Nutrition daily, make some Physical Activity 4 o 5 times a week, Sleep 8 hours a day and stay Consistent with all of it every day.