The Top Priority of Fitness
Here’s a hint:
It has nothing to do with counting calories.
You see, when people start thinking about exercising, a brief google search is most often what kicks off the process. You hit the web, and you get bombarded with a thousand different articles, all quoting studies they probably haven’t read, throwing half-truths or deeply nuanced concepts out as general facts, and claiming “this specific form of eating or exercise is exactly what you need to lose weight or get in shape.” I’m looking at you Keto warriors.
Don’t get me wrong, lots of people share real, evidence-backed truths from their years of experience. Folks like SpreadWhealth, KneesOverToesGuy, squat_university, and Athlean-X do pretty fantastic jobs of taking the “mysteries” of health and fitness, and simplifying them down to the fundamentals. For someone like me, who has already turned exercise into a lifelong habit, these pools of information have context, relevance, and meaning.
But what about someone who isn’t exercising at all? What should they be focusing on? And what about people whose fitness habits flip-flop? One month they’re killing it, and by the next they’re rationalizing why it might be healthier on their mind and heart to not stress so much about going to the gym. Does whether HIIT training or steady-state cardio yield better results matter much to them? Keto or carnivore?
The answer is no. But why?
(This lawn is on steroids)
Landscaping, Fitness, and You
The best analogy I could think of on short notice is about a homeowner with a giant lawn to care for. The lawn depends on his efforts, knowledge, and consistency to stay healthy year-round. One of his neighbors has a lovely lawn in every season, even the winter! “How do they do it?” he asks. Some neighbors’ lawns are dingy and covered in weeds that the whole block can see from down the street. He knows what they need to do to fix their lawn.
At least his lawn isn’t THAT bad, he tells himself. In the summer, it’s easy to run the sprinklers, pull some weeds, and do a mow once every two weeks. The lawn is pretty good during those times, and honestly, he’s happiest with it during that period of the year! It’s easy, and he has no complaints, so, he sticks to this cycle for, let’s say, ten years.
Ten years go by real fast in a home, especially if you’ve got kids, a partner, a business, or anything that you do that demands a lot of time and energy. Ten years of this cycle of lawn care; one season on, three seasons off. There wasn’t much of an issue in the first 3–5 years, but he’s started to notice some issues that worry him.
Crabgrass covers most of the lawn. He hasn’t seen green grass in probably over a year, and whole patches of his lawn are dead or dying. Puzzled at how it got this way, he goes and asks his neighbor (we’ll call him Johnny with the Good Grass) how he keeps his lawn so perfect all the time!
“Oh, you know what?” says Johnny. “I’ve been using this Miraculous Sporaculous lawn feed for a couple years and it’s done wonders for my lawn’s color and growth!” It certainly had improved over the years, which seemed impossible to our main character.
Nameless homeowner, thrilled to hear about this development and how easy it would be to start, buys his own three-month supply, uses that on his lawn once a week, and sees that, indeed, some color had come back to his lawn! But there’s still loads dead patches that aren’t being healed, and ever since he started using the fancy feed, the crabgrass has grown consistently as well. His lawn might’ve bought itself some months, but it’s steadily declining still.
What was he missing? He did what Johnny did, why didn’t it work for him? Frustrated, he decides his lawn is a lost cause, that the genetics of his grass won’t allow it to be healthy, and hangs up the edger and lawnmower for good.
What our homeowner was missing here wasn’t some hidden secret, some never before heard of diet for his lawn that got unspeakable results with minimal effort. And it wasn’t that he needed to transplant his entire lawn and start over. All the habits that killed his lawn in the first place were still there, so the new lawn will end up right back where it started.
What he was missing, was a love for the process of caring for his lawn, and creating a habit of doing the basics. Cut the grass routinely. Water in the spring and summer. Feed it once a week. Pull the weeds by hand as soon as you see them.
No secrets, no gimmicks, no “hidden grass gains you’ve been missing out on”.
Johnny’s feed worked after YEARS of committing to his lawn. That tip he gave is what turned his lawn from good to great. But that result came after he put in the work to keep his lawn healthy all the time in the first place.
Moving past the grass analogy, you can see the relationship to your health is plain, I hope. Quit looking for the “Best Types of Cardio for Weight Loss”. You already know that you need to have consistent, rigorous exercise, and the buck stops there. If it’s consistent but easy, you’ll stop getting the rewards you’ve come to love. If it’s rigorous but not consistent, you’ll never be able to create a habit that sticks for good.
This game of fitness isn’t about “hacking” your way into results. It’s about finding what you LOVE to do, that is RIGOROUS and CONSISTENT.
That top priority of fitness that I mentioned before?
Adherence. If you can’t stick with it, then it doesn’t matter if it’s “the perfect way to lose fat and build muscle at the same time”. You’ll never do it.
If that was the ONLY focus of your fitness regiment, then it doesn’t matter what you choose to do, because in the end, it will yield results for the rest of your life.
Snowboard, skateboard, hula hoop, jump rope, rock climb, weight lift, run marathons, yoga, Pilates, tai bo, hike, carry your kids while you do squats, it does not matter. Make it something you love. Pick something, make it consistent, then push yourself to make it rigorous, and before you know it, no one needs to tell you what it takes to lose weight, be stronger, or increase confidence.
You’re already doing it.
