Note from Sean:
I’ve always been terrible at getting back into healthy habits after a big trip or project.
So I told Mike for this month’s fitness post to come up with with a plan for getting back on track that’s stupid easy, yet incredibly beneficial.
This is the result, and it’s scary easy to do. This post will take you less than 2 minutes to read, but the impact can be huge.
If you’re going to join me in implementing this Kickstart this week – tweet about it here!
Take it away, Mike!
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Making health a daily priority is important for everyone, but it’s especially important for entrepreneurs in order to stay motivated, productive, have more energy, and less stress.
Knowing where and how to start though, can be a challenge.
Small Steps
Weight training, cardio, drinking water, eating well, stretching, and meditation all contribute to your health.
It may all appear overwhelming at first, but when you break it down into small steps that can be done daily and in synch with your schedule, you’ll be surprised how easy it is to get it all done.
It’s all of these small healthy steps that contributes to your overall health.
Keep It Simple
You don’t need to know how to do every single exercise or be able to run several miles to get started.
You don’t need a degree in nutrition or be a yogi either to apply some basic principles of nutrition and stretching into your daily routine to reap the health benefits of each.
Insert KISS principle here. (Keep it simple stupid)
The KISS principle is a design rule that states that systems perform best when they have simple designs rather than complex ones. A principle that is very applicable here.
Compounding Benefits
Writing daily will make you a better writer. Completing your most important tasks first sets you up for success tomorrow. Sean wrote a great post about this, My Best Secret For Killing Procrastination And Getting Stuff Done. It’s what you do today, that’ll set you up for success tomorrow.
As entrepreneurs, we understand this.
This applies to your health as well. What you do today will determine your energy, motivation, and productivity tomorrow.
Enter: The 7 Day Health Kick-Starter
Anyone can benefit from this health kick-starter, regardless of fitness level.
You don’t need a gym or to dedicate hours at a time to complete these seven days. It can be completed anytime, anywhere, even if you have very little time.
Complete each day’s assigned health goal. In addition, complete the health goals from the previous days as well. So, on day one, there will be one goal to complete, day two, two goals, day three, three goals, day seven, seven goals to complete, if you follow the logic.
Here’s the breakdown of the plan:
Day One: DRINK 16 OUNCES OF WATER
Drink two 8 ounce glasses of water anytime throughout the day. It can be all at once or gradually throughout the day. Feel free to drink lots more water, but no less than the 16 ounces.
Day Two: EAT ONE SALAD
Eat one salad anytime throughout the day. All vegetables allowed, the more the better. For salad dressing, feel free to use your favorite dressing but not more than one tablespoon.
Day Three: 20 MINUTE RUN OR WALK
I suggest a 20 minute run or walk although feel free to bike, use the elliptical, or swim. Any form of aerobic activity that gets your heart rate up will work here.
Day Four: 20 PUSH-UPS
Depending on your fitness level, push-ups can be completed either from your knees or from your toes. Regardless of which method you use, make sure your chest touches the ground with each push-up.
Day Five: 50 ABDOMINAL CRUNCHES
It can be a variety of different abdominal crunches although the number of reps must add up to a total of 50 crunches completed.
Day Six: 5 MINUTE MEDITATION
5 minutes of complete silence with no distractions. No phone, music, people, etc. Sit or lay down with your eyes closed in complete relaxation focusing only on your breathing.
Day Seven: REWARD YOURSELF
Congratulations! You’ve completed six out of the seven days. Reward yourself with your favorite meal, a new outfit, a massage… anything goes here.
Now that you have some momentum on your side, keep it going by repeating these seven days again.
About Mike Goncalves:
Location 180 was the catalyst for Mike creating and launching his own blog, The Wellness Bucket, almost a year ago.
Sean’s resources, tools, and feedback served as Mike’s spring board to location independence.
Mike currently offers online resources, support, and courses through his blog, The Wellness Bucket, for anyone looking to improve their health and overall happiness in their lives. For weekly updates on all that’s new and available, join his free email membership.
I’m definitely on board Sean and happy to hear you are as well. Bring on the 7 day Kickstart. Day one is already in the bag. Cheers!
Great stuff Mike!
Easy yet powerful routine anybody can use as foundation to get healthy.
I’m exercising 3-4 times a week and getting stronger has dramatically boosted my confidence in both life and business. It’s a routine I don’t want to miss anymore.
Keep up the great work!
Thanks Jan! Sounds like you’re dialed into a nice weekly routine, awesome. It’s incredible how once you build that momentum, you no longer dread having to exercise but instead, crave it.
Yes! This is a big problem I see. Entrepreneurs that struggle with health. I’m putting together a blog for this specific reason! entrepreneurs are all about optimizing so that’s why iv applied the 80/20 principles to nutrition and fitness to get entrepreneurs incredibly healthy in the most efficient ways possible. My blog isn’t ready yet but you can still go to my Pre launch page and get the first chapter of my upcoming ebook called “the 5 biggest health myths your continually buying into” That one chapter will help immensly for putting you on the correct path to optimal health
Nice! Best of luck with your blog.
This rings true with every aspect of life. Yesterday I pinned a picture of a clutter free home office and thought I can’t wait until I have that. Then I thought wait for what? I have a home office right now! It’s overwhelming to think about organizing it all in one day. I took a small step and cleared my magazine inspiration basket of things that no longer inspire me. And it felt good and a little closer to having that shiny clutter free office. And honestly I’m excited about clearing something else (small) out today too! Thanks for the article Mike! When’s the next volleyball game? 😉
Awesome Steph! Love how you took the same principles mentioned here and applied them to decluttering your hone office by starting with small steps that you can then build on. As far as volleyball goes, I’ll see you out there next July! 🙂
Nice to see some undaunting suggestions! Thanks
Thanks Deb – It’s the small steps that make all the difference.
Thanks for your comment Deb – It’s always the small steps that make all the difference.
Mike, you’re the best. Thanks so much, these tips are great!
My pleasure Jaye… Cheers!
It can be very hard to get back in the swing of things after a brief absence. I use a stepper for my morning exercise, but have been on a hiatus for a couple of weeks now. The one new habit that I try to maintain is to drink my breakfast each morning. I may stray once or twice a week, but have been doing a good job of keeping this up. It is not about the results, it is just about developing the habits. The results will take care of themselves.
Right on Shimeka! You can’t control the results although you can control the process, including your habits. When you do that, just as you stated, the results will take care of themselves. Great job getting in breakfast too – so darn important to do so.
Definitely onboard – looks like Mike’s program would make a good ongoing cycle even beyond the initial 7 days. Thanks Mike!
Right?!
Excellent ideas
For new attempts and returning to the fold, love the suggestions mike
Thanks Ryan!
I love the abbreviation alone – KISS! This kick-starter is a great reminder of how simple a plan can be in order to reach your goals. Thanks for the plan, Mike!
You’re welcome Kristen! It’s amazing how much of an impact small steps can make when they are done consistently on a daily basis.
Wow… this was “stupidly simple”. My biggest challenge is getting started! Thanks for the reminder to keep it simple!
These steps were designed to be “stupidly simple” so that the challenge of getting started is eliminated. Hopefully it worked for you Eric. Cheers!
Easy suggestions Mike, and that is the best way to start something new. Just throwing in a variety of little challenges during each day keeps it fresh. Thanks for the ideas.
My pleasure Jen and yes, aside from these being easy to accomplish steps so that you begin building momentum, it also provides some variety throughout the seven days. Thanks!
Great post, Mike. I like your plan. Its starts with the easiest thing – drinking water, and finished off by rewarding self. And 7-day health kickstart is definitely easier model than 30-day plans often offered by the health and weight loss experts. Unfortunately, the importance of rewarding yourself is often overlooked. It keeps you motivated and makes the whole process of achieving goals more fun. Thanks, Mike.
Thanks Anna. 7 days always sounds much more doable than 30 days. The focus seems to always be on what’s not getting done. It’s important to acknowledge what we are doing right and then reward ourselves. It provides us more motivation and incentive to keep going.
Such a timely post – thanks for sharing!
I’ve not worked out for three weeks due to an injury & managed to completely let go of my eating habits, uh oh! It has almost healed up though, so it’s time to get back to being healthy.
I find it’s the missing routine element that stops us from going back to healthy habits after a break, so this will do the trick nicely! Thanks again Mike!
Happy to hear that Evelina. Once you’re injury free, these 7 days will definitely serve as a spring board to get you right back into a health routine, especially after three weeks off. All the best to you.
Nice and easy, Mike. I like how you focus on doing a little bit of good each day rather than a laundry list of don’ts. It goes nicely with your Motivational Monday Message video about 7-days to self discipline.
It’s always the little bits of good done daily that makes the biggest difference. It’s best to keep our focus on what to do versus not do. Thanks John.
Sounds like a great exercise plan for next month (after I give birth!). Cannot wait to get back in shape. Sooo tired of carrying all the extra weight!
Thank you Mike and Sean for sharing.
Greetings from Ghana!
Thanks for your comment Maame and congrats on the pregnancy too! This will for sure serve as a timely plan to ease you back into a healthy routine once you give birth.
Great article. I especially like the part about rewarding yourself. 🙂
Thanks Priya… That’s my favorite as well. 🙂
Awesome article. It can be tempting to neglect our health as entrepreneurs at times, and we forget how important it is for us to be successful and fulfilled in the first place. I especially like the part about rewarding yourself- another thing we tend to forget. But it’s so important because whatever gets rewarded is what will get repeated.
It’s crazy how much I have been slacking lately on the whole workout thing, and I am always talking about compounding benefits to my clients in a business/life change sense, but I’ve been bad with getting moving. I’ve been trying to build up a habit over this past week (and of course for/in the future) to go for a walk with my dog before bed every day. In a couple of weeks I’ll run half the way, walk half the way, and then run the entire way, then make it longer. It’s just a process.
Love the steps you’ve outlined here, because they are small but impactful and it puts health in the forefront of your mind. Thanks!
It’s amazing how hard it can be to get restarted – even when you make it as easy as humanly possible…like this post did ha