Health

Hmmmm. So, July was a little bumpy. Let’s talk it through!

My goals for July were straight forward:

• 6 habits I’ve fairly firmly established – alcohol, sleep, protein, caffeine, water and steps – at 80% consistency and in the green
• Whole foods, which is my seventh habit that I’m in the early stages of building – my goal is to be above 50% consistency again (that would make it the third consecutive month of being above 50%) – and preferably I’d like to see it closer to 60% consistency. 

Alright, let’s jump into how well I did in July:

I think it’s fair to say that I had a bit of a wobble in July.

Of the six foundational health habits I wanted to keep 80% consistency or over and in the green, I only managed to keep four of them in the green – alcohol, protein, caffeine and water. I’m of course, super happy with those.

The two habits that slipped below 80% consistency and therefore into the orange were sleep and steps. Although, not by much – 74% consistency for sleep and 77% consistency for 10K steps. So, not overly happy with these. We’ll get into that in a few moments.

And then for my seventh foundation health habit, whole foods – that came in at 52% consistency. I’m fairly happy with that as it means I’ve managed to be over 50% for three consecutive months now. That’s a pretty good place to be given I’m in the early stages of building my whole foods habit. 

So, overall I’d say July was pretty mixed. A mix of some great, some good, and some OK.

As usual, let’s dive into the details:

No Alcohol

Goes without saying, 100% consistency. 

It’s also worth mentioning that I hit my three year sober milestone in July. I only realised two weeks after the fact, because I’m no longer concerned with counting. That’s just who I am now.

Sleep – 6.5 hours

Sleep came in at 74% consistency. This kinda pisses me off, because sleep is so damn important. I therefore hate to see it in the orange. 

That said, there’s nothing substantial or new that would lead me to believe I’m in trouble with sleep. I know my sleep habit is a little vulnerable at times. I got a friendly reminder of this.

There’s two things I’d put down to my sleep consistency being low in July. 

Firstly, I got off to a bad start (three misses in the first nine days). From there, I didn’t recover properly and clocked up a few unnecessary misses due to a lack of focus. I simply went to bed too late when I knew I should have gotten an early night to give myself the best chance of getting over 6.5 hours.

Secondly, I always find summer a bit of a challenge when it comes to sleep. It’s been a very hot July and the sun has been rising early. This always tends to present a bit of extra risk to hitting my 6.5 hours.

These will be the two things I think about over the next few months.

Protein – 175 grams

Protein came in at 81% consistency. I would usually expect this to be comfortably in the nineties. However, a few trips and unusual breaks from my routine caused this to dip.

As with all of my habits, anything 80% of above is entirely fine. Yeah, it’s nice to see things high eighties and into the nineties, but that’s icing on the cake. So long as I’m 80% or above and in the green with each of my habits, I’ve achieved my goal. So, no worries with protein. I’m pretty confident we’ll be back to 90%+ consistency over the next few months.

Caffeine – max two cups, and before midday

Same score and same analysis as protein – 81% consistency.

81% is perfectly fine with me. As usual, each of my six misses were very intentional – either around a trip or fuelling an afternoon workout. 

Water – 3 litres

Water was my highest scoring habit, at 94% consistency. Water is a standout habit for me. It’s almost second nature to drink 3 litres of water a day, and it’s not something I struggle with at all. This didn;t used to be the case, but over time I’ve just drummed it in.

10K Steps

Steps were a bit of a bummer – 77% consistency. Like sleep, this one annoyed me because it’s also one I have some vulnerability with and July kindly reminded me that.

Always the same deal – I lose my focus, and leave it too late. I know what I have to do to get it reliably over 80% consistency. And that’s what I’ll focus on for the next few months.

Whole Foods – 80%

Whole foods came in at 52% consistency. On one hand, that’s great and now three consecutive months over 50%. That’s a solid trend there. 

On the other hand, I’m not seeing signs of it getting closer to 60% and over. And that’s what I now need to work on.

Improving this is going to be very hard, and will take some time. Once you start to track everything you eat, you realise how hard it is to even eat 30 or 40% whole foods. With my target being 80% whole foods per day, it only takes one or two things to not be whole foods to kill the percentage.

To improve this, I just need to be much more focused and start to dial things in tighter. I’ve made a good leap from under 50% to always over 50%. So, some extra dialing in will help me get closer to, and over 60%. I’m motivated to do that, watch this space. 

July Wrap Up

Yes, I had fairly mixed results in July. It definitely could’ve been better.

But, I have to remind myself that this will sometimes happen. Now and again, I’m going to have to take it on the chin that established foundational health habits WILL fall under 80% consistency, and into the orange now and again.

I think the important thing to remember is that a blip on a habit for one month is definitely not a trend. Realistically, that’s just going to happen sometimes – through losing my focus or through the curveballs life will deal me from time to time.

What’s important is to make sure it isn’t a trend. If I slip into two consecutive missed months, that becomes the start of a trend. And three consecutive missed months? That’s definitely a trend.

So, I’ll pick myself up, and focus extra hard on things for the next few months. I want to prove to myself this is just a one off blip!

Aug Goals

My goals for August look a bit different from a usual month. That’s because I’m on holiday in Tenerife for ten days.

I’m going to do something a little custom for August, and only focus on and track steps and water. If you want to dig deeper into how I think about my foundational health habits whilst on holiday, and my rationale for only tracking steps and water, check out How I track my habits on holiday.

September will of course be back to normal. 

I will see you next month!

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Have you ever gone on holiday, and done one of these two things?

• Completely gone off the rails, and let go of every part of your healthy lifestyle?
• Tried to maintain every part of your healthy lifestyle – only to find it impossible to do so?

Either way, I have a fix for you.

Since I started tracking habits, my view on how to handle things whilst on holiday has evolved. However, over the last year or so, and the last couple of holidays – it’s settled into a place that feels right and works for me.

Before I dive into the tactical stuff, I want to share three principles. These principles define my approach for how I think about my habits when I’m on holiday:

1. It’s critical to dial things back

It’s not realistic to perform at the same level when you go on holiday or on any type of significant trip.

A big part of that is your environment. Having a predictable environment is crucial to being consistent with habits. And of course, that becomes completely disrupted when you go on holiday. This makes it virtually impossible to achieve the same levels of consistency whilst on holiday – even if you wanted to.

And look, you’re going to have a hard time enjoying your holiday if you’re continually getting bent out of shape by struggling to stick to unrealistic habits. You don’t want that to spoil your holiday.

So, the first thing is you have to dial everything back, and reduce your expectations.

Taking a break from your usual discipline and consistency now and again, is actually a good thing.

2. Taking a break can help you re-group, and recharge.

Here’s a good example of that. I train in a five week block. Weeks one to four follow almost exactly the same structure, and increase in intensity. By the end of the fourth week, I’m always feeling physically and mentally tired.

Welcome, week five – the deload. In the fifth week, there is much less structure. The emphasis is on being out of the gym, staying super active and reducing the intensity.

By the time I’m through the fifth week, I’m recharged mentally and physically. I’m super ready to hit week one of the next block.

This is a good example of how it can be advantageous to take a bit of a break from the normal discipline now and again. And that’s what I aim to do when I’m on holiday.

3. Whilst a break is good, it’s important to not detach and go completely off script

If I were to lose every aspect of my foundational health habits, I know I’m going to feel crappy – literally in my body, but also in myself for letting go completely of a healthy lifestyle.

It’s important to keep some type of light or reduced habit practice in place. This helps to keep the element of discipline alive. What you’ll find is that it then won’t be such an uphill struggle to pick things up when you get back from vacation. Sure, you might be a bit rusty when you get back to things. But, if you’re anything like me, I dust myself off pretty quick.

So, the third principle is, it’s important to keep at least some level of commitment to habits while on holiday.

This is all a timely reflection for myself, because I’m heading off to Tenerife on holiday shortly.

So, with all of that said, what’s my exact approach and plan when I’m in Tenerife?

What’s worked really well the last couple of times I’ve been on holiday, is to pick just a few habits to focus on. I tend to try and make sure these habits are not only the most foundational ones – but also ones which are friendly to stick to when on holiday.

For me, three habits always rise to the top:

1. Sleep

Sleep is hands down my most important foundational health habit. Firstly because of the direct impact it has on my physical and mental health. But, also because it has a lot of influence over the consistency of my other habits.

When I sleep well, I feel so much better. I’m more confident. I have little to no anxiety. More often than not, I am in a good mood and my energy is high.

2. Steps

Steps are the simplest way to stay active. I might do some other stuff when I’m on holiday – perhaps getting in the gym, practicing some bodyweight circuits, some mobility, and probably some swimming. But, that’s all a bonus, and only if I feel like it, or have access to those facilities..

Keeping steps as a habit, means that I will maintain a baseline of activity. And this is important for my mental health. Whenever I slip into being sedentary, the bad stuff tends to creep in.

3. Water

Water is an obvious one. It’s an easy habit to stick to when on holiday – and like sleep – when I’m hydrated, I feel good.

When I drink very little water, I feel tired, I get headaches and I tend to feel my mood lower.

The other thing about water and a holiday, is that it’s usually hot weather on a holiday. So, drinking water is an even more important habit to keep up to ensure that I stay hydrated.

So, those are the three habits I usually focus on whilst I’m on holiday – sleep, steps and water.

The other foundational health habits will definitely stay in the back of my mind for sure. Because many of them are becoming second nature for me now, they will still be upheld to some degree. But, importantly, I have no expectations, and they don’t get tracked.

Another piece to this is the actual target of each habit. Now, I think it’s perfectly fine to adjust either the actual goal for each of the habits (i.e number of litres of water to drink), or the total consistency that you’re aiming at for the period of time you’re on holiday (i.e 80% consistency)

For example, I usually aim for 10K steps a day, and 80% consistency over a normal month. On holiday, it would be perfectly fine to reduce that to 5K steps for 80%.

A lot depends on what type of holiday it is, and what is realistic for you. Remember, the key here is to hold onto a few of the most foundational health habits. You don’t want to abandon everything altogether. Pulling back on the targets is perfectly fine and still achieves that.

I find the existing targets I have for sleep, steps and water, as well as the 80% consistency just fine for my upcoming holiday. In fact, it’s usually fine for any holiday I go on. I’ve used this approach for weekend trips, as well as a three week holiday in the US.

So, to summarise, the habits that I’m going to track for my holidays are:

• Sleep: 6.5 hours
• Steps: 10K a day
• Water: 3 litres a day

Now, I’m going to throw in a bit of a curve ball for this holiday. I’ve decided I’m not going to track my sleep, and instead just focus on tracking only steps and water.

You might ask – why on earth would I do that? Surely, sleep is the most obvious one to hold onto?

You might be right. But, there are a couple of reasons I want to run this experiment.

Firstly, I want to take a break from whoop. I’m interested to know what it feels like from having a break from the daily data. I also want to avoid a white band on my wrist, next to the rest of my beautifully sun tanned body!

Also, sleep is something that is naturally very high for me on holiday. I’m not out partying, and I tend to allow myself to lie in. I have a lot of confidence that my sleep will naturally come in above the 6.5 hour mark for 80% regardless of how closely I track it.

There is a good chance that I will learn from this experiment that letting go of tracking sleep is a bad idea. But, I’m interested to give it a go and see how it feels.

So, for Tenerife, I will only focus on tracking steps and water for my 80% consistency. I’ll still somewhat be aware of getting over 6.5 hours of sleep, but I won’t track it like steps and water.

To summarise, here are my recommendations for tracking foundational health habits on holiday:

• Pick two or three foundational health habits that you will focus on, and track
• Try and make those habits the most foundational, but also ones which fit in nicely with your holiday
• Only focus on tracking and hitting those habits whilst on holiday. Let go of all expectations for the other habits.
• When you’re back from holiday, get back to full tracking!

I’ll see you after my holiday, hopefully with a sun tan!

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Before we get stuck into June, I want to take a moment to recap my goals with foundational health habits for 2024.

I have two goals for 2024:

• Take the six foundational health habits I’ve mostly established (alcohol, sleep, protein, caffeine, water and steps) – and truly make them second nature. Whilst most of these are in a pretty good place, some are still fragile.
• Get whole foods (my newest foundational health habit) up to mostly 80% consistency and in the green. It doesn’t necessarily have to be second nature (as with the other six), But it would be good to get it up and around 80% consistency.

And therefore, a reminder of what my goals for June were:

• Alcohol, sleep, protein, caffeine, water and steps at 80% consistency and in the green
• Whole foods to be above 50% consistency again (it was above 50% for the first time in May) – preferably closer to 60% consistency.

Alright, lets jump in!:

As you can see, June was a REALLY strong month. I achieved both of my goals. My six habits were at least 80% consistency and in the green, and whole foods was above 50% (53%). That’s exactly where I wanted to be.

Let’s dive into the detail:

No Alcohol

100%, of course. I’m nearly three years sober 🙂

Sleep – 6.5 hours

Sleep came in at 87%. That’s a small Improvement from May, and now six consecutive months in the green. That’s awesome to see. And it reflects the fact that I’m finding sleep a little easier to keep over 80% lately.

Ultimately, anything over 80%, and preferably with no double misses, is what I’m looking for. And June was exactly that, so we’re good.

Protein – 175 grams

Protein landed right on the nose at 80%.

I’m probably always going to find myself with a handful-ish of days throughout the month where I struggle to get 175 grams of protein in. It’s usually around a trip, a low protein dinner, or simply a lack of planning.

By the way, even when I miss my protein number on a given day, my average for the week is usually around 180-190 grams. So, it’s not the biggest thing in the world if I’m hanging around 80% consistency.

That said, it’s really useful to hold myself accountable to seeing 80+5 consistency, with no more than six misses in a month. Because, more misses would easily become a slippery slope to an average below 175 grams.

Caffeine – max two cups, and before midday

Caffeine, like protein, came in at 80% consistency.

Caffeine is likely to always come in at around 80%. And that’s because all of my misses are an intentional miss – usually enjoying an afternoon coffee on a trip, or to fuel a later than usual workout.

So, 80% consistency, with no double misses is exactly where I like to be!

Water – 3 litres

87% for water. No double misses.

I’ve also been reaching my goals of 3 litres of water much more smoothly recently – usually getting it in by 8PM ish (important to avoid night time toilet visits!).

So, super happy with water.

10K Steps

I found steps a bit of a struggle in June. I scraped in at 80% consistency, and also managed a double miss, which I don’t like to see.

What causes me to miss my step goal? Mostly, bad weather or poor planning. The poor planning part is what I need to focus on. I often leave getting a start on my steps too late in the day, which leaves me open to the miss.

So, in July, I need to focus on 1. having a plan, and 2. breaking the back of the 10K steps as early in the day as possible.

Whole Foods – 80%

Whole foods came in at 53% consistency – about the same as last month.

That was my goal, so I’m happy with that. This now really sets a benchmark for me to improve upon. The second half of the year is really about keeping consistency above 50%, and slowly nudging things into the 60% and the 70% area. And, hopefully towards 80% consistency and in the green for the end of the year.

Importantly, I’ve been making real strides on a day-to-day basis in making better, conscious decisions around the food I’m putting into my mouth.
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So, I’m happy with 53% consistency. I still feel very vunerably when it comes to eating 80% whole foods each day, and I’m not completely convinced I will never see a drop below 50%. But, what’s important is that it’s all heading in the right direction. And that’s exactly what I need for now.

Wrap Up

I’m really, really happy with June. It was an incredible month.

Six of the habits that I expected to be 80% consistency or above, were. And my seventh habit (whole foods) stayed above 50% consistency. So, I achieved both of my goals for June.

Overall, 2024 is shaping up to be a great year. More greens, less oranges, and hopefully no reds from here.

My goals for July

My goals for July are exactly the same as they were for June.

• Alcohol, sleep, protein, caffeine, water and steps at 80% consistency and in the green
• Whole foods to be above 50% consistency again (it was above 50% for the first time in May) – preferably closer to 60% consistency.

I will see you next month!

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Have you ever tried to establish a new habit or behavior – and things started off really well? But, then after a few days – or even a few weeks, you slip up and have a bad day?

I’m guessing the answer is yes.

So, how did you feel in that moment? How did you handle it?

If you’re anything like me, it’s super frustrating. All you can think about at that moment is the bad choice you made – or the fact that you haven’t been able to stick to something you said you were going to do.

You were doing so well, and then bam, you let yourself down and now you’re back to square one.

You probably felt disappointed, and perhaps even angry about it right?

Here’s where it starts to get even worse. This can often lead to a moment, where you say – to hell with everything. If I’ve failed, I might as well fail properly. I’m just going to let loose and do even more of the things that I wasn’t supposed to do. Just get it all out of my system.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation like that, and you tell yourself – ‘I’ll just start again on Monday’?

Here’s the kicker. You know exactly what you should do. You should just not let this mistake ruin everything, and get back on track right away. But, more often than not, you just end up going further off track.

This is a classic form of self sabotage. It’s happened to me probably a thousand times.

I want to dive into a few examples where I have found myself off track. And then afterwards we’ll look at how the power of the average helps with these situations.

Sticking to calories

I have a number of calories that I want to hit every day. At the moment, it’s 2,300.

Whilst I’m usually fairly close to that, sometimes I just completely fucking blow through it by over-indulging. I’m talking, well over 3000 calories. Not only do I blow my calorie number, but I also then put my macros (my protein, carbs and fat), completely out of whack.

In the past, when this would happen, I would feel disgusted with myself. I just got completely stuck on how weak a person I was to give in and over-indulge.

All of this happened despite how clear I am with myself that my calorie target for the day is 2300 – and the fact that I am very motivated to hit it. But, from time to time, life just gets in the way, or I have a moment of weakness. I just completely slip off track.

Walking 10,000 steps per day

I have a 10,000 per day step target. Most days I hit it. But now and again, I just lame out and find myself on 2,000 steps as I head into the evening. At that point, I know I’m done for. I’m never going to hit my step target for the day.

For the most part, this is avoidable. It’s not rocket science to plan for getting 10,000 steps in, and then simply doing it. It’s simple time management, and then actually walking. But, at the same time, sometimes I do just end up slipping up. Again, life just gets in the way, or I lose my focus.

That’s just two of many examples where I find myself getting off track with what I’m trying to do. I might have three, four, five – maybe even ten days of being consistent with something, and then wham, I find myself missing the mark.

Now, in the past I would have gone full self sabotage mode. I would have beat myself up, and I would tell myself all types of bad stuff about why I wasn’t capable. I would have got stuck ruminating on why this is going to stop me ever getting the results I want. And then, to punish myself even further – I would get even more off track and vow to start again at some point in the future.

This became a really vicious circle for me. And it happened a lot, because I was trying to be perfect – and of course, nobody is perfect. We all get off track with something we’re trying to do eventually.

And that’s EXACTLY where the power of the average comes in and helps.

Your results are very, very, very rarely ever dictated by a specific action, a bad day, or even a bad week. At least not when it comes to being fit, healthy – and looking and feeling your best.

What matters much more is your average over a longer time horizon. Consistently hitting a strong average over a long time horizon will absolutely get you the results you’re after. You do not need perfection. In fact, perfection is the enemy.

If you have a consistently high average over a long time horizon, you can weather most things and still achieve very impressive results. You can easily weather a bad day, even a bad week. In fact, in the most extreme example, you can even weather a couple of bad months, if you have a high average over the course of twelve to eighteen months.

That’s exactly why I chose a target of 80% consistency for the month when it comes to all of my foundational health habits. I think there’s some magic to being 80% consistent with foundational health habits.

To explain why I think that, the next thing I’m going to say is something in which I have absolute conviction in. But also I have absolutely no scientific data to back it up.

But hear me out.

• 80% consistency with foundational health habits gets you most of the results. Importantly, it also allows you to live a balanced and fun life. And 80% consistency is VERY realistic for anyone to achieve.
• 90% gets you only slightly more results, but it also starts to become disproportionately restrictive on life. That’s even if you could achieve it – because 90% consistency involves a very thin margin of error.
• 100% – it gets you even less, slightly more results. It’s also entirely unsustainable and leads to a very restrictive, and usually miserable life. You’ll be continually in that vicious cycle I mentioned earlier – of trying to be perfect, failing, self sabotaging, and repeating that cycle. And trust me, with very few exceptions, 100% is not fun, and it’s not necessary.

So, start to think, 80% consistency. That’s the average you want to be aiming for. I promise, you will be blown away with the results you get from being 80% consistent with foundational health habits.

I’ve been able to transform my body, health, confidence, anxiety – and have generally just become a way more disciplined and capable person by getting six foundational health habits to 80% consistency. And I’m working on taking that to seven as we speak.

I want to give you one very simple, practical tip – that is at the cornerstone of living the 80% philosophy.

You have to start documenting and tracking your progress

There’s a few reasons why you have to do this.

Firstly, how do you even know what your % consistency is over a longer time horizon, if you don’t track it? You have to know this. Otherwise you might be hitting 50%, 60% or 70% consistency without even knowing.

Secondly, when you start documenting and tracking your progress, you become more consistent. It’s motivating to be able to see your progress in front of you, and it helps to give you self awareness of where you’re at throughout the days and weeks.

Lastly, it’s the only way you can clearly see in front of you, the longer time horizon view. By documenting and tracking your progress, you’ll be able to see blips for what they are – simply blips. You’ll see five, six seven or so ticks, and then one cross for example. When you see it like that, the cross doesn’t matter. It just becomes part of the 20%. It’s really hard to get this perspective unless you can see it in front of you.

Here are a few examples of how I document and track some of my own habits and behaviors, and how the power of the average helps me stay on track with my foundation health habits.

Tracking calories

I track my calories using the myfitnesspal app. As I mentioned above, my goal is 2,300 calories. Any time I like, I can see my calories for each day of the week, and what the average is.

Check out last week:

I had a huge spike on Thursday – 3,193 calories. And then I followed that on Friday by also going over my target – 2,481 calories.

Now, that’s not good right? Sure, it’s not ideal. BUT, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I had 1,855, 2,104 and 1,762 calories. All below my target of 2,300 calories.

My average calories going into the weekend was 2,279. So, I was actually under my goal for the week at that point!

So, yeah, those two high days were unfortunate. And, yeah, sure, I wish they hadn’t happened. But, there were some specific reasons why they did, and that’s because I allowed myself to flex into the 20% and enjoyed life a little. And, crucially, my average over the 7 day period is really what counts – not a specific day.

So, by tracking my calories and being able to see it in front of me. I am on top of what my current average is, and I can see those two blips for exactly what they are – just two blips. It can still be (and was) a very successful week where I hit my average of 2,300. And actually, what’s important to note is that it helps me think ahead to ensure I have more chance of being successful with hitting my target of a 2,300 average on any given week.

Tracking my training

I track my training every day in the notes app on my iphone. Nothing complicated. I just have the days in there and I note down what got done.

My goal is five training sessions per week. Three weight training sessions and two sessions of zone 2 cardio. I also note down my steps each day – with my goal as 10,000 steps per day. And lastly, I jot down any mobility I do.

This was last week:

Again, super simple. It’s just a simple list with the things I do each day.

And whilst I do have a plan for what I will do each day for the week ahead – it rarely goes to plan. So, as I fill out each day, it’s sort of my way of building the week. This allows me to see what’s building, and I’m then able to rearrange things to make sure that I close the week and hit my goal of 5 sessions, 10,000 average steps and some mobility.

That view is crucial for me. If I intend to train on a given day, and for whatever reason, I skip it – it doesn’t become this epic fail. I trained plenty before it, and I will rearrange the days after it. It’s just a blip.

Tracking foundational health habits

OK, last example. And that’s of course, how I track my foundational health habits.

Let’s take June as an example. Across the six foundational health habits that I have an 80% consistency goal for, I have twelve misses so far.

Two misses for sleep. Three for protein. Three for caffeine. Two for water. And two for steps.

(this photo was taken a few days after I wrote this, so some of the numbers differ ever so slightly)

Each of the six habits is in front of me, and every tick and cross for the fourteen days of June so far.

And I can see those misses for what they are – twelve blips, among a sea of seventy-three wins.

There are thirty days in June. So, I can afford six misses for each habit and still hit 80%. So, as it stands, each of those six habits is on track to be at or above 80% consistency. There’s nothing to be worried about. I’m exactly where I need to be.

By documenting and tracking my foundational health habits in this way, I’m able to keep the right perspective on where I am with everything. When I have a miss, it’s not the end of the world. No getting bent out of shape. No self sabotage.

It’s just one of six misses that I can afford over the 30 day period. I can clearly see what’s happened so far in the month, and what’s left to run. And that allows me to navigate the month with no drama. And I usually come in at a solid 80% consistency for each of those foundational habits.

To wrap up, remember: aiming for 80% consistency is key. Let go of perfection. Document and track your progress to keep the right perspective.

Good luck with building your foundational health habits. If you need any help, hit me up!

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Before we get stuck in, a quick reminder of what my goals were for last month (May 2024).

1. Keep the six foundational health habits that I have already built (alcohol, sleep, protein, caffeine, water and steps) at 80%+. Specifically, work on sleep and steps becoming less fragile.
2. Improve whole foods to 50%+, preferably closer to 60%

So, let’s see how we did!

(see my entire habit journey here)

Look at that! May was my best month for a long, long time.

The six foundational health habits that I’ve already built (alcohol, sleep, protein, caffeine, water and steps) were all over 80% and in the green.

But, my biggest win of the month was getting whole foods over 50%. This is a massive jump on the last four months and exactly where I wanted to be. Now that I’m over 50%, the new challenge is to maintain that and push it upwards into the 60%’s, 70%’s and eventually the 80%’s.

As per usual, let’s get into the details.

No Alcohol

Same as always. I’ve been sober for nearly three years now 🙂

Sleep – 6.5 hours

Sleep came in at 81% consistency, and I had no consecutive misses. On top of that, I was super pleased that my average sleep was over seven hours.

I would like to change my goal from six and a half hours, to seven hours at some point. That’s the holy grail. But, for now, if sleep were to stay at over 80% consistency at six and a half hours for 2024, I would be very, very happy.

Protein – 175 grams

A very good month for protein – 87% consistency. No consecutive misses. I feel very confident in being able to hit 175 grams most days. It’s just an easy thing for me to do now. In fact, so much so, that I usually expect my protein consistency to be over 90%. But, for the month of May, 87% is just fine with me.

Caffeine – max two cups, and before midday

Caffeine was at 81%. Every time I miss caffeine, it’s an intentional choice – either for a pre-training espresso boost, or because I’m traveling. This is exactly where I want to be.

Water – 3 litres

A super month for water – 94% consistency. Water is easy peasy for me now. It’s been over 80% for a very long time, and is usually over 90%. Lately, my challenge has been trying to consume most of my water ideally before 19.00. I got into a bad habit of leaving my water consumption towards the end of the day, which means night time toilet visits – which then affects my sleep.

So, I’ve been trying to work on this during May. I want to ideally consume most of my water before 20.00, giving myself a couple of hours of not drinking fluid before going to bed. I feel like I’m getting there. It hasn’t been perfect, but I’m definitely improving.

Hitting 94% consistency, being in the green and making improvements to when I consume water is a brilliant result for May.

10K Steps

Steps was another one that came in at 81% consistency. There were a few consecutive misses, which I don’t like to see. But, these were mostly down to bad weather or traveling. But, in the grand scheme of things, I’m really happy with 81%. If you remember, last month I slipped into orange with 73%. So, I needed to prove to myself this was a blip. And, I did exactly that!

Whole Foods

Whole Foods was easily my biggest win of the month. I came in at 55% consistency. May was the fourth month I’ve tracked whole foods.

My daily target goal for whole foods is to eat 80% whole foods. And then of course, as with my other habits, I am aiming for 80% consistency for the month. This is actually a very, very hard thing for anyone to do. But, it’s especially hard for me, given I have a bad relationship with food, and a massive sweet tooth!

My gut tells me that it’s going to easily take at least the rest of the year, but possibly 2025 for me to get to 80% consistency on this habit. If I go back to February (when I started tracking whole foods), it was 45%. March was 48% and April dipped to 33%.

Now, until now, I haven’t been really trying to improve it. Instead, I’ve been letting my baseline form, whilst I’ve been focusing on my other six foundational health habits. May was really the first month where I said, no, I’m going to make a bigger effort to try a few things and see if I can get whole foods over 50%. And it worked. I’m really happy with that.

I hope this has now set a benchmark for me to always be over 50%. And I now have to start getting it into the 60s or 70s, and eventually 80% consistency.

Wrap up

So, if I take a step back and look at the whole month, I’m really happy that six of my habits were in the green and over 80% consistency.

Impressively, my whole foods habit is now over 50% consistency. That now sets a nice benchmark for me to try and hold and then improve upon for the rest of 2024.

My goals for June are very similar to May, and they will be almost identical for every month of 2024.

1. Keep the six foundational health habits that I have already built (alcohol, sleep, protein, caffeine, water and steps) at 80%+.
2. Specifically, get sleep and steps to be less fragile.
3. Improve whole foods. For June, I want another month over 50%, preferably closer to 60%

See you next month!

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April was an interesting month. It got off to a bad start, and it went downhill further from there. As I got into the second half of the month, I was happy for it to finish. I was just keen to start May with a clean slate.

There were a few reasons for April not being the greatest month.

Firstly, there were a couple of trips and some other bits of travel. We also had half term, which meant my daughter had two weeks off school. Both of these meant less routine, and generally more temptations in my environment. Lastly, I found myself under the weather for about five days. This always makes some habits harder to stick to (tougher to sleep well, eat enough protein, get steps in etc.)

But, enough with the excuses. Lets jump into the numbers:

(see my entire habit journey here)

I finished April thinking it had been a bit of a car crash. But, with a bit of time to think and reflect about it, I was being a bit harsh. If you go back and compare April to 12 or 18 months ago, it would actually be considered a very strong month. That really puts into perspective the progress I’ve made over the last year and a half.

If you look across all of my seven foundational health habits, five of them were at least 80% consistency. 10K steps slipped below 80% – but only just. And whole foods was well below 80%, which was to be expected. I’m still in the very early stages of building this habit.

Bear in mind, being sick really hit my steps specifically. I had four consecutive misses towards the end of the month, which really pulled my average consistency % down. Had it not have been for those, my steps would have been well above 80%.

When you look at it like that, I was probably beating myself up a little bit too much. In fact, I actually did quite well considering the challenges of the month.

Let’s go through each habit individually and we’ll see how each one went.

No Alcohol

As per usual – 100%. Always will be, given I’m nearly three years sober!

Sleep – 6.5 hours

Sleep came in at 83% consistency. I’m very happy with that. I avoided consecutive misses too, which is very important for me, especially with sleep. It helps keep my anxiety on the right side of things.

Sleep was a habit that was a bit fragile until a few months ago. I now have four consecutive months in the green. This gives me a lot of confidence that this is now pretty stable and should stay in the green going forward.

Protein – 175 grams

Protein came in right on the nose – 80% consistency. I’m usually very good with protein, so I would expect it to be closer to 90%.

The factors that made April a challenging month had a big impact on protein. I found it harder to hit 175 grams when traveling and being sick. The one saving grace was that my average for the week always tends to be around 180 grams. So, even when I do dip below 175 grams, I usually make up for it, either before or after.

So, not fantastic. But, I still achieved green status, and there’s nothing to worry about for next month. I’ll take that.

Caffeine – max two cups, and before midday

Caffeine was at 83% consistency. Like protein, I would have expected it to be closer to 90%.

That said, most of the times I missed my caffeine habit was when I was traveling or on a day trip. In those situations, I consciously chose to break the habit, so I could enjoy a double espresso in the afternoon. And I was very conscious to make sure I didn’t break it too many times to fall under the 80% mark.

So, all good with caffeine.

Water – 3 litres

Super, super strong at 87% consistency.

Traveling or being sick doesn’t affect my water consumption much at all. I still find it pretty easy to hit my three litres. Case in point, I’ve been in the green for 25 months now!

10K Steps

OK, this is where things start to unravel a little, with 73% consistency.

Steps is a habit that, like sleep, is still a little fragile. However I don’t think this was the problem in April. As I mentioned above, being sick disrupted my steps. There were four days where I just wasn’t well enough to get out there and walk a lot. If I removed only two of those, I would be back up to 80%.

So, I’m not going to beat myself up about steps falling below 80% consistency. The dip wasn’t caused by a change in behavior or because of the fragility of the habit. It was purely the sickness, which couldn’t be foreseen, or helped. That’s just how it goes sometimes.

And, I should remind myself, we’re not talking 50% or 60%. I still got close to 80%, even with a bout of illness knocking me out for four days.

I’m confident that I will be above 80% for steps in May.

Whole Foods

Eer. 33% consistency. Yeah terrible.

Let’s take a step back though. This is the third month that I’ve tracked whole foods as a foundational health habit.

I came in at 45% consistency in February, and 48% in March. For those months, and May, I haven’t really tried to improve the score. Because I’m in the early stages of building the habit, I’ve just been letting a baseline form whilst I’ve been focusing on my other six foundational health habits.

That’s been fine up until now, but it needs to change for May. I’ll cover that in a second.

Wrap up

So, not a car crash – not at all. Actually, fairly decent numbers for a very challenging month.

My goals for May are very straightforward. And they will be almost identical for every month of 2024.

1. Keep the six foundational health habits that I have already built (alcohol, sleep, protein, caffeine, water and steps) at 80%+. Specifically, get sleep and steps to be less fragile.
2. Improve whole foods. For May, I want to get whole foods to 50%+, preferably closer to 60%

The main thing I will focus on for making progress with whole foods, is to consciously have a plan for keeping whole foods over 80% for any given day. And then becoming more self aware throughout the day as I try to steer towards that. This is quite a big change from just passively letting the baseline form, so it should hopefully improve.

So far, May is looking really good. Things are on track for an excellent month!

Watch this space 🙂

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Before I get into the one ingredient you need to start becoming the best version of yourself, I want to start with a question.

Are you a better version of yourself, compared to six months ago?

I want you to really reflect on this question – properly think about it.

Look back 6 months ago? How do you feel about yourself now, compared to then?

Are you stronger?
Are you fitter?
Are you more confident?
Are you wealthier?
Are you further in your career, or can you point to something impressive that you achieved?
Have you educated yourself and learned new things?
Have you got better at a skill?
Are you a better parent or spouse?
Have you built a stronger network of friends and people around you?

I’m not saying you need to answer yes to all of these questions.

But, when you ask yourself if you are a better version of yourself compared to six months ago – a few things should definitely jump right out at you. Your instinct should be one of conviction. Yes, I’m a better version of myself than six months ago, because of X and Y.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that if most people are really honest with themselves, they can’t look themselves in the eye and confidently say YES – I am a stronger, better and more capable version of myself vs. 6 months ago.

If you find yourself in this position, I hope I can get you moving in the right direction.

So, what causes us to get stuck and not make big improvements to ourselves?

If you want to become a better version of yourself – it requires making a lot of small sacrifices every day. You have to push through friction. You’ll need to experience some type of discomfort. Perhaps put fear to one side. You might even need to endure some pain.

It’s essentially a game of delayed gratification. In fact, that’s the best litmus test I can think of.

Are you regularly delaying, or deferring short-term gratification? Are you regularly resisting the temptation of an immediate pleasure, so that you can get a much larger, more valuable and long lasting reward in the long-term?

Most people don’t want to do that. And I get it. I meant, instinctively, I would rather have pleasure than discomfort.

But, there’s really no way around it. That’s what you need to do if you’re going to move yourself forward and become a better version of yourself. You have to be able to defer short-term pleasure, and embrace some discomfort – multiple times a day.

So, now think about your own life and days. Can you start to see how many choices there are like this?

Take my day yesterday for example:

• I had a plan for a six mile run at lunch. Every bone in my body wanted to stay inside, keep warm and avoid the discomfort of getting changed into my running gear. I didn’t want to step outside in the cold and wind, and then run for one hour. But, I observed those feelings, and then did the run anyway.
• As it got into the afternoon, I really felt like having an espresso. However, one of my foundational health habits is to only have two espressos, and not after midday. Based on my consistency so far this month, the right decision was to stick to the rules today. So, I pushed it out of my mind and just got on with things.
• I had to sit down and write out the script for what you’re reading right now. Getting the first version of what I want to say on paper is always the hardest bit. I could literally feel the resistance rise up as I thought about it. There was so much temptation to push it to tomorrow.. But, no. I forced myself to sit down with a blank page, and get started.
• I had a few tough conversations ahead of me at work. It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to push these to tomorrow – or even next week. But, there was no good reason to do that. I was just trying to find a way to avoid the discomfort now. The right thing for me, others and the company I work for, was to have these conversations today and move things forward. So that’s exactly what I did.
• I am listening to a podcast series on sleep at the moment. The first two episodes are a combined six hours. Even though it’s proving to be super informative, I was tempted to just find something easier to do. But, I know this is going to educate me, and be super valuable to strengthen my conviction for getting better sleep. So, I forced myself to sit down with it, and listen for an hour.

Most of my days go like that. They are filled with these types of discomfort and decisions. And I can either choose to push through and do these things, or take the comfortable option and not.

Now, you might say that doesn’t sound like a nice life? What’s the fun in that? Surely it’s nice to just relax and be comfortable sometimes?

And I 100% agree.

Do I always make the decision to choose discomfort over pleasure? Absolutely not.

I sometimes skip a workout I should do. I sometimes eat the cake I know I shouldn’t. I sometimes skip the conversation I know I should have. I’m only human.

And actually sometimes, I strategically choose pleasure over discomfort. I’m a big fan of 80/20. Be on 80% of the time – let loose 20% of the time. I’ve found this to be the best way to get virtually all of the results, and still enjoy life and be sane. It’s why my consistency goal for all of my habits (other than alcohol) is 80%.

Perfection really isn’t the goal. In fact, it’s the enemy.

But, on balance, nowadays, I usually do the right thing 80-90% of the time. Most of the time, I choose to avoid the comfortable option, and instead take the option that will help me grow and will move me forward.

That’s because of the conviction I have that it will make me a stronger, more capable, and happier person over the long-term.

And, trust me – becoming a much better and stronger version of yourself over a longer time frame is 100X worth the smaller sacrifices you have to make every day and week. It’s not even close.

Just to be able to genuinely answer that question I asked at the beginning of the episode with a confident yes – it’s an incredible feeling.

OK. I’ve been leaving you hanging on the big question – how can you make yourself do these things every day? Just knowing you should do them, isn’t enough.

What is the one ingredient?

The answer isn’t will power. It’s not motivation. It’s not a secret hack.

The one ingredient you need is DISCIPLINE.

You have to be able to find a way to do these things, no matter how you are feeling. Actually, you have to do these things when you don’t feel like it.

Remember my example day above? The previous version of myself would not have a day like this. I wasn’t capable of it. I would have procrastinated or chosen the easiest option on at least half of those things.

But, back then I was a shadow of my current self. I was soft and weak.

If you find yourself in a similar position, you are going to have to build the type of person who WILL do these things – regardless of how you feel. You need to become someone who is disciplined. You have to build that base level capability, or nothing will be sustainable.

You can absolutely do that. You CAN go from undisciplined, to disciplined.

How did I do it? I had to rebuild myself. And surprise, surprise, that’s where the seven foundational health habits come in.

I had to become someone who was well slept. Because when I was well slept, I put myself into the strongest position to be capable, and make the right choices when it came to the crunch.

I had to give up alcohol. And that’s because of the undeniable way alcohol causes havoc to my sleep and so many other parts of my life. Just a few drinks the night before has a big impact on how disciplined I am the next day.

I had to limit my caffeine, both in quantity and also never consuming it in the afternoon. Again, because it gets in the way of a good night’s sleep.

I had to become someone who was well hydrated. It helps me be sharp, avoid headaches, be in a better mood and be more capable throughout the day.

I had to eat enough protein. So I can put myself in the best position to build muscle and strength – and in turn, confidence.

I had to eat mostly whole foods. So I can be lean, have the right energy and sharpness to move through the day in the right way. A bloated and tired version of myself is not going to perform well.

And I had to walk a lot. It helps me keep active and burn more calories. It gives me space to think and gets me out in the fresh air.

It was almost as if I had to re-install a completely different operating system for myself.

And you can do that too.

So, if you are struggling to be disciplined, I would suggest that for the time being, forget about all of the things you know you should do. There’ll be time for all of that detail later – when you’re a strong, capable and disciplined person.

Right now, you’re probably not that person. So, instead, focus on building that person.

Focus on building the seven foundational health habits I talk so much about.

If you can build these foundational health habits into your life, you will build that base of the pyramid I like to talk about.

You will become a disciplined and confident person. You will become the sort of person who WILL make the right choices and WILL do the right things every day. You will find it relatively easy to delay short-term gratification, for a bigger reward in the long-term.

You’ll be able to confidently answer yes to my question at the start of this – are you building the best version of yourself? Are you a better version of yourself than six months ago?

If you want a bit more detail on how to get started, I’d encourage you to check out 5 rules to build rock solid habits. That will give you a good nudge in the right direction.

And if you need any help making a change, you know where I am. Just reach out.

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