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The Seven Healthy Habits of Highly Fit People




do they stay healthy, fit and in-shape?


Healthy Habit #1: They Eat

No one ever dieted their way to long term fitness and health. Despite the disturbing trend toward fad diets like Master Cleanse (which involve extreme calorie restriction or striking entire food groups from a persons diet,)  well-conditioned, in-shape people eat.  And they actually eat a lot.

The difference between fit eaters and fat eaters, is that highly fit people eat differently they tend to eat more whole, unprocessed foods; have higher lean protein intake; consume the bulk of their carbohydrates in the form of complex carbs like whole grains, vegetables and whole fruit; and avoid the fat free food trap.  They also tend to eat more frequently (as many as six to seven meals a day), but make those meals smaller.



Healthy Habit #2: They Move


Highly fit people dont shy away from physical activity in their daily lives, whether that is walking when they could have drove or taking the stairs when the elevator would have been more convenient. If we walked more, and drove less, we wouldnt have to spend as much time on the treadmill at the gym.  Yet our daily lives are often arranged in such a way to discourage physical activity.

Highly fit people consciously go out of their way to find opportunities to move. Whether that is parking a greater distance away from the shopping mall, taking the stairs at work, or even picking up their pace when walking from meeting-to-meeting, youll always notice that fit people seem to be on the move.

They also find ways to get exercise that doesnt always require spending time at the gym. Whether thats recreational sports, walking the dog, swimming, running, yoga, pilates or even stretching at their desks, they understand that staying in-shape is a lifestyle, not just a kick you go on.

Healthy Habit #3: They Make the Time for Exercise

I dont have time for exercise isnt something youll hear from a highly fit person. Everyone is busy and everyone has career, family and community obligations. But highly fit people make time for exercise.



Healthy Habit #4: They Drink Water

Highly fit people understand the benefits of water. When you see them, whether its at the gym, at home or in the office, a bottle of water will often be close at hand.  Study-after-study has shown that proper hydration isnt just important to athletes and runners, but everyone. Water can blunt fatigue, improve concentration and thought clarity, discourage the formation of kidney stones, improve digestion and improve performance in the gym.  Highly fit people drink a lot of water and they are healthier for it.

Heres the really good news: fit people dont just drink tap or bottled water, they also consume plenty of green and black tea.  Recent research has actually indicated that consuming tea not only counts toward your daily hydration requirements, but may actually be more healthy overall than plain water.


Healthy Habit #5: They Dont Diet!

This is related to Habit #1. Highly fit people dont go on diets they are on a diet every day.


You can often spot a highly-fit person because they dont skip breakfast, they will often bring their own lunch to work and they seem to always be snacking on healthy foods like apples, vegetables and nuts. Its also rare to see them eating fast food or drinking soda arguably to of the worst types of foods a person can consume and a leading cause of obesity according to a 2006 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The one exception to this rule is competitive male and female bodybuilding. Competitive bodybuilders will often diet (drastically, some times)  leading up to a competition in order to drive their body fat down to very low levels (for men the low-single digits and for women, the mid-teens.)  Its very difficult for any person, no matter how well-conditioned they are, to maintain these extremely low, competition-grade body fat levels for any significant amount of time.  Still, even most competitive bodybuilders will admit that if it werent for their sport, they would never utilize these diet tactics.

Healthy Habit #6: They Have Goals

Highly fit, in-shape people always have a goal. After all, you cant improve something unless you know what you are trying to improve it to. Those goals can be small and incremental, or large and ambitious. In either case, they act with a sense of purpose when it comes to their health and physical fitness. 


If you ask a fit person what they are currently working on, they will always be able to tell you their goal. And if you observe them exercising, youll be able to sense that they have purpose. They rarely sit still between sets, they minimize socialization in the gym during their workout, and again, they always seem to be on the move and in the zone. In other words, they wont just be going through the motions, theyll be striving for something.

Healthy Habit # 7: The Record Their Progress

Healthy, highly-fit people keep track of their exercise so they can determine whether they are actually making progress toward their goal.  You cant improve what you dont measure.


One of the first pieces of advice I give someone who feels like they arent making progress with their workout routine or diet is to start an exercise and food log. Often, people arent working as hard as they think at the gym or theyre eating more calories than they originally estimated. By keeping track of the details of your diet and workout regimen, you can have better visibility into potential stumbling-points and improve them.

Fitness-conscious people understand this, since meeting their goals means understanding that progress from the little improvements you make each workout. Unless you are tracking those improvements, youll find yourself stalled and frustrated.

The Takeaway: Make These Habits Your Own


Comments (7)

  1. Burn Fat Fast (2 comments) says:

    Habit number three is the most important in my opinion.  I cant count the number of times I said “I just dont have time” or “Im too wiped out, Ill do it tomorrow”.  There never really is a right time, you just have to do it.

  2. Matt (194 comments) says:

    Burn Fat Id agree. If you dont make time, you wont make progress. Also, the more times you procrastinate, the more bad habits you build up. Even if its a half-assed workout, its better than no workout at all.

  3. Diet Reviews (1 comments) says:


  4. Mary (4 comments) says:




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