Health

My goals for January were straight forward – all habits over 80%. This is the first step towards a larger goal of all habits over 80% for three consecutive months. I want to prove to myself that I have these seven habits completely nailed before I move onto anything new.

Here’s how I got on:

Now, that’s what you call knocking it out of the park!

I couldn’t be more pleased. I’m confident I now have all of these habits in the bank. It feels amazing to say that because less than a year ago, I only had two in the green (and one of them was by the skin of my teeth!). And now, through being focused and patient, I have seven habits that feel easy to do. I can’t explain how much better I feel, and how much healthier I am for building these habits. I feel like a different person, on a different level!

So, February. Whilst I’m going to stick to my word and not try anything new, I am going to make a couple of tweaks. I’m going to increase my water goal from 2 litres to 3 litres, and my protein goal from 120 grams to 150 grams. I suspect my hit rate is close to 80% for these higher targets anyway. That said, it’s going to shift things from very comfortable, to having to think a bit harder to ensure I hit those new higher targets. These feel like appropriate tweaks to make, whilst still feel that building three consecutive months of 80%+ is realistic.

Onto to building that second part of the green wave!

P.S. I now have a handful of people who have got in touch and are starting to track their own habits visually. It’s pretty awesome to be inspiring others to build discipline and good habits in their life. I have a few ideas for how to teach this properly to anyone who wants to give it a go. Watch this space. But, in the mean time, if you want any help, just get in touch!

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Here are two reasons, why you have to be an active person:

1. Being weak, relative to being strong = 250% increase in all cause mortality.
2. Having a very low Vo2 max (bottom 25% of population) vs. a high Vo2 max (top 2.5% of population) = 400% increase in all cause mortality. [1]

THE END.

Ok, it’s not really the end. I think you know where I’m going with this though.

If you’re strong and fit, you will live a longer life. And not just a longer life – one with more years that are healthy and free from disease. I can’t think of anything that would be a higher priority than that. It makes a sedentary lifestyle hard to fathom.

You have to be an active person. You have to consistently expose yourself to some discomfort. Yes, that requires effort and it’s going to be hard. But, there’s only one thing I will guarantee – you will absolutely regret it later in life if you don’t do it.

It’s why, when it was cold outside and I didn’t feel like working out yesterday, I did the following:

10 minutes of ‘cardio’ @ mod effort (2 mins bike / 6 mins run / 2 mins bike)

Straight into..

3 rounds of:

• 8 Strict pull ups
• 15 Hand release Push-ups
• 30 seconds side plank rotations (R)
• 30 seconds side plank rotations (L)
• 20 goblet squats to box
• 20 halo’s (10 each way)

10 minutes of ‘cardio’ @ mod effort (10 mins run)

A straight 39 mins of work.

I felt so good afterwards. I was proud of myself for getting it done. I got a big lift in energy and mood. And I’m able to rest safe in the knowledge that it’s another small step to a long and healthy life.

If you’re living a sedentary lifestyle right now, this is a call to action. You know it’s not right. You know the trade off you’re making (more time at work, more comfort, more watching TV etc.) isn’t worth it. You know you’ll regret it. Break the cycle. Start doing something a couple of times a week. 10K steps in a day is an absolutely brilliant start.

Notes:

[1] VO2 max is the amount (volume) of oxygen your body uses while exercising as hard as you can. It’s a common tool to understand your fitness level

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If I could only pick one habit that’s non-negotiable, it’s getting enough sleep. It’s EVERYTHING.

When sleep suffers, everything else starts to unravel.

I get anxious.

Other habits slip.

I get grumpier.

I’m less optimistic.

I don’t think as clearly.

My energy levels are lower.

I’m less productive.

I start to make poor decisions.

My work is lower quality.

I use my phone more.

The list goes on.

It took giving up alcohol for this to really click with me. I used to think that alcohol was the linchpin behaviour that derailed everything else. But, when I gave it up, I realised poor sleep was just as bad. And then I realised that a big part of alcohol causing problems was that it wrecked the quality of my sleep.

I’ve found getting enough sleep is even more important as you get older. I felt I could push the limits with it in my twenties. It got harder in my thirties. No chance in my forties.

Here is my sleep consistency for the last year, along with my average sleep:

Month	Sleep consistency (6.5 hours)	Average sleep
Feb 2022	50%	6:23
Mar 2022	74%	6:45
Apr 2022	77%	6:45
May 2022	81%	6:58
Jun 2022	73%	6:56
Jul 2022	68%	6:46
Aug 2022	52%	6:26
Sep 2022	83%	7:12
Oct 2022	81%	7:09
Nov 2022	80%	7:15
Dec 2022	87%	7:13

It took a while for me to figure out how to be 80%+ consistent, and to get my average over seven hours. But, I’ve finally managed it. It makes such a difference to how well everything else in life goes.

Here are a few quick tips:

1. Track your sleep (I use whoop).
2. Consciously plan your sleep and wake up times (it’s basic math).
3. When doing 2/, account for being awake for about an hour each night (interruptions, tossing and turning etc.).
4. When you do get a bad night’s sleep (hey, it happens), try and nap later in the day to offset it.

It’s not rocket science. It takes some effort to get everything dialled in. But, when you do, you’ll never look back.

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Yesterday was about as perfect as it gets.

I woke from a 8:21 sleep – a solid 50% of deep and REM sleep and 100% of my total sleep need (according to whoop)

I fasted (black coffee and water) until 14.30.

My diet was pure perfection. 2000 calories, with 40% protein, 40% fat and 20% carbs. That’s a massive 193 grams of protein.

I had 2 cups of caffeine before 11am.

I drank 2 litres of water.

I took my supplements.

I had a great training session – a nice long warm up, some upper body strength, conditioning on the bike, followed by a decent cool down.

Of course, no alcohol (537th day sober).

It’s rare that a day of habits comes together as perfectly as this. And that’s sort of the point.

A few years ago, I would have held this type of day as the minimum benchmark to feel satisfied. I was so goal oriented, that nothing less than hitting all of my perfect goals was good enough. Almost all of the time, I was overwhelmed and frustrated by not achieving my goals.

Fast forward to today, and perfection is not the goal. 80% consistency is good enough. I don’t get bent out of shape if I miss some stuff. I know 80% is where most of the rewards are. At 80%, I look and feel better than I ever have. I’m happier than I’ve ever been.

Striving for perfection makes for a miserable life. Because as soon as you know you’re not going to hit perfection (usually, very early in the day), it’s easy to talk yourself into completely giving up until the next day. This is horrible for building consistency. And consistency ALWAYS wins over perfection.

Last year I laid the groundwork with my health. I found a way to be consistent with health habits and by working with my personal trainer, we found an optimal way for me to train consistently. This year, I’m going to build myself into a goddamn machine. And I’m going to do it with patience, 80% consistency, and a smile on my face. 😊

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November was my strongest month in the ten months I’ve been tracking my daily habits.

My goal for November was the same as October, (and September) – six habits (alcohol, sleep, fasting, caffeine, water and supplements) over 80%.

Here’s how I did:

November, 2022 (Close up)

No Alcohol – 100%
Sleep – 6.5HR – 80%
Protein – 120 grams – 73%
Intermittent Fasting (8/16) – 73%
Caffeine (2 before Midday) – 97%
Water – 2 Litres – 93%
Supplements – 93%

(Average sleep – 7 hours, 15 mins)

I’m especially pleased about November for a few reasons:

• My sleep has been at 80%+ consistency and above an average of 7 hours for three straight months now. It’s become noticeably easier to get over six and a half hours, which is a sign that the habit is starting to stick. My average sleep also hit an all time high of 7 hours, 15 mins in November. 👊

• The switch from Paleo to 120 grams of protein has been a game changer. It’s been so liberating to let go of trying to hold myself accountable to a very strict goal of eating paleo. It turns out eating 120 grams of protein is a VERY good simple metric to focus on. Firstly, because eating enough protein is a big factor in recovering from workouts and building muscle (and I wasn’t eating enough before). But secondly, it’s a behaviour that encourages many other good behaviours. It’s forcing me to better plan out my meals. It’s encouraging me to make better food choices (high protein meals tend to be cleaner – big salads, lots of meat, nuts and dairy). It’s also helped bring my total calories down. What surprised me the most was how consistently I achieved 120 grams of protein – I hit 73%! You’ll also notice that most of the time I missed was on weekends. So, there’s an obvious way to close the gap and get it over 80%.

• Intermittent fasting fell a little below 80%, which was a bit of a shame. But, there’s a silver lining. Most of the times I missed were conscious decisions by me. I knew I was going to slip below 80% and made peace with that. At least half of the misses were drinking the odd cup of tea whilst watching my daughter play football (I count that as a miss, because technically the milk breaks the fast). Most of the benefit of intermittent fasting is that it helps you to eat fewer total calories, therefore these slip ups don’t make much difference. That said, making excuses like this can become a slippery slope. So, I’m going to tighten it up and keep things at 80% going forward.

• My caffeine, water and supplement habits are fully established habits now. I hardly have to think about them and can’t imagine a scenario where they drop below 80% again.

So, overall an INCREDIBLE month. Yes, I have a little bit of tightening up to do. But, I’m very close to having seven really powerful health habits at 80% consistency. This feels like a gigantic inflection point for me. I feel and look better for it. Things are really clicking.

That brings me to December. This is always a tricky month, because of the holiday period. I was tempted to take the same approach as I did for August (track my habits, but let go of any expectations), but that feels a bit of a cop out given where I am. So, I’m going to push for 80% for all habits and see where I end up. I’ll lower my expectations a bit. If I fall a bit short, I’m not going to beat myself up. And whatever the result, from there, I’ll be looking for a full wave of green in Jan, Feb and March 2023. If I achieve that, I’ll start to look at some other habits.

Bring on December!

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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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