Boost Your Physical Health & Fitness (Tips For Men) #548

My name is Lachlan Stewart and I have been a men's high performance coach for the last seven years , and what I have recognized is that often men like you will sacrifice their physical health in the pursuit of success , when actually it is one of the key pillars to your sustained success .

You know whatever success looks like for you , that is , you know a whole another podcast and conversation . In this video or podcast , I'm going to share with you five key steps to optimize your health as a man in business , or if you're not in business but want a better life , you can implement these five steps as well . So let's dive in .

Firstly , you want to have a plan right . Many men that I work with don't have a plan to achieve a desired outcome . We look at life in three buckets We've got our health , we've got our wealth and we've got our relationships . Now , wealth generally is where a lot of our focus and priority goes .

From the moment that we leave school , it's like what are you going to do for your career ? How are you going to sustain your lifestyle . How are you then going to provide for your family ?

So we're always focused on climbing , getting that next promotional , how we're going to earn our next dollar , but what we often overlook in the key to that is our health , as we've discussed already . Now , in order to make it a more holistic , well balanced and sustainable outcome for you , you've got to have a plan .

There's a great quote by Warren Buffett Someone's sitting in the shade sorry , someone's sitting in the shade today , because someone planted a tree a long time ago . And when I read that quote , I thought to myself well , I want to experience financial success , much like I'm sure you do . You have some dreams and some experiences that you want to have .

You will have your family that you want to look after , but you need to be in tip top health in order to achieve that .

So you need to have a plan in order to maintain that , because the tree you're planting is today to provide the shade for the future , meaning the way that you look after your health today is going to determine what you can or cannot do in your future .

So when you have a plan that says , hey , I do want to grind it out and make some money today and set myself up , but I also want to invest in my relationships and I want to optimize my health .

To be able to live a great life , spend time raising a family , have great experiences or adventures , then I need to do something every single day to put deposits away , to collect when I'm older . I was listening to a video with Jesse Itzler the other day and he was talking about how he was thinking about . You know , I want to catch a train .

Actually , this wasn't even Jesse Itzler , this was a book called Die with Zero . Okay , so really good book I'd highly recommend reading . But this book he was talking about , you know , this gentleman and his wife wanted to catch the train across Europe and , you know , have all of those experiences and they were getting very excited about that .

You know , we're going to get a train , we're going to see all these beautiful places , we're going to go together as a couple and it's going to be amazing . And as they started planning this trip , the question popped up for him he's like dull , I think we'll actually be able to catch a train when we are 80 .

But what we won't be able to do when we're 80 is probably walk a lot of these places . So it helped them , rejig , I guess , the holiday and the experiences that they wanted to have for the now and push back what they will be able to do later . And health is not one of those things .

I know you feel that if you earn a lot of money now , you'll then be able to get your health back . But what happens when you earn more money ? For those of you who've done it , you understand that you're probably taking on more responsibility . Okay , you've got a lot more stress in your life , so you're always , you know , kicking the can down the road .

So , coming back to the plan , we need to look at your week right . Where will we prioritize time for your health ? A really important thing with this plan is understanding what your ideal version of health is Now . Some of you are competitive athletes .

Still , some of you are training for marathons , you may be training for hierarchs , you may be training for some specific sporting event , but if you're not , if you're just training for everyday well-being , it's still equally as important to have a plan , and I'll share why A plan is a good way , obviously one to be held accountable and to track your progress .

Many people lose interest when they don't see progress , regardless of whether you know . A lot of men come to me for training advice and they go oh look , I don't really care about the numbers or putting on weight . But they're also the people who drop off , because if you're not seeing progress , you get disinterested .

You start asking why am I actually doing this ? So for me , I'm a big believer that if we can track your progress even if you're , you know , consistently doing a similar program , but you're increasing the weight or your frequency of training , or you might then go man , I'm actually just feeling better , I feel like I've got more energy .

Or you might walk past mirror and catch a glimpse yourself and go man , I'm actually looking really good naked . They're all small wins that will continue to inspire and motivate you to do the thing which is exercise .

So when you have a program , especially if you're a busy individual like myself , it takes the guesswork out and the thinking out , because the less resistance you have in doing the exercise , the more likely it is that you'll do it . So if you ever catch yourself going , I want to go to the gym , I want to exercise , I want to get healthy .

I just don't know where to start , or I just don't know what to do . Then get yourself a program . You can hire a coach , you can join our academy . You know all of our members get access to our strongman of value academy , which is , I guess , hybrid .

So we're helping you get cardiovascular fit , but also building your strength , and it is designed for those who not necessarily time pool but have a lot of other priorities going on in their life as well . But following that will take the guesswork out of it .

You'll have some periodized program , meaning that you're aiming to improve your metrics , meaning you're aiming to push yourself . And you're listening to this because you understand the benefit of growth . Growth requires change , which also brings up obstacles and challenges . So your training will do that and , as a result , your body and your mind will adapt .

So you'll build confidence , you will build your mindset , you will build resilience All things that are not only going to help you with your physical health , they will definitely help you in your career . They would definitely help you with your relationship . So it's a really good one to monitor .

So , as I was saying , with the what we do with our Academy members , as we set them up on their program , and it's all delivered through an app and all you got to do is open up your phone and see what you've got on today . Now we recommend doing four days a week . I personally believe in building the habit of doing something daily .

Now , it's not always intense daily , but it's just moving your body , stretching , doing something that's going to prime your physical health and your mental health to be better . So recap point one have a plan .

Ok , so we provide plans in the Academy , but if you're not a part of the Academy , just get yourself a fitness plan , something that takes a guesswork out , that you can follow and shop for day in and day out and you watch your motivation go and you watch how much you change . Just by having a plan . It's going to be an absolute game changer .

Let's move to point two on how to optimize your health . Eat well , very common and very overlooked , most people highly underutilized , nourishing food . Right , just like you know , you're fueling a car . There's our premium grade fuel and then there's our basic fuels .

You understand that in order to fuel something that's of high performance , you have to give it the premium fuel , and I look at this as like the Prado principle , where it's like 80 , 20 .

Look , I'm not 100 percent , always eating well and not enjoying Tim Tans and all that sort of stuff , like I have been the last week on this road trip , but it's really about understanding the food that's going in your body . One , are you eating enough fuel to help you get through the day to the level that you want ?

And , secondly , are you eating the right kinds of fuel that allow your body and your mind to feel energized and to feel fresh and to make progress ? Now there's I personally believe it's quite overwhelming with the amount of diets and nutritional advice out there . So how I've simplified it for myself and this may be helpful for you is eat for energy , right ?

You know , five days out of seven eat for energy . For me , it's Monday to Friday , the days that I'm working . I'm eating for energy . I'm eating for performance On the weekends , that's when I'm eating for enjoyment and for pleasure and for leisure .

So when I look at like carnival diets , keto diets , you know , vegan , vegetarian there's so many different diets and this is what's going to put you in the ownership

position . Now , once again , if you're extremely busy , you may be saying to yourself I don't have time to look into all this nutritional stuff . I'm not interested . You're interested in the outcome right . You're interested in the high performance , you're interested in the good mood , you're interested in the energy .

So if you're in a position to outsource that , do that . Grab yourself a nutrition coach or a dietitian . Or if you can afford a chef or get your meals prepped , do those right . That'll once again take restriction out and allow you to eat well for high performance . If you're not in that position , just slowly start listening to podcasts or tracking your food .

Now , the reason why we would track is you become more aware of what you put in your body . When you're aware of what you're putting in your body , you can then go hmm , yesterday I felt really good . Let me just go back through my fitness power .

We log it once again through the my Fitness Power Connect so we can actually track all of that your calories , your protein intake , what foods you're actually eating because once again , it's patterns . It's around working out what works well for you as an individual .

But the more you become aware of what you're putting in your body , the better decisions you can make to fuel yourself for optimum performance . There is no quick fix . I'm not going to sit here and say there is a quick fix . It isn't . It is really just understanding and awareness .

Now , like I said , if you can outsource that and have external help , definitely do that , if you'll focus on other things , but if you don't have the it's luxury of that , this is where , if you really want the outcome , you have to start investing in your own education and becoming more aware of it .

So , if you're stuck here , like I said , get a coach or just start learning . We allow our Academy members to track that . We start with the awareness piece and more so for you , taking responsibility so that you can make smarter nutritional choices .

Okay , once again , from all the diets that I've looked at and I've tried a lot of them myself just to understand them is the main things that they've done is they've reduced sugar intake like dramatically and also reduced alcohol intake .

One of our Academy members in my group my name he's dropped what I think he's down 10 kilos since the start of the year , since he's cut out alcohol and cut out sugar . Right , that's it . So it doesn't have to be fancy , but once again , start noticing from your body so that's eat well . Number two , so let's go .

Number three this is a big one for people who like routine and like structure , like myself , is you've got to be flexible with your routine . So I try to plan out my weeks , plan out my days for optimal , I guess , progress in regards to business and also getting things done that are important to me . So that means in my exercise .

It means my personal development , it means time with my family . It also means work . Now I understand things pop up . That's life . You might have a sick child , you may have a flat tire , you may have an emergency at work . Things happen . So when we understand that and we can accept that , we can now start to work with it .

So for me , flexible with the routine would look like I still need to get the thing done and the thing in this instant is exercise . What is going to help me move the needle on my health today ? So I would look at . You know , I did this the other day when we were on the road .

We had a massive road trip this week and one day I was so tired by the time we got in it was like maybe 9pm , it was dark out and if you've watched any , you know I'm Australian here and I'm living in the United States .

At the moment A lot of the TV programs are like probably shouldn't be going out in the dark in a city that you aren't familiar with . So I had all those stories in my head but I was like I still need to exercise . What I'm going to do is just a one kilometer as fast as I can . That's going to be . So .

I warmed up , did my one kilometer as fast as I could . It took me about 15 minutes , right , like not for the 1k but for that whole process . So I was just flexible with the situation and what was happening , because once again I'm training not only for , let's just say , for optimizing my health , and I know that moving every day makes me feel good .

I went to bed going . I'm glad because I kept my word . I feel confident and I feel really comfortable in who I am because I did that , regardless of how big an impact I would have had physically Like still awesome to get moving , because most people don't do that but it really helped me in other areas . So I understand that things pop up .

But what can you do today to strengthen your mind , body and confidence by doing those things , even if it's only small ? And some examples for those of you who get stuck here why don't you just do ?

You could do a five minute run , or you could do X amount of pushups or X amount of burpees or X amount of squats and just move , because what you're conditioning your mind to believe is I move every day , I look after my health every day , I invest in myself every day . That's why I believe it's important to be flexible with your routine .

And , once again , if you're someone who struggles with , you know having an excuse around it's cold out , I'll do it this afternoon and you keep missing the exercise component , but you want to do it . Minimize the time between when you wake up and doing the exercise .

So the longer you leave it , the more you can overthink it , the more that can pop up and you're giving yourself more reasons or excuses as to why you can't exercise . So if you struggle with it , get up and do it first thing , even if it's cold , even if it's a . You know you prefer to read the paper or do your morning routine first .

Just minimize it , because you will feel satisfied that you've done and you'll start building a new habit . So that's number three . So far , we've covered having a plan . We've covered eating well . We've covered be flexible with your routine . Once again , all of these things we teach our members inside the academy , because we want you to be in control .

We want you to be a high performing man who understands how you can get the most out of your life . Number four move more . Like this is simple , but how do we do that ? The general rule is 10,000 steps .

As someone who is active , if I'm not running , I struggle to get my 10,000 steps , and I'm more active than the average person , so I can almost guarantee that you're not getting your 10,000 steps . Why is it important ? Because it's burning calories and it's getting more calories and burning more energies .

Okay , so here's the simple way to look at it For me , if I know I'm struggling to get it done , and these are all things where , if you're only focused on getting as many meetings in , or you're always rushing , you're not going to do these things .

You're not going to park that extra block away from a meeting , or you're not going to take phone calls on the walk , or you maybe even look at active meetings , things where you can get those in , and it's called habit stacking . One thing I've really started doing lately is , if I'm doing meetings in person , I'm making sure that I try and make them active .

Hey , let's go for a run for the meeting , unless it's obviously like a boardroom style , but most of them , meetings that average person's doing are not , so make them active . Or if you've got to be on the phone or whatever , walk , go for a walk while you're doing it .

There are so many people that I know that are buying treadmills that they can walk on in their desk . But if you don't have that luxury , once again get outside , go for a walk and do your calls , and it's so powerful and it's going to help you move more throughout the day . Okay , there's a few tips there .

Finally , number five , which is a big one manage stress . Stress is our response to challenge . Okay , so it's a fight or flight response . We want to balance that out . Stress is important . Stress comes with growth . You are trying to be better , which means you are growing , which means you will be stressed .

But chronic stress , long-term stress , is not healthy , so you need to find ways to balance it out . There's the yin and yang philosophy . We've got daytime , nighttime . You've always got to have the complete opposite . So if you notice that you're burning the candle at both ends , so to speak , you need to start learning some ways to manage stress .

Some things that have worked well for me and I use a whoop and I've also got an Apple Watch . If you're watching on YouTube you can see I've got both of them , but they're only about 75% accurate from what I've read . So don't get obsessed with the data .

But what I really enjoy about it is it just keeps me aware of how I'm sleeping , the stress that I'm experiencing and a few other things that I believe are important to my performance . So what I then use once I become aware of that is how can I you know if I'm in a highly stressed state ? What can I do to bring that down ?

So some things that I do is I do breath work , and that could be some simple box breathing . So box breathing , once again , you can Google it or there's plenty of apps , but you might just look at a four second in how a four second hold , a four second exhale , a four second hold and continue to repeat for you know , one to two minutes .

But it's just centering yourself and really activating that parasympathetic nervous system which is your rest , or digesting , calming things down . Okay , there's a great saying that you've probably heard me say a lot on this podcast when emotions are high . Intellect is low , and I do truly believe that .

So if you need to calm yourself down before you walk into the home or before you walk into a meeting , that's a great one . That's really easy to do . Some other things I do is go for a walk , I train , I journal or I just brain down my thoughts , because it helps me make sense of the stress that I'm experiencing , and I also do I see a psychologist .

Since I've been in America , I haven't been doing that , but if you need that professional help , it's such a great tool and a great resource there .

So just to recap how you can optimize your health okay , especially as a male business owner , but even just a man who wants to live a better life , make sure you have a plan for your health right , something that integrates well in your life .

So when you look at your overall week , make sure that you're allocating time and you remove as many of the excuses as possible . So whether it's travel , or it's cold out , or you don't have accountability or you don't have a program , just get those things ticked so that then there's less friction . You get up and do what you know you need to do .

The second thing is eat for performance . Eat well okay . Start being aware and mindful of how foods make you feel , so that you can perform at a higher level more regularly . Thirdly , be flexible with your routine . Things pop up . That is life .

But in order to be a high performer , you can roll with the punches right , you can be malleable and you're still focused on getting that outcome . So what could you do with what's in front of you to deliver that outcome ? The fourth one is move more .

Find more ways in through sorry , throughout your day to just be active , whether it's stretching , moving , getting your heart rate up , phone calls on the run you know all of that sort of stuff . Do more of that . Finally , manage your stress . Stress is part of life , so don't try and completely avoid it .

Develop tools that you can utilize so that you can manage your stress , so that you can continue to grow at the pace that works well for you . Thank you for listening to the episode . I do truly appreciate you being here , especially if you've stuck around to the end .

Don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you don't miss out on any future episodes , and make sure you look out for next week's episode with Jeff Duncan . It's going to be an absolute ripper on Monday . So , as always , we do our guest episodes on Monday and our solo episodes with me here on Thursdays .

If you do want to ask me any questions , or if you would love some topics or you have guest recommendations , you can reach out to me at Instagram , at Lachlan Stuart , or you can just head over to the website TheManThatCanProject and get in touch with me . Then , as always , do something today to be better for tomorrow .