I like to work with the rule of three and when you look at someone’s lifestyle you can normally identify three top priorities. For arguments sake, let’s say these are work, family life and health. Yes, there could be an equilibrium between all three but, if you really want to push on with one element, it may have to be to the detriment of the other two priorities. Let’s say you’re going for a promotion at work, the extra hours in the office may mean that your time with family shortens and it becomes harder for you to get to the gym. Whatever the reasons are, you will have to forego certain parts of your lifestyle in order to progress in another.
I believe that is the case, except from when you prioritise your health. When I look back at the last 5 years of my life, going to the gym and eating well has always been in my top priorities but it would often come second or even third as I prioritised my social life and work. If I didn’t work out in the morning, ‘fancy a beer after work?’ would often see me skipping sessions towards the end of the week in place of a few cold ones in the city.
I got myself into a cycle of living for the weekend; working in the city, and close with marketing agencies, I would start drinking on a Thursday after work. This would often lead to me skipping my session on a Friday and then as the weekend started, I would be out seeing friends, which involved more drinking and often missing my sessions on Saturday and Sunday, or at least being pretty hungover and not feeling like I’d worked hard enough. Going straight from the office to the pub not only meant I was drinking quite a lot but, not having dinner meant it was often a takeaway on the way home. My commute at the time was the Victoria line to Brixton and then the 159 up to Holmewood Road. Unfortunately, the bus station for the 159 is directly outside KFC (who knows where I’m talking about?) and, when you’ve had a few, that delicious smell is impossible to resist.
So, I was in a cycle of drinking from Thursday – Sunday, my workout on a Monday morning would be horrendous, Tuesday I would still be feeling it a little bit, Wednesday I’d be back to normal and then on Thursday it would be time to drink again. Not only were my gym sessions not very effective with this routine but also, I would be lacklustre and unmotivated to work for a big part of the week. I was in an unhealthy lifestyle of getting through the week to start getting drunk again. Don’t get me wrong, it was very fun but, I have big aspirations and I knew that this lifestyle wasn’t a sustainable way of me achieving what I wanted to do so, it was time for a change.
Prioritising my health.
It sounds really obvious writing this now, but maybe some of you are in a similar cycle and just need to take a step back and think about what you can do to improve your lifestyle. Since realigning my priorities, I have seen an improvement in physical and mental health, motivation inside and outside of work and better fulfilment with life in general. And the one thing I do daily is make sure that I am putting health, fitness and nutrition first (I’m grouping health, fitness and nutrition together as general ‘health’).
My ethos is something I term ‘LITness,’ which is the balance of lifestyle and fitness (getting LIT along the way). The key word though is ‘balance.’ I love going out, seeing friends and getting drunk, similarly I love fried chicken and the occasional treat so, there is no way that I am going to stop doing that. Instead, I’ve learnt that these things are so much better when you consume them less frequently, and you can balance out the bad by incorporating fitness into your lifestyle.
So, what do I do now?
I’ve got lots of gimmicky catch phrases and one of them is ‘balance your weeks, not your months or even years’ and by this I mean, by making sure you are eating micronutrient dense, fulfilling meals for the majority of your week, it means you can afford to eat foods seen as ‘less good for you’ on a weekly basis. If you were to go on a weeklong binge, it would mean that in order to get back to a place you are happy with, you would need to restrict your diet for a sustained period. Instead, if you are conscious about what you are eating on a daily basis, it means you don’t have to go through these restrictive cycles to get back on track.
Secondly, everyone can benefit from moving more and being more active on a daily basis. I read an article recently which challenged general wellbeing by looking at people who went to the gym regularly but then had sedentary roles vs. those people who didn’t go to the gym but were more active throughout the day, or had manual jobs. So, with that in mind, I now make a conscious effort to get 10,000 steps in per day and although I’m not working in an office anymore, when I was I would make sure I got up from my desk regularly to go for a walk – I highly recommend this!
I’ve already spoken about balancing your weeks and a great way to do this is by tracking your daily consumption. I think calorie counting gets a bad reputation but it is so easy to overeat on foods that you perceive as healthy. Eating too much of anything will make you gain weight so I recommend tracking your intake for a period of time, say one month, to give you an idea of how much you consume. This will then allow you to eat intuitively further down the line as you gain an understanding of how much you can eat depending on your activity levels and lifestyle.
Sleep is a massively underutilised part of our lifestyle and the benefits of more of it are so powerful to overall general health. I am guilty of not getting enough because I’m either trying to cram too much in or I’m scrolling through Instagram late into the night but, I aim for a minimum of 6 hours, preferably 7-8.
I’m not going to lie, going to the gym for me started off with doing it for vanity reasons; I wanted a big chest, big arms and a six pack but, as I have got older, I am now doing it for health reasons. I get regular chiropractor sessions and take on board what is necessary to ensure my body is fully functional and I incorporate the weaknesses I have into my training. Also, I don’t skip cardio! It’s not just an aid to burn more calories for fat loss; it gives you a healthy heart!
Lastly, my lifestyle used to revolve around drinking and going out, for a period of time, but I acknowledged that was detrimental to my goals so, instead of knocking it on the head completely (because I still love it), I just do it less frequently. Keeping getting drunk to once every two weeks is manageable. That doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a few drinks in between but the key is keeping it to a few so it doesn’t affect my ability to do everything else I want to do.
Anyway, back to why I believe health should be your main priority…
By prioritising health over anything else, I believe you will positively impact every other area of your life. Yes, if you are currently unhealthy, you may struggle with tiredness and recovery in the short term until you get fitter but, it is only going to benefit you going forwards.
- The main difference I see with prioritising health is energy levels throughout the day. By eating calorie controlled, micronutrient dense meals, with the occasional treat thrown in, I feel like I have sustained energy throughout the day, which allows me to be more productive.
- Working out also has great benefits! I train in the morning, which wakes me up and gets my endorphins flowing for the day. It relieves any stress and having that hour to myself in the gym is where a lot of my ideas come from. Not only that but alongside by calorie controlled diet, I have been able to get in the best shape of my life.
- Next up is motivation. Being in good shape, physically, is very motivating because as you see differences it makes you want to stick to what you’re doing. Not only that, I am a big believer in ‘healthy body, healthy mind’ so, as you are fuelling your body properly and improving your body composition, it also helps you think more clearly and gives you the motivation to go and get your goals for the day.
- With motivation and success comes confidence. Not only confidence with your physical appearance but also confidence in your decision making. Not being constantly hungover, and having a healthy body and mind, has given me the confidence to make big decisions. When you’ve got a fuzzy mind from having an unhealthy lifestyle, it can make you lacklustre and lazy so, in order to reap the full benefits of your potential, having the confidence to change your lifestyle is key.
Ultimately, in my opinion, prioritising your health is the one thing that can benefit every aspect of your life. Being more confident and motivated will lead to you being more productive and efficient at work. When you are more productive and efficient at work it will mean your output will be better and you will be able to get stuff done in shorter time scales. This will allow you to prioritise your time better elsewhere (i.e. with family or your social life).
So, for this coming week, I urge you to change your focus and see how it can positively affect you. Think about your main priorities and realign them so that your health and wellbeing is the main one. Think about the long term as opposed to short term and see how different your week is. Once you realise the benefits of doing this, you’ll likely want to continue.
Happy Sunday everyone – Have a great week.
Temptation