Lifestyle Changes: Keep it Simple, Enjoy Success

We always recommend keeping lifestyle changes simple and focusing on targeted action towards specific, individual objectives.  

Here are some updates from recent programme participants who have followed this advice to great effect.

'The session gave me a complete kick start. I focused on lose weight - which meant by default to eat / drink more healthily and to do more exercise.  So, I am walking / swimming / cycling 3-5 times a week, have cut out unhealthy snacks and am eating less calorific meals.  I set myself two targets, to be able to cycle the 15 miles home from work by the end of August, and to lose 1 stone by mid August. I have already achieved the first and am on track for the second.  So far so good - thank you for the kick.' 

'I really though about the session and the techniques we discussed and it helped enormously.  I have lost 4lbs in two weeks and I am feeling loads better about the focus I now have and have also been sleeping better!  Hopefully if you check in with me again in a couple of months I will have shed more weight and will be continuing with my goal!'

'Already minus 9kg (6 weeks following the programme).'

'What I have done is overhaul my diet. I now avoid white rice completely (it used to be my staple food – lunch and dinner). I have also significantly reduced oily and fried foods. While travelling, it is difficult for me to have small multiple portions during the day but I have started that during my regular routine (light breakfast, mid-morning healthy snack, light lunch, mid-afternoon healthy snack, light dinner). I have also cut out white bread (by and large, since I give in once in a while – like maybe once a week). I have also started walking for about 30 minutes every day for the last 7 days.'

'I joined a fitness club and i started a three days a week swimming programme.'

'All good from my side, I've actually started to go to the gym before work (something I never thought I'd be able to do as I love my sleep too much!   However, its proven great and doesn't filter into any of my work or private time meaning I can get home on time most nights :)

Email us in info@the-tonic.com if you'd like to arrange a workshop that will help your staff achieve great results with their health, wellness and personal performance.

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Fitness, Wellbeing & Your Personal Branding

During a presentation this morning I was checking in with a group I first met at the end of February.

One of the group mentioned that during our initial session she'd decided to take up running as a way of keeping fit and managing stress.  She felt inspired by other runners that she knew, considered running to be an aspirational element of the identity of some of her colleagues and friends and she wanted to explore how being a runner would make her feel.  

She had acted promptly on her decision back in February and, although her progress has not been without challenge - during recent month's she's broken both her wrist and her ankle (neither incident related to running she was quick to add) - she stuck with her desire to become a runner and was pleased to announce that, even in the face of these considerable challenges she now thinks of herself as a runner and every single day enjoys the fitness benefits, positive mood and improved confidence that goes with thinking of herself in this way.

So, whether running is your thing or you prefer other aspirations when it comes to how you'd like to define yourself and your health, wellness and performance, give some specific thought to what you're aiming at and you'll be infinitely creative in your ability to reach your objectives quickly and enjoy the benefits of doing so.

And if you do fancy the idea of running, here's a beginner's training plan that we wrote for the August edition of Women's Running Magazine.

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One Simple Strategy to Achieve Your Ideal Life Balance

This Monday saw the introduction of access to flexible working for all employees in the UK.  In the same week I came across this article suggesting that reduced working hours would help everyone reclaim their life and lower their stress levels.

Four day week would reduce sickness

The interesting thing here is that, as ever when it comes to legislation (or suggestions for legislation), there is no one size fits all solution.  Flexible working is a great idea for some, while others prefer the structure of the traditional working week.  A four day week would be great for many while it may serve to put others under a different set of pressures and stresses.

A simple strategy that works for everyone

In our delivery of corporate wellbeing programmes, the most important message is that individual solutions need to be just that; individual.  The people we work with welcome and benefit from the opportunity to spend a little time thinking about what's important to them and how they can best achieve peak performance and success, and so we'd urge everyone to set themselves up with one simple lifestyle strategy.

Rather than flexible working for everyone or a four day week for all, we recommend that every single individual carves out and prioritises some time they can spend with themselves each week - a kind of personal personal review if you like.  The allocation of the time will depend on each person's preference - it may be one block of an hour a week or it could be 15-20 minutes, three times a week - but what matters is that the time is planned, protected and used wisely.

Less than 1-hour a week to keep your life on track

During these moments of review and reflection each person devises and evolves a set of key questions they ask themselves, with the answers to the questions creating clear priorities and a practical action plan for the coming days.   

Questions to ask of yourself can be kept simple but the key is to check in with important areas of your life regularly.  This means that you'll only ever be a few days away from understanding your ideal balance in life and implementing what you need to happen to achieve this balance.  This is a far cry from the situation many people find themselves in which is a feeling that their ideal balance slipped away from them long ago and it'll take a long time to regain it.  

Some examples of questions that prompt quick and targeted action are:

• Am I happy with my professional development?
• What would I like more of in my life?
• Do my short term actions support my medium / long term objectives?
• Are my expectations of what I can achieve each day / week realistic?
• Where can I delegate some of the things that take up my time?
• Am I as fit and healthy as I would like to be?
• Am I sleeping well?
• Does my food / drink routine support me in achieving peak performance?

The vital factor is that the questions you ask are relevant to you and what you'd like to achieve in life, and that they throw up some new thoughts, perspectives and ideas relative to achieving and maintaining balance in life.  All you need to do at the end of each review is take swift action on these ideas.

80:20 or 167:1
Another article I read this week was entitled 5 Tips for Applying the 80:20 Rule - the idea being that 80% of our results come from 20% of our actions.  What we suggest is a variation of this principle - all you have to do is protect 1 hour a week, and use it wisely, to guarantee that the remaining 167 hours of your week are as effective and productive as you could wish them to be.

Read more on this topic:

The single most effective strategy for guaranteed wellness results

To discuss how we can help your business and employees achieve optimum wellness and performance email info@the-tonic.com

Image from Flickr: Tom Magliery

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More Time-Saving Fitness Tips for Busy Professionals

The August edition of Men's Running Magazine is on the shelves, containing our latest tips to Beat the Clock and stay fit in double quick time.

As ever, tips include:

• A time-saving snack
• A short, effective workout plan
• A tip to help focus your exercise efforts
• Lifestyle advice for the time-poor
• A training tip from the world of elite athletes
• A training lesson from the world of business

Click on the page below to read the full feature.

You can also read previous issues of Beat the Clock starting here.

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If you exercise regularly can you eat what you want?

This question has cropped up three times in workshops in the past week so I thought it would be worth addressing it here.

Regular exercise is the ideal way to lift your mood, boost your energy levels, manage your weight and help you sleep better.  But does this mean that if you exercise well, you won't need to worry about your food routine?

Here are 3 things to consider
1. Exercise can keep you looking healthy but external appearances do not constitute the full picture and say nothing about how healthy you are on the inside.  Everything you eat and drink can have a positive or negative effect on the optimum operating environment within your body and although exercise can mitigate the impact of some negative food choices it cannot completely offset any damage done.

2. Exercise boosts energy but if you're not fueling yourself well there's a glass ceiling on how good your energy levels will ever be.  If you find that you're more focused and more productive when you exercise, just imagine how effective you could be when you combine an active lifestyle with a regular, quality food routine.

3. If you're a regular exerciser, chances are that you enjoy getting active.  It's also likely that you feel some improvement in your fitness levels by maintaining exercise in your schedule but no athlete would rely on exercise alone to achieve their optimal results and neither should you.  

The bottom line

With a regular exercise routine you'll be fit but not necessarily as healthy as you could be.  And even your hard-earned fitness could be compromised if not supported by eating healthily so check your food routine for anything that you think is detracting from your ability to exercise well and recover promptly, and put a plan together to replace some of the suspect items with choices that will maximise your energy to work out and allow your body to recover and repair more quickly.  This approach will bring quicker and more dramatic results which will in turn boost your motivation to stay on track with healthy choices in every area of your routine. 

Here are some snack ideas to get you started:

5 Quick and Easy Snack Ideas for Boosting Energy

Image by Cookie M Flickr

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