How To Optimise Health To Benefit Your Business
Do you consider yourself healthy? If your health isn’t up to scratch, you will not perform to the best of your ability. And let’s face it, if you are not performing at optimum levels, your business can suffer. Our advice? Maintain a healthy lifestyle over a period of time.
Don’t worry if you’re lacking in various areas of health, now is the time to make a positive change!
Self-development and education in areas such as nutrition, physical exercise, sleep, and mindfulness, are as important to your business as any other form of training or education.
1. Nutrition
How can you optimise your nutrition with a busy lifestyle?
Focus on your principles around food. Set up daily habits that will improve your diet automatically. Without having to manage a calorie-controlled diet, here are some ways you can ensure what you put into your body is good.
- Eat a nutritious, filling breakfast every day
- Prepare meals ahead of time
- Buy daily from quality grocers
Nutrition for performance
Your entire body composition relies on nutrition—your heart, blood, muscles, brain. So for breakfast, opt for good fats and proteins over anything that will give you a carbohydrate or sugar ‘spike’. Foods such as: cereal, bread, and pastries will give a fast release of energy and then drop quickly, sometimes causing you to feel more tired than you did prior to consumption.
Best breakfast for achievement – eggs
Free-range eggs are a morning superfood, they are packed with protein, amino acids and B12. Eggs also have the highest concentration of thyroxine of any other food. Thyroxine is a precursor for dopamine, the neurotransmitter for achievement.
Alongside eggs, add other good fats such as avocado, smoked salmon, vegetables, cooking with good quality coconut oil or olive oil, and if you can’t go without bread, opt for a locally made, magnesium-rich, sprouted loaf.
Combat decision fatigue
Just as in business, in nutrition, being prepared is key to optimising success.
By being prepared with your daily food intake, you’re also removing the decision-making process. Not only does that set you up for healthy meals, but it also gives you more time to make decisions for your business and personal success.
One of the biggest challenges for business owners is skipping meals, resulting in loss of energy and, in turn, brainpower. This can often be the time we will crave a quick pick-me-up and grab the sugary treats.
Knowing what’s better for you, nutritionally, can prepare you to make healthy decisions on the fly.
Formula for success: Protein + fat + vegetable
2. Sleep
Your primary function as a business owner is to make decisions. For this, you need your brain to function at the highest level. Sleep is critical to this. Sleep allows your brain and its cells to recharge.
All the research has told us eight hours is the gold standard, though, quality of sleep is also important. Screens and blue light block your production of melatonin—the sleep hormone. When our daily screen time is boosted during the day, our sleep quality becomes at risk.
An hour, or earlier, before you plan to sleep, shut the screens down—no phone, no text, no laptop, no blue light at all.
3. Exercise & training
Longevity in business and longevity in life go hand in hand, and fitness is a great place to boost both. Physical exercise is not only a way to maintain weight and fitness but it’s also a tool for relieving stress.
Any movement is good movement, but the key is to keep your endorphins up. The best thing you can do for your overall performance is to challenge your body and ‘earn’ your endorphins! The reward is energy. And long term, a healthy and (hopefully) longer life.
4. Mindfulness: mind over body
The mind can be a strong enemy of your success in health and in business. When you don’t let your inner critic define you, you can raise the bar on your success.
Meditation
Cortisol is a natural achievement enemy. Science shows you can reduce cortisol from meditating, after which you feel more relaxed, more energetic, and have a clearer mindset.
Just 15 minutes of meditation can change your entire headspace. Whether you’re using breathwork or a mantra technique, the basic principle of repetition applies. Repetition is paramount and it will train your mind to return to the groove.
To get started, try apps such as One Giant Mind or Calm. Alternatively, look up your local yoga or pilates studio for meditation courses in house or online.Just like with any exercise, coupled with discipline and effort, daily practice will strengthen your abilities. And mindfulness, that is success stemming from a clear, healthy mind, is the end game.
