Creating The Ultimate Healthy Lifestyle Is Easier Than You Think

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A healthy lifestyle is all about balance, and it’s okay if you’re not inclined to lead an overly disciplined life. That’s not to say that incorporating some discipline isn’t essential, but if you’re not naturally wired to live like a spartan, you’ve come to the right place.

Too often we box in health as only relating to diet, but 97% of people fail their diet over time.

Health is more than just the type and amount of food we put in our bodies and studies show that positive psychological attributes – optimism, gratitude, and well-being – are directly related to cardiovascular health, an essential part of maintaining a long life.

When you build an enjoyable lifestyle, you’re more likely to participate in healthy eating and physical activity. It goes without saying the mind is a crucial part of any healthy lifestyle, and the more you find enjoyment the more likely you are to achieve lifelong dietary success.

If the thought of restricting yourself from your favorite foods or waking up at 6 a.m. to train for a marathon doesn’t elicit joy – and instead causes you to scrunch your toes at the thought – it’s not the right path for you.

Creating a healthy lifestyle is not what it’s made out to be – any and everything gets thrown down the pipeline of social media these days, making it hard to discern who and what to trust.

But at the end of the day, your happiness does not have to be a sacrifice. Healthy living is enjoyable when you prioritize what works best for you, a mantra for nutrition experts Matt Gallant and Wade Lightheart – Co-Founders of BIOptimizers.

The duo began their nutritional supplement company back in 2004 with one mission: helping humans shift from a sick, unhealthy condition into a peak biologically optimized state.

The flame that ignited Lightheart’s passion for health struck after he witnessed the passing of his sister to cancer. And for Matt, his purpose-driven mindset took the driver’s seat when he watched his best friend’s life change after helping him lose 191 lbs in 18 months.

And now, the nutrition savants have forged 50 years of their combined knowledge with scientific evidence to create The Ultimate Nutrition Bible, which they’ve packed with the best secrets for customizing your ideal diet to fit your lifestyle, goals, and genetics.

“We’re trying to create a tribe of people that are just unbiased, open-minded, and follow things that work for their goals, genetics, and psychology,” says Co-Founder and President of BIOptimizers, Wade Lightheart.

The duo understands that an enjoyable lifestyle must be one of the top factors of your nutritional pyramid, a topic they dedicated an entire chapter to in their new book.

And what I discovered during my reading was even the most experienced nutritionists don’t have it all figured out – even someone as knowledgeable as Lightheart.

At one point in his life, he lived and breathed a restrictive lifestyle – after all, society is led to believe that’s what is required to achieve “optimal health”. But for Lightheart, that wasn’t the case. He competed in professional bodybuilding for 15 years, an industry dominated by following an incredibly restrictive diet and overall lifestyle.

The reality is, living this way is not sustainable in the long run. With a mindset of constantly striving to achieve an ideal final form, you’ll never be satisfied, and eventually, your mental health will deteriorate as a result.

“I would either skip social occasions or bring my own food to them. If challenged, I would leave the occasion or fight back against anybody who suggested that I deviate from my diet, regardless of whatever rationalization they had,” Lightheart recalls.

As a naturally outgoing person, he had to sacrifice that part of himself to keep up with his diet regime, and ultimately, it ended up costing him relationships and other opportunities unrelated to bodybuilding.

“If you’re talking about following a diet for the rest of your life, and right out of the gate, you ask yourself, ‘Could I follow this diet until I’m 80 or 90?’ and the answer is no, then right off the bat, you know it’s not sustainable,” says CEO and Co-Founder of BIOptimizers Matt Gallant.

Creating the ultimate healthy lifestyle has more to do with catering it to your current lifestyle and less about going full throttle with no projection of letting up. Choosing a routine you’re capable of sticking with without compromising your enjoyment is the realistic option, and one way to do this is by following a diet short-term and altering it as you evolve.

“This is one of the things Wade and I do all the time. And that’s important as well. You might do a really restrictive diet for three, or four months and then go to something more sustainable,” Gallant continues.

For most people, dietary flexibility and novelty are a huge part of their enjoyment. Food is one of the greatest pleasures of life! And if you’re a lover of dining out every so often, you don’t have to cut it out to create a healthy lifestyle.

As Lightheart and Gallant discuss in their book, “almost every successful diet has refeeds” – a term they use instead of cheat days/meals. As long as you maintain some sort of consistency outside of your refeed days, like fasting or drinking plenty of water, a healthy lifestyle is more than possible.

“The book is kind of a choose-your-own-adventure guide,” says Gallant. “I think you can jump around to the contents that you’re interested in right now. And it’s a type of book that you can continue referring to as your goals change or as you become more knowledgeable you can jump to another part.”

If you’re ready to create the ultimate healthy lifestyle on your terms, grab a copy of Wade Lightheart and Matt Gallant’s book, The Ultimate Nutrition Bible.

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