Maximise the Power of your Day: design a winnable strategy for your habits.
James Clear (author of Atomic Habits) and Andrew Huberman (neuroscientist and podcaster) deserve the highest accolades for their work guiding us all to be the best version of ourselves with the least friction. Why?
Do I worry about my 1RM Deadlift the most? Not anymore. Do I worry about the grammar in my newsletter writing? I probably should but I don’t. So do I worry about how much to charge for a BLACK Tier membership. Nope. So if it isn’t athletic, content shipping, or membership fees (all have drained significant brain space in the past 10 years!) what keeps me awake?
Simple. I worry when the last time will be that I bounce my daughters on my knee. Or how quickly the time will arrive that I stop being cool (stopping snorting), idolised (seriously shhh), and unequivocally adored. I can buy anything else, I can replace anything else, I can probably expect to care very little about anything else. But not spending as much time with my daughters now and making sure that I am in peak condition to chase and play with them dwarfs my business fears.
Importantly however there is another reason I don’t worry about my Deadlift, newsletters, or business tactics. Because far more clever minds than mine (read aforementioned James and Andrew - to name but two), teach how to build frictionless growth focused habits that we would be foolish to disregard. I don’t lose sleep over my athletic goals or business tactics because we spend upfront time sharpening the axe with detailed strategy and then allow our strong habits time to compound.
No one else cares if you have created an environment for nutritional success or not. And no one else will lose sleep over your investment ratios. But you should. You should spend enough time now to create winnable circumstances, automatic contributions, and rapid onboarding for everyday activities that make you a better version of yourself and utilise lessons from the findings of experts.
So what can you structure most effectively from these great teachers?
Gamify your goals. Commit to 6 daily habits. Big or small they must all stretch you forward enough to deserve a self gratifying check on the fridge each night. (Ie brushing your teeth if you are older than 3 doesn’t get you a sticker - sorry). Write all 6 on a whiteboard and celebrate achieving 4 or more. Some days you will be perfect but some time life gets in the way. Avoid chastising yourself for grabbing a snack and ‘losing a point’ and instead celebrate successfully turning off your screens 30 minutes before your bedtime *hypothetical goals, enter your own 6.
Flip the friction switch. Make your new habit easy and the one you want to break hard (we all do this the wrong way round!). Stick a password limit on your Youtube screentime each day or cut up some vegetables on a Sunday and leave them as ready made snacks in the fridge. It doesn’t matter to me but if you find yourself slipping into your old ways too easily, create an obstacle (home delivery avoids the snack aisle!) and butter the success runway.
Find an accountability partner. Ok this one is more from our very own habit guru and Senior Coach Danny Atamu but without someone to hold you accountable, to celebrate with, and to remind you of why you started in the first place you are 100% less likely to achieve. Big statement but anyone who achieves long term health success with us has has the support of a spouse, best friend, child, or coach. Life is tempting and hard, why make your own bags heavier when you can share the burden.
The White Powder None of Us Should be Ingesting.
An 8 year old smoking a cigarette turns heads but one chomping through a plate of biscuits and muffins is enjoying a treat? Well diabetes is fun…
Science has proven the damage that cigarettes cause to our health and we have legislation to protect us. Now science proves sugar is killing us, why are we still seeing it everywhere?
If you pick up one nutrition book this year make it the Glucose Goddess by Jessie Inchauspĕ. Jessie cuts through science jargon and explains how sugar in its many forms impacts our bloody glucose levels by deregulating the locking and unlocking of our fat storage and in turn our energy availability and body composition. In a world still plagued by outdated emphasis on calories and stigmatisation of obesity, we are doing a woeful job of upgrading the education our households and workplaces experience. For those inclined to dive deeper to the tactics on hormone imbalance, insulin sensitivity, and chronic health decline, The Obesity Code by Jason Fung is an informed choice.
On a personal level we must agree that the institutes we rely on for policies and care (schools, businesses, doctors, government) are blind, slow, or misaligned to an effective solution and are years away from a health focused plan around sugar in our diets. So you and I have two choices;
1) Stay ignorant, blame someone else, keep doing the same. OR
2) Take control, educate yourself for your own gains. Change today.
If you are in the first bucket, we are sorry to see you go but wish you well. Our only ask is that you don’t blame time as an obstacle. Read a book, listen to a podcast, invest a couple of hours this month. It isn’t time, its priority. That’s OK but call it what it is. However if your health markers are a priority for you then come join us, the water is lovely..
For all you second bucket’ers, welcome to the lowest hanging fruit in your search for a stable energy balance and body composition goals. The science behind the below rules are plentiful and backed by peer reviews but more importantly they are easy and free to achieve. Yes you will require willpower and a runway of 3 - 6 months to really reap the dividends but as we see it that is time well spent. Christmas is coming anyway, we might as well use our days with nutritional intentionality.
So what are our ultimate goals? Firstly to remove the victimhood mentality, accept that shops and companies are capitalist and want our money, so does the health care system. There are no immediate incentives for food manufacturers to care about our health (costs are higher) but that doesn’t mean we get to blame Nestle when we tuck blindly into a second bar of indulgence. Secondly and tangibly to remove refined sugar from our diet! Myopically. Fanatically. Immediately. It serves no purpose (no one needs a blood sugar kick if their intake is balanced) and only escalates a damaging insulin hormone imbalance, and significantly impairs our health acutely and chronically. *Read, there is no scientific benefit to refined sugar (Sucrose, Fructose, Glucose). Cut it. Today.
Below are our five guardrails for the easiest reduction in sugar in your day.
Do’s
Drink only water, tea, or black coffee - fizzy drinks are killing us. Next.
Eat a bowlful of vegetables at the start of every meal. Packed with digestive slowing fiber, they regulate blood glucose spikes. “But my kids don’t like vegetables”, no they won’t if you usually give them white bread rolls. They (you) probably don’t like irregulated sleep either?
Replace your breakfast cereal with high protein alternative (or intermittent fasting for adults who are inclined). Easy win but it does mean avoiding a colourful shopping aisle. #sorrynotsorry
Quit snacking. Except on Christmas day, then you have license to go big or go home!
Move for 30 minutes per day. Groundbreaking? We doubt it. But if you can’t find 30 minutes of movement in a day (I am not going to patronise you with ideas) then what pill are you waiting for us to invent?
Into gamification? So are we. Write these on a whiteboard and tick them each day. Three to four per day gets you a draw. All five gets you a high five win!