There are 168 hours in each week. I’ll hope/assume that we all get 7-9 hours of sleep, so I’ll deduct the average 8 hours per day, which leaves us with 112 waking hours. This is how many hours each week that we’re moving and making impressions on our bodies. Now think about this: how many of those hours are you doing something to improve your health? These numbers aren’t meant to scare you but are just the reality that we all have to live with. Here are some daily and weekly habits, some that I do myself and some that I recommend for others. These type of habits help break the week down into manageable increments that, when achieved, can be small victories that all lead to the greater goal: feeling better!

Click here to read the first part of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Movement Specialists.

Coach Anthony's Habits:

4. Stay hydrated.

Take your body weight, divide it by 2 and drink that many ounces of water every day. You’ve probably heard this before, if you haven’t, then I’m glad you’re reading it now and go out and do it. This isn’t an exact number or anything and if anything is looking like it's more on the low end, but again a goal to shoot for. Lucky for you, the P4L water bottle is 25 ounces. A great strategy for making sure you get all of your water in having a bottle that you know how many ounces it holds.

Hint: Our P4L water bottle holds 25 ounces, so for me who weighs around 175 right now, I need to fill it up and down it 3.5 times each day. Once with each meal and another before bed? Seems easier all of a sudden….

5. Prepping meals.

So food prepping is great, it saves you time, money, you can eat very healthy, I’m really not sure if there is anything bad about it at all…. I just don’t do it. This is due to the fact that I enjoy cooking and fancy myself a decent chef so I don’t like monotony with my food. It is possible to food prep and not be monotonous, but in the end, I don’t mind cooking each night so it’s not my thing. Habits off of this that I also like are always shopping on the same day each week, and perhaps making one meal a constant. The shopping doesn’t need to be explained, but the constant meal is if you are struggling to each say breakfast or lunch, making that meal be the same (healthy) meal each day for awhile just to get you into the routine.

6. Get Your Steps In

I used to have a FitBit, but looking further into it the whole getting a lot of steps in didn’t really align with what I was trying to do workout-wise at the time. These are especially good for people trying to just now get into fitness and feel like they are too stagnant during the day. Again. this is a great place to set a goal each day and get after it!

7. Check Your Posture

This one I got from another coach at the gym, and would do myself but am standing most of the time for my job. Try setting an alarm part way through your work day that reminds you to take a second and fix your posture. This is just an awareness drill, with the goal of having to remind yourself less and less as you go on until hopefully a new pattern is developed.

Go ahead and try a couple of these out, no need to jump into a bunch or all of them but rather find out which of these little habits fit into your life well. There is always a way back, all it takes is a plan and action.