Lee’s Faith & Fitness: 5 Pillars of a Healthy Lifestyle

Lee Crow takes a step in a new direction, with a name change for his column and a new logo to go with it. Lee’s Faith & Fitness will be the new name of his column. Follow Lee Crow of Bryant on his fitness path, and try his recipes and health tips. See the the archives to his featured column here.

This week we take a look at the 5 pillars of a healthy lifestyle.

First let’s look at exercise.  I am a firm believer of the importance of consistent exercise at least 5 days a week and in some case 6 or 7 days.  The time will vary but experts will tell you 30 minutes to an hour a day is a sufficient amount of time to get enough calorie burn throughout the week to help with weight loss and maintain your weight loss when you reach your goal.

Second, is nutrition.  Proper nutrition is extremely important.  If you’re not eating clean, meaning don’t eat junk, exercise won’t really matter.  For me, before I started losing my weight I would eat at Rally’s at least 3 days a week for supper and that was on top Taco Bell or Jimmy John’s for lunch.  Now I meal prep. With meal prepping, I know exactly what I’m putting in the food in prepare and I keep track of my nutrition through a nutrition macro. This will be something I dive deeper into over the coming weeks, but living a healthy lifestyle is 80/20. This means 80% of a Healthy Lifestyle is 80% nutrition and 20% exercise.

Third, it’s important to reduce stress.  When you are stressed you’re not focused.  When you’re stressed you have a tendency to stress eat.  Also, when you’re stressed it’s hard to exercise in a way that will be beneficial.

Fourth, is sleep.  It is important to get 6-8 hours of sleep.   Getting enough sleep will go a long ways to help with your energy and focus.

Finally, supplements.  It’s no secret that I use AdvoCare products for my supplements.  Supplements are important because even with the food we eat there are still going to be nutritional gaps.  You’re not going to eat your way to fill those gaps. That would be more calories than the average person should consume.

Another subject I will visit in the coming weeks, is how to know how many calories you should consume based on your level of exercise.  But in terms of these five pillars of a healthy lifestyle, if even one is missing, it will make it hard to see the weight loss success you’re looking for. It all boils down to understanding that successful weight loss has a process and it takes being committed to that process.  It also requires a commitment to consistency.