When it comes to the fitness industry, there are SO MANY lies and myths that can be busted it’s ridiculous!
The problem is people always think there is something they don’t know (myself included), and they will spend a lot of money on the next big thing in diet and exercise.
Think of the Beach Body Diet, P90X, the Carnivore Diet, the Keto Diet, the Paleo Diet, the Total Gym, the Lemon Water Cleanse where you don’t eat solids for 3 days, and the list goes on!
It’s easy to get wrapped up in all of this mumbo jumbo, but can you assume what all of these programs have in common?
- A set diet that you stick to
- An set exercise routine that you stick to
You’re probably thinking “Yeah, thank you Captain Obvious. What’s your point?”
The point is that all of this comes down to consistency and discipline. Consistency in that you do the same thing every single day, and discipline in that you don’t deviate from it (too much).
And here’s a BIG fitness industry secret…Which diet and exercise routine you do doesn’t really matter!
3 Pillars of Diet
Now you might want to play around with a diet that actually works for you AND that you enjoy enough to keep doing it, but please don’t feel like one diet is better than another.
There is so much contradictory science about meat being healthy and unhealthy, carbs being better and worse than fat for energy, which type of protein is best, just ignore it all.
Trust me, I’ve tried almost all of it (couldn’t go vegetarian because…who would want to purposely?), and the results have been the same when taking into consideration the below points…
- Calculate a “maintaining” daily calorie intake (say between 2,000-2,500 for men, and 1,300-1,800 for women)
- Create a 1 day meal plan (could be 1 meal or 8 meals)
- Add or Remove 300 calories at a time to adjust for your goals
Total calories are the most important thing, and even though it’s not as important, WHERE you get your calories will also help (keeping sugar low is advised regardless).
3 Pillars of Exercise
This is where things get fun, and there is no one way to lift weights or hiit some cardio (see what I did there?).
The routine is going to be solely based on your goal, and you can find a lot of workout routines online. Bodybuilding.com is a great resource!
When in doubt, just look at the type of movements you need to be able to do for whatever it is you’re training for and do that with weights…even if all you want to be able to do is get up from the couch or go up and down the stairs.
- Workout/move your body until you are tired and sweaty
- Work your entire body, not just biceps (guys especially)
- Move your body in some way every single day for over 1 hour
If you’re moving your body for extended periods of time, stressing your body (just walking is NOT enough, not even close), and doing this every single day, you 100% going to see results!
The Short Story
If you’ve skipped ahead, here’s the short story of how to get and stay fit and healthy…
- Eat a controlled amount
- Move your body a lot every single day
Everything else that happens within those categories are completely interchangeable, but at a high level that is all you are trying to do.
If you can trust me enough to commit to thinking at this higher level, you can disregard all of these new fads and just do what works! That is, unless you really like trying a bunch of new stuff, then by all means try them all. 🙂
-Jake Martincic
P.S. I forgot to mention this above, but the single most important thing that you’ll need is EFFORT.
Effort while pushing your body, effort while maintaining discipline on your diet, and mental effort to make yourself be consistent every day.
With enough effort, you can create a daily routine (habits). And once you have a daily routine, you might see that your new motivation is simply not to lose those shiny new results that you’ve been working so hard for!
The biggest motivator is fear of loss, and with that you will find it easy to maintain your fitness as long as you’d like.
JakeMartincic.com 