As you may or may not know, we’ve recently been in Dubai spreading the Fitter Food message with the help of Talise Fitness. Alongside some training sessions we’ve been coaching the folks over there about gut health, sleep, stress and hormone optimisation. A truly amazing bunch of people showed up and we had an awesome time chatting with them all about their health journeys. When I travel and have new experiences I am often reminded about some key factors that support optimal health, nothing revolutionary necessarily but rather gentle reminders of things that make me smile and enhance my health. I thought I’d share them with you all in this weeks blog.
1) Sleep Is A Game Changer
This should come as no surprise to you as we’re always harping on about the benefits of sleep with regard to overall health, keeping hormones in check and reducing body fat. We don’t refer to sleep as the “mac daddy of health and fat loss” for nothing you know! But sometimes when your work load is high, your mind is racing at 100 mph and you have deadlines to meet (like us right now as we finish our second book) it’s easy to put sleep on the back burner and fall into bad habits. Since we arrived in Dubai and a few deadlines have been met, stress levels reduced and so I have slept like a baby. This has given me superb energy all day and I’ve had some epic training sessions whilst here. Keris has also mentioned that I’m looking leaner, despite the odd ice cream and plate of pancakes..ahem! As Keris never compliments me 😉 I’ve been nicely reminded of the importance of enhancing and prioritising the quality of my sleep.
2) Prioritise Recovery To Progress
Another obvious point right? Yet how often do we get hooked on training and neglect some solid rest and recovery in our chase for the next personal best? We’re all guilty of this and whilst training is awesome, I highly recommend you pay close attention to your recovery. After a few solid weeks of intense training I had 4 days off training before I got to Dubai. Pair that with the extra sleep and the result… one of the best sessions I have had for a long time. I felt strong, achieved a PB on squats for reps, had so much energy, quick recovery between sets – I felt fantastic and loved every minute of the session. So much so I ended up training for 90 minutes as I had so much to give, I figured I had the time and the energy so why not. I am not saying you need 4 days off but factoring rest into your training program is just as important as the session itself.
3) I Love Walking Outdoors
I’m not one to complain but Dubai is hot, like really really really hot. To the point where a gentle stroll along the beach had me pouring with sweat and I had to dive into the sea. The warm weather is awesome but when we’re not on the beach there are few places to walk and the main way to get anywhere is by taxi or the metro. This really highlighted to me how grateful I am for the woodland close to our house, the fact that London is so easy to navigate and you have the option to walk from place to place if you prefer. Again, I don’t wish to sound negative as we’ve had an amazing time here but for us a big part of our holidays is going for lovely walks and seeing the sights but here it’s a little impossible. There are parks but guess what – they’re a cab ride away ☺ So I’m really looking forward to a long walk with Hamish in the woods upon our return.
4) I Love Helping People
Do you know that there are studies observing that helping others makes us feel happy and increases the production of feel good hormones and neurotransmitters. Ok so I already knew this and I’m sure you have experienced the same but after running a seminar with awesome people who gave great feedback I was reminded of how much I genuinely love doing this on a daily basis. Inspiring positive change in people and helping them progress towards their wellness goals is the most amazing feeling in the world. It’s why we do what we do and it encourage and motivates us to keep running more and more seminars to help as many people as we can, which brings me onto my next point…
5) I Love Meeting People
This one may confuse you but you have to remember we run an online business. This is fantastic as with the power of the internet allows us to help thousands of people get healthy and achieve their goals. However, it also means we spend a lot of time glued to a laptops answering emails or interacting via Facebook, Skype and webinars. Again I’m not complaining as we could never have helped as many people without the internet but it really makes me appreciate meeting people in person and chatting about training and nutrition face to face. Between presentations we had some great chats and REAL conversations with people and enjoyed the most amazing healthy scoff together (thank you again James Chandler at Talise Fitness). At times running an online business can be a little isolating and I know that many of you are also interacting more online than you do in person and working longer hours. It’s so important to get out and meet people face to face. It’s something we all need to prioritise; spending more real time with friends and family. As a social butterfly I think it’s time I went on a socialising marathon!
So now I’m even more excited for our upcoming Fitter Food Academy on the 21st November where Keris, myself and four other awesome speakers will be sharing information designed to make you unleash your full potential. The last few early bird tickets are still on offer so don’t miss out. We’ll be talking emotional eating, body confidence, strength training, going beyond paleo and injury rehab.
This trip has inspired the heck out of me. I want to help more people, travel more and see all the world has to offer – we’re already looking into trips for 2016! That said, in our industry it’s easy to get really busy and neglect ourselves, so it’s really important to ensure we take a little more care of ourselves.
BOSH
