The 3 foundational aspects of a healthy life are: Eating (consumption), Exercising, and Sleeping. If you've neglected any one of these, you know how terrible life feels. Then again, maybe you've never exercised, or eaten well, or got good sleep, so you don't know good you can feel. This guide is for beginners, as well as intermediates, who want to better understand and execute on their health and fitness journey. In this guide, I'll show how to eat, exercise, and sleep for a better life. # 1. Eating **The Problem:** The Standard American Diet has us overeating calories (mostly in the form of refined carbs), which are then stored as fat, and undereating essential nutrients (protein, omega-3 fats, fiber, vitamins and minerals). Simply put, we overeat refined carbs and certain fats and under eat everything else. **The Solution:** The easiest solution to this problem is to eat whole foods: colorful vegetables and fruits, fish, legumes, meat, dairy, nuts, and whole grains, with a focus on protein (fish, eggs, legumes, etc.), colorful vegetables and fruits, and healthy fats (nuts, seeds, olive oil, etc.). We want to mostly avoid everything else. ## Definitions | **Term** | Definition | | ----------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Macronutrients** | Large molecules (Protein, Fats, and Carbs) your body needs in bulk for energy, growth, and repair. | | **Calorie** | Energy units from food. Protein and carbs give 4 calories per gram; fats give 9. 2000 calories often used as a general guideline for healthy eating and is what % DV (is based on on nutrition labels, as shown below). | | **Protein** | Builds muscles and hormones. Aim for 0.7g per pound of body weight daily (e.g., 120g for a 170-lb person). Best sources: eggs, fish, legumes, meat, dairy. Read a [[Protein]] article, or watch a [video](https://youtu.be/is3_qugZ16I?si=hh2Xzv5X2mNJvtLE) to learn more about protein quality. | | **Fat** | Support energy and vitamin absorption. Focus on omega-3s (fish, walnuts) and keep a 1:1 to 1:4 ratio with omega-6s. Read a [[Fat]] article to learn more about fat. | | **Carb** | Our body’s main energy source. Choose fiber-rich options like veggies, beans, and whole grains. | | **Micronutrients** | Vitamins and minerals for overall health (e.g., vitamin C from fruits, iron from spinach). | | **Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE)** | Amount of calories you burn daily. Estimate yours [here](https://www.calculator.net/tdee-calculator.html). Eat less to lose weight, more to gain. If your TDEE is 2,500 calories, eating 2,000 calories daily makes you lose weight, while 3,000 calories makes you gain. | | **Body Fat Percentage** | Total mass of fat/total body mass. Healthy range: 10-20% for men, 20-30% for women. | | **Calorie Surplus** | Eating more calories than your TDEE. You gain weight in a surplus. | | **Calorie Deficit** | Eating less calories than your TDEE. You lose weight in a deficit. | ![[chickenBreast.png]] ## Practical Application (Strategic Eating) I'm going to give you the advice I utilize myself: eat the same core things everyday. This technique works so well, because there's almost no guesswork involved, it saves time and ensures you hit your nutrient goals, and buying a bunch of the same things means you can buy in bulk and save money (I buy everything at Costco). This (below) is what I eat for breakfast and lunch everyday and I get everything I need: Protein, Fat, Carbs, Vitamins, and Minerals, besides Vit. D & E (which I supplement). ![[websiteAssets-03.png]] But, how did I do this? 1. I identified foods that I loved. 2. I made sure the combination of them rounded out my nutrient needs. 3. I started eating these meals everyday. Let's walk through this process for you: ### 1. What foods do you love? Start with a protein (e.g., eggs, chicken, yogurt), then add nutrient-dense foods like colorful veggies, fruits, and healthy fats (nuts, olive oil). Try these bowl ideas: - Egg Bowl: eggs, broccoli, black lentils, a can of sardines on the side (my breakfast) - Greek Yogurt Bowl: plain Greek yogurt, pecans, blueberries (my lunch) - Chicken Salad: chicken, mixed greens, avocado, dressing - Taco Salad: ground beef or turkey, lettuce, black beans, cheese, veggies, salsa - Mediterranean Bowl: lamb, chickpeas, tabbouleh, hummus, tzatziki - Greek Bowl: grilled chicken, Greek yogurt, quinoa, cucumber, feta cheese - Mexican Bowl: ground turkey, black beans, veggies, cheese, salsa ### 2. See if your meals meet your nutritional needs. Create a free [Cronometer](https://cronometer.com/) account. In the More > Targets + Profile tab, enter in your sex, height, weight, estimated body fat percentage, and determine your TDEE. After you do that, go to the Dairy tab and add all of the foods that are in your meals to the day and see where you stand in the Nutrient Target section (hopefully it looks like the below picture). If you are not hitting your targets, add some more nutritious foods to your meals. If this is a little confusing, check out my [Cronometer Tutorial](https://youtu.be/EsLMz-1857o). It will also be helpful to get a scale (they're very cheap on Amazon). ![[nutrientTarget.png]] ### 3. Start Eating It's really that simple. Obviously, you don't HAVE to eat the same meals everyday, but if you're generally consistent with this, you have a really good idea of what nutrients you're getting. ### Gaining, Losing, or Maintaining Weight Once you have your core meals, you can always have extra, or eat less to gain or lose weight. For example, I eat my 2 meals that total around 3,500 calories. 3,500 calories puts me in a slight calorie deficit, so I end up eating a light dinner, as I'm trying to gain weight. If I was trying to lose weight, I would just eat my 2 meals, and I would maybe remove the pecans from my meal 2. If I wanted to maintain, I would eat my 2 meals everyday (which would put me in a solid calorie deficit), and then once per week I would be able to go out for dinner, or have some extra food/treats. ### Remove Unhealthy Foods This is just a little bit of advice: Don't allow unhealthy/bingy foods (chips, candy, doughnuts, etc.) in your house. I cannot keep sour gummy bears at home, or I will eat them all. If you remove your food temptations from your surroundings, achieving your health goals becomes a lot easier. ### Honorable Food Mentions I get most of these foods from Costco in bulk. - **Walnuts:** these suckers have an incredible Essential Fatty Acid (EAAs) profile. I eat at least a quarter cup of them a day. - **Sardines:** these are another incredible source of EAAs, as well as a great source of protein. - **Black Lentils:** currently these are hands down my favorite protein source. I buy [these](https://a.co/d/1sBrVmh). - **Blueberries:** the best fruit, by far. They are packed with antioxidants. - **Fat free Greek yogurt:** incredibly protein dense. I eat them daily. # 2. Exercising **The Problem:** Our bodies adapt to the stress, or lack thereof, we subject them to. Therefore, living a physically unchallenging (sedentary) life makes both our overall health and physical body more fragile and less healthy. **The Solution:** Exercise is the solution, and exists in two forms: resistance training, like weight training, bodyweight exercises, and resistance band work (which forces our skeleton to become stronger, and muscles to become bigger, stronger, and more efficient), and cardiovascular (cardio) training, like running, biking and swimming (which forces our hearts, lungs, and blood vessels become stronger and more efficient). ## Definitions | **Term** | Definition | | ---------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Workout Split** | A structured plan to work muscle groups across different days (e.g. include full-body, upper/lower, or push/pull/legs splits. | | **Exercise Movement/Lift** | A movement that can be loaded with resistance, which targets a specific muscle/muscle group (e.g include squats, pull-ups, and overhead press). | | **Warmup Set** | A continuous group of repetitions of an exercise done at a weight/intensity meant to warm up the target muscle group and associated joint/joints. This set, or sets should be a moderate percentage (25-75%) of your working set. | | **Working Set** | A continuous group of repetitions of an exercise done at a weight/intensity meant to challenge the target muscle/muscle group. These sets are done until technical failure/task failure (meaning another repetition cannot be performed through the entire range of motion with correct form). Especially when starting out, you should never compromise form to complete a movement. | | **Maximum Heart Rate (MHR)** | The highest number of times your heart can beat in one minute. A common formula is 220 minus your age. | | **Eccentric/Concentric** | These are the lengthening and shortening (relative to the target muscle/muscle group) portions of a lift/exercise. A general rule of thumb is to do the eccentric portion of a lift/exercise slower and the concentric a bit faster. Both portions of the lift/exercise should be done at a comfortable speed. Below are the concentric and eccentric portions of a bicep curl. | ![[eccentricConcentric.jpg]] ## Practical Application of Resistance Training Let's first touch on resistance training, specifically weight training. This centers around utilizing workout splits, or plans for exercising muscle group across some set period of time (typically a week). The basic splits are: full-body (exercising all the big muscle groups every training day), upper/lower, and push/pull/legs. If you're relatively seasoned in the gym, feel free to do whatever split works for you. If you're new to the gym, I'd suggest doing the following 2-day full body split that looks like the following: ### Beginner 2-Day Resistance Training Full-Body Split For each of these exercises you should do at least 1 Warmup set, then do 2 working sets, and aim for about 10 reps on each set. When you get to the point where you can easily do more than 10 reps, incrementally (by 5lbs or 10lbs) go up in weight. Here's a [[Basic Exercise Tutorial]] for all of the above below. | | Squat | Hinge | Pull | Push | | :-------: | :----------: | :----------------: | :-------------------: | :-----------------: | | **Day A** | Goblet Squat | Romanian Deadlift | Pull-up/Lat Pull Down | Incline Chest Press | | **Day B** | Leg Press | 45° Back Extension | Cable Row | Dips | Keep in mind this is a very basic split and doesn't include a lot of beneficial exercises. So when you've mastered these feel free to explore my [[Extensive Collection of Exercises]] (which is a constant work in progress). ### Exercise Naming Convention This is worth touching on, because it can be confusing. Heck, even I have to look up the names of exercises sometimes. Exercise names follows one of the following conventions (with Equipment - Movement being the most widely used): - Movement (e.g. Pull-up, Squat, Leg Press) - Equipment - Movement (e.g. Cable Row, Dumbbell Incline Chest Press) - Muscle Group - Movement (e.g. Lat Pulldown, Bicep Curl) - Position - Movement (e.g. Goblet Squat, Bent Over Row) - Who Popularized the Exercise - Movement (e.g. Romanian Deadlift, Bulgarian Split Squat) - Equipment - Muscle Group - Movement (e.g. Barbell Chest Press) ## Practical Application of Cardiovascular Training Cardiovascular (cardio) training forces our hearts, lungs, and blood vessels become stronger and more efficient. It’s best to focus 80% of your cardio training on longer cardio (where you maintain 60-70% of your max heart rate) and 20% of your cardio on shorter more intense sessions (where you briefly elevate your heart rate to 80-90% of your max heart rate (220 - age). For a beginner, I would skip the higher/more intense cardio and do the following: 2 days of 20-30 mins stationary bike (60-70% MHR). ### Tracking Heart Rate Tracking heart rate is important. A lot of gym cardio equipment will have built in heart rate monitors, so you can grab on to them and see where you're at. If you're not using equipment that has them, you want to make sure you can speak in full sentences, but it's challenging at the same time. The most reliable forms of heart rate monitors are chest straps, like the [Polar H10](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PM54P4N?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1). If you'd like a deeper understanding of the mechanisms that improve Cardiovascular Fitness, check out [[Understanding Cardiovascular Fitness]]. ### Cardio Options (Different Cardio Modalities) A few of the different cardio exercise modalities are: - Running - Biking - Swimming - Rowing - Walking (you can walk at an incline) - Stair Stepper - Burpees ## Practical Application of Resistance & Cardio Training A combination of resistance training and cardiovascular training is necessary for overall health and fitness. If I were a beginner, I would start with the below schedule. - Do days 1-4 in order, but on whatever days of the week you want (Mon: Day 1, Tues: Day 2, Wed: Day 3, Thurs: Day 4), or (Mon: Day 1, Wed: Day 2, Thurs: Day 3, Sat: Day 4). Day 1 is Resistance Training Day A and Day 2 is Resistance Training Day B. - I would do Day 1 and Day 2 exercises in the order shown, so for Day 1: First Goblet Squat, then Romanian Deadlift, then Pull-up/Lat Pull Down, and then Incline Chest Press. - Remember to do at least 1 warm up set for each resistance exercise (should be at 5-10 reps at 50-75% of your working sets' weight, ex. If for Goblet Squats I'm going to hold a 50lb dumbbell for my working sets, I might do a set of 10 body weight squats and then a set of 5 Goblet Squats with 25lbs). ### Beginner 4-Day Exercise Schedule | | Exercises | Working Reps-Sets (Per Exercise) | | :-------: | :-------------------------------------------------------------------------: | :------------------------------: | | **Day 1** | Goblet Squat, Romanian Deadlift, Pull-up/Lat Pull Down, Incline Chest Press | 10-2 | | **Day 2** | 20-30 mins stationary bike (60-70% MHR) | | | **Day 3** | Leg Press, Row, 45° Back Extension, Dips | 10-2 | | **Day 4** | 20-30 mins stationary bike (60-70% MHR) | | # 3. Sleeping **The Problem:** People generally undersleep, or get poor sleep, which increases the likelihood of cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, immune system dysfunction, mental health disorders, cancer, etc. **The Solution:** Get 7-9 hours of sleep per night, avoid poor-quality sleep (frequent awakenings). Having a mostly regular sleep and eating schedule contribute to higher-quality sleep. Studies also show that having your sleeping environment at 60-67°F is ideal for most people. Getting consistent quality sleep has enormous health and fitness benefits. Some other ways to get good sleep (per [Brian Johnson](https://protocol.bryanjohnson.com/) (the [Don't Die](https://dontdie.bryanjohnson.com/) guy, who's trying to slowdown/stop the ageing process)) include: - Blacked out room - Sleeping alone - 1 hr downtime before bed - Temperature controlled mattress - Give yourself some buffer time (3+ hours) between your last meal and bed time # Deliverables Screen shot this to quickly reference the takeaways from this article. ## 1. Eating Eat the same core meals every day (a small enough amount of food to be in a calorie deficit, but enough nutritious food to meet all you nutrient needs). You can check both of these things by putting your meals into [Cronometer](https://cronometer.com/). If you want to lose weight, don't eat any more than this, if you want to maintain, you can eat out a couple times a week, and if you want to gain weight, eat even more. Aim for 0.7g per pound of body weight daily (e.g., 120g for a 170-lb person) (good sources of protein are black lentils, eggs, sardines, meats, and dairy). Include fish and nuts in your diet for healthy fat. Focus on eating colorful vegetables (leafy greens, red veggies, orange veggies) and fruits (mainly berries). ## 2. Exercise A combination of resistance training and cardiovascular training is necessary for overall health and fitness. Do this exercise routine if you're new: | | Exercises | Working Reps-Sets (Per Exercise) | | :-------: | :-------------------------------------------------------------------------: | :------------------------------: | | **Day 1** | Goblet Squat, Romanian Deadlift, Pull-up/Lat Pull Down, Incline Chest Press | 10-2 | | **Day 2** | 20-30 mins stationary bike (60-70% MHR) | | | **Day 3** | Leg Press, Row, 45° Back Extension, Dips | 10-2 | ## 3. Sleep Get 7-9 hours of sleep per night, go to bed at roughly same time every night, and optimize your sleeping environment (comfortable temp (60-67°F), dark room, 1 hr downtime before bed, and don't eat before bed). # 1-on-1 Coaching If you want a more personalized approach to improve your health & fitness, book a call with me [here](https://calendly.com/thegregleopold). # FAQ If you have any questions, please message me on [X](https://x.com/thegregleopold), or [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/thegregleopold/), or send me an email at [email protected].