Looking in the Mirror…

If you don’t take care of your body now, you will have to improvise later on...

We have just been alerted to the tragic news of the passing of a great friend.  It’s terribly sad and he will be remembered for his amazing sense of humour, kind personality and somewhat wild ways!  However I suspect he will also be remembered for his troubled history with drink and drug addiction.

Already people shake their heads, tut-tut, and posthumously remonstrate his failings in this area. But I think as human beings generally it’s too easy to point the slightly self-righteous finger.  

Are you the person that goes to the same bakery and orders the same pie every morning for morning tea?  Are you the person who drinks the same 5 coffees every day or keeps the day going with multiple cans of E-drink?  Are you the person who comes home at night and opens the same bottle of wine and has the same 2 glasses over dinner, 7days a week, 365 days a year?

If that’s you, understand that you’re doing no less damage to yourself than someone who smokes anything in a rollie or abuses class A drugs – the only difference is the speed at which it kills you.

Roughly 1000 people a year die in NZ from drinking too much alcohol.  You may think that’s not you – and if you’re reading this, then clearly it isn’t 🙂

But patterns become habits, and habits become addictions. Just because we hide them behind the veneer of “social status” or “little lifestyle luxuries” doesn’t make them any less damaging,

Why change?  Well it’s the realisation when we lose somebody close, that suddenly life was not all about me – it was more about the people around us and the people we care for, and that neglecting our health is administering perhaps the cruellest blow you could ever deliver to someone who loves you – deliberate self-destruction.

So, what to do..?

Take this time when we have been deliberately isolated, to make these 2 things happen….

1) START doing the things you say you need to do.  (We hear “I know I should…” constantly.)

2)  STOP doing the things you know you shouldn’t be doing. (We hear “I know I shouldn’t…” constantly.)

With small consistent increments you CAN make monumental gains to your health, wellbeing and weight, and in doing so change your life.  Consistency is the key!

Dammit – Why is This so Hard..?

Why do people struggle to stick to their Health and Wellbeing goals?

One major reason is most of what we do each day is the result of ritualistic habit.

From the way we brush our teeth, to which shoe we put on first in the morning, is something we barely think about. It’s deeply ingrained and minimal effort is required to get the job done.

Our eating and exercise habits work the same way. The way we eat, why we eat, where we eat – our food choices are all habits that have been formed over years.  You may have got used to the flavour of highly-sweetened foods that lead to cravings, and now expect that flavour whenever you’re hungry. Others have avoided vegetables for so long, the flavours taste quite foreign.  Still others are working on the same basic training programme they started on in the gym 20 years ago!

While these habits lead to poor results, weight gain, low energy, poor health or simply frustration, we stay hooked because they’re so familiar – hence periodic inspiration drops away and the old behaviour continues. Behavioural science tells us that as humans the fear of losing or giving up something is always stronger than the anticipated reward of attaining another.

What to do?

You must develop critical self-awareness. Take an honest look at your destructive eating patterns. Do you eat mindlessly? Do you play self-sabotaging mind games? Is there a lack of preplanning or having healthy foods available to you?  Do you have a dedicated time and place for exercise? Do you fool yourself that watching football on the TV somehow makes you “sporty”?

The more you understand why you do what you do, the better you can change what doesn’t work, and shift your health trajectory to a more successful position..!

The Conversation No-one’s Having…

I’ve always said “No-one made a smarter decision with less information”. Given the huge amount of data we now have regarding this COVID-19 virus, shouldn’t we be making better, smarter and more appropriate decisions by now..?

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Let’s challenge the current level of thinking with the basic question “So What?” So what if we let in the virus through our borders? So what if we have community transmissions, outbreaks or clusters?

Well, you may say, people will get sick, and some may die – and that’s true. There’s talk about protecting the elderly and the vulnerable. But let’s be clear: you’re not at risk purely because of your age, and conversely you’re not in the clear because you’re young, a Doctor or an athlete for that matter. No, all the experts and authorities agree the one common thread that links all covid-related illness and deaths is “immune compromised”.

Think about that for a second. If we had spend a tenth of the cost and effort this government has spent in the last 9 months, on getting the nation healthier (and therefore building natural immunity) – we simply wouldn’t have to lock down, social distance, wear masks, sanitise, have en-mass testing, quarantine, closed borders, managed isolation, or any of it – in fact we could manage the presence of the virus, because we’d all be in so much better shape to defeat it, and those at risk would be so much less vulnerable. And before you say it, in my experience there is no-one who couldn’t do at least something to improve their health and immunity. No-one.

And if we got the nation healthier, what would that look like? Well for a start the Health System would breathe a massive sigh of relief as we would have fewer cases of Heart disease, Diabetes, Cancer, Stroke, Dementia, Anxiety and Mood disorders. And if we had fewer cases of these diseases we would have fewer people on medication, leaving a huge amount of budget available for urgent medications for people who actually need it: Cystic fibrosis, Motor Neuron Diseases for example – conditions the Government is currently saying they have no budget for.

So if the Nation got itself healthier, how would that impact the working man and woman in this country? Well we wouldn’t need to close the borders, tourism could open up again, businesses could open their doors again, restaurants could fill up, you could travel and attend public and corporate events and conferences, be a part of big sports games and concerts, and people could get their jobs back – and loads more new ones as well.

And the people turning up to work in those businesses would be healthier, happier, less stressed, less sick, more energised, more engaged, more creative – imagine how THAT would impact the economy, just from people paying a little more attention to their own health.

You see up until now it’s all been about safety – protecting us all from being exposed to the virus. The problem with that is there are limited tools at your disposal, and there’s no forward plan. In fact if you listened to any or all of the major political debates pre-election (NZ), NO-ONE has a forward plan.

Apart, that is, from a vaccine, which, if proven to be safe and effective, could well be quite literally a life-saver. But it doesn’t come without its own caveats and risks, and let’s be very clear, a vaccine isn’t a cure for the virus – it IS the virus. 

But it hinges on one critical factor – our immune systems being in good enough shape and health to do what they’re supposed to do in the first place. If the people most at risk of becoming ill or dying from the wild virus are already those with compromised or broken immune systems, then how will deliberate exposure to the virus via a vaccine play out?

As I said, this may well turn out to be a life-saver, but I’m not holding my breath waiting, when it has always been acknowledged by the world’s top scientists, doctors, researchers and professors that when it comes to prevention of all illness and disease, host resistance through improved self-health is the first and most important tool we all have at our disposal – right now.

Sadly, and since this global situation first unfolded, neither the Ministry of Health, the Minister of Health or the Director General of Health have uttered a single word about actual HEALTH – how we could protect and improve the health position of our nation as individuals and as a whole. Not a word.

Yet isn’t that the first place to start?

People ask me “How can you even do that – you can’t mandate people into better health..!”

No, but if they’re fully prepared to endure all the disruptive measures we’ve already seen of late, then surely losing a bit of weight, eating a few more vegetables, giving up drinking so much alcohol, not staying up until midnight watching TV, taking a few vitamins, pulling back on coffee, and getting outdoors (or to the gym) for some exercise wouldn’t be that hard? 

You would think.

Losing Your Smarts…?

Very few business leaders are becoming fitter, faster, stronger OR SMARTER as they age and mature in their roles. Instead they’re generally getting older, slower, sicker, fatter and weaker every day, faster than at any time in our human history.

When anything you do in business from the neck up, depends mostly on everything you do from the neck down, it’s vital to take steps to protect and preserve your cerebral function.

Better decisions, faster decisions, better recall, faster analytics – your clients, teams and families depend on you delivering at the top of your game.

So what’s the problem, and what can you do about it? Here’s our latest take on this…

As well as the obvious strategies (cut back on coffee, sugar and alcohol, get to bed at a decent hour, exercise daily, stop smoking, practice micro-meditation and power breathing techniques), you could also reduce risk of cerebral fatigue by supplementing the following:

We also recommend you consider:

Phosphatidyl-Serine (PS), for

• Improved short-term memory (Study & Exams)
• Enhanced focus
• Better co-ordination
• Improved adrenal stress response function

And Acetyl-l-Tyrosine, for

• Improved blood flow to the brain
• Increased neuro-transmitter production
• Used to treat depression, ADD, ADHD, PMS, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, ED.
• Found in dairy products, meats, fish, eggs, nuts, beans, oats, and wheat

Something to think about….

Just When You Were Worried You’d Outlive Your Pension…

It’s awesome to know that in this day and age, we’re all living fitter, healthier and LONGER, right?
Well that’s what we’ve been TOLD – however at a recent Medical Anti-Ageing Conference we attended here in London, a surprising fact emerged…..

What to Do?

Our Number One tip is Lift Weights – research demonstrates time and again that STRONG people stay Young. Many people who are assigned to care homes and facilities have nothing medically wrong with them – they’re simply FRAIL. Maintaining your functional independence depends on remaining strong, mobile and agile as you age. Studies also show that Strength Training can help defeat low mood, and may be as effective in treating depression as the default medication!

Sports Clubs and Athletes Are Dropping the Ball…

At a recent medical conference in Taiwan, we heard about a study comparing the knowledge of nutrition held by professional, versus amateur, sportspeople. Now you’d think that a professional athlete would have a greater interest in studying and following a high-performance diet than their club-level counterparts, right? We thought so too until we heard this:

So here’s the thing – there are Clubs and Coaches who clearly aren’t teaching their athletes at any level how to best support their training, recovery or performance through nutrition – probably because they don’t have the expertise or training – even though athletes at a professional level recognise a NEED to know this vital information!  Clubs and Coaches seem to have dropped the ball in a big way on this, and we’ve also seen first-hand a massive lack of congruency in their messages.

On the one hand the Coaches exhort players and athletes to train harder, smarter and more scientifically, yet on match and event days the Clubs provide soft-drinks, booze, pies, savouries, chocolate, candy, hot dogs, burgers and fries – and at amateur levels we’re encouraged to support fund-raising initiatives through the sale of soft-drinks, hot-dogs and cheese rolls.  Seriously?

But worse yet, the research showed that athletes themselves blindly eat and drink this as if they have no minds or will of their own, blaming their own poor choices on the Clubs and Families for not putting healthier food on the table. For people supposedly trained in mental toughness techniques, that’s amazingly weak.

This isn’t just about sports and performance – although the link between poor performance and bad nutrition is clear – this is about the long-term health and wellbeing of our brothers, sisters, husband’s, wives, partners, children and grandchildren.

People training for and playing sports at any level place a high demand on their bodies, and need a higher level of nutrition than the average Joe.

It’s time we ALL raised our efforts – and expectations – to achieve this…

 

“It’s Not Something You Can Catch Like the Flu…”

It has been said by many, “There’s no such thing as bad weather – only a bad choice of clothing” and I think a similar quote could easily be made in relation to STRESS.

Let me explain:

There’s more great information and tactical strategies to improve your capacity to perform under pressure in our latest book “The Wealthy Body in Business” out now. Order your copy HERE

A Good Feeling in Your Gut…

Ever since probiotics became popular, the market has been FLOODED with products that are weak, under-spec’d and often barely effective.

We subscribe to Consumer Labs, an independent testing laboratory, which recently ran a test on 43 different probiotic brands. And of the 43 probiotics they tested, many of them contained only HALF of the amount of live bacteria that the label claimed. So you might be paying $40 for a probiotic, but only getting half the value you thought!

Maybe it would be better to source natural, full-strength probiotics by regularly eating fermented foods…?

Here’s a list of the 10 healthiest fermented foods and vegetables that will get your gut biome really working well (in no particular order – they’re all good!):

1.  Kefir. Kefir is a fermented milk product (cow, goat or sheep milk) that tastes like a drinkable yogurt
2.  Kombucha
3.  Sauerkraut
4.  Pickles
5.  Miso
6.  Tempeh
7.  Natto
8.  Kimchi
9.  Raw cheese, made with goats milk, or un-pasteurised sheeps milk
10.  Bio-live unsweetened yogurt

There’s more information, discussion and strategic action points for optimising your gut health in our latest book“The Wealthy Body in Business” out now. Order your copy HERE

Being in the Business of Brainpower…

By Anne Laing & Tim Bean –

Back in the early days of the fitness industry we used to say “Staying in shape is simple – shut your mouth and move your legs. This isn’t rocket science.”

But hold on: this really is rocket science, as human beings are made up of incredibly complex systems, of which we are only just scratching the surface of understanding. We have systems in the body that need to be functioning optimally, as well as our mental and emotional well-being.

At ground level you have to know and apply the basics in order to prevent, what we call The Three Corporate Career Killers: ‘bail-out’, ‘burn-out’ or being ‘booted out’ from work – or even family.

The good news is that rocket science isn’t difficult for a rocket scientist. Flying a jumbo jet isn’t difficult for a jumbo jet pilot. And being a human being shouldn’t be difficult for a human being. You just have to learn how to do it and, when there is a genuine desire to take control of managing your body, it all becomes easier.

In the quest for a healthy body, one of the most overlooked areas is the brain. Studies suggest we start to lose our edge around the age of 40 when the brain shows signs of slowing. Many will experience some symptoms of mental deterioration, such as impaired concentration, short-term memory loss and difficulties learning new information.

The delicate balance of neurotransmitter production in the brain can be altered by hormone imbalances, chemical pollutants, medications or the choices we make regarding what we eat and drink.

Whenever you drink too much alcohol, or skip a nutrient-dense meal, or only ever eat starchy beige or white foods, you are not only depleting your body, but also starving your brain. It can take just a short time to see some of the effects: irritability, forgetfulness or food cravings. After many years this eventually leads to the formation of brain cell plaques and dementia.

A normal brain processes a thought at roughly one third of a second and the difference between a sharp functioning mind and senility is only a matter of milliseconds. Your brain speed is based on how quickly these electrical signals are processed. This rate is your real brain age, which can be quite different from your chronological age.

You can help safeguard against dementia, depression and other brain disorders.

How?

A healthy brain begins with a diet rich in high quality foods, low in processed grains and sugars, and your own on-going thirst for knowledge. Studies are now linking a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s and brain shrinkage to those who eat a low-processed, high-plant and lean-protein diet.

This goes hand-in-hand with a suite of habits to help routine and planning. The power of eight is a good start.

8 coloured vegetables a day

8-inch plate

8 glasses of pure clean water

8 hours sleep a night, and

8,000 footsteps a day

Also:

– Avoid artificial sweeteners and MSG flavour enhancers found in many different food preparations that cause excito-toxicity within the brain.

– Add detoxifying greens such as Chlorella, Spirulina and green smoothies to detox heavy metals that affect the brain.

– Sleep. Get your 8 hours. Your brain builds up toxic waste during a busy working day. It needs restorative sleep to clean up and defrag.

– Take regular exercise. This produces greater blood flow to the brain and strengthens brain cell connections, protecting them from damage.

– Know your numbers. Keep your blood pressure, blood sugar and homocysteine in check. Balance waning hormones with bio-identical help from an anti-ageing specialist.

– Be social and connected, sure, but take time to disconnect and relax.

– Take up a hobby that challenges your brain.

– Never stop learning – go for mentally stimulating jobs that keep you challenged.

– Immerse yourself in another culture -new languages are a start. Russian, Arabic or Mandarin are the most difficult if you want to be really challenged.

– Get out of your comfort zone – challenge your business brain and seek out tough assignments. Take up public speaking!

– Manage stress – Seek out laughter and a yoga class…or the other way around (!)

What’s the link for business?

Like disease, stress manifests itself in a weakened body first and, regardless of the industry you are in, your business essentially runs on brainpower, so there’s tremendous value in protecting and preserving, what we call, your “Cerebral Capital”™. The mental capacity and function of key talent within your organisation is possibly the most valuable asset your business has.

You won’t find this on any balance sheet, yet the cost if something goes wrong – to the business, its customers and to families – is enormous. Incalculable even.

What is good for the body is always good for the brain!

There’s more information, discussion and strategic action points in our latest book “The Wealthy Body in Business” out now. Order your copy HERE

 

A Pact with the Devil

 

 

Would it surprise you to know that the average person is on 14 different medications by the time they die?

What most people don’t know is that this process begins much earlier in life, and stress can play a major part in it.

In the traditional sense, stress is simply a physiological response to a perceived circumstance.

Now in situations where a physical action is appropriate, these responses are fantastic.  We become able to function at a far superior level that we would otherwise be capable.  But the modern dilemma is that we are now almost entirely sedentary.

Most of the stress we encounter today tends to be faced from an office chair – and the stress never seems to end.  There is no real resolution, and no realistic way of physically responding to the threat.

In the modern office it isn’t appropriate to leap across the desk and strangle a colleague or your boss, and running away simply isn’t an option either. In many cases (such as time pressure, decision-making or workload) it’s a threat we can’t even see.

Physically, inside, the very responses that were programmed into us since the dawn of time to ensure our survival in a crisis now become the greatest threat to our lives themselves.

1. Heart rate and blood pressure increase putting strain on our heart, blood vessels and arteries, placing us a greater risk of a heart attack, aneurism or stroke.
2. Digestion suffers as the body prioritises activity to the muscles and major organs.
3. Additional sugars and fats dumped into the bloodstream to use as extra energy are re-cycled and deposited as dangerous trunk fat.
4. The constant unresolved stress overloads the adrenal glands, thyroid and pancreas – further compounded with the addition of coffee, cigarettes or other stimulant drugs.

Without the natural responses available to us, we become completely wired, yet worn-out.  Exhilarated, yet exhausted.  Fired up, but fed up.  And we can be assured of one thing – it will kill us sooner rather than later.

Let’s face it; stress is already embedded in the city, and it’s a devils pact. You sell your soul to the corporation, and it rewards you very well and looks after you. But it expects you to do its bidding, and generate the money.

Your private life can at times be extremely difficult, but it often takes second place along with your health and family.  Sometimes we have to remind people, “You’re going to burn out – you won’t be in a job, but in a hospital if you continue like this.”

One of the reasons that burnout is so severe and traumatic when it arrives, is that few accept that it is coming. It’s our ‘alpha’ drive that keeps the wheels of business turning. What the markets won’t allow, and what you can never admit to, is breaking down, burning out or stressing out.  Failure at any level is inconceivable, unacceptable – and unforgiveable.

It seems the first rule of command at the top is NOT talking about the psychological meltdown that’s just around the corner, so you start the day with coffee to get going, use high sugar snacks to get you through the day and unwind with alcohol at night.  Alcohol starts as an anaesthetic against the pain of pressure, yet can quickly become a destructive force in its own right.

Younger and younger men and women are ignoring the needs of their body and suddenly find themselves flaming out, having depressive episodes, or worse, experiencing a stroke or heart attack too early in their working lives.

Most people don’t really know what else they could do without their jobs. It’s a vocation and a profession, of which social standing and self-worth are important elements. However it’s also a lifestyle that by its very nature encourages more stress.  The perpetual treadmill that keeps going faster, and faster and faster…

That being said, statistics do show consistently that top performers in business, who survive the rigors of command, share some common traits.  They ALWAYS take their holidays, and they always prioritise quality sleep and time out.  They never miss exercise, they feed their body high-performance foods to keep it healthy – and what’s more they don’t abdicate this responsibility to others.

It is a top-down issue as leadership behaviour influences everyone else in the organisation. Adopting a healthy lifestyle is a personal option, but there is no doubt that the behaviours of senior management strongly influence the behaviour of employees.

And the key here is visible behaviour. What a manager says or writes has limited effect, but what he or she actually demonstrates through his or her behaviour is extremely powerful.

The great physicist, Albert Einstein, said, “Leading by example is not the main means of influencing another.  It is the only means.”

Companies now have to recognise the value of their cerebral capital. Their top people have to be looked after because it’s too costly when they break down.

Stress-Busting Strategies.

On the face of it there are some very obvious solutions.

1. Prioritise 7-8 hours sleep – without a mobile phone in the room.
2. Build stress-burning physical activities into your day – like weight training and climbing stairs.
3. Get an Adrenal Stress Index Test, (ASI) to assess the body’s production of the major stress hormones, cortisol, and DHEA. This profile serves as a critical tool for uncovering biochemical imbalances that can underlie anxiety, chronic fatigue, obesity, diabetes and a host of other clinical conditions.
4. Supplement with nutrients, such as vitamin C, magnesium and zinc, which can become depleted during ongoing stress – causing a hyper-active brain that won’t switch off…
5. Commit to eating only nutrient-dense, high-performance foods.
6. Avoid alcohol during the working week.
7. Commit to a lean bodyweight. Excess fat is toxic to the business body and brain.

There’s more information, discussion and strategic action points in our latest book “The Wealthy Body in Business”. Pre-order your copy HERE