How to Make Healthy Habits Stick?

Do you want to elevate your energy and vitality by upgrading your body and mind?

On the Self-Care Goddess podcast episode #81, Olly Wood, a successful entrepreneur and founder of ‘Body Reset’, an online coaching program, shares some tips on how we can do this. By identifying our “Health Anchors” to build our body from the inside out. We discuss numerous health components, such as; exercise, nutrition, biochemistry and mindset for strengthening, stabilizing and shaping the body. Olly also shares some tips on how to truly focus on the body, considering how it responds to the outside world.

This blog post summarizes just a few of the golden nuggets from our insightful conversation, for the full details listen to the entire episode here or on your favourite podcast platform by searching for the Self-Care Goddess podcast.

The 4 Step Method

Have you tried quick health fixes and short-lived diet fads? The Body Reset program gives us tools to shake up our health habits and dive into the exhilarating world of high-performing business owners. According to Olly, daily stress, inflammation, and a lack of focus on recovery tends to ruin any progress we are making and leaves us burnt out and unproductive both physically and mentally.

Here are the 4 steps used to upgrade your body, energy, and productivity:

  1. Reset: Reset is simplifying the habits that work currently and removing the habits that used to work 20 years ago but are no longer relevant to the current age and body. It also includes a deep understanding of the lifestyle followed by a person.
  2. Repair: This step is a deep dive into blood work and medical reports to understand what’s happening below the surface.
  3. Restore: Once we understand lifestyle and gut health we can focus on mindfulness, breathwork and training progression to make the most of our time, build strength and improve energy.
  4. Reinforce: After focusing on reset, repair and restore; we understand how our body feels at each stage and create an authentic relationship with the body. The goal in reinforce is to identify where we get stuck. It involves sifting through the 99% to find that 1%. This enables us to significantly shift the long-term outcome by removing any interference and allowing the body to Self-Heal.

Want to know How Yoga Can Help You Detox – Mentally, Physically & Emotionally? Listen to podcast episode #25 with Hitu Jugessur, on the Self-Care Goddess Podcast.

From Pain to Purpose

Understand and emphasize that the idea “you need to force your body to change” is incorrect. Our goal is to keep healthy and feel good by avoiding Self-Judgment and Self-Comparison. Do not focus on how to lose 10 kilos or 20 pounds instead focus on how we can feel good in our own skin and confident with what we wear. Consider eating food not to force a change but to fuel how we want to feel. This whole relationship, “change around”, stems from the issue that 99% of people start a health change through a level of pain. When we keep the pain going, we never get to a point of Self-Compassion, which means we have to be in pain to be motivated. This is certainly not a nice and healthy relationship with our body. Instead start noticing why cravings are higher or energy is lower to go into transition rather than force the body to do something. This enables us to push the body or step back, based on what the body is telling us. With the confidence to begin listening in rather than constantly listening out, the whole world changes!

Listen to the Self-Care Goddess podcast episode #37, “Busting 3 Major Aging Myths”.

Reset For Pre-Menopause & Menopause

Pre-menopausal women experience a lot of hormonal shifts. It is important to understand the 3 big changes happening in the body during this period:

  1. Estrogen drops: When estrogen starts to drop, it also lowers insulin sensitivity. For example, oats or muesli in the morning may not be a good idea for menopausal women. Going fully ketogenic may also be too drastic. Eating carbohydrates as a main source for the morning breakfast results in the brain not functioning well and lowers energy levels. This is why we need to reset from what worked at age 21 to what now works in mid 40’s and 50’s.
  2. Progesterone Drops: If you’re in a professional space or running a business, be aware that as progesterone drops it will have a significant impact on stress tolerance. Stress is not a level, but a threshold. External or internal factors impacting that threshold results in the body not tolerating stress. A cascade of changes at a deep chemical level occurs in our body if we’re constantly in a stress state – such as not digesting foods, insufficient or disturbed sleep and other resulting issues.
  3. Testosterone becomes a higher ratio of total testosterone: This is always an overlooked change during menopause. Testosterone is still significantly less than progesterone and estrogen; yet testosterone is a higher ratio of the total. One of the main differences, between male and female is that females tend to keep more weight around their middle & legs. Even with a little bit of increase in testosterone, a lot of women get a belly they never had before.

For more information on perimenopause listen to the Self-Care Goddess podcast episode #18 “Perimenopause 101: 5 Strategies For Your Perimenopausal Symptoms” on the Self-Care Goddess Podcast.

Training Process If You Are Stuck & Plateauing

If you are already working out 4-5 times a week but are stuck on some form of plateau, consider the following:

  1. The Stress Lens: (Physical & Psychological) It is not always about reduce/ remove stress but how we are tolerating stress. A few things we can do to reduce stress includes breathwork, yoga or choosing a challenge. Ask yourself – ‘what is the thing that you want to do that allows you to feel like you’re not losing your day?’ A classic example is the cold shower or a weight training session. When you consciously choose this challenge the rest of your day feels easier and it enables you to destress. This is a beautiful way to recalibrate your motivations behind why to exercise, because this awareness of exercise, better mental health along with the physical benefits becomes a beautiful way to allow other things to feel less stressful.
  2. The Gut Lens: (Digestive Stress) Looking through the lens of gut health and toxicity enables us to identify if we are eating foods that are causing us to feel bloated or inflamed, which can also be another stressor on the body.
  3. Sleep: We often think of nutrition and training but overlook sleep which is the key to recovery. Set up a routine to be productive because in long-term psychology, performance is not about performing well once but how we can do that continuously. Sleep is like replenishing the body.

Specially in menopause it becomes more important to look at refeeding and refueling the body. So after exercise eating between 30 – 45 minutes is recommended. Focus on the total protein intake for women because many menopausal women are under eating while overeating the carbohydrates. Set a certain protein intake each day as the first goal. The average of protein consumption for women depends on training, recovery, lifestyle, etc. but during menopausal changes including a lot of muscle breakdown and stress, aim for approx. 1.8 – 2 grams of protein per kilo of body weight.

For more information on toxins listen to my talk “Toxins 101”, episode #22, on the Self-Care Goddess Podcast.

Health Tips for Entrepreneurs

According to Olly Wood, 3 things that high performing entrepreneurs focus on include:

  • Start now!
    • Adopt this thinking “When was the best time to plant a tree, the best time was 10 years ago, second best time is now”.
  • Health is a priority!
    • At the end the day there is no wealth without health. How are you ever going to enjoy wealth if you don’t have health?
  • Morning Routine!
    • How do you start your day? What do the first 20 minutes look like? If you if you nail the first 20 minutes, with health anchors such as hydration, walking etc. it becomes a nice anchor to build success on for the rest of your day.

Listen to episode #35 with Matt Rizzetta “10 Entrepreneurship Tips for Risk Taking and Following your Passion” on on the Self-Care Goddess Podcast.

Here are this week’s self-care tips. For past podcast guests self-care habits, check out my Instagram or Facebook page.

Take Home Message

“If you don’t have 10 minutes, you don’t have a life”.

  • Tony Robbins
  • A good place to start a body reset is to template 10 minutes a day for you. Utilize that time for a walk/ meditation/ journaling/ breathwork etc. Ask yourself what can you do 10 minutes a day for YOU? First create that template and then build it into a habit.
  • Make sure you consume greens in two meals a day and are not rushing out the door with muesli or a protein bar.
  • Ensure proper water intake, the recommended ratio is 30 ml per kilo of body weight.
  • Adapt a compassionate lens for yourself by asking – how do I feel on a day-day basis?
  • Pay attention to brain function and joint health.
  • At the end of each day, focus and allow yourself to look your day through and ask “if I repeated this day 1000 times would I be further or closer to my goal?” It is not one day that makes all the difference or 1 hiccup that makes you go backwards. It is accumulative over 1000 days or whatever large timeframe you’d like to consider. This thought process forces you to look more long term for ultimate success.

🙌🏽 Connect with Olly

https://bodyreset.online/

FREE 5 day challenge for men & women

https://www.instagram.com/ollywoodnz/

Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/body-reset-w-olly-wood/id1538240129

For free guided meditation videos and Breathwork demonstrations subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Listen to the full podcast episode #81 on the Self-Care Goddess Podcast.

I look forward to connecting with you and learning more about your story and your health and wellness goals. Schedule a FREE introduction call here.