Slowdown 2/4: Are you taking care of your body?

We face an ongoing challenge in 2023 when it comes to taking care of our bodies, a fight that takes place between convenient short term escapism and harder to earn, disiplined good habits. The former is much easier to achieve and it helps us to escape our worries and concerns, but ultimately comes crashing down much harder when something goes wrong, or leads our bodies to fail us more quickly. The latter is much more difficult and requires effort and perseverance, but ultimately, makes us more healthy and resilliant to everything the world might throw at us, and brings us more peace and a sustainable way of life.

Goals: Getting into good displined care of our bodies.

It is so easy to get into bad ruts when it comes to looking after your body. For me some of the key areas I’d like to work on are sleep, diet, exercise and improving my body health. The following describe my bad habits.

• Sleep:
  Going to bed between 11 and 12 because I’m enjoying time to myself after a long day, then not getting enough sleep. Watching or listening to things before going to bed and not sleeping as well. Not taking time to rest at the weekend even if the opportunity presents itself.
  
• Diet:
  Choosing unhealthy food options out of convenience or because I think I need a sugar boost. Eating very tasty but unhealthy food when I’m feeling low or worn out to make myself feel better or because I’ve earned it. Being lazy and cooking meals I’ve always eaten rather than trying to find better alternatives.
  
• Exercise:
  Using my stress enduced bowel complaints as an excuse not to exercise. Choosing to stay in and watch TV instead of going out and finding clubs/groups to join. Completely falling out of my walking habits in winter because of the dark.
  
• Body Health: Not taking active steps towards other lifestyle options which might make a positive difference, such as practicing mindfulness, fasting, heat therapy or yoga.

The problem for me, and probably for others, is that we get into a negative spiral. The less we take care of our bodies, the more our bodies start grumbling and not working, the harder it is to climb back out. It is easier to stay where we are and accept the discomfort, than to make the effort of finding successful solutions, despite the HUGE benefits that they might have on our lives. The thought of not having what is convenient, or what we have always been taught are the saught after things, like late nights, take away food or lazing about in front the TV, feels like we are short changing ourselves.

It is also impossible to attack one of the four areas above without also making adjustments on the others, they must be worked on in gradual conjunction to ensure that we sustain a way forwards. The other major problem is discipline, because it is so easy to fail when things get hard, or when the first preverbial mess hits the fan.

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Being totally frank, living the lazier existance is downright silly, but it is such an easy trap for me to fall into. I am far from the laziest of most unhealthy person, but I’m so far from where I’d aspire to be. If I had to sum up the impact I would describe it as making me the following:

• Physically tired and less present, less able to think clearly and work at my best.
• Suffering aches or pains when taking on physical jobs around the house because of lack of physical fitness.
• Ill much more often than other people.
• Mentally less able to deal with challenging situations.
• Suffering with an irritable bowel because of mainly stress and unhelpful diet choices.

Specifically I’d like to remember my reference earlier to a downward spiral, the less able I am to physically cope, the more I am under mental strain, the more that mental strain impacts on my heath, the more I am unable to physically cope, and so on and so on. This has ultimately led me to put myself under more and more strain and require more and more support.

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I’m led to remember, again, that everything is connected. That if we are really to tackle these matters then we need to join together the four sections of this ‘Slow Down’ blog series. In this instance I remember that my physical health and mental health are intertwined, and that the solutions to a healthier way of life involve me both doing what I did in post one, relieving the mental pressure, as well as what is talked about in this post, taking care of my body. The combination of the two mean that a potentially positive spiral might be put in motion, albeit one that would take persistance and discipline to keep going and to maintain.

So what things might creating a positive change mean in terms of moving our physical health forwards? Here are a few examples which fit under our headings above, but please remember, do get professional advice before embarking on any major way of life changes.

• Sleeping Well
  There are a huge number of factors that might help you sleep well, but the first question to ask yourself before addressing these, is are you giving yourself the opportunity to get enough sleep? Are you going to bed early enough? If the answer is no, then the solution is more simple, go to bed earlier. If the answer is yes, then it is time to start working on your sleep a little harder. The NHS has a great webpage all about getting better sleep which you can find here. Remember, if this is something which is a major struggle, then make sure you get advice from your doctor.
  
• Healthy Diet
  We all know the basics here, the healthier you eat, the healthier your body is, the better it runs. This doesn’t mean crazy changes and it doesn’t mean no treats, but it does mean having to take it seriously. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has information and advice about eating healthily here. I don’t think it would be a major spoiler to say, eat more veg and fruit, eat less processed sugar, fat and salt. There are a huge number of YouTube channels that you can check out if you want healthy eating advice, watch ‘How the food you eat affects your brain‘ which is a Ted Talk, or ‘10 Healthy Eating Tips‘ by a channel called Clean & Delicious. Find a channel or article which is relevent to you and your culture, and get learning.
  
• Exercise
  This is another chliched topic, and one I’d encourage you all to think carefully and read about before taking action. Being fitter and healthier, especially if combined with a good diet, doesn’t have to mean training for a marathon or taking up a hardcore sport. It certainly shouldn’t be partnered with strong opinions about how we SHOULD look. In his Ted Talk called ‘The Exercise Happiness Paradox‘, Chris Wharton talks about the challenge of balancing good exercise with diet and sleep, and gives really good practical and healthy advice to start doing more exercise.
  
• Body Health
  As we get older we all have grumblings and complaints about our health, some people live with Chronic Pain or major health conditions, most of us have aches and pains which ail us. There are two key things that I want us to think about in terms of solutions. First, there are a range of interesting health practices which can help our bodies to regenerate and heal. I started on my journey to really thinking about these when watching ‘Limitless with Chris Hemsworth‘ (You mind need a cheeky months free Disney+ trial to catch it). I’m learning that there are practices such as fasting and temperature therapy that encourages our bodies to take care of themselves, things that, in less comfortable generations, would have happened more frequently. Read more about the positive impacts of fasting in a Ted talk here. You can also read about cold water therapy here in a GQ Magazine article. Secondly, I want us to be encouraged to take proactive action about those aches and pains which have, or conditions we live with, and seek professional advice and support in how to treat them. This might seem simple, but how often do we live with things that gradually worsten that we wish we’d talked to a doctor about sooner.

If I’m being honest, on a scale of 1-10 in terms of looking after my body, I’m probably somewhere in the middle. I need more sleep, healthier food and more exercise. I need to try out fasting to see if it helps my digestive system, and I’d like to try temperature therapy to see if it improves my bodies ability to combat ill health. The reality is that I’m not going to hit any of these things in a big way, but I’d like to try and seek marginal improvement across the board. So…

1. I want to get into a healthier bedtime pattern.
2. I want to take time at the weekend to rest.
3. I want to eat less sugar and meat, and more fruit and nutrient filled food.
4. I want to eat smaller portions and think about the timings of my meals.
5. I want to takeup a sport that I enjoy.
6. I want to walk more places.
7. I want to try fasting.
8. I want to try cold and hot temperature therapy.

None of these things are going to be big on their own, but if I manage half of them, it is a big change in my way of life that I hope might begin to have a positive impact.

I am writing this on 22nd March 2023, in the hope that by writing it down, I will show comitment in coming back to report on it in a few months time.

More soon Tom