Every business guru is giving tips on habits, growth and hustling but most forget about giving advice on how to stay healthy. If you really want to build an empire, you’re going to have to take care of yourself too. What’s all the wealth you’ll gain in the future if you’ll end up riddled with all kinds of illnesses. Health is wealth! Look at what happened to Steve Jobs… May he rest in peace.

To care for your health, you need to balance 3 things:

Proper Diet + Exercise + Enough Sleep

It’s hard to balance all three. There will be times when you’ll have to sacrifice sleep because you need to finish a lot of things even when you’ve tried hard to manage your time. There will be times when you won’t be able to eat right because you weren’t able to prep your meal or can’t buy it somewhere near. For exercise, it can’t always be possible to do it, especially when you’re sick. With that said, it’s not an excuse to slouch on these 3. Your goal is to be as consistent as you can. It doesn’t have to be perfect but it should be good enough to make you healthy and productive every day.

 

Proper Diet

This is a bit tricky because there are all kinds of diets available to follow. We have the paleo diet, vegan diet, low-carb diet, Atkins diet, blood type diet, Mediterranean diet, Mayo clinic diet, etc. Your dietary needs will also vary depending on your age, gender, and genes.

To make things simple, you just have to eat 3x a day. As a general rule, you’re supposed to eat something solid to make you feel full until the next meal. Usually, we eat 1 protein source (usually meat, or tofu for vegans) and 1 carb source (usually rice, bread, oats) + a serving of fruit or vegetables. That’s it! If you’re eating out, don’t upsize anything. Always eat single servings only. Some people, especially Asians are used to having 3 meals and 2 snacks in between which is perfectly fine.

If you are overweight or underweight and would like to follow a specific diet, we’d advise that you go and consult a fitness trainer and/or a nutritionist to help you get an expert’s opinion.

Exercise

For exercise, it’ll always depend on your fitness goals. But if you’re just looking into not getting too fat or not getting too thin, we’re good enough with calisthenics or bodyweight workouts. There are tons of workout regimen on www.bodybuilding.com. Try to find one there that’d fit your needs. You can also checkout the forums where people regularly share their transformation journey, look for a person that’s similar to your body type and has undergone leaps of progress. 

Walking and jogging are great and easy ways to exercise. Swimming is a bit better. We’d also recommend you invest in a fitness tracker. The Apple Watch is capable of monitoring your heart rate, sleep, etc. If you’re on a budget, a fitness band is a great alternative. The Samsung Galaxy Fit 2 or the Mi Band 5 are some of the best out there. These tell you the time, step count, calories burned, sleep, and heart rate. These will also give you a general idea if you are doing well. Fitness trackers can be programmed to set daily goals to like the number of steps you want to make in a day.

Here’s a quick list of what you can buy: 

Best Fitness Watches for the Money

Apple Watch Series 6 – Trendy, Best for people in the Apple ecosystem 
Garmin Fenix 6S Pro – for the Sporty Dudes
Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 – Best for people in the Samsung ecosystem 
Amazfit Verge – Best Budget Smart Watch

Best Fitness Bands

Fitbit Charge 4 – Best in class fitness band
Samsung Galaxy Fit 2 – For Samsung users
Garmin Vivosmart 4 – for Minimalists

Best Budget Fitness Bands

Huawei Band 4 Pro
Honor Band 5
Mi Band 5

Enough Sleep

You won’t be a stranger to the 7-9 hours of sleep target for adults. What we can add to it is to have you sleep on times that would make you most productive. Some people prefer sleeping early. They swear waking up at 4 am or 5 am will make them productive the whole day. Some people swear that it’s not possible for them to sleep early but are most productive when everyone’s asleep. Do whatever works for you, unless you have a shifting schedule or a specific work schedule.

Have enough sleep but still feel tired?

You might have sleep apnea. A condition where your breathing suddenly starts and stops. Common symptoms are loud snoring, feeling sleepy throughout the day, and having a hard time focusing. You’re going to have to consult your doctor about it because this condition is not only making you unproductive, it’s also life-threatening.

A sleep monitoring device would be great help. Check out the fitness watches and bands we’ve discussed under exercise.

Bonus: Chillout

Did you know that the 40-hour workweek came from the 8-Hour Day Movement? This group argued that for a man to have a balanced life, he should have 8 hours of sleep, 8 hours of work and 8 hours of leisure. People used to work themselves out working 12 to 16-hour shifts (they still do)!!! until the unions cried for a change in working conditions. Now, some countries are studying at giving less number of hours at work.

That’s our health is wealth holy trinity. If you learn to take care of your health, then you’ll be able to enjoy your wealth well into the future.

So guys, what do you do to tune out from work or your business? What do you do to relax? We all need some. Go and get more.