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You are here: Home / Fitness / 5 Ways To Be Healthier Today, Tomorrow, and The Day After That

5 Ways To Be Healthier Today, Tomorrow, and The Day After That

January 27, 2012 By Joel Runyon 18 Comments

…and the day after that, and the day after that, and…well you get the picture. Want to start being healthier? It’s pretty simple.

Drink More Water

Table of Contents

  • Drink More Water
  • Move Often
  • Eat Paleo
  • Procrastinate Differently
  • Confuse Yourself

Get a pitcher of water. Drink it. Fill it back up. Drink it again. Repeat. Do this as much as you can. You’d be surprised at what common problems (headaches, colds, etc) are caused by people simply not drinking enough water. Drink a half-gallon extra of water a day and tell me you don’t feel better.

Move Often

Get up and move every 30-60 minutes. Do something. Anything.

  • Stretch.
  • Walk.
  • Do Jumping Jacks
  • Pushups
  • Take the stairs
  • Stretch some more.

Whatever you have to do to move, do it. Get up and move around. Sitting all the time is dangerous to your health.

Eat Paleo

Try it. Just try it. Give it a week and see how you feel. If you don’t know what paleo is, he-who-shall-not-be-named wrote a good beginner’s guide to paleo that you can use to brush up on the specifics.

The cliff-notes version is this: Meats, eggs, fruits, nuts, vegetables. If you still need help, here’s a quick rundown of paleo-approved foods.

Paleo-flow-chart

(My favorite part was “It’s probably a rock”)

If you don’t think those food groups give you a lot of options, you’re wrong. Just check Rob Wolff’s food matrix for a bunch of options. Mix and match those and you’ll have a heck of a hard time repeating the same meals twice on the paleo diet.

Procrastinate Differently

Every time you go to refresh your email. Do 10 pushups. Checking your Facebook? Do a handstand. Every time you check twitter, do a 30 second plank instead. If you’re procrastinating, you might as well be productive in some way, shape or form! In fact, you’ll start building other, more useful habits while making sure you do #2 on this list (move often) more often.

Confuse Yourself

Routines are good. They help you get in a rhythm and get things done. But you can get stuck in them too and that prevents growth. Every once in a while, confuse yourself. Shake up your routine – workout or otherwise. Do something completely different. Adapt. Your body can’t just coast on autopilot, you’ll push yourself out of your comfort zone and you’ll get stronger.

—

If 5 ways is too many for you (God forbid you get *too* healthy), Jeff has got you covered for getting in shape in just 2 steps :).

If you need some help getting + staying healthy (or doing something else involving endurance, adventure and giving back) in February, join the February 30-day challenge coming up in the League. This month, Josh & Tristan are going to be heading it up and we’ll be adding in a buddy system to make sure you stay on track and accountable. Check it out. BOOM.

photo credit

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Filed Under: Fitness, Hacks

About Joel Runyon

I started IMPOSSIBLE to push myself to try to live a life worth writing about by pushing my limits, living an adventure & telling a great story by doing the impossible. You can get free updates in your inbox via your new favorite newsletter, free fitness training tutorials, and see all my businesses at Impossible X and our philanthropic efforts at Impossible.org

Comments

  1. Melisa Anderson says

    January 27, 2012 at 11:46 am

    LOVE the Paleo point! I’m on my last 3 days of Whole30, and I can’t say enough about how much better I feel and look. My skin is better than it’s been in years. I’ve not gotten sick once when my kids have brought home a couple of different bugs from school. I see this as a permanent lifestyle change for me, and will be slowly moving my kids to this lifestyle as well.

    Reply
    • Joel Runyon says

      February 3, 2012 at 3:47 am

      Paleo is great. There’s a ton of benefits I’ve seen in my own life as well.

      Reply
  2. Benjamin Spall says

    January 27, 2012 at 5:38 pm

    Great tip on procrastinating differently. I’m going to write that in big letters on a sheet of A4 and stick it above my laptop.

    Reply
    • Joel Runyon says

      February 3, 2012 at 3:47 am

      I hope you didn’t procrastinate when you decided to do that.

      Reply
  3. Alex says

    January 27, 2012 at 11:43 pm

    With regard to doing a week of Paleo eating… CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

    I’ll add it to the my happiness experiments list after next week’s experiment with a light box.

    The water thing is so key too. It’s really awe inspiring how many things can be traced to mild dehydration.

    Procrastinate differently is brilliant. I used to do it with free weight sets when I was studying, but I stopped that when I finished school. Thinking back, that was kind of a dumbass thing to do. I loved my arms back then, they were amazing.

    Great article

    Reply
    • Joel Runyon says

      February 3, 2012 at 3:47 am

      How’d it go?

      Reply
  4. Mick says

    January 28, 2012 at 2:08 am

    So the important takeaway from this post are peanuts, potatos, corn and rocks are all hazardous to your long term health. Nice post Joel, some good stuff here.

    Reply
    • Joel Runyon says

      February 3, 2012 at 3:48 am

      You got it :).

      Reply
  5. Primal Toad says

    January 30, 2012 at 8:57 pm

    Primal/Paleo living rocks my world. I am so flipping happy to see continued growth with it. I’ve been to this site a few times as I continue to read about minimalism and traveling. Glad to see you mention paleo!

    Reply
  6. Dane says

    February 1, 2012 at 1:53 pm

    Drink Water! That one kills me cause I know I need to do that. right after this last coke zero. serious. haha. but serious good push.

    Reply
    • Joel Runyon says

      February 3, 2012 at 3:50 am

      It’s so simple, but so effective.

      Reply
  7. Kari says

    February 6, 2012 at 7:06 pm

    Water is so, SO important. I don’t think people realize how important it is to our health – our organs, our mental health, our awareness – everything is affected by water!

    I like the tip about mixing it up! I hate just doing the same thing over and over again. It feels like it drags me down and ruins my productivity. I have to change up my routine; otherwise, I find myself sitting in bed watching TV and feeling like I just don’t want to do my routine anymore. It gets too boring!

    Reply
  8. Cole Bradburn says

    February 8, 2012 at 11:23 am

    Hey Joel, thanks for using my paleo chart! You can get a large version of the image here: http://on.fb.me/xoWXih
    This one with my website removed has been circling around recently.

    If you want a more complete paleo chart, there is one by Nicole at my blog here: http://colebradburn.com/2012/01/09/the-paleo-diet-flowchart/

    Reply
    • Joel Runyon says

      February 12, 2012 at 10:49 pm

      Hey Cole!
      Thanks for this. I didn’t know who exactly started it up. A bunch of people sent me some links via twitter. Updated the post. Thanks so much!

      Reply
      • Cole Bradbun says

        November 2, 2012 at 11:56 am

        Hey Joel, due to the response from this image, I just launched a Paleo Food Reference App. I would love to hear your feedback if you have a second (and an iPhone). Let me know if you’re in and I’ll send you a redeem code to check it out. Thanks for all you do — making this app was me doing the (seemingly) impossible at the time. Boom!

        Reply
  9. Brett says

    April 17, 2012 at 9:54 am

    Paleo is freakin awesome!! I started with my wife about a year ago. I am 6’3″ and I went from about 220 to about 188 and have kept this weight without doing much else. I have a lot more energy and I do not miss the bread or dairy. This is a great lifestyle.

    m/(-_-)m/

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Happiness Experiment 12: Eating Paleo | Searching for Happy says:
    February 6, 2012 at 10:53 pm

    […] experiment started with an email from Joel Runyon at the Blog of Impossible Things. In his email 5 Ways To Be Healthier Today, Tomorrow, And The Day After That he suggested that everyone try eating paleo for a […]

    Reply
  2. Why I Killed Off A 6 Figure Revenue Stream | IMPOSSIBLE says:
    January 7, 2014 at 8:20 am

    […] health is my number one priority, and I let it go completely over the last few […]

    Reply

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