Getting started on your health and wellness journey and not sure where to begin? The key to positive change is to build a healthy routine.
We chatted to Todd Liubinskas, Mountain Guide and Fitness Director at Men’s Health Australia, to give you a behind the scenes glimpse into his daily routine. It’ll inspire you to make positive changes in your own life and build those healthy habits that last!
What does a healthy lifestyle mean to you?
A healthy lifestyle means balance and sustainability.
Commit to five healthy actions that you can do every day for the rest of your life. Make sure they’re non-negotiable!
Mine are:
- Drink 5 litres of water
- Sleep for 8 hours
- Move for 30 minutes
- Practice concentrated breathing for 10 minutes
- Eat for your blood type
If I can stick to these five healthy habits every day for the rest of my life, then I can say I’m doing all I can to make my body and my mind as healthy as it can be.
What’s been your most life changing health and wellness discovery?
I started meditation.
I started meditation because I had a bad reaction to stress and a build up of antihistamine that caused my body to swell. It impacted my skin, breathing and general health.
As soon as I discovered Vedic Meditation, these aggressive reactions went away and my stress and skin became manageable.
I meditate twice daily for 20 minutes a session and I can meditate anywhere at any time.
It’s changed my life.
What does your pre-exercise routine involve?
My routine before a workout is usually a coffee, 1 litre of water and listening to some music. In my case, a lot of hip hop!
How do you stay motivated on days when you don’t feel like moving?
The toughest days are the days that you learn something about yourself.
I actually look forward to the days when I have slept poorly, don’t want to get out of bed, have body aches or look at the weather and don’t feel excited to exercise!
Those are the days when you need to get out and move the most!
What’s a health and fitness goal you’re currently working towards?
I’ve just done a 24 hour running event called The 1440 Race and have a 14km running race in the city coming up. It’s called City2Surf and is one of Australia’s oldest races.
This is all in preparation for a 150km adventure race called Red Bull Defiance, which involves:
Day 1
- 10km raft in rapids
- 23km run
- 53km mountain bike ride
Day 2
- 20km mountain bike ride
- 17km kayak paddle
- 9km run
- 7km kayak paddle
- 7km run
It’s going to be one of my biggest challenges yet and I cannot wait for it!
If you could give yourself one piece of advice when starting out on your fitness journey what would it be?
The one piece of advice I would give is to listen to your body and learn that rest is more powerful than you think!
Move in a way that works for you, to the pattern of how your body should move. I I love moving in multiple ways and embracing nature by swimming, hiking, doing beach workouts, hill run repeats and immersing myself in all types of movement!
Hopefully Todd’s story motivates you to get started on your health and fitness journey. As we always say, motivation gets you started, habits keep you going!
Check out the Magic Mountain habit tracker on our app, choose your three healthy habits and get your move on! You can download the latest version of the app here and don’t forget to unlock your free two months of movement motivation with the promo code MMALLSTARS!
PS. Looking to learn more about how we work with corporates, charities, gyms, PTs and wellness partners to help get everyone moving and building healthy habits that last? Check out our website or reach out to Adam, our Head of Engagement. He loves a chat!
