How To Get The Most Out Of your Nutrition - Understanding Macronutrients

Eating healthy foods is one of the best ways to improve your health and well-being. Healthy foods provide your body with the nutrients it needs to function properly, prevent diseases, and maintain a healthy weight.

But what are healthy foods, and how much of each macronutrient should you eat?

What are macronutrients?

Macronutrients are nutrients that your body needs in large amounts, namely carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. They provide energy and perform various roles in your body, such as building and repairing tissues, regulating hormones, and supporting your immune system.

Each macronutrient has a different amount of calories per gram:

• Carbohydrates: 4 calories per gram

• Fats: 9 calories per gram

• Proteins: 4 calories per gram

The amount of calories you need per day depends on your age, sex, activity level, and health goals. You can use online calculators or apps to estimate your daily calorie needs.

What are healthy foods?

Healthy foods are foods that are rich in nutrients, low in added sugars, salt, and unhealthy fats, and minimally processed. They include a variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, nuts, seeds, and healthy oils.

Some examples of healthy foods are:

• Fruits: apples, bananas, berries, oranges, grapes, etc.

• Vegetables: broccoli, spinach, carrots, tomatoes, kale, etc.

• Whole grains: oats, brown rice, quinoa, whole wheat bread, etc.

• Lean proteins: chicken, turkey, fish, eggs, tofu, etc.

• Nuts and seeds: almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, etc.

• Healthy oils: olive oil, canola oil, avocado oil, etc.

Healthy foods provide your body with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber, which are essential for your health and can help prevent chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.

What are the recommended macronutrient percentages?

The federal Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Range (AMDR) suggests the following percentages of macronutrients for good health and to provide essential nutrition1:

• 45–65% carbohydrates

• 20–35% fats

• 10–35% proteins

These ranges are based on the average needs of most healthy adults, but they may vary depending on your individual needs and preferences. For example, some people may benefit from a lower-carb or higher-protein diet for weight loss, blood sugar control, or muscle building.

To find the best macronutrient ratio for you, you may want to consult a registered dietitian, who can assess your health status, goals, and preferences, and design a personalized eating plan for you.

How to eat healthy foods and macronutrients?

To eat healthy foods and macronutrients, you can follow these simple tips:

• Eat a balanced diet that includes a variety of foods from all food groups.

• Choose whole foods over processed foods, and limit your intake of added sugars, salt, and unhealthy fats.

• Read nutrition labels and ingredient lists to make informed choices about the foods you buy and eat.

• Use online tools or apps to track your calorie and macronutrient intake, and adjust it as needed.

• Plan your meals and snacks ahead of time, and prepare them at home as much as possible.

• Enjoy your food and eat mindfully, paying attention to your hunger and fullness cues.

Eating healthy foods and macronutrients can help you improve your health and well-being, and support your body’s functions and needs. By following the guidelines and tips above, you can eat a nutritious and balanced diet that suits your lifestyle and goals.

How to Keep Healthy Over the Festive Season

We Over-indulge every year from Christmas to New years…

The festive season is a time of joy and celebration, but also a time of temptation and indulgence. It can be hard to resist the abundance of delicious food and drink that surrounds us, especially when we are in a festive mood and socialising with friends and family. However, over-indulging in food and drink can have negative consequences for our health, such as weight gain, digestive problems, dehydration, and hangovers. How can we enjoy the festive season without over-indulging in food and drink? Here are some tips and strategies, backed by evidence from scientific research, that can help us moderate our consumption and maintain our health.

Eat Mindfully

One of the keys to avoiding over-indulgence is to eat mindfully. Eating mindfully means paying attention to what, how, when, and why we eat, and being aware of our hunger and fullness cues. Eating mindfully can help us enjoy our food more, eat less, and feel more satisfied. Research has shown that eating mindfully can reduce binge eating, emotional eating, and food cravings, and improve weight management and metabolic health.

To eat mindfully, we can:

• Eat before we go to a party. That way we won’t be super hungry and we’ll be less likely to over-indulge. Only eat when we’re hungry or at a designated meal. Mindless eating just because food is there means we’ll easily consume too many calories in a day.

• Choose quality over quantity. Instead of filling our plates with everything we see, we can select a few items that we really want to try, and savor them slowly and deliberately. We can also opt for healthier options, such as fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains, and limit our intake of high-fat, high-sugar, and high-salt foods.

• Pause and check in with ourselves. We can take a break between bites and ask ourselves if we are still hungry or full. We can also use the hunger scale, which ranges from 1 (starving) to 10 (stuffed), to rate our hunger and fullness levels. Ideally, we should start eating when we are at a 3 or 4, and stop eating when we are at a 7 or 8.

Drink Moderately

Another key to avoiding over-indulgence is to drink moderately. Drinking moderately means limiting our alcohol intake and staying hydrated. Drinking moderately can help us avoid dehydration, hangovers, and alcohol-related health problems, such as liver damage, high blood pressure, and increased risk of cancer.

To drink moderately, we can:

• Follow the recommended guidelines. According to the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), to reduce the risk of harm from alcohol-related disease or injury, healthy adults should drink no more than 10 standard drinks per week and no more than 4 standard drinks on any one day. A standard drink is equivalent to 10 grams of pure alcohol, which is about 100 ml of wine, 285 ml of regular beer, or 30 ml of spirits.

• Break up the booze. We can reduce the amount we drink by having a glass of water between each alcoholic drink and opting for lower-sugar mixers such as soda water or mineral water. We can also skip other energy-dense drinks like soft drinks and fruit juice and opt for a sparkling water with fresh lemon or lime instead.

• Drink for the right reasons. We can avoid drinking alcohol to cope with stress, boredom, or negative emotions, as this can lead to excessive and unhealthy drinking patterns. Instead, we can drink alcohol for enjoyment and socialization, and find other ways to deal with our feelings, such as talking to someone, exercising, or meditating.

Make Christmas day the only day you over-indulge if you need to!

Having one day throughout the week between Christmas and new years the day you let loose a little bit will help with feeling like you are missing out and you will remind you of why we don’t over-indulge. We need that little reminder as to why we don’t over-indulge all of the time, a reminder of the bloating, gassy, potentially meat-sweats, hangover and lethargy that come with over-eating and drinking.

Simply the body saying we may have over-done it and forcing you to stop and rest, as you need to digest the food and drink that you have just consumed. By having one day where you let loose, you can then feel content, helping you need to make sure that the rest of the week is therefore “back to routine,” where you eat and drink mindfully. Of course, this contradicts the not “over-indulging” part, but sometimes we are not able to stop ourselves and resort back to our base needs and habits, we are only human after all. By making a decision that Christmas day will be the only day you indulge a little bit more, you are setting yourself up to succeed throughout the rest of the week.

The festive season is a wonderful time to celebrate and indulge, but it doesn’t have to come at the expense of our health. By eating mindfully and drinking moderately, we can enjoy the festive season without over-indulging in food and drink all week. We can also remember that the festive season is not only about food and drink, but also about spending quality time with our loved ones, expressing gratitude, and spreading joy. By focusing on these aspects, we can have a happy and healthy festive season.

Until next time,

Take Back Control

Want to Make 2024 the BEST Year Yet?

Life is full of challenges and opportunities, but also full of choices and decisions. How do you know what to do, where to go, and how to get there? How do you make the most of your time, talents, and resources? How do you achieve your dreams and aspirations?

One of the most powerful tools that can help you answer these questions and guide your actions is goal setting. Goal setting is the process of identifying and defining what you want to accomplish, and how you plan to do it. Goal setting can help you clarify your vision, focus your efforts, and measure your progress.

Here are a few examples to establish WHY goals are so important:

To illustrate the power and importance of goal setting, here are some anecdotes of people who used SMARTER goals to get ahead of life:

• Oprah Winfrey: The media mogul and philanthropist had a vision and purpose of inspiring and empowering people through her work. She set SMARTER goals for her career, such as becoming the first African-American woman to host a nationally syndicated talk show, launching her own television network, and producing and starring in movies and shows. She broke down her goals into stepping stones, such as getting a job as a news anchor, creating her own production company, and acquiring the rights to books and stories. She took action, such as working hard, learning new skills, and building relationships/networking. She evaluated her goals and made new ones, such as expanding her brand, diversifying her portfolio, and giving back to society.

• J.K. Rowling: The author and activist had a vision and purpose of sharing her imagination and passion with the world through her writing. She set SMARTER goals for her books, such as finishing her manuscript, finding a publisher, and reaching a wide audience. She broke down her goals into sub-goals and milestones, such as writing chapters, sending queries, and promoting her work. She took action on her goals, such as dedicating time, seeking feedback, and facing rejection. She evaluated and revised her goals, such as improving her craft, expanding her series, and supporting causes.

Those are but a few examples of successful people who have used the premise of SMARTER goals, even if they did not think they were. A lot of the time, this principle will come naturally, as it is innate in those who want to achieve more for themselves and their community.

But not all goals are created equal. Some goals are vague, unrealistic, or irrelevant, and they can lead to frustration, disappointment, or failure. That’s why you need to set goals that are SMARTER: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound, Evaluated, and Revised. These criteria can help you create goals that are clear, realistic, and meaningful, and that can motivate you to take action and achieve results.

Let’s look at each of these criteria in more detail, and see how they can help you get ahead of life.

Specific

A specific goal is one that answers the questions of who, what, where, when, why, and how. A specific goal is not vague or general, but rather precise and detailed. For example, instead of saying “I want to be successful”, a specific goal would be “I want to start my own online business by the end of this year”.

A specific goal helps you to:

• Define exactly what you want to achieve

• Identify the steps and resources you need to take and use

• Avoid confusion and ambiguity

• Communicate your goal clearly to others

Measurable

A measurable goal is one that has a quantifiable indicator of progress and success. A measurable goal is not subjective or abstract, but rather objective and concrete. For example, instead of saying “I want to be happy”, a measurable goal would be “I want to increase my satisfaction score by 10 points in the next six months”.

A measurable goal helps you to:

• Track and monitor your progress and performance

• Evaluate your results and outcomes

• Celebrate your achievements and milestones

• Adjust your actions and strategies if needed

Achievable

An achievable goal is one that is within your reach and ability. An achievable goal is not impossible or unrealistic, but rather challenging and feasible. For example, instead of saying “I want to be a millionaire by tomorrow”, an achievable goal would be “I want to save $10,000 by the end of this year”.

An achievable goal helps you to:

• Assess your current situation and capabilities

• Set realistic expectations and standards

• Boost your confidence and self-efficacy

• Overcome obstacles and difficulties

Relevant

A relevant goal is one that is aligned with your values, interests, and purpose. A relevant goal is not irrelevant or random, but rather meaningful and significant. For example, instead of saying “I want to learn how to play the piano”, a relevant goal would be “I want to learn how to play the piano because I love music and I want to express myself creatively”.

A relevant goal helps you to:

• Connect your goal with your vision and mission

• Prioritize your goal among other competing demands

• Stay motivated and passionate about your goal

• Enhance your happiness and fulfillment

Time-bound

A time-bound goal is one that has a specific deadline or timeframe. A time-bound goal is not open-ended or indefinite, but rather timely and urgent. For example, instead of saying “I want to travel the world”, a time-bound goal would be “I want to visit 10 countries in the next two years”.

A time-bound goal helps you to:

• Create a sense of urgency and commitment

• Plan and schedule your actions and tasks

• Manage your time and resources effectively

• Avoid procrastination and distraction

Evaluated

An evaluated goal is one that is regularly reviewed and assessed. An evaluated goal is not static or fixed, but rather dynamic and flexible. For example, instead of saying “I want to lose weight”, an evaluated goal would be “I want to lose 10 pounds in the next three months, and I will check my weight and body fat percentage every week”.

An evaluated goal helps you to:

• Measure your progress and performance

• Identify your strengths and weaknesses

• Recognize your achievements and challenges

• Learn from your feedback and experience

Revised

A revised goal is one that is modified and updated as needed. A revised goal is not rigid or final, but rather adaptable and responsive. For example, instead of saying “I want to get a promotion”, a revised goal would be “I want to get a promotion by the end of this year, but if I don’t, I will look for other career opportunities or pursue further education”.

A revised goal helps you to:

• Adjust your goal to changing circumstances and conditions

• Incorporate new information and insights

• Explore new possibilities and alternatives

• Maintain your relevance and competitiveness

How to Use SMARTER Goals to Get Ahead of Life

Now that you know what SMARTER goals are and how they can help you, how can you use them to get ahead of life? Here are some steps you can follow to create and achieve your SMARTER goals:

1. Identify your vision and purpose. What is your ultimate dream and aspiration in life? What is your reason for being and doing? Write down your vision and purpose statement, and use it as your guide and inspiration.

2. Brainstorm your goals. What are the specific outcomes and results you want to achieve in different areas of your life, such as personal, professional, financial, health, social, spiritual, etc.? Write down as many goals as you can think of, and don’t limit yourself by any doubts or fears.

3. Prioritize your goals. Which of your goals are the most important and urgent for you right now? Which of your goals are the most relevant and meaningful for your vision and purpose? Rank your goals by order of priority, and focus on the top three to five goals.

4. Make your goals SMARTER. For each of your top goals, apply the SMARTER criteria and write a SMARTER goal statement. Make sure your goal is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound, evaluated, and revised.

5. Break down your goals. For each of your SMARTER goals, break it down into smaller and more manageable sub-goals or milestones. For each sub-goal or milestone, write down the specific actions and tasks you need to do, and the resources and support you need to use.

6. Take action on your goals. For each of your actions and tasks, schedule them on your calendar and set reminders and alarms. Follow your plan and execute your actions and tasks on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Track and monitor your progress and performance using a journal, spreadsheet, or app.

7. Evaluate and revise your goals. For each of your SMARTER goals, review and assess your progress and performance on a regular basis, such as weekly, monthly, or quarterly. Celebrate your achievements and milestones, and reward yourself for your efforts. Identify your strengths and weaknesses, and learn from your feedback and experience. Modify and update your goals as needed, and incorporate new information and insights.

Goal setting is a powerful tool, and it does come with a warning, because once you set and start achieving your goals through hard work and discipline, you will not want to stop. If you want success and to be an achiever, setting goals and writing down your dreams is a must.

Until next time,

Take Back Control.

Why You Should Drink Water and Stay Hydrated

Water is essential for life. It makes up about 60% of your body weight and is involved in many important functions, such as regulating body temperature, lubricating joints, delivering nutrients to cells, removing waste products, and supporting organ function. Staying hydrated is crucial for your health and well-being, as it can affect your energy levels, brain function, mood, skin health, weight management, and more. In this blog post, we will explore the benefits of hydration and how drinking water affects your body on a cellular level and overall.

The Benefits of Hydration

Drinking enough water each day can provide many benefits for your health, such as:

• Improving physical performance. Water helps prevent dehydration, which can impair your strength, endurance, and coordination. Dehydration can also increase the risk of heat-related illnesses, such as heat stroke and heat exhaustion. Drinking water before, during, and after exercise can help you perform better and recover faster. [1]

• Enhancing cognitive function and mood. Water is vital for your brain, as it helps maintain the balance of fluids and electrolytes that affect your nerve and brain cells. Dehydration can impair your attention, memory, and mood, as well as increase the likelihood of headaches and fatigue. Drinking water can help you stay alert, focused, and happy. [2]

• Supporting kidney health. Water helps your kidneys filter out waste products and toxins from your blood and urine. Dehydration can reduce your urine output and increase the concentration of substances that can form kidney stones. Drinking water can help you flush out these substances and prevent kidney damage. [3]

• Promoting skin health. Water helps keep your skin hydrated, elastic, and smooth. Dehydration can cause your skin to become dry, dull, and wrinkled. Drinking water can help you moisturize your skin from within and prevent premature aging. [4]

• Aiding weight management. Water can help you control your appetite and calorie intake, as it can make you feel full and reduce your hunger. Water can also boost your metabolism and increase your energy expenditure, as it helps your body burn calories and fat. Drinking water can help you lose weight and maintain a healthy body weight. [5]

How Drinking Water Affects Your Body on a Cellular Level and Overall

Water is not only important for your body as a whole, but also for your cells, which are the basic units of life. Water helps your cells function properly and efficiently, as it:

• Transports nutrients and oxygen. Water is the main component of your blood, which carries essential nutrients and oxygen to your cells. Without water, your cells would not be able to receive the fuel and energy they need to perform their tasks. [7]

• Removes waste products and toxins. Water is also the main component of your lymph, which collects waste products and toxins from your cells and transports them to your kidneys and liver for elimination. Without water, your cells would not be able to get rid of the harmful substances that can damage them. [6]

• Maintains cell structure and volume. Water helps your cells maintain their shape and size, as it fills the space inside and outside of them. Water also helps your cells maintain the balance of fluids and electrolytes, which affects the movement of water and other substances across the cell membrane. Without water, your cells would shrink or swell, which can disrupt their function and integrity. [7]

• Supports cell communication and signaling. Water helps your cells communicate and coordinate with each other, as it facilitates the transmission of electrical impulses and chemical signals. Water also helps your cells respond to these signals, as it activates certain enzymes and proteins that regulate cell activity. Without water, your cells would not be able to interact and cooperate with each other. [8]

How Much Water Should You Drink?

The amount of water that you should drink depends on various factors, such as your age, weight, activity level, climate, and health status. There is no universal recommendation for water intake, as it varies from person to person. However, a general guideline is to drink enough water to keep your urine pale yellow or clear, and to avoid thirst, dry mouth, and other signs of dehydration. You may need more water if you exercise, sweat, have a fever, diarrhea, or vomiting, or if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. You may need less water if you have certain medical conditions, such as heart failure or kidney disease, or if you take certain medications, such as diuretics. You should always consult your doctor before changing your water intake.

Water is essential for your health and well-being, as it affects your body on a cellular level and overall. Drinking enough water each day can provide many benefits for your physical performance, cognitive function, mood, skin health, weight management, and more. To stay hydrated, you should drink water regularly throughout the day, and adjust your intake according to your needs and preferences. By doing so, you can enjoy the many advantages of hydration and improve your quality of life.

Until next time,

Take Back Control

7 Simple Steps to Achieving More Energy and Reducing Stress!!

For me, being healthy means having more energy and having the ability to make good decisions and improve other people’s lives, no matter how insignificant it is. Which means I need to be in a positive mindset and have a great attitude, which means my ability to have control over my stress and ability to regulate is pretty important.

So let’s go through the top 7 steps to achieving more energy and reducing your stress…

1.       Prioritise yourself first!!

I know this sounds easier said than done, but it really is most important…

You are the cornerstone, the foundation and the most important figure stone in your life. You need to realise that you are also all of those things to the family and people closest to you. You are the supporter, you are the mother/father, you are the nurturer and the first person that deals with all the troubles. So what would happen if you were to get sick, or injured?

“You must first build your own house and then you can look to help others…”

Meaning you must look after yourself first, so that the ones closest to you do not have to suffer. That is right, if you are not a little selfish and look after yourself, you are in fact making the others around you suffer. No one wants to put the loved ones around them through suffering.

So, prioritise yourself first, you are number one, you are the creator of your own universe and need to realise that without you, those who depend on you would be extremely stuck without you.

2.       Communication

Communication is always the key, it is not just verbal communication though, but your body language, your delivery of said communication. You need to start making sure you communicate more efficiently to your family, to your husband and to your children. This will increase productivity in the family dynamic, take a lot of stress off of you and you will find those closest to you will love you more for it. Be translucent, be completely open to everyone you are close to and tell them what you are doing and what you are doing it for. They will support you, no matter what.

A great place to learn more about being more open and communicating more is to check out “The Imago Process,” which my mentor has just recently got me researching to improve my own communication skills. So far, it has been amazing the results you can get by improving your communication.

3.       Make a morning routine

This is so important, you want to expend the least amount of energy in the morning and make it as easy as possible for you to get the day started!

So figure out a morning routine that works for you. You could go for a walk when you wake up, you could shower, eat breakfast and meditate before anyone else is up. Wake up at the same time, every day, no matter when it is.

It does not matter what your morning routine is, as long as you build a habit around it and make it the same as every single morning. For a quick example, I will wake up at 4:30am on a weekday, shower, eat breakfast, brush my teeth and journal for 10-15 minutes every morning. It could be as simple as that (Doesn’t have to be at 4:30am either). Find your routine and stick to it!

 4.       Get Moving!!

Physical activity is truly underrated by a lot of people, by simply just moving a little bit and doing some vigorous activity three to four times a week (such as weightlifting, running/sprinting, boxing/Muay Thai, HIIT) this will vastly improve your bodies ability to regulate hormones and energy levels.

Not to mention, it will help improve your sleep along the way, helping you to improve recovery and everyone automatically feels better on a good nights sleep!

5.       Organisation is key

You need to be organised, yes I know it sounds cliché, but having a plan for the day does increase productivity and also decreases the energy demand on your decision making throughout the day.

So make a to-do list, or use 10 minutes to plan out your day. I do it in the shower, I think of exactly what I will be doing in the shower. I spend about 5 minutes thinking about what I am going to do the next day at night and in the morning when I wake up and shower, I consolidate it.

Make sure you have a plan and then DO IT!

6.       Stop saying YES to everything

This is the worst for most people, especially to the people you care about and also if it affects them in any way. However, you must prioritise YOU first, meaning you cannot say yes to everything. If you take on more and more, you will start to burn out and become quite irritable. Which will make you hard to deal with and people will not even know why.

You need to say NO every now and again, your energy needs to be directed to the most important things that you need to dedicate yourself to. Saying no makes you stronger and also gives you your own power back, the more you say yes to someone, the more indebted you become to that person.

7.       Allocate YOU time

This is the most significant thing you can do to reduce stress and increase energy!!

Allocating you time, whether it is 30 minutes at lunch or maybe it’s your morning walk or even a session with your personal trainer/coach. Without this time, you will become flooded, overwhelmed and everything that seems like such a simple task will get extremely difficult.

You need time for yourself. Don’t make excuses, just do it!

Not to mention, it helps improve your sleep, by giving yourself time to think about what might have happened during the day or what is to come. Your mind can organise itself a little bit and start to put things in order, which will reduce stress significantly.

These seven steps are definitely not the only thing you can do to improve energy and reduce stress, in fact there are a multitude of things that you can do.

However, they are a great starting point to helping to reduce the angst and pressure that we have in our everyday to day lives. Most of which work extremely well, but you need to find what suits you, which means putting a bit of time into yourself and giving yourself every opportunity to live your best life.

Let me know if you use anything else in particular that helps to reduce stress for you, I would love to know about it…

Until next time,

Take Back Control

10 Key Reasons Why You Should Train, Move and Keep Active!

The month of February is going to be a bit about how you can Take Back Control of your health, physically and mentally.

We will be adding in a few wealth concept blog’s in as well, but the key focus for today is to talk about why you should prioritise movement above most things.

The human body is a very complex organism, full of cells, bacteria, muscle, proteins, hormones and much much more. I cannot be one to say that even I understand the complexity of the human body or the psychology of it, however having trained for nearly sixteen years straight and put a massive emphasis on moving/training in my life, I have learnt a thing or two.

Here are the key reasons you should increase your activity levels everyday, even if that means just walking an extra 1000 steps:

1. Reduce your risk of health implications/illnesses in the future (ie; reduced risk of heart attack, stroke, cold/flu etc.)

2. Improve your energy and vitality levels, increasing productivity and focus.

3. More likely to eat better and focus on eating better

4. Sleep better (Compounding on your increased energy stores)

5. Improved cardiovascular/respiratory system (Means you can breathe easier and live longer)

6. Improved Muscle density, decreasing likelihood of degenerative diseases.

7. Improved brain function and faculties. (Yes, you can get smarter, just by moving)

8. Learning more about yourself (When you train, you learn limits and understand who you are a bit more)

9. Prove to yourself that you are more capable and increase confidence (Probably the most important one of them all)

10. Increase your level of income and improve career (Yep, the added confidence, lessons learned from training has been proven through multiple studies that it can help with progressing your career and financial wealth.)

These are but just the main reasons you should start moving more that I can think of right now, but there are multiple others. Over the coming month, we will talk to how you can get started moving more and talk to improving your nutrition to help you with your added activity levels.

Until next time,

Take Back Control

Health is Holistic: Sleep/Recovery

There is no better way to start this post then with a story of how sleep and prioritising recovery led to an improvement in overall health, stress reduction and weight loss in the majority of my previous clients. [1]

Sleep takes up a third of our lives, but just like the subconscious rules our decision making and habits, sleep plays a vital role in neural development, digestion, memory, cardiovascular and metabolic function, as well as overall health. We all know that sleep is good for you, but just how good are we talking here?

Well, based on my own experiences and previous clients experiences, here are the results…

For myself and those clients who were only getting 5-6 hours sleep, the likelihood of a decrease in performance at training was significant, not only that, but a decrease in metabolism as well, whereby the body just did not efficiently take in and digest food. Which led to an increase in body fat, impaired judgement leading to poor decision making, less energy and therefore less productivity and increased stress/anxiety. These are results that I have seen over the span of ten years of training people, hundreds of people, just by simply asking how much they sleep on average and noting it down and tracking all of the above.

I myself, fell into the trap of only sleeping 5-6 hours per night when I was younger, thinking if I had more time in the day, then I would be able to get more done. When in fact, what was happening was the more time in the day led to more distractions and procrastination, impaired judgement and lack of energy.

Now, what happened when clients started sleeping the recommended 7-8 hours a night, or 7-9 hours a night for athletes? [2]

Well, of course there was an increase in energy levels almost instantly, weight loss occurred over the first few weeks and bowel movements were regular (based on my own experiences, didn’t have the guts to ask clients about their bowel movements, probably should have though on looking back).

Of course, this led to a significant impact on overall health and performance in training, whereby results were happening faster. So to re-iterate, we all know sleep is good for you…

How do we start sleeping the recommended 7-8 hours per night and getting a good sleep which is not disturbed, where you sleep all the way through?

First thing is taking a look at your environment, is it set up for a successful nights sleep?

Your sleep environment, generally speaking, your bedroom, is truly significant to getting a good nights sleep. Here is how to set up your environment for success.

1. Get rid of all artificial light! Including any electronic clocks or anything that may disturb your sleep.

   Increased artificial light in your room decreases the onset of melatonin (think this as the wind down chemical in your body), which in turn will mess up your circadian rhythm. (A fancy term for your natural sleeping pattern) [3]

   Which includes decreasing the amount of artificial light before bed as well, a lot of smart phones will automatically switch to night mode these days, whereby the blue/white light, which the brain sees as daylight, becomes a yellow/grey light. Just a simple change like this is powerful, as the brain will start to onset melatonin levels and naturally start signalling bedtime. If your smart phone does not do this automatically, you will be sure to find an app that will do it.

2. Go to bed at a set time each night!

   Studies have proved over and over again that going to bed at roughly the same time each night will improve your sleep throughout the night, but also improve your ability to fall asleep.

3. Not able to get a full nights sleep? Napping throughout the day is just as effective!

   Studies have shown, especially in athletes, that if you are not able to get the full 7-9 hours sleep for recovery and performance. According to Mathew Walker, sleep specialist and international best seller of “Why we sleep?”, napping throughout the day is just as effective, however timing is key for this one. As you should aim to nap between the hours of 11am-2pm, depending on when you wake up. You also should aim for no more than 10-20 minutes sleep or you will need to sleep for at least an hour to two hours depending on the person to stop the grogginess and drowsiness you get after a nap.

4. Eating and drinking affect sleep!

   Your nutrition and what you drink will affect how you sleep, the main reasons for a hangover is not so much the alcohol consumption, but due to alcohol being a somnogen (chemical that induces sleep) it actually makes you sleepy, but affects the second half of the night by causing major disruptions. [5]

   Therefore, what you eat and drink does affect how you sleep, ever get the meat sweats or have too much food and start to get drowsy? A similar affect occurs, and it is this disruption of sleep that actually is worse than getting only 5-6 hours of continuous sleep. Hence, eating a naturally balanced nutrition and limiting alcohol consumption will also improve your sleeping habits.

5. Exercise will help improve your sleep!

   Incorporating daily movement into your life will help to improve your sleep as well, by incorporating 3-4 sessions of training per week at a moderate to high intensity, of only 45-60 minutes per session, you will be well and truly on your way to a great nights sleep!

Finally, I want to end on this, 1 in 2 Australians and nearly 60% of Americans will not be getting enough sleep or have sleep-related issues. [6] If you are not getting an uninterrupted 7-9 hours of sleep at least five to six days a week, you should be looking to change a few small things here and there right now, to help improve your sleeping habits. Taking one to two steps out of the five steps I have given you bove will help dramatically.

My advice, is to start with one or two things, make it easy and simply convenient. You could just start with downloading an app or checking your smart device for the sleep mode, and maybe setting a time for sleep each night.

By doing this, you are not only going to be improving your health, but increasing longevity, productivity and energy levels across the board. All it takes is a simple decision and taking action on that decision!

Until next time,

Take Back Control!

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References:

[1] - https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/10.1164/rccm.201504-0767ST#:~:text=Sleep%20is%20an%20essential%20biological,removal%20(2%E2%80%935).

[2] - https://www.sclhealth.org/blog/2018/09/the-benefits-of-getting-a-full-night-sleep/

[3] -https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26375320/#:~:text=Exposure%20to%20artificial%20bright%20light,cardiovascular%20and%2For%20metabolic%20functions.

[4] - “Why we sleep?” Mathew Walker, published 2018.

[5] - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4427543/

[6] - https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/risk-factors/sleep-problems-as-a-risk-factor/summary

Health is Holistic: Nutrition

When you read the word nutrition, what do you think of?

Just take ten seconds right now to think of anything that pops into your head…

Alright, what were they? I can tell you mine, diets, shakes, fat loss, restrictive eating.

What if I told you that what we get told about nutrition and eating is a complete farce, just a lie the new fad diet company wants you to believe…

Would you believe me? Or maybe you already know this, deep down and that is why you actively rebel against any kind of restrictive dieting after about a few days from starting it. Some of us will continue for a few weeks, those who are disciplined and really want to change, however the majority will always fall back into old habits, that is human nature for you.

And it is not your fault either, we are wired that way, when you go on a diet, you are literally thrown in the ring against your brain and thousands of years of evolutionary traits and you have to fight yourself!

I am not going to tell you what is right or wrong here, as I truly don’t think it matters, but I do want to tell you the truth about nutrition and how you can start to work with yourself to start eating better, by changing a few simple habits and behaviours.

Firstly, I want to share a story about why I am so passionate about making sure the truth is heard about nutrition. In 2015, I opened a gym with a business partner and I was running the place, working sixty hour weeks and trying to make ends meet. Running a business can be extremely difficult, especially when you are starting out and don’t have a team to lean on for support.

I found out the hard way when my days got so busy, I forgot to eat lunch most days and being a gym owner, I had to train and make sure that I was leading by example. Demonstrating that I was fit, healthy and full of inspiration, however it went downhill pretty quickly.

And of course, being young and reading up on nutrition, I was swept away with the fads of the time, one of these being a “no-sugar challenge.” The challenge was on the extreme side, whereby you were not allowed to eat any processed sugars, the only sugar you were allowed was the sugar in fruit, and even then, you could only have one piece of fruit a day.

I felt really good about two weeks in, I had lost a few kilograms, and was down to 82kg, the lightest I had been since I was eighteen years old. Everything seemed to be going really well…

Enter the fourth week of the challenge, and I started losing energy, holding myself up with a stick when taking classes at night to make sure I didn’t collapse from exhaustion. I had dizzy spells, blurred vision and my productivity went down-hill very quickly.

I was at the point where I was scared, I didn’t know what was wrong with me, was something more sinister happening to my body?

I went to my local GP and got a series of tests done, starting with blood tests, they came back fine, in fact better than fine. I completed a diabetes test, if you haven’t done it before, you get to drink this syrup, pretty much pure sugar/glucose and then have to wait around for two hours. Testing to see whether my blood sugars would crash.

The test came back on the borderline of pre-hypoglycaemia, my blood sugar levels I remember were 4.6mmol, which is deemed quite low, and on the borderline of diabetes. However, the doctor said you were fine, so I got referred to test my heart and get an ECG done.

After a month of testing, they still had not figured out why I was having dizzy spells, blurred vision and was just exhausted all the time. I had stopped training at this time, which was also affecting my mental health as well.

The ECG came back fine, my heart was as strong as an ox they said, so the last test was an MRI, to get some imaging on my brain. I have had plenty of MRI’s in the past before, due to having a benign arachnoid cyst since birth, so there was no problems from that part, however concern that the cyst had caused my symptoms were definitely playing on my mind.

The imaging came back all clear, the cyst was still the same size as it had been when they found it when I was eleven years old, and that was when the head doctor at the hospital came up to me and told me the words I needed to hear…

“Everything is fine, you are really healthy, you just need to eat more!”

From that moment, it clicked, and I did begin eating more, getting my health back in order and it really helped with the exhaustion, dizzy spells and I felt myself again after a month or two.

Of course, as I do, I went a bit far and actually started eating too much, until I blew out to 105 kilograms at the end of 2016.

The heaviest I have ever been!!

Looking back on it now, I actually don’t remember how I started putting on so much weight, but running the gym, just starting out officially dating my now wife and everything else in between, I got into a slump and looked after everyone else but me…

Now, going from one extreme to the next, how was I able to balance myself out and find the happy medium that I have today you ask?

I am happy you did, because it was a combination of factors, where I started studying a nutrition course, I started looking after me again and went back to running. There was multiple factors that pulled me from the two extremes from improving my sleep, nutrition and movement, however I want to focus on the nutrition for now. I will come back to sleep/stress management and movement in later articles.

The doctor said I needed to eat more and I saw that as a license to simply just eat more and eat anything I wanted really. Not great for me, especially considering I am a fat kid at heart. It was not until I started studying nutrition and realising how much the food we put in our mouth change us on a cellular level…

Let me give you a second to let that sink in, I mean truly, what you put in your mouth actually affects you right down to the trillions of cells you have in your body.

I don’t want to trouble you with the science of it, it will take too long to discuss and comprehend, however if you do want to understand more about how food changes your cells, and therefore your body, check out this article by Stanford Medicine.

The old saying, “You are what you eat,” really comes to mind here, as we truly are what we eat. As your skin cells die off and we produce new skin cells every seven days, the food and fluid we ingest literally become us!!

Interesting isn’t it, well you may not think so, but I do, anyhow the relevance of understanding this comes back to the bigger picture, nutrition is pivotal to your holistic health.

The best way to start to get a handle on your nutrition is to break down old habits that have been wired into you and build up new ones, which takes effort and planning. You simply cannot just start a diet like I did, because as you can see, even a fitness professional of four years fails, therefore, what chance will you have?

The reason I am telling you all of this is to make you think, to hopefully break down some of the beliefs you may have around nutrition and eating. And maybe, just maybe, to get you to start thinking of nutrition differently, rather than thinking of nutrition as diets and restrictive eating, think of nutrition for what it truly is…

Nutrition is a source of life, no more, no less, it is energy going in, energy going out, but it also a celebration of culture and life as well.

Therefore, the next time you think of starting a diet, I want you to stop for a second and think about doing this instead…

1. Slow down and THINK about your eating/meals. Slow down you eating as well, scientifically proven to make you feel fuller. (Opposite for those who need to put on weight, eat faster to fit more in).

2. Make life SIMPLE, do this by planning meals before hand and having it prepared before you start cooking.

3. Eat healthy 80% of the time (More vegies, wholefoods, less packaged stuff), and leave the 20% of eating to whatever you want!

4. Drink more water!! You are 65-70% water, therefore you need water!

5. Fuck Diets and if you are feeling guilty about eating a burger, ask yourself why? Life is too short not to eat a burger. Just don’t eat burgers ALL THE TIME.

Hopefully that helped and has given you a light bulb moment when it comes to your health, because when the doctor told me that I needed to eat more, something clicked in me, I realised that nutrition and eating was the single most important thing when it came to weight gain/loss.

However, when I just focused on eating more, and neglected the other things, I put on weight and went the other way, therefore I will be writing about movement next week.

We were born to move, our bodies need movement to stay strong and young. Without movement, you are more prone to multiple diseases, I cannot wait to share with you why I love movement more than anything else.

Until next time,

Take Back Control

Health is Holistic: Intro

Speaking from experience, after training people for ten years straight and for training myself for nearly 15 years, I know a little bit about health…

Not just physical health, but mental health too, I have seen a lot when it comes to people feeling the weight of the world, bearing down on their shoulders. The world can be harsh and suffering/chaos is just a part of life, and humans, we are wired to fail and to fall back into old habits.

Hence, I wanted to write a short series on health, not just how to eat or train, because to be honest, most people know how to do that.

If you went to a school from the year 2000 onwards, you have been taught the five food groups and you have been taught what is good for you.

You don’t really need to be told to eat more vegies and less packaged/processed foods. You already know this!

And training, we know the benefits of movement, we know that it is good for us, we know we were made to move, but it is painful and not something most people want to do.

Therefore, the Holistic Health series over the next few weeks is going to be a journey about breaking down barriers, learning how to shake the foundations of your beliefs and attitudes, to hopefully help you take back control on the one aspect we all have control over…

The single most important thing in the world…

Your Health!

Truly, I hope that you can strap in for this one and let me take you on a journey, a journey about previous clients, my own story and how I learnt the single most important factor that has kept me coming back to eating healthier, training and moving everyday.

Which has helped me to be more productive, change my mindset and kept me positive over the last fifteen years.

The next blog will be talking about nutrition, but I want to assure you, it is not going to be a blog where I tell you what to do, in fact, I hold this one pretty close, as I will be discussing my own personal story and why I ended up in hospital in the year 2015!

Until next time,

Take Back Control

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Ps. Take Back Control turns One on Friday of this week!!

It is hard to believe that the blog is turning one, whereby I have written one, sometimes two blogs every week for the last year.

I will be doing a special edition article on Friday of this week, looking back at the year and going back to why I decided to start Take Back Control. Make sure you look out for it!

How to Achieve all of Your Health and Fitness Goals!

Most people, when they come to the gym, will generally start because they believe that they need to train to “look good,” or to be healthy…

Of course, this is untrue, as exercise and training alone is not going to be the reason that you “lose weight” or “get ripped.” No, eating the right foods, in moderation and sleeping the right amount is almost just as important as training 3-4 times per week.

Therefore, if you want to achieve all of your health and fitness goals, yes, you should work to train and be active, as it will go a long way to improving your health, however you should outsource the training and programming to a coach or gym. Therefore, you can prioritise and focus on the one thing a coach cannot help you with...

Your daily decisions to eat the right foods and sleep the right amount each night.

Your health simply comes down to the decisions you make each day, which means they come down to the habits you have created over the last 5-10, even 15 years.

Therefore, to achieve all of your health and fitness goals, to be honest, to achieve any goal you set your mind to, it comes down to simply understanding that you have control of the decisions you make each day.

Homo Sapiens, meaning you and I, are very complex, but also very simple, we are inherently lazy and look for the most convenient ways to do things, to save time and focus on the things we like doing. In fact, the brain automates the boring jobs we do, day in-day out.

Such as driving the car through traffic to and from work, one minute you are driving out of your driveway, the next you have safely arrived at work. Your brain is very adept at fast-forwarding time when it comes to completing tasks it does day in and day out, which is great for driving through traffic, however horribly bad for when you reach for those chips or chocolates out of the pantry each day.

It is this automated mode that you need to change for you to truly achieve optimal health.

Hence, to truly Take Back Control of your decision making each day, you need to understand what habits you have created that are completely autonomous. Especially the habits where you include the two Tim-Tams with a cup of coffee or cup of tea whilst watching TV.

The best way to do this is to take a mental note and write down each day what habits you have, it is simply like taking a step outside of your own body and actually viewing yourself as if a character in a TV show or movie.

What things about yourself do you notice that you want to change? What actions do you take that you know could be affecting your health?

Write down every little thing and then choose one thing per week or fortnight to improve.

Do you drink enough water? Do you get home and feel too exhausted to cook dinner, therefore ordering take out two to three times a week? Do you eat those extra two cookies from the pantry before bed?

Do you eat enough food during the day? Do you get enough vegies or enough protein?

All of these things and more may not seem like much at the time, but compounded over years and decades, these habits build up and get to the point where it is even harder to break them.

Therefore, it is a great time right now to do a quick audit of yourself and your habits that you have.

Once you have completed this audit, aim to choose two things to improve on, whether that is going for a 30 minute walk per day and then making sure you have dinner prepared 5 out of seven days per week.

Hope this helps you improve decision making process and therefore your habits over time.

Until next time,

Take Back Control

Note: If you are in a point in your life where everything is too crazy, where it feels like everyone wants a piece of you, that would be the worst time to start too many new things. I can guarantee that you will need extra energy and brain capacity to make better decisions, therefore, try to start training with a coach. By doing this, it is the easiest way to start a new thing and you are held accountable. Once you have built training up as a habit, then focus on the next thing, which should be sleep and then your eating should be next.

How To Be Wealthy and Change Your Life Right Now!

We all wish we could wake up one morning and all our problems would be gone, (I don’t, how boring would life be then…) however unless winning the lotto, a 1 in 8 billion chance, there is nothing that can significantly change fortunes over night.

Therefore, rather leaving life to chance, I have drawn on learnings from some of the wealthiest people in the world, from Jim Rohn, Anthony Robbins, Elon Musk, Warren Buffet and Jeff Bezos, to share with you how you can take action on changing your wealth right now!

The only difference between the women and men who are significantly better off than you right now is simply their mindset and how they look at the world differently.

Let me tell you a quick story on how someone was able to change their fortunes over a year and going from being in $11,400 in debt to paying down that debt and owning a house within the next four years.

The catalyst for that person came down to two things, one of which was the shame of seeing -$0.07 in their bank account and two, being unable to help a friend start a venture and supporting that friend.

So what changed? What changed from that person spending $12,000 per year on eating out, partying and getting themselves into $11,400 into debt, to owning their own home and successfully taking a step on the path to greater wealth?

Simply, it was a mindset shift, a shift from being the victim to being a person who took responsibility for their lives, their income and spending.

(If you have not guessed it, that person from above was myself, I got into a few car accidents that accrued nearly $5,400 in debt from the insurance companies and then also borrowed $6,000 from a family member to start a business.)

The difference between the wealthy and the poor is simply their mindset, yes other factors do come into play, such as where you grew up and the family environment. However, if you are stuck in a scarcity mindset, you will never be able to move into a mindset that can handle one of abundance.

Therefore, here are the top 3 mindset shifts and belief systems that you need to work on, to start changing your life, improve your wealth and your lifestyle;

Pay Yourself First!

That seems like a pretty simple one, but you would be astonished at how many people tend to pay the big fashion companies, or shoes stores, or car companies first…

As soon as you get paid, you should be paying yourself first, meaning taking a percentage of your wage and transferring it into a savings account or investing it for the future.

You just need to do a little bit of math, work out how much you roughly need to pay out in debts, food, bills, etc. And what you have leftover, pay into a savings account that you cannot touch. Becoming wealthy is just a mindset shift from being a consumer, to being a creator, a creator of your own wealth through self-discipline and giving back to your community.

Take Back Your Time!

Every day, you should be prioritising your time towards tasks and activities that will take you closer to your goals and ambitions. Not only that, but also delegating tasks and activities that is below your hourly rate. The rich get richer because they delegate roles and responsibilities that need to be done, to free up their time for the tasks and activities that are more important.

For example, you could be working full-time, however, you do not earn enough from your full-time job and therefore want to start a side-hustle or sole trader business. But, you have a family, two kids, a partner that also works full-time and house chores that need to be done.

If you could earn $100 per hour from your side-hustle, why would you not just pay a cleaner $35 per hour to clean your house?

You are still up $65 per hour!!

Therefore, take back your time, by delegating roles and responsibilities, if you are worth $300 per hour, don’t waste your time on tasks that you hate doing that are worth much less!

Finally, the most important mindset shift: You MUST Become Obsessed with Improving Your Income Streams

The really wealthy do not become wealthy just by doing one job well, they diversify the risks of losing said job or failing said business by putting earning their money from different streams.

Starting with your job or business!!

First, if you need to earn more money, look to asking for a pay rise or if in business, look to set some targets to grow the business more efficiently. Once you have developed this income stream, to the point where it has no more growth apart from inflation, you should look elsewhere for a second income stream.

The key is knowing when to do this, if you have a business, it may take a bit longer to grow your income, or it could grow really quickly, depending on the type of business, consumer sentiment and many other factors. If you have a job, it is as simple as asking for that pay rise and either getting it or not.

Once you develop a second, third, fourth and maybe even fifth income stream, you go back to the first mindset shift of paying yourself first.

Hopefully that has given you a few things to think about, as it sure changed my life and helped me to Take Back Control!

So until next time,

Take Back Control

Without Health, what is the point in Wealth?

As a personal trainer of 10 years and also a business owner within the health and fitness industry, I know a thing or two about health. I also know that without health, there is no point to having an exorbitant amount of wealth!

Therefore, today’s blog is dedicated to improving one’s life through your health and fitness, which after 10 years in the industry, you could say it is my bread and butter.

Firstly, I have seen a numerous amount of people who have neglected their health over the years, they got busy with work, had kids, and they forgot about themselves and did everything for others.

Which is great, however, also has led to a series of issues they do not even see as issues, such as;

+Becoming overweight, which leads to more health problems down the track (Nothing against being overweight, unless it is detrimental to your health)

+Hormonal changes and therefore heightened emotional fluctuations.

+Increased inflammation due to a neglected diet, which again causes more problems down the track as you get older

+Sleeplessness or insomnia, which again leads to more health issues as the problem persists

+Mobility issues, which leads to dysfunctional movement and muscle contraction, again leading to more problems down the track.

When I say they do not see the above as issues, we have grown to accept that putting on a few kilograms is okay, especially through COVID-19 and being locked down so consistently here in Victoria.

However, it is not the actual increase in bodyweight or few extra kilograms that is the problem, it is the increase in unhealthy habits that have been formed thanks to lock downs that is the main issue!

1. The increase in use of technology, for kids, as well as adults, which incorporates more sitting down and sedentary behaviour.

2. The increase of “convenience” foods, as we lost motivation and became flat due to a decrease in energy, which led to not wanting to cook wholesome meals at home.

3. The ability to actually go to a gym was lost to us through lock downs and as COVID cases persisted, people did not want to go out as much.

4. The ease of which we became entangled in unhealthy habits, which will only lead to more unhealthy habits.

The habit cycle can be a vicious one, whereby you get stuck in it without even knowing, hence the term getting “stuck in a rut.”

I want you to know though, that lockdowns were not your fault, that COVID-19 was not your fault, and that you were set up to fail with the ease of which you could simply click on an app and order any take-out you wished upon, at the time.

What you need to do now is become aware of it, become aware of all the unhealthy habits that you have picked up over the last two to three years.

And once you become aware, you simply need to make a choice…

Do you want to continue along these unhealthy habits and end up like a lot of older people my wife sees most days who are struggling to perform simple every day-to-day tasks?

My wife is an occupational therapist you see, who works with a lot of older people who need help with coming up with strategies to perform simple every day-to-day tasks. And also making their life easier as they move on to the next great beyond in palliative care.

I hear all her stories of all these older people losing the ability to just go to the toilet by themselves, and yes, some of these unfortunate people just have bad genetics and bad luck.

However, a lot of these older people could have potentially avoided all of their health problems by simply leading a slightly healthier life.

Or…

Do you want to choose to be a bit better, just slightly healthier, and potentially lead your kids to a healthier lifestyle as well?

Avoiding all that pain and suffering for yourself and your family as you get older!!

Because I can guarantee you, if you are feeling horrible a lot of the time, if you have no energy, if you feel bloated and gassy, if you feel that you are angry with the world or if you are struggling mentally with anxiety or depression…

You are most likely struggling in one or more of these four core areas of health;

1. Physical Activity

2. Nutrition

3. Stress

4. Sleep

I have some key performance metrics that I give my clients on these four core areas in every introduction session I have, and I have never had anyone rate themselves perfectly in any of these core areas.

Which is fine, because shit happens in life, things happen and we get stressed, we lose sleep, we prioritise things differently.

However, you should always fall back to these four core areas and simply work towards these performance metrics…

Physical Activity

• Work towards getting 7,500 to 10,000 steps everyday

• Train 2-3 times per week or get your heart rate up at the very least for 10-15 minutes, 2-3 x per week.

Nutrition

• Eat healthy, wholesome foods 80% of the time, the other 20% you can have a few treats

• Eat more Protein, whether that means eating more meats, fish, nuts, legumes, poultry etc.

• Eat a heap of vegies EVERYDAY!!

Sleep

• Sleep 7-9 hours EVERY Night

• If unable to, get a 20 minute power nap in the middle of the day

Stress

• Don’t take everything personally, everyone has stuff going on, therefore you need to take every situation with a grain of salt.

• Take in 5 DEEP breaths when you feel overwhelmed

• Most things that happen today, won’t matter in 10 years, so why stress about it?

And Finally, Be GRATEFUL for what you have, this goes a hell of a long way. I myself will take a step back in a stressful situation or if I am feeling overwhelmed, and think, “I have my health, my family are healthy and we have clean water and food to eat, therefore I have everything to be grateful for!”

If you can work towards improving these four core pillars of health and do these easy things everyday, you will be right on track to living a much healthier lifestyle.

It just takes a choice and a decision to do it, that is all.

Will you choose to be healthier for yourself? If not for yourself, for your kids, your partner or even your dog/cat?

I leave you with that to think about and I hope you do choose to be just that little bit healthier today!

Until next time,

Take Back Control

Let Me Give You the Freedom to Dream!

“Finally live a little, finally laugh a little, just let me give you the Freedom to dream a little, it will wake you up and cure your aching, take your walls, start’em breaking, now that’s a deal that seems worth taking, but I guess I leave that up to you…”- Hugh Jackman, The Greatest Showman.

Before I go into my origin story and how I come to be writing this blog, educating, and hopefully inspiring, you to take back control of your Life, your Health and your Wealth…

I wanted to ask you a question, a question that changed my life and a question that made me who I am today.

We are asked a similar question when we are children, and we came up with some wacky and amazing answers. I know I did, I told my parents, my teachers and anyone who asked that I wanted to become one of three things.

1. I wanted to be an AFL player (Australian Rules Football, for all those outside of VIC, SA, NT etc.)

2. I wanted to own my own games shop, I loved playing Golden Eye 007 on the Nintendo 64 with my mate at his house.

3. I wanted to become a writer/editor

Of course, there was many other things that I wanted to do, I wanted to go to space and be an astronaut, I even wanted to go back in time and meet a dinosaur.

We are asked this question as kids and the answers are fantastical, bordering on the impossible.

And then… We grow up, we get put in our box and we start to understand the real world little by little, experience by experience. We get put through school and get told to hand in that homework, wear that uniform properly, you must conform and understand your limits. We get told to start thinking about what you want to become, but it has to be realistic, it has to be achievable. You are expected to either go to trade school or university to fit in to a society that is in high demand for trades and professionals, and there is nothing wrong with that. I am currently studying at university right now.

But, it was not until I was outside of high school whereby I met one of my first mentors, in which I am extremely grateful for. My first mentor was the one that asked me this question, and ever since, a variation of this question seems to come up in one form or another from successful people I have heard talk at conventions, to mentors and even some friends.

The question was simply, “if you had no limits, no restraints. Money was not a problem and you could make anything happen, what would your life be like in 5, 10, 20 years?”

Think about that for a minute…

Now, when I was asked that, I was young, only eighteen I believe, and I still had no idea what the real world was like. Now, ten years on, I have grown up a bit, I understand how the world works a lot more and I know that people are not all given the same opportunities I have been give. Nor have they been given the experiences I have had and therefore, that is one of the main reasons I want write this blog and create the Take Back Control show on YouTube.

Take Back Control is all about helping you to do just that, to taking back control of your life and help improve your mind, the growth of your physical and mental health and teaching you the steps I have taken and learnt to help you create wealth.

Now you may not know me, but do know this, I am in your corner and I want to help you no matter where you are in your life to start dreaming again, to start taking small steps to achieving again and creating the life that you want to build. Because if you don’t take the steps to plan and build out your own life, who will?

I use to think that I could rely on others to do so, you think your boss is probably that person, but I guarantee you, that no one, not even your partner, has the ability to create the life you want. You can gather people around you to help build that life, to share in the success and to celebrate when you win, to support you when you lose. In fact, I recommend doing this, otherwise its going to be a really lonely life, however, you are the only one that has control of your future.

You may not know what you want just yet, nor have a purpose, and I want you to know that is ok, my main purpose is to teach and help you to find it, lets take a journey together to find your purpose, to get you back on track with creating the legacy that you can be proud to leave on this world.

Let’s break down the walls that have been your prison and start to take that first initial peek outside, where your dreams are plentiful and anything can happen, if you are brave enough to take the first step.

Just think back to when you were a child, what got you excited about life and what was it that you wanted to do? I will leave that with you to have a think about…

In the next article, I will be writing about what qualifies me to be able to help you get you back on track with your life, health and wealth. Please make sure you give this a read, as I will be delving into the hardships I endured and the situations and experiences that have led to me thriving during a pandemic.

If you have found this Blog valuable, I would love it if you shared it with friends and family. The more the merrier, as I want to see each and every one of you learn to Take Back Control of your Life-Health-Wealth !

Until next time,

Take Back Control

Life-Health-Wealth

They say that a triangle is the strongest 2-d shape, and that a pyramid, with triangles for sides, is the strongest 3-d shape. I understand why, if you think about most good stories, they have a trio of heroes, our lives are broken up into childhood, adulthood and old age…

As our lives are broken up into three stages, so are the key fundamentals of our lives when it comes to living a successful and balanced life, or so I believe anyhow.

The three pillars of Taking Back Control is Life-Health-Wealth. Without these three pillars, we would not be able to keep suffering at bay, we would fall into mental health issues and we would definitely fall into physical health issues as well. I do not believe that we can escape suffering in life, as the Buddha once said, “life has inevitable suffering.” However, I do believe that we can reduce and mitigate suffering by living by a certain ethos.

The first thing that you need to do, as I did when I started my own journey, is to realise that you only have one physical body. Only one body for a lifetime of happiness, pain, laughter and crying. Which means that you need to look after this body, you cannot neglect it and think that everything will be alright. You cannot strive to be rich and on top of the world, if you are sickly and unable to enjoy this world properly due to not looking after the body.

My journey started with fitness, it started with my drive to improve my body, which helped me to build up an inner strength as well. With every training session, with every physical achievement, I was able to prove to myself that I can do it. Therefore, your HEALTH is the first pillar to work on, now physical training is not the only thing you need to focus on when it comes to your health. Mental training and your environmental health is also just as important.

You cannot expect to improve your health overnight, much like most things in life, it is a journey that needs to be taken over the course of a lifetime. However, I can give you a few hints that can help you to improve your health, physically and mentally. Exercise, movement and momentum is the key to health, a recent study that had been completed suggested that your overall fitness mattered more than your bodyweight when it came to longevity of life.

Which means, even those that were overweight, as long as they committed to a weekly regime of training and exercise, they lived longer and happier lives. Of course, I do not want you to think that over-indulging on chocolate is ok either, as nutrition is also a really important aspect of health. You are literally what you eat, as your body over the course of a week, makes new skin cells and replaces the old with the cells from the foods you eat.

There has been many an older person who, on their death-bed, regretted not looking after their bodies and after their health more, don’t let that be you.

The second most important pillar of the triangle of Taking-Back-Control, is LIFE. Without it, we would be nothing and the main spark of life is what keeps us going, no matter the hardships we suffer, no matter the heart-ache, we continue on because of three pillars that make up life.

Hope for the future, it is one of the key aspects of humanity that has been the only reason to keep moving forward. Hope was the only thing that got people through wars, through the worst of times, even most recently, through a pandemic.

Without Hope, we would have given up a long time ago, because what would the point be if we did not hope for a better future?

That is why, LIFESTYLE GOALS, is the first thing you need to work on to creating a good life, if I didn’t aim to achieve things or have goals of travel and raising a family, I probably wouldn’t go out everyday to work hard on growing myself.

Which brings me to PURPOSE; it has taken me years of hardships, successes, failures and fumbling to realise my purpose in life. For some, it takes a year, for others, it could take a lifetime. However, I know that my true purpose was born from trying new things and putting myself out in the world and meeting heaps of different people. Understanding more of the world, of other people and understanding your true purpose will make you a stronger person, more resilient and will take you far in life.

Which brings me to the final aspect for life, which is GIVING BACK, giving back to your family, to others, to the unfortunate and to your community. All of these will make your life more wholesome, but there is still one thing that will enhance your Life and your Health…

The last pillar of T-B-C, WEALTH…

Wealth will not only enhance your life and health, it will enhance your ability to give back, to have a higher purpose. Wealth and money is not inherently bad, nor is it inherently good, however a lot of people feel guilty about earning and accumulating a lot of wealth. It is not something that we talk about a whole heap, most parents don’t teach their kids about money, the failings or the successes. Most schools teach economics and how money flows, how to buy things etc. But they do not teach about how to create and compound on wealth, and they definitely do not teach about how to protect your wealth.

As a student of financial planning, I have learnt a lot over the last four or five years since I truly started to learn more about money, investing, asset classes and the markets.

Even further back, I was thankful for my mentors on teaching me how to create wealth and earn money, which started when I began my very first business when I was 18 years old.

When it comes to Wealth, there is three things you need to learn and it is very simple knowledge, there is no secret ingredients or magic pills to swallow. I hope over the course of our journey, you will be able to learn some things from myself on how to successfully coordinate and achieve doing these three things that will help you Take Back Control of your Wealth.

If you can learn to Create Wealth, Invest your Wealth to accumulate and grow, and finally, Protect your Wealth, you will be able to surpass more than 95% of people that reside on this Earth.

Over the course of our journey together, I plan to help you and teach you everything I have learned, as well as give your perspectives of other successful people that have been able to build on these three pillars.

For now, I just want you to start thinking about the three pillars and how they may affect your life right now. How would improving one of the key aspects, LIFE-HEALTH-WEALTH, change you and help you?

If you have found this Blog valuable, I would love it if you shared it with friends and family. The more the merrier, as I want to see each and every one of you learn to Take Back Control of your Life-Health-Wealth !

Until next time,

Take Back Control