My 4 Pillars for Optimum Health

My 4 Pillars for Optimum Health

I’d like to tell you about what I believe are the 4 Pillars for Optimal Health.

This comes from everything I’ve learned from over 25 years in the fitness industry, from courses, books, podcasts and more importantly, the people I’ve worked with.

You’ll notice that the ‘Pillars’ are shaped more like jigsaw pieces. That’s because I believe that all 4 pieces must come together, in harmony, to create the big picture that is you and the person you wish to be. We tend to focus on one or two of these pieces but getting to where we want to be is much more than that and if any of the pieces or pillars are out of harmony, our goals will become harder to achieve, if we achieve them at all.

The 4 Pillars are:

• Believe

• Nourish

• Move

• Rest

Move

I’m starting with move because I think it’s the most important for getting the ball rolling. Our biggest issue is movement because we spend long periods every day sitting down or stuck in one position and our bodies stiffen up as a result.

You might be wondering where to start, whether it be to join a gym, do strength training or cardio or Pilates or yoga etc? To be honest, I’d say to start by getting outside and go for a walk. Go walk for 30 minutes into nature, in a park, through some woods, by a river, it doesn’t really matter but there’s something incredibly transformational about walking in nature. It gets your body moving, blood flowing, you breathe in fresh air but the most important thing is you’re away from your desk, away from the stresses of daily life.

Here, you can enjoy your surroundings, let your mind wander, solve problems, create new ideas and more importantly, it enables you to day dream. Dream of the person you’d love to become, the things you’d love to do, places you’d love to go and generally think differently from just getting fit or losing weight.

Believe

Now that you’ve got an idea in your mind, you can imagine yourself doing all these things, being the person you’ve just thought about. It doesn’t have to be some fanciful wish, we can now turn it into reality.

What you have created through imagination will now be something much more meaningful and powerful than, say, to get fit or even run a marathon.

When you have a clear image of the person you wish to become, you can use it as your goal and also use it as a filter to govern your decisions. The most powerful question you can ask yourself will be “is what I’m about to do, eat or drink, going to help me become the person I' wish to be?” This has been hugely powerful for my clients over the years and you might find yourself no longer reaching for that biscuit, packet of crisps or midweek glass of wine, not because you’ve been told to but because you no longer value it and see them as getting in the way of you achieving your goals.

You can use this vision of yourself to decide on the best kind of exercise to follow so if you see yourself as someone who likes being outdoors then perhaps joining a gym isn’t a high priority.

Nourish

Nourish is about how you fuel yourself to become this version of yourself you have in your mind.

It’s not about going on a trendy restrictive diet though. It’s about making improvements to how and when you eat as much as what you eat and drink. Our biggest issues around food can often be eating on the go, having lunch at our desks while we reply to emails etc.

Some of the best results I’ve helped clients with have been from getting them to sit away from their phones or screens, take a mouthful of food, chew around 20 times, swallow, take a sip of water and repeat, stopping when they begin to feel full. By doing this, you’ll find that you feel fuller quicker than you normally do, you probably won’t finish what’s on your plate (put it in a tub and eat it later) and you’ll naturally reduce your portion sizes. All without changing what you eat. The next step would be to add more vegetables into each meal and drink water more regularly throughout the day.

Aim to have your last meal at least 2 hours before bed and at least an hour after waking up. When you make these kind of changes, you might find yourself naturally changing what you eat based on what your body feels it wants in order to have a better balance of energy rather than going into too much detail like calorie counting etc.

Rest

Rest is the most important one of them all as it dictates everything else we do.

When was the last time you made any rational decisions, had a decent workout or crave anything healthy after a rubbish night’s sleep?

Rest isn’t just about sitting down with your feet up though.

It’s about setting boundaries for yourself so you can improve the quality of your sleep so you can perform at your best. It can also be about taking time out to spend with friends or family, read a book, get outdoors or exercising, anything that enables you to switch off, stop checking your phone or replying to emails, be yourself and have some fun.

The Final Bit

You can see how some of these intertwine, movement can become rest, how having that vision of the person you wish to be can have a massive influence on your diet and how you spend your time.

The important thing to know is that it’s not about perfection or reaching a destination. It’s about embarking on a journey of self-mastery, practicing, learning, failing, learning and practicing some more. You’ll find that the vision you have of the person you’d like to be evolves constantly, often by chance and you feel inspired to go do something you hadn’t previously thought about or thought it was even possible for you and that’s the beauty of it all.

Start your journey of discovery, see what your mind creates for yourself, feel the energy and passion that drives you, enjoy yourself and if you need someone to help you on that journey, get in touch and let’s have a chat.