The 5 golden rules of diet and fitness for busy professionals

Since the options to getting healthy seem endless, figuring out what you should do seems impossible. Finding the time to eat healthier and get fitter comes down to following a handful of basic principles.

Drink a glass of water before every meal. Instead of trying to drink 10 glasses of water a day, just drink a glass before every meal. That’s an easy way to up your intake.

To lose weight, consume fewer calories than you burn. For the vast majority, losing weight comes down to taking in less calories than you burn. If you want to lose four pounds in a month, you’ll need to burn 500 more calories per day than you consume. (Generally speaking, 3,500 equals a pound.) You can do that by eating 500 calories less than you normally do, or burning 500 calories more than you normally do, or a combination of the two.

To eat healthy, shoot for 80/20.

Unless your doctor — and not a trendy new diet’s marketing — says otherwise, if 80% of what you eat is healthy — vegetables, fruits, lower-fat proteins, whole grains, etc. — then you’re doing great.

Do some cardio.

Cardio training can improve your aerobic capacity, lower your blood pressure, lower your body fat. Plus, as little as 20 minutes of low to moderate intensity aerobic exercise will make you feel less fatigued and more energized. Doing 15 minutes of moderate to somewhat vigorous cardio three times a week is awesome.

And do some resistance training. You can use weights. You can do bodyweight exercises. Shoot, you can just do the big four: pushups, pull-ups, squats, and dead lifts. If you’re just starting out, three times a week is plenty.

Stick to it for at least two weeks. Yep, two weeks. No matter what. You can do anything for two weeks. If you can’t, then you’ve chosen a goal that doesn’t mean enough to you.

Inc.