The Win On Purpose Podcast
The Win On Purpose Podcast focuses primarily on health and fitness tips and discussions, but we love to celebrate ALL THINGS in regard to being the best you can possibly be in business, relationships, and personal development. Win on purpose means just that, purposefully taking action to become your best self, and following your purpose to develop the passion needed to excel at anything in life!
The Win On Purpose Podcast
Mastering Your Well-Being: Essential Secrets Revealed
This episode provides a clear and practical guide to optimizing your health through the Transform Health Initiative, focusing on four essential pillars that can dramatically improve your overall well-being.
• Introduction of the Four Pillars of Health: Balanced Nutrition, Physical Activity, Quality Sleep, and Stress Management
• Discussion on Balanced Nutrition, emphasizing high-quality protein and whole foods
• Importance of regular Physical Activity and setting sustainable goals
• Insights into achieving Quality Sleep, including sleep hygiene tips
• Effective strategies for managing Stress and nurturing positive relationships
Share this episode with someone who might benefit from these insights!
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What's up, guys, welcome back to the Win On Purpose podcast with Adam Kelly. Thank you, guys, for tuning back in. Today's episode is episode number 21 and I'm going to break down all of the secrets that you need to optimize your health and your physique and your well-being, and we call this the Transform Health Initiative Four Pillars of Health. So we're going to cover all four pillars in detail and I'm going to go and tell you what they are right now, just to kind of give a little lead into the episode. So number one is balanced nutrition. Number two, physical activity. Number three, quality sleep and number four, stress management. And I break down each four of these pillars into four bullet points that you can easily apply, very practical information that you can start today to start bettering your health, becoming the best version of yourself and feeling your absolute best in all that you do. So you guys, check out the episodes, share with someone you love and let's get this started.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Win On Purpose podcast From health and fitness, business, personal development, relationships and more. We promise you will find inspiration to help you win on purpose in all areas of your life journey. Now for your host, adam Kelly.
Speaker 1:What's going on? Everybody? Hope everybody's having a fantastic day, a fantastic week. We are still rocking and rolling here with the podcast. We are on episode number 21 starting today. So cool stuff there. Guys Got a pretty exciting one, lots of information here to share with you guys, so hoping that this is helpful and it encourages you and helps you along your journey, especially when it comes to, you know, breaking through the misconceptions and the misinformation and disinformation and all that that is out there when it comes to health and fitness and nutrition and lifestyle.
Speaker 1:Ok, so that's what this episode is about. If you don't mind, guys, as usual, please like and share the video or the podcast episode, however you're listening to. It helps a great deal, even if you just share it with one person. You know, send them a direct message hey, check out this podcast, check out this episode. I think it'd be helpful. Or we were having a conversation about this, so I think you know it kind of ties into that. Whatever that looks like. Be greatly appreciated, guys. Really helps us, you know, get more exposure, get more information out there, help us be seen. All that good stuff. So that'd be highly appreciated. So, moving forward.
Speaker 1:So today, like I said, we're going to cover four. This is what I call the four pillars of health. Okay, so this is a little sheet that I've made up here recently and I X if you're looking at the video, I have actual printout right here. So this is something that I give all my clients. It basically sums up the key points of health. You know, basically, like I tell people, if you have this sheet, if you hang this somewhere up in your house and you follow this on a day-to-day basis just these four then you're going to be covering 99% of the health benefits available to us. Okay, so the main reason why I did this is one is it's kind of like a North star to help point people in the right direction, because I break it down into, you know, four pillars and then they all each have four bullets on information on what this needs to look like, and so you know this really just kind of helps clean up the landscape.
Speaker 1:You know, simplifying things to those things that actually matter the most, because we live in a time, you know, with social media and with influencers and just so much accessibility to information out there, a lot of information that's not vetted or checked or corrected or anything. There's so much accessibility to information out there A lot of information that's not vetted or checked or corrected or anything. There's so much noise out there about you know how to eat, what you should eat, you know what your physical activities should look like and all these tricks and tips and shortcuts and hacks and all these different things that are supposedly promote these different health benefits. But unfortunately, a lot of the people that make a lot of these claims don't actually have any proof to back what they're saying. They don't present you with studies, they don't present you with evidence. You're just listening to what they say and taking that as truth.
Speaker 1:And there is a lot of good stuff out there. I mean this nothing is new in this landscape. You know there's some nuances of things that we've learned've learned, you know as we've continued to study, as we've had more time. You know with technology in order to perform, you know better structured studies and things like that. But there's still just so much noise out there and I want to help clear that up for you guys, because a lot of what's out there, a lot of what's promoted, a lot of the books, a lot of the little secret and tips and tricks, just really don't make that much of a difference in the end. And even if they do have a slight difference, if we're not covering these four points and this isn't solidified and none of that stuff is going to do anything, I don't care what the supplement promotes to do, I don't care what the little hack promotes to do, I don't care what the piece of technology or this product that is being pushed to you can do for you. If you're not covering the most important things, none of that's going to be useful to you. So let's make sure that we get these four pillars down, that we have a clear understanding of that, and then you know if you want to add any other things to your regimen that you may feel promote better health for you or make you feel better or whatever it may be by all means.
Speaker 1:But we got to stick to the basics. You got to build a solid foundation and then you can build the house on top of that. You know what happens if you build your house on sand and the storms come, as the Messiah said, that the house is going to fall apart. But when you build it on a solid foundation, on the rock, the storms come and the building is upheld. So these are the rocks that we're building our health on, and we're going to start with number one, which is probably one of the most important ones, just because it's so prevalent to us and there's food everywhere and it's just a huge part of our life and our society and that is balanced nutrition. So pillar number is balanced nutrition. So pillar number one balanced nutrition. So I'm just going to go through these bullet points and then I'm going to give you guys a little bit more information on each one, just, you know, kind of whatever comes to mind. So, like I said, number one is balanced nutrition.
Speaker 1:All right, so the first bullet point, of course, as I always start with with everything, is protein consumption. Okay, the most important thing that we nail down with our nutrition is protein consumption. So we want high quality protein, and I put about, you know, roughly a gram per pound of desired body weight. Okay, so high quality protein is going to be your, basically your animal products, your dairy and your whey proteins. Okay, plant proteins are decent, but they're lacking some of the essential amino acids that our body needs to actually utilize that protein are considered most of them are considered as incomplete proteins, and so they're not providing that high quality, you know, ample amount of amino acids, which is the broken down form of protein that our body needs to actually utilize that nutrient. So I put about one gram per pound of desired body weight because I feel that's really important. A lot of the recommendations, like, for example, right now the, you know, government recommendation is about 0.8, 0.7 grams per kilogram of body weight. So that's quite a bit less than what I recommend and basically that's what's considered an RDA. That's like basically your bottom line of consumption. Like if you consume less than this you may have health issues. So consuming at least this much is probably going to help you prevent some of the deficiencies that come from a lack of protein. So I like to shoot for that. And then again, I put desired body weight because that's very important.
Speaker 1:If someone is let's just say let's throw a number out there they're 300 pounds and they want to get down to 200 pounds, so they have a hundred pounds that they need to lose. Well, the amount of protein that their body needs isn't based off of their body fat. It's based off of their lean mass, which is going to be their muscle, their bone, their skin, everything else outside of your fat mass, or sometimes it's called fat free mass, and so that's what our protein needs are based off of. So if someone is 300 pounds, they don't need to eat 300 grams of protein. If they would be at a healthy weight at 200 pounds, they could probably aim for around 200 grams and be perfectly fine and get all the health benefits, including the muscle building benefits, from protein. Okay, so that covers protein. Like I said, you can go under that, you can go above that. Either way, you're going to be in a good range if you're somewhere close to that number. Okay, pretty easy to kind of guesstimate as you're making your food selections throughout the day.
Speaker 1:The next bullet point under balanced nutrition plenty of fruits and veggies. So I recommend about two to five servings of fruits or veggies and or veggies per day. This is going to cover, you know, each meal and you know maybe even throwing a snack in there, like some berries or an apple or something, where you're going to get those nutrients, you're going to get the fiber, you're going to get all these health benefits from that, plus the satiety effect, because fruits and vegetables are very low in calorie for the amount of volume that you get to eat, like, compare, you know how much broccoli you can have to match the calories of a chocolate bar. You you'll probably never be able to eat that much broccoli in one sitting. So same thing with all your fruits. Even though some of them are higher in sugar and they get demonized for that, it's not a bad thing, because they're still low in calories compared to all the processed foods out there. And you couple that with getting tons of nutrients with it, which is going to help benefit your health in other ways. So it's really a win-win situation. And again, because they're low in calories, you can eat quite a bit more volume of them, which is going to fill up your stomach more. It's going to make you feel full longer, which is going to help minimize the unnecessary snacking and things like that that end up putting us way too many calories per day and then also help us to be in control when it's time to eat our next meal. So lots of benefits to having plenty of fruits and veggies in your diet.
Speaker 1:The next bullet point is mostly minimally processed whole foods. So I say mostly because there's a balance. It's not that ultra processed foods are inherently terrible for you and they're, you know, demonic and they're going to kill you. None of that's true. The simple fact is ultra-processed foods are extremely tasty. They're made to be extremely tasty and because of usually the fat and carbohydrate balance between the two of them are so high, it's super tasty and super high in calories.
Speaker 1:So it's easy to eat a ton of ultra processed foods, get thousands of extra calories without even really realizing it. I mean, you know, if you look at like, say, for example, movie popcorn, like you go to the movies and eat a large popcorn, like between the butter and then the popcorn itself mainly the butter you're getting way more calories than it's going to feel like you ate at the end of the day. Or you go to the restaurant and you get chips and salsa. You can eat a ton of chips which are super high in calories and not even really feel like you ate anything and still eat your meal afterwards and you got six 700 calories worth of chips in your belly. So you know that's why we want to stick to mostly minimally processed, whole foods.
Speaker 1:So I always tell people you know the 80-20 rule is pretty legit. You know anywhere between that 80 to 90, that 20 to 10% to where you know a good bulk of your foods come from whole foods, that's, your animal foods, your fruits and veggies and your, you know, minimally processed whole grains, and then you know minimally processed whole grains, and then you know that 10 to 20%. You kind of fill in those extra calories that you have left over with some of the fun foods that you enjoy, right, if that's like coffee creamer, you know a little snack here and there, whatever it may be, you know, as long as you have the calories for it, to where it's not going to be moving you away from your goal but towards your goal, it's absolutely fine to add in some of those fun foods in there, but we want the bulk of our food to come from real food, you know, whole foods, because that's what's going to provide the nutrients our bodies need to thrive and to optimize performance in the gym or in life in general. It's going to keep us fuller longer. So again, less snacking, less overeating, it's going to help control our blood sugar. It's going to help control our insulin levels, our cholesterol, everything, all of the things that we're constantly worried about when we go to the doctor. A lot of those situations can be controlled or mitigated by just structuring our diet in a way that's healthier with those whole foods and then, like I said, sprinkle in some of those fun foods so you keep your sanity, keeps you from binging and you still enjoy life. Because, again, these foods are not evil. The food companies making them are not evil. They're just really good at creating products that people really like to buy over and over again. That's like kind of the purpose of business. So if we have that understanding that, hey, you know, these foods aren't out to kill us, these companies aren't to kill us, but they are there to make a buck and they're going to create products that are extremely tasty and make us want to overeat them, so we keep buying them faster and faster, then it's a little easier to make wholesome, proper you know, nutrition decisions without all the political garbage that's out there against food wars and everything else out there, all right. So that's three points.
Speaker 1:The last one here is hydrate, according to thirst. Okay, this is part of nutrition. It's important. Now, hydration is one of those things that's been way overblown. You know you need eight water, eight glasses of water per day. You know you need to drink a gallon a day. All these are made up. There's no certain amount for any given person. There's so many different things that affect our hydration and what we do need and what we don't need your body size, the amount of muscle mass that you have, your activity levels there's many, many things that affect it, how much you sweat per day, if you exercise or not.
Speaker 1:So hydrating according to thirst is a is a pretty good way to just kind of standardize your hydration. Because if you have a day where you know maybe it's freezing cold outside and there's ice out there and you're not really moving around much, you're just it's, you know you're. It's your day off of work, you're just kind of hanging around with the family around the house. You're not really exerting yourself, you're not doing anything difficult. So your need for hydration is going to be a lot lower than if it's 100 degrees outside. You've been working on the yard and then you go to the gym and train for an hour and a half. You're going to be sweating a ton, you're going to be losing a lot of electrolytes, You're going to be losing a lot of water. So the hydration needs on those days is going to be a lot different on the days where you're sitting around doing nothing, and so our bodies are very efficient at letting us know when we need something, especially something like water or hydration.
Speaker 1:So there is a thing that people talk about that. You know, sometimes we can confuse hunger for thirst. Sometimes we're not really hungry, we're just thirsty. So those cues can be kind of mixed up and there's probably some truth to that. But you know, you can always fix that by if you feel like you're hungry, drink a glass of water. Drink some water. If you're still super hungry, you're probably actually hungry. But if you drink according to the thirst, you're going to be covering most of your needs. Now, if you're doing something like you're sitting in the sauna or again you're doing an outdoor sport or a super high endurance sport or something like that that's very exerting, you probably need to increase your hydration. That's something that you want to work with a sports coach or just kind of educate yourself on sports nutrition when it comes to hydration. But just for general purposes, listen to your thirst and that's going to cover most of your needs.
Speaker 1:And a side note on that all of the liquids that you drink account for your daily hydration. A lot of people think it's just water. And then your coffee, your diet sodas, your juices, your teas, your milk, all these other, your protein shakes, all that other stuff isn't adding to your hydration, but it actually is. It doesn't matter where the water is coming from, and that's again another benefit of having plenty of fruits and vegetables, because fruits and vegetables are mainly water. You know anywhere from 70 to 95% water, so you're getting a lot of your hydration needs from your food as well. So really, anything that you eat has water in it to some degree, but again, those fruits and veggies are going to contain way more water, which is going to help with your hydration. Okay, so that covers our balanced nutrition. Like I said, you stick to those four points. You're covering almost all that you need in order to live a healthy life when it comes to your nutrition. So, high quality protein and an adequate amount, plenty of fruits and veggies, minimally processed, whole foods mostly, and hydrated according to thirst, all right.
Speaker 1:So now we're going to move on to point number two, or pillar number two. So pillar number two is physical activity. Okay, now, when I say one, two, three, four, these aren't exactly in order because, depending on your life, depending on who you are, some of these may be switched around. We're just going down the list. So, like I said, number two is physical activity. So bullet point number one two or more days of resistance training is what I recommend.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we know through lots and lots of literature that training each muscle group around two to three days per week is going to give you the majority of the muscle strength and muscle building benefits that you're going to get from strength training. So you could do more than that If you like to be in the gym. You know you like the lifestyle and you can break down your training, split or what muscle groups you're training, how much volume you're training each muscle group in each training session. You can break that down more in order to get more than two or three days. But if it's, if your time restraint, if training just really isn't your favorite thing to do, it's just something that you want to do for the health benefits, you know, whatever the situation may be, that you can't do more than two or three days. If you can get even just two days, then you're doing fantastic. And guess what, even if you can't get to two days, if you can just do one day, that's way better than none. So don't feel like, oh well, I can't do two or three days or my body can't handle it. Start with one day and just do that consistently. And then, as you get used to that and that becomes a habit and your body adapts to that amount of work, then you can try increasing to two days or three days or whatever you want to do from there, but cover that two to three days per week of resistance training, lifting even if it's body weight exercises, whatever it is like that. That's going to cover your strength, your bone density, your metabolism, all the benefits that come from building muscle and having muscle you'll accomplish with that amount of work. It's not super difficult. It could even be a 30-minute workout. It can be a 20-minute workout. You just do a circuit training twice per week. Boom, you can do it when you wake up before bed, on your lunch break. Lots of ways to work it in. So it doesn't have to be an excuse, especially the one that I don't have time, because we all have the time. Let's be honest, all right.
Speaker 1:Next up, bullet point number two cardio respiratory training. Two to five days per week. So there, especially in the fitness world, fitness industry, there's been a lot of back and forth on cardio If we should be doing cardio, if we need to, if it's a waste of time, if you should just lift, and people are all over the place. Usually the people who promote no cardio and just lifting are the people who just really don't like cardio. And then you have the people that say you absolutely have to have cardio. I'm kind of like the middle ground. So I think it is very smart to have it in your program or in your routine, especially if you let you.
Speaker 1:You have a more of like a sedentary job where you're sitting at a desk or you're just not moving around very much, um, or you know, especially as we get older in age where we need to be more concerned about our heart health, that can be more important. We also know that for the female population it may be a little bit more important to have cardiovascular training or cardiorespiratory training in your program, because women are typically more prone to things like diabetes, heart disease, you know basically all of the metabolic diseases. Women have a higher risk than men, inherently, unfortunately, so maybe even more important there. But I do think it's important because there's lots of benefits to cardio respiratory training. Okay, you have the heart health benefits. You have blood flow benefits. You have, you know warming up muscles, you know joint health.
Speaker 1:There's so many different things that have benefits, but the main one is heart health, because our heart's constantly ticking, it's constantly beating, it's a muscle like any other one and it needs to be strengthened and kept strong. And also, you know if you're an avid lifter and you're like, hey, you know, I don't want to lose gains. And you know if you're an avid lifter and you're like, hey, you know, I don't want to lose gains and you know I don't have time for cardio. Whatever Cardio sucks, whatever it is Like, there's lots of benefits to having cardio in your program if you're trying to get as jacked and as much muscle as possible, because the more healthy your heart is and your lungs are, the harder you can push in the gym.
Speaker 1:If you're super overweight or you're really out of shape, like you're, just, your cardio endurance is really bad. It's definitely going to affect your performance in the gym. You're not going to be able to lift as hard, you're not going to be able to lift as long, you're going to gas out a lot faster. But if you're adding in some cardio a couple of times per week, you're keeping your lungs strong, your heart strong, your endurance higher so you can really push and get as much output in the gym as possible. So, no matter who you are, there's benefits to that. But especially if you're a sedentary person. Now, if you happen to be someone who works like a super physical job, like a server, like at a restaurant or you know a construction job, something where you're getting lots of steps, lots of body movement, whatever it may be of that measure, then you know you can mess around with how much physical activity you need. But especially if you don't get a lot on a day-to-day basis, this becomes very important.
Speaker 1:Bullet point number three highest daily step count that you can sustain. Daily step count. Getting steps in has become very popular in recent years and I'm so happy about that because it's so important to get that regular daily movement throughout the day. But then you get into some of the talks of well, you need to be getting 10 000 steps per day. Everybody should have 10 000 steps today if you want to be healthy. Well, if your lifestyle, you know, between work and outside of work, you normally only get a thousand steps per day or 2000 steps per day. The chance of you going from that to 10,000 steps and sustaining that to actually get the long-term benefits of it is slim to none, okay. So start where you are and then add some to that to where you know you can sustain it. Now, it doesn't mean it's going to be easy. You may have to actually put in extra effort to get to your step, but something that you know that you can manage each day as you get used to that. Then you can always increase it because up to a certain point you know, probably like 12 to 15,000 steps the more the better, okay. So if you're at 6,000, it would definitely benefit you to get to 8,000, but increment your way up so that each total that you get up to you're able to sustain that, so you can keep pushing forward and keep that baseline of physical activity. So stepping walking stepping walking is so important so many different benefits that we're not going to get into right now, from digestion to blood pressure, to blood sugar, to so many different things, but for muscle recovery from the gym. So getting those steps in guys, super important now.
Speaker 1:Bullet point number four is choose fun activities to prevent being too sedentary. So we got to have fun, guys like. Using our bodies to have fun is one of the biggest benefits of having a body that's able to do things. So, rather, if it's playing sports with your kids, getting outside, going on nature, walks, hikes, you know. Picking up a physical hobby on the side, you know. Going outside throwing the football, whatever it may be, going bike riding, you know there's so many different things, so many different ways that we can incorporate physical activity that don't involve sitting on the couch looking at a screen all day. So you know, going shopping and window shopping and just walking around, like things as simple as that are ways that you can increase your activity levels and things that you enjoy.
Speaker 1:Okay, it doesn't always have to be, you know, stationary, steady state cardio on a treadmill or elliptical. Okay, you can get your cardio in so many different ways. You can get your physical activity and your steps in so many different ways that you enjoy. And now you're getting multiple benefits, not just from the physical activity itself, but the mental benefits of enjoying what you're doing and getting more enjoyment and fun into your life. All right, so that covers pillar number two, physical activity. Again, I'll recap. So, two or more days of resistance training per week, cardio respiratory training, two to five times per week, or two or more times per week. Just put it like that Highest daily step count that you can sustain over a long period of time, and choosing fun activities to prevent from being too sedentary, all right. So, bullet or not? Bullet point.
Speaker 1:Pillar number three All right, this is probably one of the most problematic ones we have in our society, especially for busy parents and just busy individuals in general, and that is quality sleep. Okay, not just sleep, but quality sleep, all right. So bullet point number one on quality sleep Okay, not just sleep, but quality sleep, all right. So bullet point number one on quality sleep aim for seven to eight hours each night of sleep, all right. This is very, very difficult for a lot of us again, especially for the busy people who have so much going on inside and outside of work and life and everything else. But it is highly beneficial for you to aim for that much sleep because we need a certain amount of time for recovery to, you know, replenish the body, to heal things, to get rid of diseased and and and defected cells in the body, like so many different things that happen while we're sleeping. So if we get around that seven to eight hours, we're're really maximizing all the different sleep cycles if we're getting quality sleep during that seven to eight hours. So that's what these next ones are going to emphasize on how to get quality sleep.
Speaker 1:So, bullet point number two good sleep hygiene. So sleep hygiene is basically the things you do to promote good sleep. So keeping your room as dark as possible, it a little bit cooler, so you're not sweating, because our bodies get into deeper sleep when our bodies are able to cool down. That's why most of us sweat when we sleep. Our body's trying to cool down, to get into a deep sleep. Making sure that you're comfortable while you're sleeping, that you have a good mattress, that you have good pillows that support your cervical spine and whatever else you may be having going on. Things like that is going to be where good sleep hygiene come in.
Speaker 1:Bullet point number three engage in calming, relaxing activities before bedtime. Bed is not a time, you know, to get riled up to, you know. Watch your favorite horror movie or suspenseful movie. It's not the time to, you know. Try to binge, watch your series on TV, because all of those things are keeping you engaged. It's going to keep cortisol levels higher. It's going to keep basically all of your stay awake and stay moving.
Speaker 1:Hormones active rather than melatonin and those things that typically get released as it's time to wind down and go to bed. It kind of helps our body get into that state of being ready for a restful sleep. So we want to be relaxed as we're going to bed. Things like stretching, reading a book, meditating, praying, having a peaceful, calm conversation with somebody you know not something that gets you all riled up before you go to bed Again. This can be a hard one, especially for parents, especially for busy people who are always trying to take care of you know, work outside of work. It could be difficult for a lot of us and so as long as we're working towards these things, we're going to be constantly reaping better benefits the better we get it at our sleep.
Speaker 1:And the last bullet point is limit blue light exposure before bed. So I'm not really as big into like the whole red light, blue light thing that a lot of people kind of get fixated on. But there is some pretty decent literature showing that blue light might be an issue. Something about the way that it, you know, causes cortisol to stay higher, causes again a lot of those wake up hormones to stay being released in the body rather than our wind down relaxing hormones, which makes sense, because blue light basically emulates sunlight to a degree, and so it's almost like you're continuously looking at the sun.
Speaker 1:Well, if we lived in nature, we didn't have artificial lights. We our sleep schedule will be based on daylight. So back in those days, you know, during the day they got all their work done, they took care of business. As evening came, they started winding down, maybe by the fire, and then nighttime you put the fire out, you go to bed because it's too dark to see, there's too many dangers out there, and this is the time where you sleep. Sunrise starts coming up, you start waking up and our bodies are in tune with this system of daylight and nighttime. So now that we live in a time of artificial lights, we live in a time where things are always going on after dark. Our bodies have not adapted to this change. We're still based off of the daylight and nighttime system. So the more that we limit blue light exposure, the probably better we're going to be able to fall asleep and getting to that deep sleep stage. So that pretty much covers the main points on sleep quality. There's some other things we can touch on when it comes to like what you eat before bed, or if you do or don't eat. But we're not going to get into any of that, we're just going to keep it simple. So, again, to recap, quality sleep seven to eight hours of sleep per night, possibly, aspect of our health, especially in the times that we live in where we're all like literally just running off of stress hormones 24-7.
Speaker 1:And this is stress management. Okay, it's pillar number four. So bullet point number one try to avoid unnecessary stress. So a lot of the times when we're stressed out, when we're going through things, when our anxiety is high, it's because we're stressing about things that are not necessary in the moment. Rather, if it's something in the future that we can't do anything about right now to effect, we're just thinking about it. Rather, if it's something that's completely out of our control and we're just thinking about it yet we can't change it, if it's something that isn't really our burden to carry, but we're carrying it anyway. So now it's affecting us on our daily life.
Speaker 1:All these different examples are unnecessary stresses that we tend to put on ourselves without realizing it. You know even unnecessary stresses like getting way too engaged over a ball game that you're not even playing in Like I like sports, don't get me wrong, and I'm not so happy when my team loses, but I get. If I'm stressed out and my anxiety is high over a ball game that I'm not even playing in, it's really not doing me a service all that much. So, again, I'm not saying to avoid sports and cheering for your team. Just realize that some things aren't worth stressing about, some things aren't worth being upset about, and really, if we just focus on the things we can control and we can impact, we'll remove a lot of unnecessary stresses off of our mind. All right.
Speaker 1:Bullet point number two engage in enjoyable activities often. So, again, it's promoting that sense of happiness, that sense of joy, of enjoyment of life, passion, things like that. So it doesn't matter what this. This isn't about physical activity, although those are great ways to and great activities to engage in. But this could be anything that brings you enjoyment reading, writing, video games. You know, whatever it may be, I'm not against video games, as long as it's in control, you know. It can be obsessive, for sure, but it can also be no different than watching a 30 minute tv show to play a game for 30 minutes. So okay, let's be real about that. One, like you know, quit hating on the video games, guys, unless you you play them all night, you know. That's a different story, uh, or you're not taking care of your business because you're too busy gaming different story. But whatever those activities may look like gardening, you know, walking your dog, playing with your dog, whatever it may be do those and do those as much as you can and that's really going to help you reduce your overall stress levels.
Speaker 1:Number three nurture and prioritize healthy relationships. So relationships have a big impact on our stress levels, on our life, on our enjoyment in life. All of those things we find a lot of purpose in our marriages, in our parenting, in our friendships, in our relationships with family, things like that. So making sure that we're nurturing and prioritizing those relationships is super important. It helps life go much smoother, it helps us have more purpose when it comes to other people, benefiting the lives of other people, and really helps reduce stress. Because we're creatures that are made for community. We're made to bond with people, we're made to be close to people. So nurturing those important relationships can really help you manage your stress levels.
Speaker 1:And the last part on this this goes more into the mentality side of things, and that is control negative thoughts and self-limiting beliefs. Okay, so we have to take our thoughts captive, as Paul says in the Bible. You know, we need to be very attentive to what we allow our minds to think about. Will we allow our, our focus to be hinged on? Okay, because it's so easy to be negative about ourselves. It's so easy to beat ourselves up about any of these pillars that I'm talking about. You may be doing it right now Like, oh man, definitely missing on the nutrition. Oh man, the physical activity I could do so much better. My sleep. Yeah right, Stress management. Now, I'm stressed out just hearing this, like it's very easy to have those negative thoughts.
Speaker 1:We got to take those captive, dish them out, get rid of them and then replace them with positive thinking, self-belief, self-encouragement, self-affirmation, things that are going to build you up, because not only is that going to help you be more productive, help you enjoy your life more, help reduce your stress levels. That's going to overflow and pour out to those around you. Where they start feeling more positive, they start believing in themselves, because they see how much you believe in yourself. And it's super important, super helpful and really it can be the difference between success and failure at anything that we do in life is what we believe about our own capabilities, about our environment, about society, about our life, about our faith. All of it, like the way that we think, the way we perceive, is so important.
Speaker 1:Perception is important. Perception is life. Perception is reality, like what you perceive to be true is going to be true in your world and it's going to affect every part of your world. So if you feel and you believe that you're a failure, that you're just meant to be obese, that you're meant to be unhealthy and weak and sick and brittle, you're always going to be like that. But if you believe that you're meant to be unhealthy and weak and sick and brittle, you're always going to be like that. But if you believe that you're supposed to be strong and healthy and wise and energetic and fun, and you start working towards those things not just thinking it but turning it into action it's going to change your entire life.
Speaker 1:But it always starts with a thought. It always starts with what we believe, especially for people out there that have big transformations that they're wanting to accomplish or they're really trying to undo or recover from serious health conditions that they've got themselves into the way that you believe what you can accomplish is going to determine if you can do it. If you do not believe in yourself, it's very unlikely that you're going to be successful at whatever you're trying to do. Okay, so super important, guys. So there we have it. To summarize, the pillar number four of stress management, again we have avoid unnecessary stress, engage in enjoyable activities often, nurture and prioritize healthy relationships and control negative thoughts and self-limiting beliefs. Okay, so there you have it, guys. That is the transformed health initiative for pillars of health.
Speaker 1:Like I said, if you take what's in this episode, you take what's on this sheet of mine, and you apply these 16 bullet points, these four pillars broken down into 16 points, and you apply this to your life on a regular basis. Not being perfect, because none of us are none of us get all this right, but these are your goalposts that you're aiming for. Your quality of life is going to be so much better. Your health, your physique, everything is going to be so much better. Your relationships, your outlook on life, your purpose, your passion for life is going to improve so much and, like I said, following these principles, about 99% of the health benefits that you can get are going to be accomplished right here.
Speaker 1:Okay, now we can get into more finer details. Like. You know energy balance, calories in calories out we can get into. You know exactly how much physical activity what heart rate zone we need to be in. We can get into more. You know exactly how much physical activity what heart rate zone we need to be in. We can get into more of the. You know nuances as far as sleep quality and how to improve that and supplementation you can take to help. We can. You know, talk about all the other types of stress management skills like or you know stress management tactics like counseling, like. You know so many different things out there. But again, sticking to these 16 principles, you're going to cover 99% of the benefits you can get from prioritizing your health and fitness and wellness.
Speaker 1:All right, so you guys, please utilize this information, save this episode, download it so you can re-listen to it, however many times you need to write it down, take notes, like I'm. I'm encouraging you to distill my information and my hard work that I've compiled here, just so you can use it to your benefit and you can share with other people, because I guarantee you know at least five people around you who are having the same questions, the same doubts, the same concerns and the same issues in their journey and you may be able to help them and encourage them to focus on the things that actually make a difference Because, like I said at the beginning of the episode, there's so many other products out there, there's so many tactics and hacks and secrets and all this stuff out there that might have a minor, slight health benefit. But if we're not taking care of these four points, if our nutrition and our physical activity and our sleep and our stress management are not being locked in, none of that stuff is going to matter. Like people get all hyped up on you know artificial sweeteners they get hyped up on the food dyes they get hyped up on you know what's in the tap water. You know what's in our oxygen that we're breathing in. You know what's in the food. You know what's in our oxygen that we're breathing in. You know what's in the food, the certain chemicals and you know products that are in these different food items and stuff.
Speaker 1:Like we get so hyper focused on these things and miss the meat of the subject, we miss the most important foundational points. For all of the fluff on top, okay, so let's stick to the basics and then, if you want to add anything onto your program and onto your lifestyle to enhance it even more than absolutely guys, go for it. But if we just start here and even if we just stayed here, we are guaranteed to win on purpose in nearly every aspect of our life, because these four points are going to affect everything that we touch, everything we see, everything we think and everything we do. All right, so whatever you guys do with this information, make sure, starting today, you do something good for yourself, something good for your health, something good for those you care about, and, whatever you do, make sure you win on purpose. Talk at you next time.