Goal Setting

Goal setting is used to help build a clear picture of where you want to go. To bring that picture into focus you need to practice mindfulness.

Mindfulness is what helps you bring your thoughts and desires from the murky depths of your subconscious into the forefront of your mind. When you are without mindfulness, you are without conscious direction.

1. Start by listing everything that you want
2. Then explore why those wants are important to you
3. Ask yourself what difference achieving those things would make to your life?

This gives you something meaningful to aim at.

Habits

Everything from your physical health, your mental aptitude, and even your financial successes are all results of your daily subconscious habits. In order to change your habits to better serve your goals, you need to first recognise them, assess them, and then replace them.

Habits consist of four stages that are part of the body’s reward system;cue, craving, response, and reward.

1. Recognise what the habit is
2. Remove the cue
3. Replace the habit with another activity that serves you better
4. Reward the habit to strengthen it

Taking Action

The intent to do something and actually doing it are two separate things. Be mindful of this gap and make steps to ensure you are on track towards your goals. Make use of these to help keep you keep organised and accountable:

• Use a Calendar or Diary: Use these to make appointments with yourself and your tasks.
• Create subtasks for your tasks: What do your tasks consist of? The more you can break them down into actionable steps, the clearer your plan will be.
• Set reminders: Whether its a post-it note, a reminder on your phone, or even asking your friends and family to help remind you.
• Manage your environment: Setting up triggers in your environment can help remind you about the behaviour you’re trying to practise. For example, you can make vegetables the most visible food in your fridge to help cue you towards eating them.
• Ask a buddy with the same goals as you to help hold you accountable. Do the same for them as well.
• Hire a coach to help you stay on track.

Mindful Eating

Eating mindfully increases your enjoyment of the experience, gives you more control of your eating habits, and ultimately leads to feeling more satisfied with what you’re eating (meaning you can eat less, sanely).

Eating mindfully can include tuning into:

• The speed at which you eat
• Tastes
• Smells
• Textures

It is also important to notice how it makes you feel:

• Guilt or shame
• Happiness
• Pride
• Satisfactied or unsatisfied
• Hunger levels
• Energetic or stimulated
• Alert or sluggish

Macronutrients Intro

Macronutrients are the 3 main suppliers of nutrients that your body needs in large quantities for energy as well as vital function. They are carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. If the energy that you’re taking in from food and drink and the energy that you’re using up (metabolism and exercise) is unbalanced, then your bodyweight will change and your overall health is impacted.

To lose or gain weight healthily, this energy balance has to be managed in a slow and sustainable process. This process should allow for the development of new lifestyle habits. The Food Continuum (Eat Less, Eat Some, Eat More) is a simple way to ensure you are supporting your goals while maintaining a healthy relationship with food.

Macronutrients: Protein

Proteins main role in the body is for growth and repair. It’s one of the main building blocks for all components of the body. It also helps you manage appetite and regulate your hunger signals as they take longer to digest than carbohydrates and slow down the release of Ghrelin (The ‘hunger hormone’).

The average person who is relatively sedentary will need about 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body mass for their body’s requirements. Protein demands go up with exercise and when you are sick or injured, so you may need to eat more in those occasions. In general an athlete or someone looking to put on lean mass should look to get in between 1.2-2 grams of protein per kilogram of body mass.

• Normal requirements: 0.8g per kg of bodyweight
• Training or sick: 1.2g-2g per kg of bodyweight

To ensure you’re getting enough protein in to meet demands aim to include 1 to 2 servings of protein with every meal. A single serving for protein is equivalent to the palm of your hand.

Macronutrients: Carbs

Carbohydrates are the sugars, starches and fibre found in fruits, grains, vegetables and milk products. This macronutrient is the body’s preferred source of energy, which every cell in the body (including your brain) needs to function.

These are categorised into either ‘simple’ or ‘complex’ based on the complexity of their chemical structure. Simple carbohydrates are easily broken down into glucose where they can be used quickly as energy for the body. This quick process results in a spike of energy but also a dip. Complex carbohydrates take longer to process and the release of energy is more gradual. They also tend to come with more nutrients.

To ensure you’re getting in enough complex carbohydrates, aim to have 1 to 2 cupped handfuls with every meal. You may need to include more if you’re training frequently and wanting to put on lean mass to help promote muscle growth.

Fruits and Vegetables

Fruits and vegetables contain nutrients like vitamins and minerals that your body uses to maintain vital function and to repel and fight disease.

Different vitamins and minerals can be found in different fruits and vegetables. The colour is often indicative of the various health benefits that they will provide.

Aim to include at least five different colours across your day to ensure you’re getting a lot of variety, and maximising the various health benefits fruit and vegetables have to offer.

Macronutrients: Fats

Fat is the third macronutrient that your body needs in large quantities. It is responsible for the transport of nutrients to maintain the health of your cells, hormones, and nervous system.

There are different types of fat that include:

• Saturated fat
• Unsaturated fat
• Trans fat

Saturated fat and unsaturated fat have key roles in maintaining good health and should both be included in your diet. Trans fats are industrially made fats that the body doesn’t process well. These should generally be avoided, as they are no longer recognised as safe for our health. These are mostly found in heavily processed foods.

Tips:

• Aim to have 1 thumb size of fat in each meal.
• Choose whole food options.
• Read labels carefully (although not all processed foods name trans fats on the label or ingredients list, so minimising processed foods is a good general guide).
• Substitute snack options for nuts, seeds, or a little bit of dark chocolate.
• Nuts and seeds in salads will add variety in nutrients, but also provide added taste and texture to your meal.
• Use a variety of cooking oils: extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil are great options that add flavour to your dishes.

Food Preparation

Independence with your nutrition involves being responsible for your own food intake and the choices around that. Creating your own meals to eat gives you more control to do that.

To create or change your own meals requires an appropriate set of skills and an appropriate environment (your kitchen).

1. Make sure you have your kitchen essentials (tools and pantry items to create beautiful meals with).
2. Keep a list of your favourite ‘go-2’ meals that you know you can whip up in a moments notices and that’ll taste delicious.

Importance of Sleep

During sleep, your body is working to support healthy brain function, protect your mental health, and maintain your physical health for quality of life and safety.

Better sleep starts in the day. The events that take place in your day and your attitudes towards them can impact the amount of stress that your body is under. While there are optimal levels of stress, too much of it will interfere with your quality and quantity of sleep.

You can help promote quality sleep by how you manage your day. Here are some strategies to help improve sleep:

• Practicing mindfulness - are you aware of your stressors?
• Exercising during the day
• Reducing caffeine intake
• Avoiding alcohol in the evenings
• Cooling down your room
• Leaving screens outside the bedroom
• Making a list of things to do the next day

Aside from these strategies, a better sleep ritual can also drastically help with sleep:

• Writing in a diary or journal
• Drawing
• Reading a book
• Meditation
• Spending time with family