Keeping Healthy Eating + Exercise Habits Simple (And Sustainable)
Ah, health and wellness— a multi-billion dollar space, the health and wellness industry has let us know that everything from an incredibly complex low-to-no-carb diet to “magic appetite suppressing lollipops” will keep us fit. But, are most of these things really sustainable in the longterm?
I don’t mean “sustainable” in the eco-conscious sense, but in the “how long can I realistically keep up with this” sense. That said, this is exactly why I keep my own healthy-eating and exercise routines ridiculously simple!
Let me explain—
A healthy diet and lifestyle that’s actually doable
For about ~7 years now, my simple, health-conscious (emphasis on the simple) has kept me in the same shape over all that time. I feel good, my vitals are good, and it’s not hard to maintain (even with a busy lifestyle).
*Before I go further, let me note that health the focus here: not weight-loss, and specifically not using dangerous methods to lose weight, etc. I do not condone dangerous behaviors in that space (as someone who’s struggled with disordered eating in the past), and this is about how you feel rather than how you look. Thanks!
If you’re like me (and don’t really enjoy cooking all that much, to be quite honest), then you’ll likely find that it’s easier to eat healthy, nutrient-rich meals when they’re easy and quick to access and prepare. For example, a go-to breakfast of mine lately has been a simple avocado toast with an apple on the side. That’s it. What’s more, the avocado toast I make is not at all fancy— it’s literally mashed avocado, sea-salt, black pepper, and toasted whole grain bread. Again, that’s it! It’s that easy to make. Oh, and the apple? I just grab it from the fruit bowl, give it a quick wash, and viola— it’s ready to eat. No frills, nothing crazy, and I feel satisfied and full for hours afterward (thanks to avocados’ healthy fats + apples’ fiber-rich content.)
For dinner? It may be as simple as a baked sweet potato with real butter, some steamed veggies (literally, frozen veggies I can microwave steam, since they’re healthier than canned + cheaper than “fresh” veggies), and a piece of baked chicken drizzled with olive oil and some kind of seasoning. This maybe takes 35-40 minutes to prepare (thanks to the chicken cook time, mostly), but you could meal prep a week’s worth of this in ~1 hour every Sunday and be set with a healthy, filling meal for the entire week. My husband and I do this a lot (simple meal prep), and it goes a long way in keeping us on-track with healthy, nutrient-rich mealtimes.
TL;DR? You don’t have to make excessively complicated healthy meals if you don’t want to (no matter what that fitness influencer on TikTok says!)
As for exercise, I keep that simple, too (surprise, surprise)! I don’t belong to a CrossFit gym. I don’t do some type of intensely complicated workout routine that requires tons of equipment and a premium gym membership. I just try my best to go jogging 3-5 times a week (for at least 30 minutes at a time), and meet my daily goal of 10,000 steps a day (thanks, FitBit, for helping out with that).
To keep my muscles toned, I’ll do a simple series of planks, counter-top push-ups in my kitchen, and that’s about it. I may not look “jacked”, but it gets the job done, and when you’re as busy as I am, staying healthy is much easier (and simpler) if you stick to the basics.
Sure, my method won’t make you look like a professional body-builder, but it has kept me feeling good and has remained doable/sustainable since I started prioritizing my health and wellbeing more in college. That’s been 7 years now, and I’ve found that my blood pressure, cholesterol, and weight stay consistent and stable (in a healthy range) by just keeping it simple and doing these basic, not-too-intense things daily.
So, if you’re like me, the KIS method is best— in other words, “keep it simple”, y’all.
Xoxo, MM.