This article includes my mindset and habits that I practice on daily basis to keep myself health and fit. What focus you will have may differ from mine because of the difference in what goal you may have.
Please keep in mind that these are habits that I am comfortable continuing and seeing results for the goals that I have for my sports aspiration, health and fitness goals. Habits you may create for your success in health and fitness may be different from mine. Use my 7 habits as a guide and I hope some of the information you see here would help you accomplish your goals.
Weekly Exercise
Number one priority is my training. My major purpose in my training is to improve soccer performance. Also, as a trainer, being physically fit in both strength and condition is very critical.
Since my focus is on performance enhancement in soccer, strength training and conditioning work needs to be done on a weekly basis.
For my strength training I have set 4 times per week of strength training splitting into 2 leg days and 2 upper body days. Every 4 weeks, I lower the load on strength training to give my body recovery time but keep on practicing main exercises such as squat, deadlift, bench press, and overhead press.
Conditioning training is 3-4 days a week of anywhere between 30-90 minutes including soccer match a week. Conditioning training is split into 2 low intensity (zone1, zone 2) training sessions and 2 higher intensity sessions. Because I train my clients over 65 hours a week, I may shorten the conditioning work to fit it into my schedule.
Meal Frequency
My main meal frequency is 3 meals a day. The reason is to give my digestive system a break along with keeping insulin level low for several hours to train my body to metabolize fat. I rarely snack but when I do I use protein bar, EAA (essential amino acids) powder mixed with water.
Food Source
My focus on nutrition is in two parts. One is to keep the digestive system healthy. If the digestive system is not adequate, no matter how heathy the diet it, it is difficult for the body to appreciate all the nutrients you are bringing in which lead to lowering the metabolic rate and malnourished. To keep my digestive system at optimal function, I consume high fiber diet along with fermented food products to bring in both probiotics (bacteria) and prebiotics (food for the bacteria). Main food source for fiber for me is vegetables, mushroom, bean, seaweed, Japanese sweet potato (purple skin with yellow inside). For fermented food product, I consume vinegar, pickles, kimchi, natto (fermented beans), and miso (soybean paste).
Second part is protein amount. The body consists of protein or amino acids. Muscles, heart, skin, hair, DNA are all made of protein. Since I weigh about 160lb, I consume about 160g of protein a day which is 1 to 1 ratio between pound(lb) of body weight to gram of protein. My typical protein sources are chicken, beef, pork, fish and seafood, tofu, eggs and whey protein (powder).
Although physique is not my number one priority, majority of my meal is low carb to keep my body lean except for dinner. Dinner is the only meal that I can have with my family, and I prefer to enjoy the meal. So, I do eat any form of carbohydrate (mainly rice and noodles).
Hydration
Our body is made of over 60% water. Which means for me, since I weight 160lb, 96lb is made of water. 1 gallon of water weighs about 8.35lb, the 96lb is 13 gallon. Part of 13 gallon is structural water, which means bone, muscles, skin needs water to maintain its structure. Half of the water is used for blood. With exercise, metabolism and excretion of urine and stool we use water. So, these waters need to be replenished.
For me, I work on consuming little over a gallon a day of water. The amount your body needs will differ depending on the size of your body.
We also need to think of replenishing what fluid we have lost. When sweating we lose minerals, especially sodium. Through metabolic pathways we need minerals such as chromium, iodine, magnesium which will need to be replenished. Some can be replenished through food, however, if you are already deficient, you may need to use electrolyte supplements to meet your requirements.
Supplement
Although I prefer to get all my nutrients through food, however, I also know enough to say that even when we buy and consume healthy food source, we cannot get optimal amount of nutrients. This is mainly because of how food sources are made.
Because of this I use supplement to make sure my body is functioning properly. Some of the supplements that I use are multivitamin, omega 3, vitamin D, zinc, iron, magnesium, probiotic, creatine and whey protein.
Sleep
This is my current challenge. From science, I know how important 8 hours of sleep is and how less than 7 hours of sleep would affect my sports performance, cognitive function, and food choices. Yet with my current work schedule, I am barely making 7 hours of sleep a day. Something to work on.
Consistency
Regardless of my intention and well-planned daily habit and training schedule, if I am not consistent with them, there is no way that I can see a results. I do realize some fitness business claim amazing results in so little time. Some medications claim weight loss just with the pills. All that is great but if you cannot create habit, then the results you may experience will be temporally. I personally prefer permanent results which requires something that I can continue repeating every day.
Although I want to stay 100% consistent, however, sometimes that may not be possible all the time. For example, during the holiday season or vacation, I will enjoy things that I normally don’t eat or do, however, I will always come back to where I left off immediately. If not, I will waste all of the effort I have placed.
If you are serious about making changes in your health and fitness, number one priority is create the habit that you can follow, including strategies when you are on vacation or during holiday season.
Kota Shimada
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