In this story, I introduce the 10 action steps that helped me regain control of life, make me healthy, and feel free to live again.
1 — Accepting Reality and Taking Responsibility
Coming to terms with your situation and the position you’ve put yourself in is the most critical step to starting your healing process.
You can only find a way out with 100% acceptance and understanding of where you are.
2 — Stop drowning in sorrow
Continuously feeling sorry for yourself only drags you down further, making recovery impossible.
Stop negative thinking, and change your outlook — love yourself by adopting a growth mindset.
If you catch yourself thinking bad thoughts, replace them with good ones from the past. That works every time!
3 — Make an Action Plan
Things don’t happen on their own — recovering from depression and feeling lost is tough as hell. It takes a lot of effort and work.
While walking, think about how you wish to restructure your life, what career path you want to follow, what you will do for your physical and mental health, and how you will treat your body, and write the lot down.
Then, follow your action plan daily. It’s your new survival ritual!
4 — Stop Eating Junk Food and Choose Healthy Options Instead
Poor food choices lead to a breakdown in metabolic health and, eventually, mental health problems.
Most are unaware that what they put in their bodies can make them sick and stops them from growing and staying strong.
I had recently suffered a stroke. That, along with my poor state of mind, made me research the causes of strokes. What I found all pointed towards an unhealthy diet, which causes diabetes and obesity, followed by strokes or heart attacks.
I immediately took action and started to study nutrition. I took an in-depth course about food and its effects on the body and mind and learned about healthy lifestyle practices to balance my mind.
I changed my food to low-carb/high-protein, ditched all sugars, and went full-on keto-carnivore.
I believe changing my food and removing all carbs and sugar saved my life.
After only 2 months, I lost the 60 lbs. excess weight I carried on my belly. During my transformation process, I realized I felt lighter and full of energy, my brain fog cleared, and I became much more optimistic.
I’ve stuck with this diet and a new lifestyle for 8 years. I never gained an ounce of excess weight and have felt great ever since.
5 — Make Walking a Habit, Hobby — Walk 10000 to 15000 Steps a Day!
15000 Steps A Day Keeps The Doctor Away!
Walk your way to excellent physical and mental health, plus happiness.
My goal is fifteen thousand steps daily with one or two longer and multiple short walks.
Walking is my main hobby because it supports my heart health, blood pressure, overall strength, and mindset, and it’s fun.
Scientific reports have shown significant benefits if you increase your daily steps to fifteen thousand.
The Importance of Walking
Just to let you know, by walking, I mean “fast-paced” walking or “power-walking.” Strolling around doesn’t count — well, it does, but it serves another purpose, with more on that later (mindful and meditative walking).
So why is walking so important? Let’s take a look at the benefits of my personal experience with clients I have coached, as well as scientific evidence:
Physical Benefits of Walking:
- Burns fat, as walking is a cardio exercise that keeps you within the aerobic fat-burning zone of 180 maximum heart rate, minus your age. Running, biking, rowing, and other similar cardio activities often kick you out of that aerobic zone where you no longer burn fat.
- Walking helps you lose weight.
- You will lower your blood pressure.
- Walking will lower your stroke risk.
- Easy on your joints, especially ankles, knees, and back, compared to running, which pounds ankles, knees, and back, causing injury and arthritis over time.
- Walking builds bone strength, as the low impact supports bone density.
- Walking is excellent for your heart health, as your heart is never overstressed but is trained efficiently at a safe heart rate.
- Stimulates all of your organs to work more efficiently.
- Fantastic for your legs, especially if you walk in the sand or are trekking hills, in forests, or hiking. Walking builds powerful and lean muscles.
- Have a headache? Walking in the fresh air will help get rid of it.
- Are you feeling tired or sluggish in the morning? A fast-paced walk will bring a spring back into your step.
- Are you feeling stiff from a long-distance flight or car ride? Walk it off — it works.
- Jetlagged from the 14-hour time zone difference? An hour’s power walk will soothe the symptoms.
- Combining walking with a bodyweight workout, which I call my Primal Trek, is one of the absolute best ways to strength train and burn fat. It’s way more enjoyable than slugging away in the gym!
- Poor posture from your desk job and slouching? Walking corrects posture. All you need to do is to make sure you are walking standing up straight, shoulders back and chest out, not hunched over with shoulders hanging forward.
- Barefoot walking: Walking connects you with nature and is grounding at any time. Barefoot walking, especially in the sand, grass, or dirt, stimulates the muscles and nerves in the feet and creates a deeper connection to the earth. Barefoot walking restores our natural walking pattern and builds stronger leg muscles, and is vital for lower back support.
Psychological Benefits:
- Cut stress and anxiety by walking fast-paced in nature.
- Is your mind blocked, and you can’t focus on work or life? Go for a walk, and it will free your mind and stimulate the creative side of your brain.
- Decisions, decisions, decisions, and can’t make them? Walking, stop thinking, and your mind will align itself again and help you come to sensible conclusions.
- Depression is one of the most complex conditions to overcome. I suffered from depression for several years — at first, I did not realize what it was, but once I did, walking and meditation were what helped me the most.
- Angry, disappointed, or any other negative emotions? Walking will relax you, calm your mind, and restore balance.
- Don’t like to sit still and meditate? As I mentioned above, this is where “strolling walking” is worth gold. I have practiced this for years as well. Stopping to smell the roses certainly works.
- I call it Mindful meditative walking, and this is how I do it — walk at a slower pace, look around at your environment, and take it all in. Then stop, breathe, smile, and be thankful to be able to be there, healthy and alive.
- Are you feeling sluggish but guilty because you haven’t exercised all day? Then walking is your answer. Just get outside, rain or shine, cold or warm, and walk fast-paced for half an hour. You will feel much better, in body and mind!
Scientific Evidence:
- The best thing to do to improve our overall health and longevity.www.consumerreports.org
- Walking can lower the risk of cancer. www.cancer.org
- Longer life. A review of studies published in 2014 in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity found that walking for roughly 3 hours a week was associated with an 11 percent reduced risk of premature death compared with those with little or no activity.
- Better memory and cognitive function. A clinical trial of older adults in Japan published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society in 2015 found that after 12 weeks, men and women in a prescribed daily walking exercise group had significantly more significant improvements in memory.
15000 steps a day keeps the doctor away is a far more accurate saying than an apple a day keeps the doctor away.
What’s your opinion on walking?
6 — Swim and Workout using Your Body as Your Gym
Another major part that helped me recover was learning to move my body naturally in different ways, with ease and joyfully.
I used to hit the gym almost daily. I saw results in my arms, legs, and back becoming stronger. But I never lost my belly fat. That drove me crazy and forced me to work out harder, which didn’t change a thing.
I became hungrier, resulting in overeating, and I always felt tired. I had reached the stage of mental and physical burnout.
Once I changed my diet and lifestyle habits and took to walking, I learned about the simplicity and incredible effectiveness of bodyweight workouts.
I started only with the 4 basic classic exercises:
- Push-ups
- Pull-ups
- Planks
- Squats
Plus, I add a few specials which require skill and plenty of practice, but they are mighty fun once you master them:
1 — The Headstand
2 — The Handstand
Along with my new diet, performing those 4 moves 3 times per week, times 3 sets, changed my body composition and melted my belly fat away.
As I progressed, I added around 40 different bodyweight moves to my toolbox, which I wrote about extensively in my E-Book:
The Ultimate Bodyweight Workout Bible
Today, 8 years after I started my health transformation, I mostly only exercise with push-ups, planking variations, squats, lunges, and pull-ups here and there.
Then I love Sprinting and Swiming.
Sprints:
Sprinting is another wonderful way to move your body naturally, rapidly maximize your gains and achieve your goals.
I’ll go for a short but powerful sprinting session twice a week.
I sprint up steep steps, a hill, or a swimming pool.
Here’s a snapshot of my typical daily/weekly program, which I see as a hobby, not a fitness routine.
My daily/weekly movement and fitness routine:
The first thing I do when I get up at 6 am is drink a lot of lemon water and enjoy my coffee. I certainly do not stress myself and go to train right away.
Easing into your morning after waking up is vital for a calm and happy mindset.
The Body and Mind Workout:
When ready, I go for a fast-paced 3-mile walk around my neighborhood.
That’s the easiest, most effective, and most inspiring way to get your first bout of movement done for the day.
Back home, I hit the mat and do my strength-yoga-mindfulness routine.
The routine:
1. Plank 2 to 3 times for 2 minutes
2. Headstand for 5 minutes
3. Handstand 2 to 3 times against a wall for 1.5 minutes each
4. Meditate for 10 minutes
- The walk boosts your cardiovascular system and creativity
- The head- and handstand build your skills, are powerful static strength poses, and promote optimal mind-focus
- The meditation sets your mind at ease and helps you flow into a productive day with a positive mindset.
Strength Training:
I’ll perform simple calisthenics workouts in my apartment. These routines only take me between 15 to 30 minutes.
That depends on how many sets I feel like doing on the day. I never force myself to do a programmed amount of sets.
I go with the flow and how I feel.
The more energy and power I feel, the more sets I may do. The less motivated or busy I am, the fewer sets I do — it’s that simple.
The routine:
- Multiple plank variations
- Push-up variations
- Squats
- Lunges
- Head-and-Handstands
Sprint Training in the Pool
The routine:
Swim leisurely for 5 minutes to warm up your body and prepare your mind for the high-intensity action, then sprint.
Perform 6 to 10 twenty-meter sprints, and take 45-second breaks between sprints to bring the heart rate back down.
Pool swim sprints are my favorite way to sprint. I also love to sprint steps and hills when I get a chance.
The same method applies:
1 — Choose a steep set of steps or a hill.
2 — Set your distance so that you sprint for around 20 seconds each set
3 — Sprint at full speed, then slowly walk down to recover and bring your heart rate back below 120 BPM.
4 — Repeat 4 to 8 times.
After each sprint, your Beats per Minute should shoot up to 175/180.
The session will only take 15 minutes, including a warm-up and a brief stretch of your legs and back at the end.
Mobility Training & Stretching:
I spend 15 to 30 minutes practicing my mobility and stretching routine every other day. It’s a relaxing exercise practice that increases flexibility and strength simultaneously.
It’s also an excellent way to set your mind at ease and become more energized.
That’s what I do to stay fit without worrying about working out.
Exercise smart, not hard!
7 — Make Positivity and Positive Self-Talk a Ritual
Positive daily self-talk is vital, no matter how you feel or what may be happening around you.
Even if I feel good when I wake up, I immediately start my day by saying today will be a fantastic day, and I will crush it.
Then, I go about my day. Some days pose challenges, while others are easy and smooth. Either way, I always try to keep my positive mindset and thoughts, no matter what.
Remaining optimistic and positive is vital to keeping your mind balanced, calm, focused, and thankful.
8 — Meditate and Practice Affirmations Daily
Meditation is, again, another much-underrated health and wellness practice.
Some find it difficult, even slightly stressful, to sit still and do nothing for 10 to 20 minutes. In addition, the awareness of multiple random thoughts racing through their mind is discomforting.
If you’re working, exercising, reading, or following any other activity, your brain focuses entirely on the present.
But when you sit still to relax, your mind starts playing “mind games” with your thoughts darting all over the place.
And that is precisely the point of mindfulness, meditation, and positive self-talk.
You can’t push your brain and body non-stop. You must take time to rest and relax, or you will eventually suffer from brain fog and have a nervous breakdown.
Learning to meditate, be patient with myself, take things easier, and slow down life helped reduce my stress levels and think more clearly, which led to better productivity and results.
9 — Talk to People, Makeup with Friends and Family
I used to isolate myself quite a bit. I enjoy working, training, and meditating alone. That helped me become more self-aware and confident with myself.
However, talking with old friends, your family, and potential new friends brightens your mood, enhances your positivity and confidence, and elevates your happiness.
These days, I spend a lot more time talking with old and new friends in person or online. Realizing those people are there for me helped me deal with life challenges more easily and feel better about myself.
10 — Love Yourself and Learn to be Happy Alone
While I just expressed the importance of social relationships and positive interactions, enjoying your company and being happy alone is equally vital.
If you constantly seek attention, you’re unhappy in your skin, leading to negative thinking when alone.
I used to hate being alone. But I had no choice — I had to learn to live with myself and find balance and happiness before I could move on and go after my life goals.
Practice self-care and self-love, and talk to yourself positively when alone.
Final Words
Changing bad habits to good ones is not easy, but it’s doable for everyone. You only must accept and embrace your struggles, make a plan to change your world for the better and do your best to implement it, daily.
Rob
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Please download my E-Books for your health:
The Ultimate Guide to Weight Loss, Fitness, and Health
The Ultimate Guide to Weight Loss, Fitness, and Health. Since I’ve been practicing, writing, and teaching these methods…robshealthcrunch.gumroad.com
The Ultimate Bodyweight Workout Bible
The Ultimate Bodyweight Bible is a 200-page, 23-chapter collection of the absolute best workouts you can perform to…robshealthcrunch.gumroad.com
The Easy Keto-Carnivore Food Guide
My latest, E-Book – The Easy-Keto Carnivore Food Guide – is the only tool you’ll need to get your health into top…robshealthcrunch.gumroad.com
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