Why Doing the Minimum Beats Doing Nothing
What's your biological age?
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Hello Friends,
Science tells us we need to be actively involved in taking care of our health as we get older if we want to stay mobile, continue to do the things we enjoy doing, and manage the daily tasks involved in just living. How to start enjoying a healthy lifestyle to achieve that if it all seems too much, is the subject of this week’s newsletter post.
Why Doing The Minimum Beats Doing Nothing
Doing everything we are advised to do to stay fit and well as we age can seem overwhelming. It can all just appear to be too much. So much so, that it’s tempting to give up and do nothing. Perhaps we’ve all been there. It’s not laziness that puts us off, it’s overwhelm. Where to start?
We see people online in their workout gear doing intensive exercise sessions daily and weekly and it doesn’t fit with what we can imagine doing. If this is where you’re at, remember you don’t have to do everything all at once, you just need to do something — regularly; and you don’t need to join a gym or wear the gear.
The minimum, done consistently, beats the health regime you never started. Moving often every day is more likely to keep you healthy, than just sitting allowing your body to decline.
Doing the minimum compounds over time
Small changes assimilated into your daily routine become significant over time. So, for instance if you start by doing a 10-20 minute walk every day it becomes 120-140 minutes of exercise per week. If you can’t fit in a 10 or 20 minute walk, do several 5 minute walks when you are able to.
By cutting down on meat-based meals on two days a week, you are compounding the health benefits after a few months. Then increase the plant-based meals until you’re eating them on most days of the week.
The minimum is sustainable
Starting with small changes doesn’t require too much will-power and is minimally disruptive which means you’re more likely to keep up the new lifestyle. In time, you can adopt more new habits until it becomes just how you live your life. Firstly then, pick one or two habits, assimilate them into your life by doing them consistently, building your confidence along the way. Then add one or two more. Keep adding and building until your lifestyle has been transformed.
Remember it’s better to do 5 squats every day and nothing else than start an intense programme of physical exercise and give up after a couple of weeks, then do nothing after that. Instead of 20 minutes of meditation or breathwork, do the minimum, do 5 minutes or just one minute. Get into the habit of doing it every day and you can increase the amount of time you spend doing it when it has become a firm part of your routine.
Start where you actually are
When you read a list of the main pillars of a healthy lifestyle that can mean major changes to your routines, don’t panic and do nothing. Do something. Take this list for example:
Eat a plant based diet
Strength train 3 x week
Walk 10,000 steps daily
Meditate and do breathwork every day
Sleep 8 hours
Manage stress
Stay connected
Start from where you are. If you’re doing none of the above, then begin with the minimum. Instead of aiming for 10,000 steps a day, aim lower. A 2023 study published in the Journal of The American College of Cardiology found that taking just 2,600 to 2,800 daily steps can yield significant health benefits. Whereas constant sitting leads to physical decline, leading eventually to sarcopenia, a muscle wasting disease. This means giving up your independence.
If you’re already making inroads into the recommended lifestyle then the minimum for you might be about maintaining what you’re already doing, as you start adding and creating new habits.
How to get started
Here’s some options for you to choose from. Pick one or two options from two different categories and include them in your daily routine for 30 days. You create your own timetable. You don’t have to do them perfectly, just do them. Then add another one or two and so on.
NUTRITION:
Option 1: Add protein to breakfast (eggs, Greek yogurt, protein powder)
Option 2: Add more vegetables to your meals
MOVEMENT:
Option 1: Walk 10 minutes after dinner
Option 2: Do two exercise snacks
STRENGTH:
Option 1: Do 5 squats when you wait for the kettle to boil
Option 2: Climb the stairs a few extra times
SLEEP:
Option 1: Go to bed at the same time every night
Option 2: Leave screens outside your bedroom
MANAGE STRESS:
Option 1: Do a breathing exercise after breakfast
Option 2: Meditate or sit quietly for 5 to 10 minutes
CONNECTION:
Option 1: Text or call one person weekly
Option 2: Meet a friend for coffee and chat every week
You’re not in competition with anyone else, it’s about what you can actually do, what you’re likely to stick with and what’s an improvement on what you’re doing now. Your minimum is going to look different from someone else’s, and it’s one step better than where you are at this moment.
Doing the minimum then, starts with one or two changes, performed regularly over 30 days which become habits. Those habits make it easier to add more for the next 30 days, and so on. Six months later you’ve built a whole new healthy lifestyle.
A year later, you’re a different, healthier, person. You’ve avoided sarcopenia and are fully engaged with life, potentially extending your Healthspan.
What’s Your Biological Age?
Find out if you’re ageing slower or faster than your chronological age and get a personalised action plan to reverse the clock. You can’t change your chronological age but you can change your biological age, which shows your body’s true age.
If you have a younger biological age than your years, you’re taking good care of your health. If it’s older or the same age as your chronological age, adopting a healthy lifestyle will help you through your older years, fit and well.
Here’s a pdf I created to help you in your healthspan journey and it’s for sale in my Gumroad shop:
Discover Your Biological Age: The Ageing Well Assessment
The content of my posts is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered medical, psychological, health, or wellness advice. Information is current at the time of publication but may become outdated, so please verify details with the most current sources available. Do not make health-related decisions based on this content alone. Always consult a qualified health professional. What I share here is meant to provide information to help you explore what’s right for you.
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Patricia, great job reminding others that the important thing is to do SOMETHING. I always say something is better than nothing and those small steps will lead you to the big steps that get you to where you want to go.
You've shared some solid advice here to get anyone started with the basics to do just that.