A whole slew of companies, apps, and YouTube channels have removed the paywall of their premium workout services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether it be live stream workout classes or special access to app features, there are now more FREE workout options than ever available to us.

To be more precise, there are roughly 806,000 Google results for the search “free workout” and 327,000 of those are video results. I’ll save you the calculation time – it’s almost 900 years of daily workouts. 900 YEARS!!!! Several lifetimes worth of workouts to try.

Even when we go back to having to pay for some of the premium services, let’s assume half of them are still free. That’s still nearly half a millenia of free workouts!

Why then, are we unhealthier than ever as a nation?

The Framework

I’m not saying it’s entirely our fault – we didn’t get this unhealthy because all 330 million of us are a bunch of lazy gluttons. Much of it was unintended consequences of the industrialization and streamlining of our food supply combined with engineering activity out of our lives. It’s all great for the sake of progress, until ¾ of the nation is overweight and obese.

If you’re familiar with the B.A.C.O.N. framework I use to get people healthy, you know the first one is Beliefs. And from beliefs stems the remainder of the framework.

Believing your health is in your control is the first step toward a healthier life. Claiming ignorance is no longer a thing – there’s just too much information and too many resources (hello, University of Google) out there to claim you don’t know what to do.

Another part of beliefs is believing that you’re worthy and valuable and capable of being healthy! (Just in case you don’t believe that yet, I’ll believe in you 100% and you can catch up to me) Once you believe in YOU and you believe it’s well within your control, that’s when the rest of the B.A.C.O.N. framework comes into play.

When you know your health is in your complete control, you can start working your way through the framework. For your daily activity (working up to 30min every single day is the goal) you can Google workout videos and find over a quarter million to choose from. Don’t let the sheer amount intimidate you, just start with one of them. Just one. 

Then the next day choose a different one. Or the same one – that’s the beauty! You get to choose, it’s 100% within your control. But one day at a time, you consistently build up that habit until eventually it’s just who you are. 

By having it become part of who you are, you’re not only believing that you can choose your health, you’re taking ownership of it. You’re accepting responsibility for your health. You’re not relying on a government program to help subsidize a gym membership or waiting for the next food pyramid to come out. No, you’re owning it and therefore choosing your health.

In addition to the daily choice to move your body, you have complete control over what you put into your body by the nutrition you choose. This one is especially detrimental if left to the default of whatever is put in front of you – marketing gurus and the government aren’t who you want making that decision. Ultimately the choice of what goes in your mouth is 100% on you!

No Excuses

With all the FREE information and resources out there, we’re left with exactly zero excuses to be unhealthy.

Except we still are.

And it’s getting worse.

But you can change the trajectory of your health status simply by making the conscious choice to do so. Instead of letting the defaults run your life, YOU run your life and CHOOSE.

The defaults like supersized fast food meals and soft drinks, highly processed chips and snacks, bingeing on Netflix, sitting all day – those things are the defaults and they’re easy.

As humans, we’re wired to want easy, to save our energy and resources, to let the status quo remain.

Until the status quo has you feeling shitty, tired, achy, moody, and unwell. Only then are we (sometimes) motivated to change.

It’s no secret, prevention isn’t sexy. Working out day in and day out isn’t glorified, eating conscientiously isn’t ‘fun.’ But you can either live your life by default or by design. It’s your choice. And with default has us feeling terrible like I mentioned above, it’s time to start designing, my friend. Choose the health you want to have.