One of the easiest ways to get discouraged with healthy habits is to compare your routine to someone else's.
Maybe your friend gets up at 5 a.m. and works out before the rest of the house is awake. Maybe your neighbor runs every morning. Maybe someone you follow online meal preps every Sunday, drinks a gallon of water a day, and never seems to miss a workout.
Good for them.
But their rhythm doesn't have to be yours.
There isn't one right way to exercise or live well. Every person is different, and what worked for you at 20, 30, or 40 may not be what works for you at 50, 60, or 70.
Even the recommendations we hear about protein, water, movement, sleep, and other aspects of health are guidelines. They're useful starting points, but they aren't necessarily a prescription for every person. Your needs, preferences, schedule, abilities, and stage of life all matter.
You have to find what works for you now.
Maybe you love working out first thing in the morning, like I do. Or maybe exercise is the best stress reliever you have after a long day at work or with the kids.
Maybe you prefer a plant-based diet, like me, or maybe you want to eat meat at every meal.
Maybe you're happiest when you're in bed by 9:00, or maybe you're a night owl who would rather stay up late and sleep until 10.
None of those choices automatically make one person healthier than another.
Your preferences matter because a routine has to fit your actual life if you're going to sustain it.
I've seen this play out over and over again. Someone will come to me with a routine they think they should be doing, but they already know it doesn't fit their schedule, personality, preferences, or current season of life. That's a tough way to build a lasting habit.
Instead, I want you to think about what you can realistically see yourself doing over and over again.
Maybe that's three workouts a week instead of five. Maybe it's walking every day and strength training twice a week. Maybe you exercise in the evening instead of the morning. Maybe your meals look different than mine. Maybe your bedtime is different from your spouse's.
That's okay.
Healthy living doesn't have to look a certain way to count.
The goal is consistency.
What your healthy choices are and when you make them may look completely different than mine, your best friend's, or even the person you were ten years ago,
And that's actually a good thing.
Your rhythm should support the life you're living now, not the life someone else is living or the life you think you should be living.
So as you settle into this new season, ask yourself:
What actually works for me?
Not what works for everyone else. Not what worked five, ten, or twenty years ago. What works for you now?
Once you figure that out, the goal isn't to make it perfect. It's to make it sustainable.
That's also how I approach training. My small group training has both morning and evening options, so you can choose the time that works best for your schedule. And when someone needs something more individualized, personal training allows me to build the training around their specific goals, preferences, schedule, and season of life.
The important thing is finding a way to move that you can consistently come back to.
You don't need someone else's rhythm.
You just need one that you can keep coming back to.