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October was everything I could have hoped for. My goal was to have six habits (alcohol, sleep, fasting, caffeine, water and supplements) over 80% for the second month running. Mission accomplished – and fairly easily:

My goal for November remains the same as October – six habits (alcohol, sleep, fasting, caffeine, water and supplements) over 80%. That will give me three months in the green, and the confidence that these habits are nailed. It feels great to be within touching distance of this.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my diet too. Last month I decided to drop paleo as a focus to track. I went for a fuzzier ‘eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar’, with a few exceptions. I quickly realised this wasn’t useful to hold myself accountable to. It’s too broad and too ambitious.

Diet is a difficult one for me. I find it tricky to describe how I want to eat in one metric. And actually, in contrast to the other habits, it’s more important to be consistent as an average over a week or month, rather than each day. But, I NEED a daily metric to help me build the right habits and behaviours.

Recently, I’ve also been thinking about how much protein I want to consume daily. I’ve landed on somewhere between 0.7g and 1g per pound of bodyweight. For me, that’s between 120 and 175 grams of protein. The days I hit at least 120 grams of protein, my diet looks good. But, when I am well below that, my diet looks off.

Most people won’t eat over 100 grams of protein without being intentional about it. It’s actually quite hard to do. It requires you to get a decent headstart on the day. If you’re low on protein by late afternoon, forget about eating over 100 grams.

And then it clicked. Having a goal around how many grams of protein I want to consume is a very nice and simple metric for me. It’s a great focus in itself (helps build muscle, recover more quickly etc.). But, importantly, it helps to drive a lot of other good decisions – being more intentional, food choices, starting the day off right etc.

Yes, I want to ultimately be someone who eats ‘meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar’. Yes, I ultimately want to eat a diet that’s high in protein, low in carbs and high in fat. Yes, I want to mostly cut out processed foods. But, it’s a step too far for now. I need to bring it back to a smaller step that will help me build the right set of behaviours that I can then build on top of to get to where I want to be eventually.

So, my diet goal for November is to eat 120 grams of protein per day at 80% consistency. I know if I can build consistency for this, everything around it will get easier. 120 grams at 80% consistency is going to be stretching for sure – but doable if I focus on it enough.

Let’s do this.

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Now and again, I speak to someone who is desperate to make changes to improve their health.

Usually, the motivation behind this is a feeling of hitting a low point. We’ve all been there. That dreaded feeling of having enough of living a certain way. You’re overweight. You’re not happy with what you see looking back at you in the mirror. You feel sluggish and tired most of the time. You seem to pick up colds and viruses too easily (and have a hard time shaking them off). You start to worry about running into health problems later in life.

Whilst the moment of feeling at a low point isn’t nice – it’s very powerful. If I could bottle it, I’d be rich beyond my wildest dreams. It’s a rare inflection point that can drive you to take action to make big improvements in your life. But, it’s what comes after that feeling that determines whether any of that action leads to permanent change.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve hit that low moment for my health. I’ve also lost count of the number of times I’ve then sprung into action, but failed to make permanent changes.

In the last eight months, I’ve found a way of making health changes that stick. Just look at the difference below:

This has caused me to think about what advice I could give to someone that is at that low point with their health, and wants to make changes.

I now keep my advice to only two things. The first is around the approach. The second is more practical.

Approach:

You have to resist the temptation to try and make too many changes – or too big a change. This will almost definitely lead to failure. It’s very hard to resist this temptation. When you’re at a low point, you’re desperate to turn things around. That usually leads to wanting to make big changes, fast. But, what you need to do is the opposite – make small changes, over time.

Rather than build the discipline of doing new things, you actually have to work harder on the discipline of letting mostly everything stay the same – whilst focusing on one or two small changes. The changes I’ve made over the last eight months were made systematically – one at a time. But, combined, they add up to a whopper level of change.

Almost every month, I focused on only one or two things. I had to accept, that whilst the rest would still be measured, they would not be a focus. I had zero expectation of seeing a result. And you know what most people don’t realise? The things you chose not to focus on – actually end up improving anyway. This is because the momentum of creating positive change is infectious.

The bottom line – small changes, over time, add up to very meaningful and permanent changes over the long term. I know this is mentioned in almost every piece of self help type advice – but rarely do people actually do it that way.

Practical:

When it comes to health, I now always give the same advice. If you’re at a low point, the chances are you’re sedentary and eating badly. So, I would suggest making one small change to each of those.

And I really do mean small. It’s not going to feel enough – and that’s the litmus test. If it doesn’t feel enough, that’s probably about right. It needs to be easy enough for you to have a high probability of being consistent with it. Being consistent with the change is actually more important than the change itself. Remember, your goal at this point is to build consistency and momentum.

When it comes to being sedentary, I almost always advise to start walking. Why? It’s free. You can do it anywhere. Almost anyone can do it. The risk of injury is super low. And it gets you outside. It’s the perfect choice to build consistency and momentum. Of course, it won’t feel enough. You’d probably rather commit to a more ambitious gym or running schedule. Stop yourself in your tracks. Remember, you’re looking for easy and small. You’re looking for consistency and momentum.

Even with something as simple as walking, you’ll likely still need to temper your ambitions. It’s probably not a good idea to set a goal of walking for an hour every day. A better goal might be to walk three times a week for 30 mins. Or, twice a week for an hour. If you end up doing a bit more – that’s icing on the cake. Remember, your modest goal is more than you’re doing now. And importantly, it’s something you have a high chance of being consistent with. There will be plenty of time in the future to build on top of this and be more ambitious.

When it comes to diet, you want to find a change that will be somewhat challenging – but also small enough that you can be confident you can be consistent with it. It’s probably not a good idea to decide to do 30 days of paleo. That’s a gigantic lifestyle change that would be very hard to achieve. Even eliminating desserts might be too big a goal – particularly if you’re already eating them most nights. A better goal might be to eliminate a certain food you know isn’t good for you (i.e I am no longer going to eat crisps). Or perhaps reducing something you do regularly (i.e reducing desserts to only weekends).

The hardest thing about all of this is deciding on goals that are small, and achievable. Every fibre of your body will want to do the opposite. But you know deep down (in your heart, and from experience) this will not lead to success.

Once you’ve identified the small changes you will make to being active and your diet – commit to making them for 30 days. If at the end of 30 days you’ve been 80%+ consistent, pick another one or two small changes to make. You might want to be more ambitious with the changes you’ve just made (i.e go from desserts only at the weekend, to now once per week). Or, you might want to try something entirely new. And then commit to another 30 days. Your goal now becomes to maintain the two you have at 80%+, as well as establishing the new ones.

If you were not consistent enough, or lacked the confidence in maintaining the consistency – go for another 30 days. Then, when you’re successful, you have permission to tackle new changes.

I’ll leave you with one final suggestion that will greatly increase your chance of success. Create a physical, visual chart to track your progress. This is literally how I built 80%+ consistency with six health health habits, over eight months.

If you need any help, or have any questions, hit me up!

I’ve been consuming podcasts and videos more than I’ve been reading for a few years now.

It’s a change I’ve been feeling increasingly uncomfortable about. Reading books has impacted my life in a big way – yet here I am reading significantly less. Podcasts and videos feel like a shallower version of reading – yet I’m consuming them alot (probably 10-15 hours a week).

I’ve come to realise that podcasts and videos can be incredibly powerful though – just in a different way to books.

I find podcasts more tactical. They often inspire me to make immediate changes in my life. This type of immediate change helps me iterate on my behaviours and habits regularly.

I find books are generally more useful for understanding broader themes. These themes tend to shift my thinking at a macro level, but in a much slower way. If an idea or a theme clicks for me in a book, it’s like a seed has been planted. And then over time, this helps to change or inform new beliefs – which then leads to an actual shift in how I live my life.

Here are a few examples of how podcasts and videos have helped me make immediate, tactical changes in my life recently:

The Foot Ability Protocol by Ben Patrick (Kneesovertoesguy)

I’ve been aware of Ben Patrick for a while. I watched his interview with Joe Rogan. Since then, I’ve kept up with him on Instagram and YouTube. I also bought his Knee Ability Zero book. That said, I hadn’t yet incorporated any of his ideas into my training.

His recent video The Foot Ability Protocol got my attention. He shared a very simple routine that includes the foundational exercises he often recommends for good foot and knee health.

This felt like something really easy I could fold into my training once or twice a week, and would be very beneficial to do. And I’ve done exactly that. Eventually. I’m going to buy a drag sled so I can add some extra stimulus for backward walking.

1870 – Max Lugavere – The Joe Rogan Experience

The Max Lugavere interview with Joe Rogan is possibly one of the best well rounded conversations on metabolic health I’ve listened to. It inspired a few immediate changes in my health habits.

Joe and Max talk about the benefits of the sauna and cold exposure and Joe’s sauna and cold routine.

• Sauna: 20 mins
• Cold plunge: 3 mins
• Sauna: 20 mins
• Cold plunge: 3 mins

Always starting with the sauna, and ending with cold.

The benefits of hot and cold exposure aren’t new to me. I just haven’t found a way to incorporate it into my life. And then it clicked. My local outdoor swimming pool has a sauna. If I were to use that, I could then use the pool for cold exposure (it’s currently 15 degrees celsius, and gets down to 4 degrees celsius in the winter). It’s a perfect way to get cold and heat exposure.

Four days later, I turned up at the swimming pool at 7.30AM on a Sunday morning. I did the above routine and it felt amazing. It was such a nice way to start the day. I plan to do this at least once a week going forward.

Joe and Max also talked about oral hygiene (benefits of flossing and concerns around fluoride and mouthwash). This caused me to stop using mouthwash and start using a fluoride free toothpaste. I also intend to start flossing each night too.

The conversation around dairy fats is also well timed, as I’m currently re-evaluating my diet. I’m already starting to be more flexible in incorporating some cheese, milk and greek yoghurt into my diet.

Metabolic Flexibility and Longevity by Crossfit Health

I’ve been doing time-restricted fasting for many years. I keep to an 8 hour eating window and a 16 hour fasting window, which I achieve by skipping breakfast. I have my first meal of the day around 13.00 / 14.00 and almost always train before that in a fasted state.

I am very inflexible on this. That’s because once I start eating, my appetite starts to ramp up and I end up feeling the temptation to snack and graze throughout the day (and often do!). By skipping breakfast I am essentially pushing this out. I also love the efficiency of not having to think about food until the afternoon.

However, the panel in the video defines metabolic flexibility as ‘being able to optimally switch from one fuel source (carbs, fat etc.) to another’. Essentially you want your body to be able to cope and be efficient with various states of training and fasting. When you do one thing all the time (i.e skip breakfast and train fasted), your body only gets very good at doing that.

It made me realise that I need a bit more variation if I want my body to be metabolically flexible. I’ve already started to add some variation into my fasting and have done a couple of unfasted training sessions. As I suspected, it didn’t feel great – a sign that I probably have some work to do to be more metabolically flexible.

The above are just three examples of how podcasts and videos have helped me change some of my habits and behaviours for the better.

We literally have access to some of the smartest people on ANY topic you can imagine – and for FREE. If you’re not consuming podcasts and videos regularly, you really are missing out on opportunities to be inspired and better educated – and to become the best version of yourself.

A final tip. You must become a good curator of the podcast and video channels you subscribe to. You have to really care about your information diet and be willing to put in the effort to have it serve you. It’s SO easy for podcast and YouTube feeds to become noisy and overwhelming. I might write up some ideas for how to do that well in a future post.

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I’ve been tracking my health habits on a daily basis for six months now. It’s been so powerful, I can’t imagine ever not doing it.

Here’s a recap of my goals for July:

• Eat paleo – meat, fruit, vegetables and nuts (50% of the time)

• Everything else, 80% or over – no alcohol, sleep 6.5 hours, intermittently fast (8 hours eating and 16 hours fasting), maximum of three cups of caffeine before midday, two litres of water and taking my supplements.

And, here are the results:

Overall, I’m really pleased with July. There were quite a few positives and also a few things to focus on improving.

I’ll start with the positives:

• Not drinking alcohol is hardly a thing for me now. I had a few social catch ups in July and I found it effortless to not drink. I also hit my one year alcohol free in July.

• Caffeine, Water and Supplements are also now firmly established daily habits. I suspect if I dropped the tracking altogether, I would easily continue to maintain 90% + consistency.

• Intermittent fasting under new stricter rules (only water and black coffee in my 16 hour fasting period) reached over 80% consistency for the first time. And, it felt easy. When I missed, I made a conscious decision on that day not to fast – it was never the result of me losing concentration or failing due to willpower. I’m confident I can easily maintain 80% + consistency going forward.

Now, for the areas to improve:

• Paleo came in at 45% consistency – a little shy of my 50%+ goal. That said, there are a few positives to take from that. Firstly, it was pretty close. Secondly, I proved that last month’s 47% wasn’t a fluke. Thirdly, I found a better consistency on weekdays, where I was able to eat paleo for three or four days back to back. And lastly, I managed to eat paleo on a Friday one time! So, even though I fell short of my 50%+ goal, there’s a lot of progress that gives me the confidence I can get into over 50% territory soon.

• Sleeping 6.5+ hours dropped to 68% consistency – my lowest score since March. This was disappointing, and I need to tighten this up. That said, July had some unusual challenges. It was HOT in the UK and this made it much harder to sleep. I also had a few things going on with my daughter and dog that disrupted my sleep. So, I feel I can tighten up (earlier nights, better night time routine and waking a bit later) over the next few months and soon get to a solid 80%+ consistency.

So, overall, I think I’m in a really strong place. And, I need to keep reminding myself that where I am now compared to 6 months ago is night and day.

That brings me to August and also thinking about where I want to be by the end of the year.

Let’s start with where I want to be by the end of the year. That’s an easy one. I want to be 80% + consistent on all of the above habits I am tracking. To do that, I have to maintain the five habits already at 80% consistency – no alcohol, intermittently fast, caffeine, water and taking my supplements. I don’t think that will be challenging. And then I have to get my sleep and paleo to 80% +. That will be much more challenging and will likely take the rest of the year five months) to achieve.

Now onto my goals for August. That’s a tricky one. I have a 10 day holiday in August where it wouldn’t be enjoyable or sensible to try and achieve the same level of consistency with my habits. So, I’ve decided to take August off. I will still track my habits, but will let go of any expectations. The main things I will push to keep at a decent level are sleep and water. There’s a good chance I can keep these at 80%+, but let’s see. Everything else is bound to drop significantly. And then in September, we start again!

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I was on the phone to a medical specialist earlier in the week. They asked me if I smoked or drank alcohol and I said ‘no’. It felt good to give that answer with no hesitation.

I wrote about my journey after 60, 90 and 250 days. And honestly, I don’t really have too much different to say compared to 250 days.

I feel great. Not a hangover in sight. Better weekends. I have more confidence. I have less anxiety – especially at the start of the week. I’ve had a complete transformation with my health habits (see below). I weigh less and am more at ease with my physique. I’m confident that I’m healthier (we’ll find out when I take a new set of bloods in August). Also, I do not miss the mental gymnastics that come along with trying to manage my alcohol limits – which I always eventually broke.

Perhaps the best way I can describe it, is that it feels as if a weight has been lifted.

So, where do I go from here?

I suspect I’m going to be alcohol free forever. There’s too much to risk by trying to get to a place where I can have a couple of drinks on a special occasion, a few times a year. That said, I’ll keep an open mind. I prefer to be self aware of the benefits and risks – and from there, continue to make whatever the right decision for me is.

By the way, this is where my habits are for July so far:

I’m on track for a record month. I KNOW this would not be possible if I was drinking. It’s this and less anxiety that are my biggest reasons for staying sober right now.

If you’re thinking about giving up alcohol, I’d be more than happy to chat and share what’s been useful for me.

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