3 Habits for A Better Body

Wisdom Letter #73 | Habits for A Better You

Jan 24, 2021

Hello and Welcome to The Wisdom Project. Your weekly dose of human curated wisdom in a world full of algorithmic noise.

We are in the middle of a short series of posts called “Habits for A Better You”. These are simple actionable habits with potential huge returns.

We are curating Habits — Habits that make you healthy, wealthy and wise.

Last week we talked about 3 habits for a better mind.

Today let’s discuss 3 Habits for A Better Body and how to build them.

Read On.

1. Exercise💪

“Take care of your body, it’s the only place you have to live”
— Jim Rohn

Everything else in your life can come second, you health must come first.

Build a fitness routine. Play a sport, join a gym, go for a run, or even a just a regular walk.

Take care of your body today, so it will take care of you tomorrow.

Some tips to build a workout habit—

Pick a physical activity that you enjoy doing, that raises your heart rate and tires your body.
Most sports are great options, so is running or cycling. Or if your prefer indoors, do Yoga. Point is to have fun when doing it. If you don’t enjoy it, it won’t stick.
Set aside at least 30 minutes everyday for the activity, 60 is better!
Early mornings or evenings are good, but any time is fine that you can do regularly. Consistency is key here.
If ever you feel like not going for a workout, just dress up and step out of the house.
Promise yourself that you will be back after a 5 minute walk. Once you are there, you will realize that the hard part is over :)
Use an app to track your workouts, or just note them down in a workbook or an excel sheet. What gets measured gets improved.
Track the other metrics you care about— weight, waist size, reps, kilometers or miles, anything.
The idea is to gamify the activity so you are always looking forward to doing it the next day.

But don’t fret over the numbers too much, they will get better with time.

And you will start to feel the impact of your workouts much before, you will start to feel fitter within 7 days of starting a workout habit.

“The Only Bad workout is the one that didn’t happen”

2. Sleep💤

“Everything you do, you will do better with a good night’s sleep”
— Arianna Huffington

It’s odd that sleep makes it to a list of “habits”. Sign of the times we live in I guess, but the importance of sleep cannot be emphasized enough.

Quality of your sleep is a direct contributor to the quality of your life. It has been proven scientifically as well as anecdotally.

Some tips to get a good night’s sleep—

Aim for at least 8 hours of sleep every night, no less, more is better.
No you can’t ‘make do’ with less. It’s not a negotiation, it’s what your body needs.
You don’t negotiate with biology.
Stay away from your phone from early evening. Turn on the blue light filter if you must use it. And turn off all notifications.
Have a light and early dinner. Have a glass of water half an hour before getting to bed.
Get into the most comfortable clothes that you have.
Read a book in bed(fiction helps here, or something heart touching), or listen to some soft instrumental music or a sleep meditation.

And then doze off.

Try to wake up naturally, without an alarm.

The quality of sleep you feel when you wake up naturally is exponentially higher compared to when you wake up with an alarm, even if you just get 10 minutes extra sleep that way.

Respect the circadian rhythm of your body more than the artificial rhythm of your calendar.

“The best bridge between despair and hope, is a good night’s sleep”
— Mathew Walker

3. Drink Water💧

“Pure water is the world’s first and foremost medicine”

Another odd addition to a habits list. But the “busyness” of modern life often causes us to “forget” to drink water.

If you wait to feel thirsty to drink water, then it’s too late, your body is already feeling dehydrated.

Water has a positive impact on all organs of the body, and the only side effect is perhaps that you will pee a bit more.

That’s a massive upside for a minimal downside.

Some tips to increase your water intake —

Carry a water bottle around with you. Preferably with warm water. (Train yourself to like warm water). Target 3-4 liters of water everyday.
Take regular small sips of water through the day, every 20-30 mins or so. Don’t binge drink it in liters, that doesn’t help.
Water in your coffee or tea doesn’t count. In fact, caffeine will cause you to lose some water and even feel parched. Compensate for it. Same with alcohol.
Don’t drink water during a meal, that’s unhealthy.

Water is the modern elixir, it helps with almost every ailment, it’s also the simplest positive act you can do for your body.

Don’t miss this low hanging fruit in building a better body.

“Thousands have lived without love, not one without water”
— W.H. Auden

Thank you for reading, hope these simple habits help you build a better body.

Here’s a quote to think about —

“Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.”
—James Clear, Atomic Habits

Signing off for the week, a simple question worth pondering—

What is the one thing you do everyday for better physical health?

Think!

If you enjoyed this, lookout for next week’s post about the 3 Habits for Better Wealth.

ICYMI 👉 3 Habits for A Better Mind

This Week Last Year 👉 Reflections on a Republic | Wisdom Letter #21

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This was Wisdom Letter #73. In case you want to revisit any of the previous 72 letters, checkout our entire archive.

Love,

Aditi & Ayush

The Wisdom Project