6. 2 Small Steps

I talked before about how making the small changes that you already know can have a powerful impact on how you start to think and feel. So continuing from my last episode where I advocate trying new things and seeing where it takes you I thought I'd share some of the first small steps I took that really helped me begin to think differently about my future.

The first two steps I took where to start exercise and change my diet. The exercise was only a slight adjustment, getting up a bit earlier and doing 15 mins of a YouTube workout before getting my girls ready. Before, my routine was to roll out of bed at 6.45am, go wake up the girls (3 and 4 yo) and get them sorted for the day ahead.... i.e.: nursery and school. My wife was up before me to take the dog for a walk (sounds unfair I know, but as I work from home I do the lunchtime walk and she enjoys getting out in the morning, or at least it suits me to believe that). I would typically grab a shower at some point during the day, and in the interest of full disclosure...not every day. I mean, besides school pick up and drop off I wasn't going to see anyone most days...so what did it matter? Anyway, the point is, I didn't start running 10k before breakfast or bench pressing my body weight while still in my pyjamas. I simply set my alarm for 5.30am, pulled on my sports gear, did my 15 minutes of HIIT and took a shower. 6 days a week (although the shower part I do 7 days a week...just saying). I even have time to grab some breakfast before I went to wake up my 2 sleeping monkeys.

Now I'm not going to lie, minor as this seems in terms of exercise I felt like a super hero for managing to implement this change pretty much overnight, checking the mirror for signs of progress within days....expecting to see those 6 pack abs beginning to take shape. What a positive, albeit deluded, mindset I had adopted straight out the gates. But what made the whole thing so much more rewarding was the diet that I implemented at the same time. I can't remember what night of the week it was but the conversation with myself went something like - "right, tomorrow this is what you're doing, and this is what you're eating...ok!" Suitably motivated and chastised that was it....5.30am the next morning.... let’s go! The diet, while simple, was a more notable change. Almost a complete overhaul in which I placed quite strict constraints on what I ate, how often I ate and when. Again, this was for 6 days a week. Now my diet before was pretty typical...3 meals a day, snacks in between, carb heavy meals so I would feel full and save money. In fact, thinking about it, I felt uncomfortably full after most meals with a mindset of - 'once you feel like more might make you sick it's time to stop'. I would have multiple biscuits at a time, with custard creams being a particular vice. I often planned to carry out an experiment to see how many custard creams you would need to dunk to fully finish a cup of coffee by dunk alone. I had carry outs once every couple of weeks, occasionally once a week, pancakes on a Saturday... with left over pancakes on Sunday, and drank 4-5 coffees a day to stay alert and keep the caffeine withdrawal at bay. In brief, I wasn't a total slob, but within reason I did what i wanted.

The new diet, implemented overnight - 6 meals a day (see, already this sounds good), protein rich, reduce starchy carbs (so for me, less white bread mainly), almost no sugar (except natural sugars like in fruit), and less caffeine - so 1 cup of coffee a day. Oh, and try to be a bit more vegetarian too. I was a big meat eater, so cutting down didn't seem like too much of a request. I wasn't calorie counting, or trying to hit any recommended figures that you can get online (like amount of protein per gram of body weight etc), I just selected foods I was confident were healthier, ate more regularly, and made sure my portions reflected this. So, I didn't have 6 meals that resembled the massive dinners I was used to. No, 6 smaller, more evenly spaced out meals to keep hunger at bay. A typical day looked like this:

Meal 1:

- Porridge (honey and chia seeds mixed though)

- 2 eggs

Meal 2:

- Protein shake with banana

- Cereal bar / Almonds

Meal 3:

- Chicken and broccoli (100-120g chicken and about half a broccoli)

- Low fat Greek yoghurt

Meal 4:

- Apple and grapes

- Riveta cracker with generous spreading of peanut butter

Meal 5:

- Sweet potato Korma or homemade turkey burgers (or some other more typically dinner type meal, but smaller portions and more carefully selected ingredients)

Meal 6:

- Protein shake

- Cereal bar / Almonds

Now to some this might seem incredibly limiting but i cannot stress enough how freeing this level of constraint was for me. I no longer had to think about food.... the choices, times, amount were already decided. I didn't have to think 'do I have another biscuit', or 'what do I fancy for lunch'. What's more, I was never particularly hungry. Having 6 more even meals meant I went from feeling quite full 3 times a day then 'peckish' in between to feeling pretty satisfied all day. Now whether it was because my head was in sync with my body or maybe I just liked these foods, but I started to really enjoy every meal. Almonds as a snack.... amazing.... who knew? And I'm not sure how I survived before I had porridge every day? I mean, I love cereal....I even have my own little 'cereal bar' (large glass jars with contain a variety of cereals on display with a homemade chalkboard sign above) which I'm very proud of....but porridge in the morning?! Once you've done it consistently for a while, it's a game changer! The point I'm making is the overall benefits I felt after just one week meant that no part of me harked back to my old ways. I didn't miss anything. Now for the icing on the cake... CHEAT DAY!

In a nutshell, on cheat day I can eat whatever I want. No rules, no guilt...just full on, organised indulgence. This isn't falling off the wagon, or giving up for a day - it's planned, intentional 'self-care', and that makes a big difference mentally. We've all had a time when we ate more cake than anyone would deem reasonable or managed to stuff down that extra slice of pizza or unplanned desert because it just looked too good and our will power faltered. At those times, whether conscious or not, there is a degree of guilt... of mental failure at our lack of control (unless you're the type of person who just does not think about food and health at all... but I'm going to assume if you're reading this then this is not the case). There's so much emotion wrapped up in our food, even chemical changes in our body in response to certain 'treat' foods and we are so in the habit of craving these floods of short lived positive emotions that food can offer that we regularly act out with our best interests, just to get another 'hit'. The difference with cheat day is that it is planned... 100% intentional and comes after 6 days of very healthy eating... and indeed is followed by another 6 days of good, healthy eating. There's a real sense of pride when cheat day rolls around, and, after a small adjustment period, no guilt! Despite chowing down on pancakes, and chocolate, and pizza, and ice cream...I felt absolutely no guilt. There are a couple of side benefits too, like feeling surprising full quicker than you would have imagined. I'm not sure if it was a mental thing and I was just more aware of my stomach and how it felt, or whether the 6 days of healthy eating, with more evenly spaced meals had actually shrank my stomach - but whatever the reason I found myself stopping much sooner than anticipated, and misjudging how hungry I was. On my first cheat day, after devouring a large bowl of cereal, I gleefully stacked four pancakes on top of each other with a generous covering of syrup, only to find that after pancake no 2 I was fit to burst. Now I'm a bit more practiced at the fine balancing act of 'cheat day', and manage my portions better, but it’s worth noting that while I do eat chocolate and ice cream etc, and I eat as much as I want... it so happens that I don't want (and can't fit in) as much as I used to.

The second fringe benefit of cheat day is the taste. I mean the food is the same as I was eating before... remember, pancakes on Saturday with left over pancakes on Sunday? But somehow, a stack of pancakes on Sunday alone (my chosen cheat day) is so much better. It's an event... with planning and anticipation. Not just any old day with pancakes... no these are going to be the best pancakes ever. Colours are brighter, smells are sweeter... too far? Generally, the foods I have on cheat day are the foods I enjoyed previously, but by limiting their consumption to this one day they actually taste better. So I'm enjoying every single calorie of sugary, salty, creamy badness. Is that not how it's supposed to be? Surely our bodies aren't supposed to be so used to these unhealthy treats that our enjoyment is compromised.

These 2 simple steps have changed my life. Really. They are just a start, but they were easy to implement and have been easy to stick to. I started to see changes to my body very quickly, so like any routine, if we can see progress, we are much more likely to keep going. I don't crave bad foods, as mentally I have flipped the switch where these are simply not an option for 6 days a week... and I don't miss them. It's not like I'm saying I want them but have more self-control now. By adding this level of constraint, I have essentially allowed my mind to overrule my body (6 days a week), and now I just don't miss them. This also means mentally I don't have repeated failures where my self-control has faltered. I have more energy and am sleeping better, choosing to go to bed earlier so I can make good to my promise to myself to start the day right. I read more, smile more, pose in the mirror more... ahem. You get the idea. So, these 2 small steps are much bigger than they appear.