Anthony Hartcher 0:00
Welcome to another insightful episode of Me&My health up. I'm your host, Anthony Hartcher. I'm a clinical nutritionist and lifestyle medicine specialist and today, we're going to be talking about transitioning into a new routine, and this is on the basis that restrictions are easing throughout the world as the vaccine is being rolled out. So with the easing restrictions, we have more freedom and we can have more choice in terms of what we do.
However, we do not want to compromise our health, as these...as we get more liberated into being able to choose what we do, we want to keep our healthy routine from what we gained during this sort of lockdown period where we had more time to focus on our health, we certainly don't want to lose those really good habits that we've put in place as we transition back to a new normal, so to speak.
So how can I help you? Well, I'm going to focus on my five key areas of Holistic Health and that starting with its planning, okay, so first of all, we must plan and prioritize our health and well being, we certainly don't want to just, you know, when we get a chance we'll fit some exercise in or, you know, or making a healthy choice or because what happens, we get caught out what our day gets filled in with task and demands from our bosses and in our relationships in terms of the needs of us and we tend to answer to those needs, and we lose sight of what we really wanted to do around looking after ourselves.
So we really must plan out our week so that we plan in time to do meal preparation, we plan in time to do shopping, so it doesn't become a last minute task, we actually have thought about what we want for the week, we go out and we shop for those ingredients and then we come back and we start prepping for the week ahead. That way, if we have a busy week, there's a meal prepared, we can easily go to that meal as opposed to having to look for a not so good alternative.
So planning is essential planning even around your sleep as to what time you go to bed and what time you get up and a real good tip is actually set your alarm clock for the time, you want to start winding down to remind you. So it's not the time to get up. If you set the time for when you want to go to bed, or start preparing to go to bed, that will ensure that you get to bed at a decent hour and it will make getting up a whole lot easier.
So I really suggest you set this alarm clock at night at you know eight o'clock if you want to go to bed at 10pm, for example. So 8pm is when you start your nightly routine, you start Dimming the lights, you start preparing yourself for a wind down and that is, you know, emptying the mind it does not keep filling it in with all this sensory input from, you know, stimulus coming from our work or stimulus coming from the TV, it is actually allowing the mind to start processing what happened during the day, and allowing it to empty and discharge.
So that when we get to bed, we've got a clear mind and we're not thinking often our first time at which we process the day is when we lie in bed and hence that processing of the day in bed excites us, it makes us think it stimulates activity, and hence we struggle to get to sleep. So I really suggest you plan your week around, I can't I'm going to go to bed every night at 10pm. So I can get up for work at 6am. You know, a lot of people are transitioning back to the workplace a few days a week and you know, you need to be really planned out your day well, in order to keep these healthy habits.
So let's start with making sure we get a good night's sleep so that we can get up in the morning and fit in our exercise.
You know if we can get up at a decent hour in the morning, yes, we can fit in some time for ourselves to exercise. So that's why I suggest you set this time at 8pm at night your alarm clock go Ding ding ding ding and that's a reminder for you to start winding down so that you can fall asleep at 10pm.
Hence, you can wake up at 6am Get some exercise to have a healthy breakfast and get to work. So really plan out your week like that. So thinking about your meal preparation, so that you know if you do finish work like you come home and there's already something half prepared, you know, like so on Sunday, you want to start thinking about the meals for the week and preparing ahead for those days that you know you've got a late meeting and you're going to be late home.
So that's really helpful. Get on top of your preparation and preparation also in rolls in, when are you going to get into activity. So activity doesn't necessarily mean exercise. It's, it could be incidental exercise, it could be, Okay, I've got a really busy day today, I'm just going to focus on my steps, you know, if I get my 10 to 12 and a half 1000 steps, that's the ideal sort of daily activity number around steps you want to get, then you want to think well, how can I get that in?
Well, if I'm traveling to the, you know, on public transport to work, I can actually get off a few stops earlier, and get in a kilometer there, right?
To working, you know, walking to work from that getting off the train or bus earlier and then when you're at work, you do your work, at lunchtime, you could then go out and go for a walk, you know, in in a half an hour period, you could potentially do three kilometers walking, so that's four kilometers for the day and then in the evening, you could get off a kilometer or two kilometers before your home and walk home and you can get in about four to five kilometers, which is going to take you close to that 10 to 12 and a half 1000 steps of activity for that day, when you think about that, you know that walking around the office place and walking to the kitchen, walking to the bathroom, walking to meetings, you'll probably get close to and I find generally if I plan my day out like that, I'll get close to that seven kilometers, which has taken me really close to that 10 to 12 and a half 1000 steps per day.
So that's how you can get your activity and if you can't get it in your morning, before work or after work, or in the middle of the day, it's looking for where you can fit in incidental activity.
Another important thing is relationships and starting with the relationship with yourself, and that is self care. So yes, well as we get liberated and can do more and have more choices and can enjoy this freedom of you know, socializing more and getting out. what can often happen is that we forget to look after ourselves and do things for ourselves that really narrow nourishes us so that we're at our best when we're out with our friends, we're at our best when we're at work and so always, when you're thinking about relationships, it starts with the relationship with you, your self care.
And so your self care is prioritizing around what you're going to do in terms of your sleep hygiene, what you're going to do around your exercise and fit that in, and that being that could be this incidental movement, what you're going to be doing around your nutrition, your meal planning, it's all about making sure you nourish yourself.
So you're at your best when you're at work and when you're with friends, relatives, and family. So think about that relationship with self and then obviously the relationship with others, it's a great time to now start getting this face-to-face connection with others because we can.
So really get out there. and when you're with this other person that you haven't seen for a while, be with them, put the phone away, like put it in your handbag or out of view.
So that then you know, the point of focus is the other person as opposed to having that phone there is actually a distraction, having it in visual eye contact is actually a distraction and it does, it will take some of your minds away from that conversation into what's happening in that phone.
Whereas if it's out of sight, it's out of mind. So put your phone out of sight. So it's out of mind. So that your 100% of uninterrupted attention is with that person and that will just be the best connection.
You don't want to be getting back to this old way of pre COVID When we'll just run around silly and just so busy that when we're with someone we're thinking about our next meeting, we weren't actually present with that person.
There's a lot of learning, we can take out a COVID it's slowed us down, it's made us think about what we did previously.
So I want you to take those learnings about what you really enjoyed about COVID in terms of that slowing down about being more connected, making the most of being with someone because you know, we've been restricted. So when we were with someone, you know, during this COVID period, we were giving them 100% Of undivided attention.
However, you know, when we start feeling this unrestricted world, there's a tendency to swing the pendulum back to the full, full-on pace of life and that sort of rat race of running from meeting to meeting function to function, you know, running around here.
We need to think about what we're going to take on and not take on too much because that was one of the learnings and one of the things that I found. My clients were telling me is what they loved about COVID was slowing down and reconsidering rethinking what they were doing in their daily life, is it serving them, or it's not serving them.
So I really want you to think about these transitioners when you take something on, is it going to serve you your values, and what you want to achieve in your life as opposed to it's just a tick box because everyone else is doing it, don't do that don't get sucked into that, really see this opportunity to just take on what's really going to serve you your purpose, and your life fulfillment, don't get sucked into going back to this previous rat race that we're in, and it feels that way, we're heading back that direction, and I, I'm really noticing that with my clients, so I just wanted to share this message is such short message with you to say, you know, stop, think, reflect and then act.
So, and think about it in terms of those holistic health principles about keeping those safe boundaries that protect yourself care that makes you at your best so that you can be your best in front of you know your work, be your best partner be the best, you know, father, mother, and you know, so we need to keep these safe boundaries.
So this is it for this episode. If you liked it, please like and share it with others write a review. So this gets to more people. And stay tuned for more exciting episodes of me&my health app.