JOANNA CAREW

You know that feeling when you’re tired and all you want to do is slob and eat crap? There’s a whole lot going on with your body to make you feel that way.

For example, poor sleep messes with your hormones, increasing the ghrelin in your body (making you hungrier), and decreasing your leptin (so you feel less full). Voila, all you want to do is slob and eat crap. Makes sense right?!

There are so many interactions going on through our bodies it’s pretty amazing learning about them, especially for a science-phobe like me! Yet, knowing this makes me ask:

How can I show up and be on my game if I am not looking after my body?!

Without nurturing wellbeing it’s like an act of self-sabotage, you will experience larger fluctuations in motivation, energy, concentration, mood, tiredness, etc. So:

Nº1 life hack = whole body wellness!

I’ve kind of known this for years, I reckon most of us have, but it has just gotten super easy to maintain a healthy body and mind. Cue: Dr Rangan Chatterjee’s 4 Pillar Plan!

This book was recommended to me as essential reading and I’m in 1000% agreement! If there’s one book you buy this year, make it this one, it’s a game-changer. The audible version is also narrated by Chatterjee, and in something like 8-9 hours of listening you can learn how to completely overhaul and upgrade your life.

You’ll find the text accessible and Chatterjee has implemented these 4-pillars into his own life. Even better, there’s nothing onerous that you’ll struggle to maintain.

Chatterjee’s 4 pillars are: Relax / Eat / Movement / Sleep

Each pillar has 5 activities, and you should aim to complete 2-3 out of each pillar every day. 4-5 would be amazing, but start small and see how you get on.

I’ve summarised the pillars and their activities for you, plus added an accompanying pdf of my slides at the bottom of this blog post:

RELAX

There’s a lot of science here about cortisol levels, good stress, and chronic grumbling stress increases inflammation in the body and compromises the immune system. Read the book and other resources for the science behind how a relaxed state heals the body and mind. For the purposes of this introduction, just know it’s incredibly important for wellbeing and to maintain peak form.

EAT

OMG we are what we eat! Chatterjee doesn’t go on about restrictive diets and is keen for you to eat whenever you like – so meals plus as many snacks as you need. But, he does focus on what you eat. Think plenty of water, fresh ingredients, avoiding processed foods, and heavily reducing sugar consumption.

I was a sugar junky – drinking lemonade, fruit juice, and smoothies – and I stopped the sugar cold turkey; by day 3 it hit me like a wall! I was nauseous, headachy, tired, cranky, and wanted to pack it all in. Yet, I persevered and now, out the other side, I feel amazing. You might not be hooked on sugar, but if you are it’s up to you to decide whether to go cold turkey, or choose a gradual reduction.

MOVEMENT

Another vital element of daily wellness is your movement; you need to be completing different types of movement, and lots of it. As a side note, I’m learning how this can actually treat trauma and anxiety and can’t wait to share this with you in another post!

Here are the sleepy glutes videos on Youtube.

SLEEP

My Whoop fitness tracker can attest to the importance of restorative sleep! I can directly correlate my wellbeing with the quality of my sleep, and good ‘sleep hygiene’ is how we build consistency. Blue light is disruptive, so switch your screens off in good time, or you can buy glasses to block out the blue light for about £20 from Amazon.

To finish …

Let me know how you get on. I’m totally hooked, and have extended the ideas to remove all phone notifications and I stop using my phone after 8:30pm. Plus, I bought myself a Whoop fitness tracker – I’ve been wanting one for so long!! – which is a great toy to track how you’re doing and has a daily journal to tick off the wellness habits you completed the previous day.

I also do a REMS score each day in my journal, I figure the lowest I want to achieve is 8 across all pillars, but my optimal range is 12-16. Currently I am hitting around 15 daily with odd days dipping as low as 8 and 9.

Good luck, I hope you enjoy this new way of living as much as I do! 😘