The 4 Pillars of Optimal Health

I'd like to introduce you to what I believe are the 4 Pillars of Optimal Health - Believe, Nourish, Move and Rest.

These come from everything I've learned from working with people as a Personal Trainer for the last 20 years and 26 years in fitness in total.

You'll notice that they're shaped like jigsaw pieces. I believe that all 4 pillars/jigsaw pieces must come together, in harmony, for us to achieve our goals or complete the picture of the person we wish to be. If any are out of sync then we won't be able to complete the picture or achieve our goals.

Let me tell you about them:

Believe‍ ‍

This is about creating a goal that you believe in. Not something like 'get fit', 'lose weight', 'build strength', 'run faster' or similar. They're too vague, no personal meaning and feels like you're going after someone else's goal. That's not to say neither are important but a better goal is something truly meaningful to you. Think about the kind of person you'd love to be. The things you're doing, how you're feeling, the energy you have, what you look like etc.

When you have something that's meaningful to you, motivation to achieve it is unlikely to be an issue.

Nourish‍ ‍

This is about what you eat and drink and what you expose yourself to that will better your health. This isn't just about a diet or a balance between protein and carbs etc or calorie counting but also how they affect your energy levels, gut health and moods. Is what you're eating and drinking going to help you become the kind of person you'd like to be?

You could also consider time spent outdoors, in daylight, in nature, as a form of nourishment.

Move

This has evolved so much over the years that I no longer believe performance to be solely based on strength or aerobic capacity. Over the years, we have shifted from doing manual labour jobs to largely being sedentary at work, walking around on flat surfaces wearing cushioned shoes and living in an age where we can get everything brought to us.

We are not moving anywhere near as much as we used to and our bodies have stiffened up as a result. We are still pursuing the same fitness goals we've always done but we're doing so with poorer balance, limited mobility and stability and this is leading to chronic injuries (mostly overuse injuries) we never had before as well as placing our goals a little further beyond our reach as a result. This not only affects our physical health but can have an impact across all other areas of our lives.

A good starting point in fitness now would be to get up and move for a few minutes every hour or two, walk a bit more, go to the supermarket and buy your food shopping and even doing things like standing on one foot while you're brushing your teeth or making a cuppa.

And this is before you think about going to a gym or go running!

Rest

I'd say this may well be the most important one of them all, the one you might currently be neglecting more than the others.

Without this piece in place, the others can't work. When was the last time you craved healthy food or had a decent workout after a poor night's sleep? It's not just about sleep though. We all lead busy lives yet a lot of us feel we need to be pushing more, never stop etc but over the long term, that isn't very good for our health.

Rest isn't just about getting good quality sleep. It's about taking time out to focus on yourself, check in with friends, building stronger relationships, being able to say no to things so you can feel like you again.

The 4 Pillars aren't necessarily about optimising your life to be the best across all elements. It's about thinking how you can make improvements, what the easiest change you could make in each of the areas, that you could start with today and practice it every day.

Small changes that you can practice daily lead to a growth in confidence and self-belief and lead to the most amazing accomplishments over time by doing this consistently. It's something you have to keep reminding yourself of, especially as goals evolve over time. I've been guilty of neglecting some areas and have been given a sharp reminder over the last couple of days. It doesn't take a lot to get back on track and a simple question you can ask yourself to help you on that journey is "is what I'm about to eat/drink/do going to help me become the person I'd like to be?" If you can answer "yes" straight away, do it. If you have to think about it, leave it and go do/have something else instead.

If this feels like it could be helpful to you right now, what could be the first thing you could change, an easy thing you could do today, that could help get the ball rolling?