With so much information, advice, and marketing floating around out there on the internet, figuring out how to improve health can be overwhelming. For this reason, I like to simplify the process with a binary approach:

To improve any aspect of your life, you can either add something beneficial or subtract something harmful.

Besides its simplicity, this framework is powerful because motivation begins with action, not the other way around. When you make a specific addition or subtraction to improve your health, it may not solve all your problems right away, but it becomes a positive reinforcement that helps build momentum for lasting change.

How to Improve the Four Pillars of Health: Addition and Subtraction

Many people are extremely proactive about their health, constantly looking for what they can add to make their lives better. Sometimes, however, their greatest need is subtraction — removing a bad habit they don’t even realize they’ve formed.

For others, their health is in disarray, and their urgent need is to add just one healthy element.

What’s important isn’t which category you fall into. It’s choosing the single step you need to take, whether that’s addition or subtraction.

To further simplify matters, you can break down actions for how to improve health into four categories that make SENSE:

• Sleep
• Exercise
• Nutrition
• Stress Elimination

Let’s look at common addition and subtraction needs in each:

Sleep: Almost Always Something to Add

Almost no one needs to subtract sleep from their daily routine.

In modern society, the great majority of us use sleep as the slush fund we rob when we need more time. While this does provide more room in the day for other endeavors, it’s a short-lived benefit.

The quality of our waking hours is enhanced greatly by both the quality and duration of our sleep. Most human beings need anywhere from seven to nine hours of sleep per night, with some people needing as many as 10.

I sometimes hear people proudly declare, “I can get by on five hours of sleep and feel fine.” But that’s not health and vibrancy they’re feeling. It’s stress hormones — cortisol and adrenaline — surging to make up for a lack of genuine rest.

Over time, this takes a serious toll on the body. So, for almost anyone who wants to know how to improve health, I’d suggest adding a little quality sleep to your nightly routine.

Of course, this addition could necessitate subtractions elsewhere. Do you need to subtract late-night doom scrolling? Alcohol before bed? Something else that interferes with quality sleep? Choose one step to start with and notice the results to begin building momentum.

Exercise: Getting the Right Balance

Most people also need to add some form of exercise to their routine. However, many who have existing exercise programs may need to divert the priority of that exercise.

We can divide exercise into four essential types:

• Muscle strength (weight-bearing exercise)
• Aerobics
• Flexibility
• Balance

We need a balance of all four exercise types in our lives, especially if we want to improve health and maintain a good quality of life as we age.

As we get older, our muscle mass decreases significantly, a process that accelerates after age 50. This reduces our capability and increases our risk of falls and injuries. Adding regular strength training to our fitness routines not only improves health today but also maintains quality of life tomorrow.

Flexibility and balance are two essential — though often overlooked — additions to workout routines. These give us a better quality of life for all the activities we enjoy doing as we age. They also protect us from injury in a way that strength and aerobic fitness can’t on their own.

Nutrition: Say Yes to Good Sources

Nutrition is a complex topic, but in a simplified way, the great majority of us need to add protein and good fats and subtract carbs and bad fats from our diets.

Protein is probably the single nutrient most people don’t get enough of. But protein is the building block of our muscles, bones, and infrastructure. It provides the amino acids that help us create enzymes, neurotransmitters, and all the elements that make us feel good. If we aren’t getting enough, all these areas suffer.

Although healthy carbohydrates — such as fruits and vegetables — are excellent additions, many of us get the majority of our carbs from problematic processed foods. Highly processed foods, whether you think of them as “the white foods” or the boxes with ingredient lists you can’t pronounce, are usually sources of simple, nutrient-void carbohydrates. As such, they’re excellent candidates for subtraction.

In the fats category, highly processed foods also tend to contain the bad fats we want to avoid for improved health. However, we find good fats in nuts, many vegetables, fish, and grass-fed animal proteins like beef.

Stress: Something to Subtract

I talk about stress elimination rather than stress management for a reason: Stress is something to be subtracted when possible.

Some stress is critical to our life, helping us stay alert and prepared in life’s varied situations. But unnecessary stress can hinder our progress.

The great majority of unnecessary stress is caused by the person who looks back at you in the mirror. It’s within our own psyche, tied especially to obligations we’ve committed to that aren’t really important. This points to a need for improved goal setting: If what we do in our life isn’t moving us toward our goals, then it causes stress that prevents us from getting where we want to be.

Subtracting unnecessary commitments that don’t align with our goals or values is an excellent step in learning how to improve health.

Add and Subtract Sustainably

When you begin the process of making lifestyle changes, it’s important that you get positive reinforcement quickly to feed your motivation. Whether you add a good lifestyle habit or subtract a bad one, either approach will have the same effect of motivating you and getting you closer to your health goal.

I find it’s often easier to start by adding than by taking something away, because taking something away has the feeling of deprivation.

I don’t condone true deprivation, such as depriving yourself of an entire food group (say, carbs). A better approach is simply to add a vegetable to your meal. By including that vegetable, you end up more full and with less desire to eat a big dessert at the end.

I’m not even an opponent of eating dessert, but adding a vegetable helps reduce sugar cravings and increases satiety — because you’ve filled up on the good stuff. You may find you want to share your dessert rather than eat it all yourself. That’s a win-win.

How to Improve Health: Start With What You Enjoy

For the person reading this who feels motivated to start right now, here’s my advice for identifying that first, most impactful step for how to improve health:

We all have certain favorite foods, both good and bad. Concentrate on adding a favorite that’s good for you. By adding a food you enjoy, you give yourself reinforcement and reward up front.

Likewise, when it comes to exercise, we all enjoy certain activities more than others. Do the activity you enjoy! It’s all about enjoyment that does us good, that potentiates how we feel, and that then allows us to do what we may not enjoy as much but adds tremendous health benefits.

Lastly, adding a companion can help you tremendously. If you’re attempting a healthy change in behavior, look for a like-minded friend or family member you can do it with. Unless you’re both having a bad day at the same time, one of you will motivate the other when they’re down.

Remember: Motivation starts with action, not the other way around. When you make small shifts using an add-or-subtract strategy, you start a snowball effect that transforms your health and quality of life incrementally but steadily — perhaps far more than you thought possible.