We all know at least one amazingly fit person who seems to stay healthy and in shape without making any conscious effort whatsoever. They love eating veggies, and they’re always active. It can be tempting for us to dismiss these extremely healthy humans as having great genes, but to do so would be to miss an opportunity to learn and become healthier people in our own right.

By watching our fit friends and assessing the way they live, we can incorporate their healthy habits into our own lives and make better use of our bodies. To get you started, here are some of the common things fit, and healthy humans do to stay in shape:

Forget Diets

How many naturally healthy people do you know who do diets? Probably none. Ah, you may be thinking, but they don’t need to diet because they don’t enjoy food! This is plain wrong; it’s not that they don’t enjoy food, it’s that they know when to stop. They know that eating sensibly 80 percent of the time allows them to eat their favorite junk foods or take a trip to Mcdonald’s once in awhile. They are able to listen to their bodies and work out what they need when they need it. Take a leaf out of their book, tune in to what your body wants and reap the rewards.

They Enjoy Exercise

If you resent every minute spent on the elliptical machine and you can’t wait to reach the finish line on the rare occasions you get off the couch and go for a run; you’ll probably find it baffling that many people actually enjoy exercise. They love the feeling of physical exertion, accomplishing goals and making their bodies stronger, but you know what? You can too. You see, most naturally fit and healthy people have simply found a way to enjoy exercise. Instead of picking the first fad exercise regime they can find (read this bbg program review for why that’s often a bad idea) they’ve thought about the activities they like, whether that be running, playing football or practicing yoga, and found a way to incorporate that into their lives. They’ve tried a few different things until they’ve hit upon an exercise they can do regularly and they get on and do it. So, get out there, take a Zumba class, try kickboxing and don’t rest until you hit upon your own enjoyable route to fitness.

They Make Health and Fitness a Priority

Those sickeningly healthy humans we all encounter aren’t better than us, they just make their health and fitness a priority. If that means forgoing the dessert when they go out to dinner or skipping a Netflix binge session to go to the gym, so be it. You see, you simply cannot remain healthy and build a fit body if you don’t put the effort in and that sometimes means making sacrifices. Even those of us with the tightest of schedules can usually find 20-30 minutes to exercise each day, and this can be enough to make a real difference. If you really struggle to find the time to exercise, you could consider HIIT (read here for more information) which can get you fit in a few minutes per week. HIIT may be a pretty intense workout, but it is over quickly, and you’ll have more time to do the things you really enjoy once you’ve got your workout in.

They Get Plenty of Rest

Being fit and healthy isn’t an endless slog where you barely get any time to rest and recuperate. In fact, it is quite the opposite. You can never be truly healthy if you don’t take the time out to relax and recharge. Getting at least 8 hours of sleep a night is crucial for regulating your metabolism, repairing your muscles and giving you the energy to exercise and go about your day.

Relaxing with a good book, a new show on Netflix or your favorite hobby is also a great way to wind down, get a good night’s sleep and de-stress. Fit and healthy humans know this which is why they try to make their lives as balanced as possible.

They Spend Time with Other Healthy Humans

Have you noticed that your fit and healthy friends spend a lot of time with other fit and healthy individuals? This is no coincidence. They have worked out that the more you surround yourself with healthy people who make good choices and live their lives in positive ways, the more you do too. If you spend too much time with sugar pushers and couch potatoes, it is easy to slip into bad patterns of your own, after all, if they’re doing it, why shouldn’t you? So, although you shouldn’t ditch your less healthy friends, it might be a good idea to strike up a conversation it the people at your gym or the Wholefoods store, so that you can have learned by their example, hang out in a healthy environment and have the support of people who are already living their lives the way you aspire to.

They’re Always Active

The thing about healthy humans is they’re not just active when they’re getting exercise. Even when they’re not at the gym, they make an effort to keep their body moving and burn calories by walking whenever possible, taking the stairs instead of the elevator and indulging in hobbies (karate, tennis, kayaking) that keep them moving. If you want to be at the peak of your health and fitness, you need to always be active, no matter what time of the day or year, in any way you can.

Now that you know how fit and healthy humans behave, you can start working on your own health and fitness, but don’t jump in and try to do too much too soon. If you try to change your whole life in the space of a week, you are only ever going to fail. Take one step at a time, add a new habit each month and pretty soon you’ll be one of the healthiest people you know.

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