What's your good enough?

Do you feel like you need to be doing everything in fitness? Like there's a never-ending flood of 'new' fitness tactics you should be trying every week.

There are so many fitness techniques out there. From fasting and keto to carnivore diets, it can be confusing. You have heavy lifts, light weights, HIIT, and steady-state cardio. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

I've lifted weights for 15 years and been an athlete for nearly 25. I've done almost everything in fitness, so I get it.

Fitness can be a lot.

But it doesn't need to be that way.

The goal of this guide is to help you find your 'good enough'. Not what's the most 'optimal'. But what's good enough for you.

You don’t have to change 50 things in your exercise or diet each month to improve your health and body for life.

In fact, you only need to do a few things correctly, over an extended period of time.

Nail the fundamentals, and the rest falls into place.

Instead of more, strive for less.

If you're a busy career-driven parent (like me) and want to create your best health in minimal time, this is for you.

Let’s dive in.

#1: Master energy balance

If there were 2 big rocks you could move in your health, then they would be:

A. How much you eat

B. The quality of food you eat

These 2 rocks could change the quality of life more than nearly anything else in exercise and nutrition.

Energy balance is simple: it’s how much you eat each day.

For the average American on the SAD diet, they usually eat more than they need.

In other words, they’re overeating.

The human body is an incredible biological organism.

Modern food has changed our taste and bodies. We can easily overeat and still feel hungry, even when we're full. This often happens because of nutritional deficiencies.

So if you’ve got extra body fat to drop, a negative energy balance is your next step.

Nutrition is a broad topic. I’ve lost myself in it for nearly a decade.

It’s also a topic where you’ll constantly wonder ‘what's my good enough’ especially if you stay on top of the research.

When it comes to being good enough, principle-based thinking can help you think more clearly about what you’re facing. Plus, it helps simplify your nutrition.

So let’s keep it simple:

• If you need to drop weight, eat in a negative energy balance (aka eat less), take diet breaks, and focus on sustainable weight loss.

• If you’re happy with your weight, eat at energy balance (maintenance calories) and focus on your overall health.

• If you want to gain weight, eat in a positive energy balance (aka eat more) and lift weights (to gain muscle vs pure fat tissue).

While you can go deep into the rabbit hole of nutritional science, the 3 paths above sum up 98% of fitness goals.

However, you can eat the right amount of food and still be unhealthy.

This brings us to your second big rock: food quality.

#2: Choose anti-inflammatory nutrition

Fruits. Vegetables. Whole foods from the soil.

This is the foundation of anti-inflammatory nutrition.

The world we live in is flooded with inflammatory food, lifestyle, and exercise.

Inflammation is the precursor to disease.

This topic could be studied for years. But if you want a quick summary, just focus on the first sentence of this section. It tells you everything you need for "good enough."

Let’s revisit it again:

Fruits. Vegetables. Whole foods from the soil.

Can you do more? Of course. You can always do more in health and fitness.

But finding your MED, or minimum effective dosage, is equally important.

‘What’s the bare minimum I need to do to see the best results possible?’

While MED is used more often in exercise science, it’s equally helpful for nutrition and health.

You don’t need to do everything to be very healthy and well.

When you pair energy balance (how much you’re eating) with anti-inflammatory nutrition, you create a unique place to live from:

Bulletproof health.

It’s a place free from disease, obesity, lack of confidence, and health crises.

It’s a place we can all achieve.

But it requires saying no to many things in the health & fitness industry.

No to things like:

• Carnivore, keto, or high-fat diets

• Dieting for years on end and then binge eating

• Yo-yo cycling with your weight

• Trying every new diet fad or technique that comes out

It means less is more and less is better when you’re doing the right things.

Every year, new ‘methods’ and ‘diets’ will come out.

I’ve been guilty of trying many of these myself.

Health maturity comes when you look beyond fad tactics. You start to grasp the core principles that truly drive health.

And yes, whole-food, plant-based nutrition can take several books to cover in depth.

But you don’t need to master everything to get great results.

Let’s summarize the first 2 principles to get your good enough in nutrition so far:

• Eat the right amount of food for your goal

• Eat the right foods to create optimal health

Is it helpful to learn more about food timing, how to eat, and the best food combinations?

Of course. There’s a time and place for this.

For 98% of our clients, tackling the first two nutrition issues solves 95% of their health and fitness problems.

Don’t major in the minors.

Don’t minutaie in the minutaie.

Don’t lose the forest for the trees.

Just by following the two nutrition insights from this article for the next 365 days, your health could change dramatically in one year.

Unfortunately, most people who hear or learn this don’t do it consistently.

It’s why having ‘a cap’ on the amount of information you consume vs. the amount of information you implement is vital.

Do less but do it better.

Most people have the opposite:

Do more and just keep doing more, even if it’s not the best thing.

More is not better if it’s not the right thing.

Less is better when you’re doing the right thing in the right amount.

Don’t forget about MED. It’s important.

#3: Focus on longevity exercise

Once your nutrition is good enough, you'll likely be ahead of 90% of the human population.

Exercise and the remaining health blocks are where you take it to the next level.

Resistance training has long been respected as a form of anti-aging medicine.

Practices like Qi Gong and certain martial arts have also been renowned for their longevity and health benefits.

You don't have to be a bodybuilder or a full-time martial artist to gain great benefits from exercise.

You just need to find what's good enough for you.

For 95% of our clients, lifting weights 3-4x a week is good enough.

Personally, I’m biased towards 4x a week since it helps create a more consistent habit. It also lets me spread out my upper and lower body parts more equally, vs. trying to fit it all in 3 days.

So, 4 days of lifting weights. 30-45 minutes. Leave 1-3 reps left in reserve, with fewer reps the further you get into a training cycle. Practice good form.

That’s it.

You can also explore other internal practices like Qi Gong, yoga, breathwork, and body-mind therapies.

I’ve preferred Qi Gong for several reasons:

• The longevity benefits have been well-documented for millennia

• Most of us never train or develop our ‘energy body,’ which is the basis of lifelong energy

• Qi Gong is one of the most well-studied practices from a practitioner’s perspective. While it doesn’t have as much documented research, a few promising studies still exist.

In Chinese thought, Qi is the basis of life. So it makes sense to familiarize yourself with the core principles that drive your life force.

So, back to your "good enough" approach. You can focus on 2 main areas in your fitness. This way, you won't feel overwhelmed.

• Lift weights 4x a week

• Create an internal cultivation practice (e.g., Qi Gong)

Other types of training, such as cardiovascular and power training, have their place.

If you’ve built an intelligent strength plan, you can often mix cardio into your resistance training. Use training designs like tri-sets or circuits near the end of your workout. Also, add power training at the beginning of your lifts.

The world of exercise is just as vast and overwhelming as the world of nutrition.

But if I had to find my good enough, these are the 2 exercise practices I would start with to feel good enough about what I’m doing.

Less is more when you’re doing the right things.

Let’s talk about the BHS System now.

#4: Standardize your BHS

Here’s how to prioritize your health from most urgent to least:

Breathing → Hydration → Sleep → Nutrition → Movement → Exercise = High Performance

Aside from nutrition, the first five topics get little attention in health discussions, or at least not regularly.

Yet, most of us stop breathing correctly by the time we reach adulthood.

Sleep is another huge health topic most of us see as an afterthought.

Hydration is also tossed out with the bathwater, too.

So yes, energy balance and progressive overload matter.

But if your breathing, sleep, hydration, and stress are in the dumps, you’ll struggle to build muscle and drop body fat sustainably.

Here’s how to standardize your BHS:

Breathing Standard (BHS System)

5 minutes of quiet belly breathing daily.

The average human breathes through their chest.

Natural breathing, the way we are born breathing, is key in Qi Gong. It reteaches us to breathe gently into our belly.

Trauma, conditioning, and poor role models often lead to low-quality breathing habits.

Modern lifestyles lead to higher stress levels every day. Stress management, or stress conversion, is crucial.

If your stress levels are often above 5 out of 10 (10 being the highest), your health and fitness progress may suffer.

Breathing is the most important thing you can focus on because of its immediate effect on our biology.

If you stop breathing even for a minute, your body will notice immediately.

The same is true when you breathe correctly, even for a minute.

One of my favorite exercises for clients dealing with stress and anxiety is natural breathing.

Follow your breath, breathing in through your nose and out through your nose.

Let your muscles and body relax, and stay focused on the breath.

If you notice your mind starts to wander, bring it back to your breath.

I’ve yet to encounter a client who hasn’t seen a positive effect from doing this consistently.

Of course, you can go down the rabbit hole of meditation, Qi Gong, and body-mind practices. These can all support your stress management and breathing practices.

But you’re looking for your good enough.

Start with 1 minute daily as your bare minimum. Then, work up to 5 minutes daily as your bare minimum.

While we didn’t talk too much about standards in this article, your standard is your floor. It’s your bare minimum, which you refuse to go beneath.

Once you have clear standards, stick to them like gorilla glue.

Standards will guide your health and fitness for life if you commit to them.

Let’s talk about water, now.

Hydration Standard (BHS System)

Drink 1/2-2/3 of your body weight in ounces of water daily.

Water is the most overlooked topic after breathing.

Yet breathing and water, when standardized and mastered, can profoundly affect your life.

Paired with quality sleep, your health could change forever.

The common suggestion is to aim for 1/2-2/3 of your body weight in ounces of water per day.

So if you weigh 180 pounds, that's a minimum of 90 ounces per day.

If you have a 30-ounce water bottle, that’s 3 bottles of water per day.

There’s also the concept of extra hydration for active adults or athletes.

We all lose water during exercise, though the amount depends on the individual.

So having an extra buffer for water intake can make sense if you’re consistently exercising.

A simple way to stay on top of your hydration is to start your day with a glass of water.

Personally, I enjoy lemon water every morning and start with 32 ounces.

Drinking lemon water daily has many benefits. It helps detoxify the liver, cleanse your body, and keep you hydrated.

But if you’re not a fan of lemon, you can also add your favorite fruits to water to boost the flavor.

If you can only start with one, choose a drinking water filter.

Most water is contaminated. It often contains traces of pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, bacteria, and even feces (yes, you read that right).

We’ve used Clearly Filtered for years, and I’ve yet to find a company that matches the quality CF brings (no affiliation).

So your good enough is simple here.

Drink at least 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water daily.

Start your day off with water (add lemon if helpful). Filter your water when drinking, at a minimum.

Now let’s tackle sleep.

Sleep Standard (BHS System)

The general recommendation is 7-9 hours of quality sleep.

Sleep can be a guide in itself.

But to find your good enough, 7-9 hours of quality sleep will work.

When it comes to training and exercise, you may find this number runs closer to 8-9 hours.

Each person responds differently to exercise and nutrition protocols.

Some people genuinely can get by with less sleep.

Others need more.

But again, it depends on each person.

I’ve found 8-9 hours has worked well for me for years.

Sleep timing can also help.

To find your good enough, aim for around 8 hours per night, and if possible, go to bed by 10 pm.

• 10 pm - 2 am seems to be one of the most beneficial sleep windows.

• 10 pm - 6 am would give you around 8 hours of quality sleep, too.

There’s plenty more to discuss when it comes to creating a healthy sleep environment and preparing for quality sleep.

But for your good enough, you can start with 8 hours of sleep paired with sleeping by 10pm if possible.

This puts you in the driver’s seat of your health.

It also standardizes the BHS System. This puts you ahead of 95% of people who are stressed, breathe poorly, are dehydrated, and sleep badly.

Your fat loss, muscle building, and fitness results will improve tenfold. This boost happens because your health base is working well, helping you achieve better outcomes.

And you didn’t even have to work out an extra day or reduce more calories.

The BHS system is your good enough.

#5: Start with the end in mind

You’ve learned a lot about your good enough in this guide.

Let’s summarize what is good enough and lay out the roadmap ahead.

1. Choose your energy balance goal

2. Eat fruits, vegetables, and whole foods in abundance

3. Lift weights 4x a week within 70-90% intensity

4. Create an internal cultivation practice (e.g., Qi Gong, yoga, etc)

5. 5 minutes of quiet belly breathing daily

6. Drink 1/2 - 2/3 of your body weight in ounces of water daily

7. Sleep 7-9 hours of quality sleep

To find your good enough, you don’t need to add 100 new things each year. It doesn’t need HIIT training, water fasting, or keto to be healthy.

While evidence-based practice matters to how I view health, outcome-based health practice does too.

Outcome-based health is based on the idea that our outcomes can tell us whether our behaviors support our health.

The 7-step roadmap above has been tested 100s of times over the last 8 years. It's helped clients worldwide, including executives, small business owners, and high-performing parents.

It’s the same system I use myself to support my health and fitness even as a busy husband, father, and coach.

It will serve you well, too.

So start with the end in mind first.

What’s your end goal for your health and fitness?

Do you see yourself with radiant health, day-long energy, and confidence in your body?

Are you lean and strong? Can you move easily and tackle new projects? Do you have energy to play with your kids without feeling tired?

Do you wake up feeling refreshed each day without worrying about aches, pains, or chronic illness or disease?

What impact are you having on your family and those around you?

Are you influencing others to create positive changes in their health, too?

If you can see it in your mind, you can hold it in your hands.

The human imagination is truly wonderful.

Start with the end in mind. Then, work backward from there.

The 7-step health roadmap above will help you find your good enough.

Standardize this first. Then, optimize it later on if you want to.

But don’t optimize until you standardize first.

It’s hard to improve something that you’re not doing consistently.

Put in the reps, then make it better later on.

To your best health ahead.