3 Dangers of Sedentary Lifestyle, How Stress Impacts Health, and 2 Ways To Prioritize Fitness
Date: August 23rd, 2024
Read on: veganfitnessredefined.com
Read time: 5 minutes
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Today’s issue is brought to you by Vegan Fitness Redefined. We help vegans, veg-curious, and plant-based humans get lean, strong, and build healthy bodies.
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It’s been a busy summer here.
6 weeks of family time.
Practicing my Polish.
Celebrating my parents- in-laws 45th anniversary.
It’s interesting observing health behaviors in a different culture over the past few weeks.
For example, alcohol consumption is commonplace here, especially at celebrations.
Heavy meat eating is also the norm.
What’s interesting is that these are part of the culture because it’s been that way for generations.
Yet, you can always create a new standard.
When my wife first went vegan over 10 years ago, her family thought she was nuts.
Yet, when my father-in-law had cancer 8 years ago, they recommended two things to help him heal.
a. Reduce meat consumption
b. Take a break from drinking alcohol.
Both changes eventually helped him beat cancer.
(side note: he also ate a ton of garlic and onion which have anti-cancer properties in them).
Who knows if I would have been part of their 45th wedding anniversary if he didn’t take ownership of his health?
He sure didn’t like it.
But being uncomfortable is where the real growth is.
Glad I could see them celebrate their love for another year. 🙂
Lesson: Health starts with what we put inside our bodies.
Here's Your 1-3-1 Friday:
#1.) 3 Dangers of Sedentary Lifestyle
The world is speeding up.
It’s also slowing down.
According to this study, ⅓ of the global population aged 15 years or older engages in insufficient physical activity.
In particular, there’s 3 primary dangers of having a sedentary lifestyle:
- Sedentary behaviors reduce lipoprotein lipase activity, muscle glucose, protein transporter activities, impair lipid metabolism, and diminish carbohydrate metabolism.
- It decreases cardiac output and systemic blood flow while activating the sympathetic nervous system, resulting in reduced insulin sensitivity and vascular function.
- It also alters the insulin-like growth factor axis and the circulation levels of sex hormones, which elevates the incidence of hormone-related cancers.
A 4th danger which is fascinating to be aware of is the impact on the body’s gravitostat and body weight’s homestat.
Both factors correlate with how your body navigates through weight and fat gain.
Aka - the more inactive you are, the more your body will prefer to restore future food as fat storage vs lean muscle mass.
As the saying goes, if you don’t use it, you lose it.
If you aren't challenging and using your muscles regularly, your body will eventually take that as a sign that it's not a priority to hold on to.
After the age of 30 (which is 95% of my readers), your body drops 1-2% of lean muscle and strength each year.
The best way to keep it?
Keep challenging yourself with the right exercise, like lifting weights.
Being aware of these dangers is the first step.
The second is to take preventative action against these dangers.
Here’s a simple 3-step framework you can model:
1. Lift weights 3-4x a week using progressive overload to challenge yourself
2. Aim to get a minimum of 8,000 steps per day
3. Start with a minimum of 150 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous cardio activity (this can be ANYTHING that gets your heart rate going).
Moving more doesn’t need to be difficult.
It just needs to be sustainable.
It doesn’t take much to rise above the status quo.
#2.) How Stress Impacts Health
Mayo Clinic has a solid diagram of the impact of stress on your health.
Pay attention to how each area of your health is impacted by stress:
Notice anything interesting from the graph above?
One thing that stood out to me was the correlation with stress on multiple areas of our health.
Stress is a part of life.
Yet, 95% of us are ill-equipped to handle it skillfully.
The past 5 months have been one of the most stressful periods in my life.
Yet, I’ve navigated it pretty well (considering how I used to deal with stress).
There’s 3 reasons I’d attribute to my success:
a. Creating an environment that defuses stress
b. Committing to my routines (a ‘destress’ daily practice that allows me to recenter)
c. Reflecting each week on how to eliminate stressful things from my life
I'll provide more details on the third point.
Having a practice that allows you to convert negative stress into relaxation is non-negotiable in our modern age.
This can be multiple things:
- Grounding in nature
- Sitting in silence
- Moving meditation (like Qi Gong)
- Shaking (yes, shaking your body; it’s been proven to release stress. It’s also why many athletes shake their bodies before matches)
- Journaling and self-reflection
Any of these can help release stress positively.
But there’s a price to pay when you keep holding onto stress.
Just like there’s a price to pay when you create a new health habit.
Which price are you willing to pay?
#3.) 2 Ways To Prioritize Fitness
2024 has taught me a lot about my fitness.
It’s also shaken me to my core with the dozens of changes I’ve had to navigate.
Yet, if you’ve been struggling to get consistent workouts and prioritize your fitness behaviors, it’s due to two main rules:
(I've witnessed this in over 300+ high performers' lives over the past 5+ years so the evidence is clear).
a. Having clear standards
b. Setting a dedicated schedule
The first rule has to do with your bare minimums.
These are your non-negotiables. What you’re not willing to tolerate to go beneath.
For example, inside our Accelerator 2.0 Program, we have several standards.
One of these is a minimum of 3 strength workouts per week.
No matter what.
If that means you get 3 ten minute workouts imperfectly - so be it.
The goal is consistency. Not perfection.
So having a standard is the first rule that needs to be in place.
The second is a dedicated schedule.
Why this is important is because this makes your habits REAL.
There’s a saying that says: ‘If it’s not scheduled - it’s not real’.
I wholeheartedly agree with this.
If you don’t schedule your fitness activities on whatever calendar/diary system you have… how likely is it that you’ll follow through on it?
Parkinson’s Law states that work expands to fill the time allotted.
Which means if you aren’t scheduling your fitness and health habits each week, your daily work-life activities will FILL to expand the space you’ve given them.
Having a dedicated schedule gives you the structure to constrain your other areas of life.
Your standards make sure you follow through on this structure.
Both will transform how you prioritize your health.
Commit to these two fitness rules.
1 Action Step
Commit to a minimum standard for a fitness habit you’ve been putting off. Whether it’s 2x a week or 4x a week, make a promise to yourself that you will NOT go beneath your bare minimums. Ever again.
Client of the Week
Vanessa is a busy entrepreneur. She's a real estate investor and health consultant.
She’s also a mother and a wife.
Because of many years of struggling with her weight (due to family conditioning), she decided enough was enough.
She wanted to feel confident in her body while showing her son a healthy plant-based lifestyle.
Vanessa and the VFR team got to work.
We started by creating a solid foundation of exercise and nutrition while retraining the way she viewed her health.
One of the core areas we focused on was helping her understand that her health was HERS.
It was her responsibility to take care and create the results she wanted... which she eventually did.
Our strategy: Create a standard for strength workouts (3x per week then later 4x), track her nutrition 5 days a week, and eat to 80% fullness.
Even during life challenges, getting sick earlier this year, and hosting family multiple times this year, she stayed committed to her goals and standards.
Her wins: Down 11 pounds of body, 5 inches from her waist, and doubling her strength in multiple exercises.
Vanessa even ran a 5k on 4th of July, which capped off her newfound health and fitness.
Great work! 🌱💪
If you're a busy vegan, plant-based human, or plant-curious and want to get in the best shape of your life while leading by example, apply here to get lean, strong, and healthy in 2024.
(2-week waiting list and capped at 5 new spots per month)
One Quote To Finish Your Week Strong
"People who are interested in doing something will do it when it's convenient. People who are committed will do it no matter what."
- Bob Proctor
We’re leaving Europe in less than 2 weeks.
I’m sad to leave…
But man, am I itching to get back into full gym vs our small makeshift gym here.
To your gains,
- Gabriel
Whenever you're ready, there are three ways I can help you:
#1 Join our free high-performance fitness FB group to get access to dozens of live trainings recorded along with a tight-knit group of leaders who want to get healthy, lean, and strong.
#2 Are you a high achiever who wants to be lean, strong, and lead by example? Apply for private 1:1 coaching and get in the best shape of your life (2-week waiting list).
#3 Want to fuel your fitness curiosity and follow along with the latest findings, insights, and evidence-based practices? Let's be friends on Facebook and Instagram. :)
(feel free to DM me anytime - I love connecting with new friends worldwide).
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