A Healthy Lifestyle Doesn’t Need To Be (That) Complicated

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I frequently watch YouTube videos in the health/fitness/longevity space and while there’s some great creators who have some really solid information, there’s a couple of common traits I’ve noticed in these videos:

First of all, they seem to make things way more complicated and jargon-y than I think most people really want or need!

VO2 max?

Zone 2 cardio?

Keto?

NSDR?

Low glycemic?

Besides the jargon, I’ve noticed on videos about exercises for various conditions, the creators tend to load them up with at least a few that are, in my opinion and experience, completely worthless for the condition they’re promoting them for.

Now, I suppose I kind of get at least some of the reasons the health influencers get wrapped up in the technical terminology. A lot of the ones I watch are doctors and researchers, so they tend to be science junkies. If you’ve ever heard the expression, “let’s talk turkey,” well, these people live by the philosophy of “let’s talk techy.”

There’s probably also an aspect of keeping things technical so that people may not completely “get” the concept after one video and therefore will tune in to many additional videos on the same topic – gotta keep that YouTube ad revenue going!

As for the questionable exercises, I suppose there’s a tendency to “fluff things up” a bit to be able to keep people watching and keep things fresh for the YouTube algorithm. After all, some of these people are posting at least 3 days per week and do so consistently for years. Over time, they may wind up posting dozens of videos on “The Top Exercises for [Fill In Condition Here]!” and they have to include some irrelevant material to keep things new and fresh.

My guess is that keeping things simple is probably not a good strategy for being a popular YouTube creator in the health and fitness niche.

But I am not a popular YouTube creator, so thankfully, I don’t need to worry about all that, nor what to do with the millions of dollars such creators get for sponsoring the latest, greatest health product that’s of questionable benefit, at best. So, without further ado, I will now present my very simplified overview of the components to living a healthy lifestyle.

Diet: Research I’ve read and my experience has led me to believe that there is no one single “best” diet. There’s a tremendous amount of biochemical and metabolic diversity amiong human beings, and this has resulted in considerable disagreement as to what a healthy diet actually is. That said, there is one point that most diet “experts” will agree on:

Don’t eat junk!

Now, “junk” when it comes to diet is also a point of contention, but most agree that highly-processed foods (and drinks) that contain large amounts of sugar, sodium, artificial flavors and colors, chemical preservatives, and other added ingredients to enhance flavor, appearance, and/or shelf life qualify as junk.

Simply eliminating or greatly reducing the amount of junk as defined above from your diet will almost certainly have at least some beneficial effects on your health. So my advice on diet is always to start there.

Once you have done that and have stuck to it consistently for a few months, if you want to take things up a notch diet-wise, there’s lots of options to try and my advice on that is to set aside the credentials of the “expert” and the “scientific proof” that their way is THE way and take time, experiment, and see what works best for you.

Avoid or Limit Your Intake of Toxins: This probably is a no-brainer, or should be, but I know a lot of people who view themselves as “healthy” who smoke and/or use various mood-altering substances on a VERY frequent basis – yes, that stuff has toxic effects (yes, even that red wine you drink strictly for the anti-oxidants!).

Beyond that, while certain toxins may be unavoidable (for example, in the workplace), there’s often ways to minimize exposure such as by using gloves and/or breathing equipment when handling toxic substances. It may be a hassle to use the protective gear, but it’s still a good idea.

Physical Activity/Exercise: Here again, there’s lots of experts who say lots of confusing and often contradictory things.

My advice is… do some type of physical activity at least three days a week (but no more than six days per week to allow for some recovery time), for a total of at least a few hours every week. I recommend you choose something you like, or at least don’t hate doing, because that will typically mean you’ll be more likely to stick with it long-term.

When it comes to physical activity / exercise, frequency and consistency over a long period of time are far more important to health than the type of exercise you do. No matter how good the exercise, it’s not going to help much if you don’t do it frequently and consistently over a long period of time.

Manage Stress: Exercise plays a big role in this, but for some people meditation and other “mental” stress management techniques can be very helpful too. Here again, some experimentation is often worthwhile to find one or more approaches that works for you.

One suggestion that I think is helpful for the majority of people is to reduce, eliminate, or at least well-curate the time you spend on social media. Doom-scrolling through anger and anxiety-producing posts really doesn’t do anyone any good except for the owners and stockholders of social media companies.

Get Some Sleep: Different people have different sleep needs, but I suggest organizing your schedule so that you at least have the opportunity to get a total of seven hours or more of sleep most nights. You may be able to get by on less, or you may need more, but you’re definitely not going to meet your sleep needs if you don’t allow enough time in bed to get it.

Reducing your social media consumption as previously suggested can provide you with some additional rack time, so doing that can be a healthy move in more ways than one.

All right, that covers the basics of my semi-simple healthy lifestyle recommendations. I hope you find it at least somewhat helpful.

Until next time…

George F. Best, D.C.