Remove the Guesswork: Health, Fitness and Wellbeing for Busy Professionals

Is there such a thing as good stress? If so, at what point does it become bad? Let’s dive into the topic of eustress and distress in this Insights episode.

Visit https://www.bodyshotperformance.com/topic/podcasts/ for the complete show notes of every podcast episode.

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

Eustress vs distress

Examples of eustress

Examples of distress

The burnout spectrum

Symptoms of overtraining or overexertion

Prioritising recovery

Key Takeaways:

Eustress is a positive form of stress. An example of this is exercise.

Moving from eustress to distress is when good stress becomes bad stress, and it’s all about the dose.

Stress is hormetic. It can be beneficial to us in moderate amounts but not good for us if it’s prolonged, elevated, and sustained.

We’re built to withstand and endure certain amounts of stress. Physiologically, we do really well coping with stress provided we get that adequate recovery.

The 12 steps of the burnout spectrum:

The compulsion to prove oneself.

Working harder.

Neglecting one’s needs.

Displacement of conflicts.

Revision of values.

Denial of emerging problems.

Withdrawal.

Odd behavioural changes.

Depersonalisation.

Emptiness.

Depression.

Burnout syndrome.

Action Steps:

Prioritise recovery. When you put yourself under an incredible amount of stress, make sure to get adequate recovery.

Think about what you do for recovery.

Question yourself: Do any of the overtraining symptoms ring true for you? Do you recognise yourself on that burnout spectrum? If so, sit and think about how much time you spend recovering.

Leanne said:

“It’s not the weight of what you’re carrying, it’s how long you’re carrying it for. And that’s the thing with stress. You need to put that load down, you need to get adequate recovery.”

“Burnout at its worst or overtraining can lead people literally to a total mental and physical collapse, a complete nervous breakdown. It’s a horrendous thing.”

If you’re interested in finding out what your health IQ is, take the Health IQ test to find out, and get a free 39-page report built around our six signals, which are sleep, mental health, energy, body composition, digestion, and fitness.

If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve heard on this episode and it’s added value to you, share the episode with someone you think could benefit from it. And don’t forget to leave a rating or a review and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts.

More from Leanne Spencer:

Bodyshot Performance

Bodyshot Performance Limited Facebook page

Remove the Guesswork BOOK by Leanne SpencerRise and Shine BOOK by Leanne Spencer

Leanne’s Email

Twitter: @BodyshotPT

Instagram: @bodyshotperformance

Get to know our new Bodyshot Coach Daniel Smith as he shares how he got into holistic health coaching and how his experience as a Marine helped shape his philosophy and outlook around health and fitness.

Visit https://www.bodyshotperformance.com/topic/podcasts/ for the complete show notes of every podcast episode.

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

How Dan first got into health, fitness, and wellbeing

Dan's philosophies around health and wellbeing

How Dan finds the time to exercise

Dan's sleep routine

Dan's spiritual philosophies and practices

Key Takeaways:

Fitness is more about outcomes and objectives and achieving certain goals whereas health is more about mindset and lifestyle and our state of being.

Exercise and sleep are non-negotiable.

Spirituality doesn't always have to be about religion. Rather, it's our relationship with what we can't see.

Action Steps:

Make exercise and sleep your non-negotiables.

Reframe situations at work as a chance to learn and grow, and learn more about yourself.

Snatch moments of restfulness throughout your days.

Daniel said:

"I still believe that the body is designed to be pushed. I think we need some kind of physical exertion in our lives."

"You are at the seat of your own experience in this life. It's quite easy to get drawn into a life of just being pulled in different directions emotionally, so try and retain a level of autonomy over your own emotional state."

If you're interested in finding out what your health IQ is, take the Health IQ test to find out, and get a free 39-page report built around our six signals, which are sleep, mental health, energy, body composition, digestion, and fitness.

If you've enjoyed what you've heard on this episode and it's added value to you, share the episode with someone you think could benefit from it. And don't forget to leave a rating or a review and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts.

More from Daniel Smith:

Daniel's Facebook

Daniel's LinkedIn

More from Leanne Spencer:

Bodyshot Performance

Bodyshot Performance Limited Facebook page

Remove the Guesswork BOOK by Leanne SpencerRise and Shine BOOK by Leanne Spencer

Leanne's Email

Twitter: @BodyshotPT

Instagram: @bodyshotperformance

What are the more important things than calories when it comes to your intake? What are the other things you need to consider to manage your weight? Leanne shares her insights on energy balance and why we shouldn’t focus on calories alone.

Visit https://www.bodyshotperformance.com/topic/podcasts/ for the complete show notes of every podcast episode.

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

Why measuring with calories isn’t the most effective way to gauge your intake

The things you need to balance out along with caloric intake

Glycemic variability and why it’s more important than caloric intake

Why you need to consider the nutrients in food

Key Takeaways:

Fundamentally, energy balance is “energy in, energy out.” In calorie terms, it’s “the number of calories going in needs to match the number of calories going out if you want to maintain your weight, or “it needs to exceed calories going out if you want to gain weight, or be lower than calories out if you want to lose weight.”

What is more important than calorie intake is glycemic variability or blood sugar management.

The body likes to maintain homeostasis. In order to do this, what happens when we ingest food that spikes blood sugar is our pancreas will release insulin. Insulin is a fat-binding hormone that binds to that glucose and takes it down to the liver, the muscles, and the fat cells. That way, it regulates our blood sugar.

Energy is what most of us are seeking more of. If you want good, stable amounts of energy to fuel you through the day, you need to have stability around sugar.

Action Steps:

When you consider what to eat, think about the calories, but also think about the effect it has on your overall blood sugar level. You can use the glycemic index to measure that.

Take a bit of time to reflect on how certain foods make you feel when you consume them. If you feel this big surge in energy and a corresponding dip, it’s not a great food for you.

Be aware of the nutrient content in food and what your nutrient demands are.

Get tested regularly to see what your micronutrient levels are at.

Leanne said:

“[It’s] not the years in your life but the life in your years. And that’s really what we’re talking about when we talk about longevity and healthspan.”

“Longevity is impacted by glycemic variability, that is how often you take your blood sugar up and down. But in terms of general health, it’s also good practice to maintain fairly stable blood sugar levels.”

If you’re interested in finding out what your health IQ is, take the Health IQ test to find out, and get a free 39-page report built around our six signals, which are sleep, mental health, energy, body composition, digestion, and fitness.

If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve heard on this episode and it’s added value to you, share the episode with someone you think could benefit from it. And don’t forget to leave a rating or a review and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts.

Links to things mentioned in the show:

Forth With Life -  Use the code bodper10 for 10% of any test (except Baseline or Baseline Plus) or code bodyshot10 for 5% off Baseline and Baseline Plus

More from Leanne Spencer:

Bodyshot Performance

Bodyshot Performance Limited Facebook page

Remove the Guesswork BOOK by Leanne SpencerRise and Shine BOOK by Leanne Spencer

Leanne’s Email

Twitter: @BodyshotPT

Instagram: @bodyshotperformance

What is a corporate athlete? What does it take to be one? Learn your way to becoming a corporate athlete and overcoming the rigours of daily life.

Visit https://www.bodyshotperformance.com/topic/podcasts/ for the complete show notes of every podcast episode.

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

How to improve aspects of your wellbeing that you haven't thought so much about

The areas you can focus on to try and represent that corporate athlete idea

Eustress vs Distress

Examples of eustress

Sympathetic dominance vs parasympathetic dominance

Practicing heartfulness

The importance of autonomy, variety, and getting connected to your values

Effective fat-burning strategies

Key Takeaways:

Sleep is probably the most important thing when we're talking about health. It's a great place to start for a whole host of health issues.

Eustress is when you put your body under positive stress.

The ideal blueprint for fitness for most people is something like this: one hard or heavy session once a week, one cardiovascular session once a week, one stretching or flexibility session or a more parasympathetic dominant session once a week.

Heartfulness is getting connected to the things that you love doing, getting back to your hobbies, and making sure that you've got lots of opportunities for movement.

Heartfulness is doing something for other people and feeling a sense of contribution.

Feeling like you're in control of your life is an important part of wellbeing.

One of the very effective fat-burning strategies there are for most people is a combination of three things:

Getting up in the morning and going for some fasted cardio, and then getting a cold shower for as long as you can endure. Cold water accelerates fat burning.

Doing intermittent fasting. It isn't technically a caloric restriction diet. All you're doing is you're shrinking the window in which you're eating food.

Personalising your diet.

Action Steps:

Avoid being sleep-starved. Sleep a good amount of quality sleep.

Find ways to put your body into eustress.

Get into your discomfort zone.

Practice active rest and exercise snacking.

Don't neglect the recovery aspect of trying to get fit.

Practice heartfulness.

Apply fat-burning strategies for weight management.

Manage your blood sugar levels.

Personalise your diet.

Leanne said:

"Consistency comes when you're really clear on [your] non-negotiables and also when you're really wedded to the outcome that you want."

"That's the future of health, fitness, and wellbeing -- it's personalisation... Genetic testing, blood testing, gut testing, all that kind of stuff is definitely going to be the future [along with] wearable tech."

If you're interested in finding out what your health IQ is, take the Health IQ test to find out, and get a free 39-page report built around our six signals, which are sleep, mental health, energy, body composition, digestion, and fitness.

If you've enjoyed what you've heard on this episode and it's added value to you, share the episode with someone you think could benefit from it. And don't forget to leave a rating or a review and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts.

More from Leanne Spencer:

Bodyshot Performance

Bodyshot Performance Limited Facebook page

Remove the Guesswork BOOK by Leanne SpencerRise and Shine BOOK by Leanne Spencer

Leanne's Email

Twitter: @BodyshotPT

Instagram: @bodyshotperformance

How can you work out effectively in less than an hour? It might be obvious to some but not to others. But it's about time we stop making excuses for not being able to work out for lack of time.

Visit https://www.bodyshotperformance.com/topic/podcasts/ for the complete show notes of every podcast episode.

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

What it takes to do an effective workout

What is tabata

Examples of a 10-minute workout

Key Takeaways:

Tabata is a pattern of exercise that lasts 4 minutes. For the first 20 seconds, you go hard, then you rest for 10 seconds. Repeat that 8 times, then it totals 4 minutes.

When you rest between sets, you don't have to necessarily rest full on. The rest time doesn't have to be inert. It can be utilised in a more positive way to exercise a different part of the body.

Exercise works really well when you blend it with movement.

You don't need to have these big chunks of time for exercise when you're very intentional about it, when you're very disciplined, and when you blend it with movement.

Action Steps:

Be intentional in your exercise or workout.

Don't be distracted by anything when you work out.

Leanne said:

"Don't think you need a long time to exercise, you don't. But what I would say is be very intentional about your exercise."

"You can lift a significant amount of weight in a short period of time to get the kind of physiological adaptation that you're seeking without it taking a great deal of time. And that's the beauty of exercise."

Links to things mentioned in the show:

Bodyshot Performance

If you're interested in finding out what your health IQ is, take the Health IQ test to find out, and get a free 39-page report built around our six signals, which are sleep, mental health, energy, body composition, digestion, and fitness.

If you've enjoyed what you've heard on this episode and it's added value to you, share the episode with someone you think could benefit from it. And don't forget to leave a rating or a review and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts.

More from Leanne Spencer:

Bodyshot Performance

Bodyshot Performance Limited Facebook page

Remove the Guesswork BOOK by Leanne SpencerRise and Shine BOOK by Leanne Spencer

Leanne's Email

Twitter: @BodyshotPT

Instagram: @bodyshotperformance

How can you prevent disease and extend your healthspan? Dr. Tom Stubbs of Chronomics shares how you can achieve this through epigenetics.

Visit https://www.bodyshotperformance.com/topic/podcasts/ for the complete show notes of every podcast episode.

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

What is epigenetics

Why people are becoming interested in epigenetics

What they do at Chronomics

How your environment and lifestyle affects your DNA

The epigenetic indicators

How epigenetics fits in with genetic testing

The shift towards disease prevention and what the future looks like for Chronomics

Whole-genome sequencing vs epigenetic testing

Key Takeaways:

Epigenetics is responsible for controlling your DNA. These control mechanisms are influenced by your environment and lifestyle.

Epigenetic information is used to provide people with early warning signs for how different components of their environment and lifestyle are impacting their health today and their future likelihood for disease.

Chromonics' objective measures of health are influenced by a host of different environment and lifestyle factors that we can measure and provide people with information that they can then take to improve their health moving forward.

What we see today around the world, with the rise of aging populations, is there's a massive ballooning of chronic conditions such as type II diabetes and heart disease, and a huge proportion of the risk for those conditions is driven by the environment and lifestyle.

With epigenetics, what you can do is provide people with access to an objective measure of health even before the first symptoms and signs of the diseases emerge to enable people to take action to avoid ill health.

If you choose to go on a diet and you're choosing to make changes for the long term to reduce your health risk, the epigenetic changes will align to that much more than they will with the fluctuations in yoyo dieting.

Your biological age is not a measure of how old you are but how healthy you are. Epigenetics is the gold standard in biological age measurement and essentially provides you with an overall understanding of your age-related disease risk and what you can do globally to improve your health.

Health is not just the absence of disease but the complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing of a person.

Action Steps:

Personalise your health and wellbeing with epigenetics.

Tom said:

"From a Chronomics perspective, the key driver behind the company is to improve health by making what previously people were unable to see at a molecular level to make it visible and actionable."

"One of the really exciting things about epigenetics and epigenetic data is that yes, it's capturing a snapshot in time, but it's capturing the impact that your life choices and your environment [have] had over a prolonged window in your life."

If you're interested in finding out what your health IQ is, take the Health IQ test to find out, and get a free 39-page report built around our six signals, which are sleep, mental health, energy, body composition, digestion, and fitness.

If you've enjoyed what you've heard on this episode and it's added value to you, share the episode with someone you think could benefit from it. And don't forget to leave a rating or a review and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts.

Links to things mentioned in the show:

Previous podcast with Chronomics

More from Tom Stubbs and Chronomics:

Chronomics Website

Chronomics Facebook

Tom's Twitter (@t0mstubbst)

More from Leanne Spencer:

Bodyshot Performance

Bodyshot Performance Limited Facebook page

Remove the Guesswork BOOK by Leanne SpencerRise and Shine BOOK by Leanne Spencer

Leanne's Email

Twitter: @BodyshotPT

Instagram: @bodyshotperformance

What is Animal Flow? How does this type of exercise benefit your health and wellbeing? Movement coach Mike Fitch talks about this exciting and innovative form of exercise.

Visit https://www.bodyshotperformance.com/topic/podcasts/ for the complete show notes of every podcast episode.

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

What made Mike change the type of exercise he was doing

What is Animal Flow and how you can benefit from it

Animal Flow's business model

Creating Animal Flow onDemand

Key Takeaways:

The most advanced piece of machinery that we have is our body. There is so much we can do with it; it's extraordinary.

Depending on how we use our body, how we position it in space, we can increase the percentage of body load that we're using, we can change the lever to make a movement harder.

Animal Flow is a ground-based movement program that's designed to reconnect your body to itself through the floor.

Animal flow is going back to the basics, going back to replicating animal movement patterns, and you can do it anywhere.

With Animal Flow you don't need a lot of equipment, you don't have to be in a gym, you don't need access to a personal trainer, you just need to learn it.

Action Steps:

Think of longevity and train to last.

Take ownership of your body and see what you can do with it.

Mike said:

"It's empowering to me to think that you don't need anything else and YOU are the best piece of equipment."

"There's something to be said about taking ownership of your body and taking ownership of your system and how it works and how it moves..."

If you're interested in finding out what your health IQ is, take the Health IQ test to find out, and get a free 39-page report built around our six signals, which are sleep, mental health, energy, body composition, digestion, and fitness.

If you've enjoyed what you've heard on this episode and it's added value to you, share the episode with someone you think could benefit from it. And don't forget to leave a rating or a review and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts.

More from Mike Fitch and Animal Flow:

Mike's Instagram (@mikegbt)

Animal Flow's Instagram (@animalflowofficial)

Animal Flow's Website

Animal Flow onDemand Website

Global Bodyweight Training Website

More from Leanne Spencer:

Bodyshot Performance

Bodyshot Performance Limited Facebook page

Remove the Guesswork BOOK by Leanne SpencerRise and Shine BOOK by Leanne Spencer

Leanne's Email

Twitter: @BodyshotPT

Instagram: @bodyshotperformance

How can you snack on exercise? Have you ever done it? Is it effective? In this episode, I share my insights into the idea of exercise snacking and the benefits of tapping into our ancestral movement.

Visit https://www.bodyshotperformance.com/topic/podcasts/ for the complete show notes of every podcast episode.

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

Exercise snacking

Tapping into ancestral movement

How to grab little pockets of time for exercise

The minimal effective dose

Key Takeaways:

Exercise snacking is taking little bites of exercise or grabbing little pockets of time in order to exercise.

The idea of exercise snacking is you don’t necessarily need to spend a full hour of your day  exercising but that you tap into the patterns of ancestral movement, which is a fairly regular amount of low-level activity.

Exercise is not something you have to carve out big chunks of time for, but if you snack in the day on little exercises and movement breaks, you can maintain a healthy sense of wellbeing.

Action Steps:

Consider the little pockets of opportunity in a day where you can exercise.

Take the stairs.

Walk on any opportunity that you can. If you drive to work, park the furthest away from the office so you have a longer walk to your office and get up to your desk.

Opt to work in a standing position. Or if you have to sit, don’t sit for long periods of time. Make sure to stand up from time to time.

Do Tabata

Leanne said:

“If you can pepper your day with little exercise snacks, little movement breaks, you’ll not only feel better, you’ll have a nice balance of hormones… but also, you may find your productivity has increased, which ultimately

“We don’t have big chunks of time that we can devote to exercise, so it’s finding ‘What is the smallest thing I can do? What’s the minimal amount of exercise or movement I need to do in order to maintain my health, fitness, and wellbeing?’”

Links to things mentioned in the show:

Bodyshot Performance

If you’re interested in finding out what your health IQ is, take the Health IQ test to find out, and get a free 39-page report built around our six signals, which are sleep, mental health, energy, body composition, digestion, and fitness.

If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve heard on this episode and it’s added value to you, share the episode with someone you think could benefit from it. And don’t forget to leave a rating or a review and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts.

More from Leanne Spencer:

Bodyshot Performance

Bodyshot Performance Limited Facebook page

Remove the Guesswork BOOK by Leanne SpencerRise and Shine BOOK by Leanne Spencer

Leanne’s Email

Twitter: @BodyshotPT

Instagram: @bodyshotperformance

With all the changes that have been happening in the world of genetics, how can we re-imagine our health? Olympian and genetics expert Andrew Steele shares about Circle DNA, and how you can personalise your health, fitness, and wellbeing through DNA testing.

Visit https://www.bodyshotperformance.com/topic/podcasts/ for the complete show notes of every podcast episode.

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

How you can personalise your health, fitness, and wellbeing through DNA testing.

How our understanding of genetics has changed in the last couple of years as it relates to diet and nutrition

What Circle DNA is all about

Epigenetics and the lifestyle changes that you can make with what your genes tell you about YOU

Key Takeaways:

There's a gene called ACTN3 which is probably the most researched gene elite power and performance. You can either have the CC genotype, the TT genotype, or the CT genotype.

The CC or the CT genotype of the ACTN3 are extremely over-represented in elite power athletes.

Historically, research was largely funded for genetic research into life-changing medical conditions. What's happened in the last couple of years, as the technology has become cheaper and cheaper to do the laboratory part of the process, research has now included lifestyle and health.

The cheaper the technology becomes, the more research can be done cheaply, therefore the better discoveries can be made and the better products you can make from them become cheaper.

Circle DNA is the world's most comprehensive direct-to-consumer DNA test.

Action Steps:

Get DNA testing and find out:

What type of exercise your body responds best to

How you should structure your eating plan

How you can work with your genes and not against them

Andrew said:

"Genetics is only one part of the picture, albeit a power part of the picture nonetheless.""In the last couple of years, there has been a further [democratisation] and a mass understanding of the role of genetics in things outside of just the clinical context."

Links to things mentioned in the show:

DNAFit

Circle DNA Website - use code BODYSHOT25 for a whopping 25% off!

If you're interested in finding out what your health IQ is, take the Health IQ test to find out, and get a free 39-page report built around our six signals, which are sleep, mental health, energy, body composition, digestion, and fitness.

If you've enjoyed what you've heard on this episode and it's added value to you, share the episode with someone you think could benefit from it. And don't forget to leave a rating or a review and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts.

More from Andrew Steele:

Andrew's Twitter (@AndrewSteele)

Andrew's  Instagram -(@andrewsteele)

Andrew's Personal Website

More from Leanne Spencer:

Bodyshot Performance

Bodyshot Performance Limited Facebook page

Remove the Guesswork BOOK by Leanne SpencerRise and Shine BOOK by Leanne Spencer

Leanne's Email

Twitter: @BodyshotPT

Instagram: @bodyshotperformance

Looking at the workforce, what are things that contribute to people's wellbeing? What are the things that make people enjoy their job and feel happy to be at work? Join me as I share my insights on Mercer's 2018 Global Talent Trends Study.

Visit https://www.bodyshotperformance.com/topic/podcasts/ for the complete show notes of every podcast episode.

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

Mercer's 2018 Global Talent Trends Study

Wellbeing in the workplace

How companies will change in terms of competing for talent

Game-changing companies and how they compete

Key Takeaways:

The 3 things that make people enjoy their job and feel happy to be at work:

Policies around flexibility

The company's purpose

The company's commitment to health and wellbeing

Most of us work in a company that's much bigger than ourselves, that isn't owned by us, so we fit into somebody else's definition of the culture. This can make it quite tricky to manage good wellbeing.

How companies will be competing against each other for people's talents and time is going to be changing, and it's going to be centered more around wellbeing.

Companies who are truly game-changing, who understand what wellbeing is and its importance, will compete using their wellbeing strategy as the lead.

Action Steps:

If you're an employer, you should be deeply interested in things like resilience, life changes, self-care, wellbeing, and weight management for your people.

Educate yourself on how to be more resilient, how to manage self-care, how to handle life changes, how to sleep better, how to have good mental health and how to keep yourself energised.

With regards to flexibility, purpose, commitment to health and wellbeing, when you're looking around for a role or evaluating a current role, ask some questions around the flexible working scheme:

Do they have an agile working scheme? Do they have a work-from-home policy? And then ask how often it's actually used. Talk to members of your future team and ask them what happens in reality when you ask to work from home. And ask whether leaders do this. Ask lots of questions about how it works in practice.

Figure out your own purpose and look for a company that enables you to live out that purpose, that embodies all your values.

Ask a lot of questions in the health and wellbeing commitment piece. Find out how that works in the company.

Leanne said:

"A wellbeing policy that's built around the many different values people have makes you want to stay somewhere. It's a great tool for attracting and retaining employees."

"Assuming that those are your priorities -- flexibility, purpose, and health and wellbeing commitment -- you are much more likely to find a role in which you are happy."

Links to things mentioned in the show:

Bodyshot Performance

If you're interested in finding out what your health IQ is, take the Health IQ test to find out, and get a free 39-page report built around our six signals, which are sleep, mental health, energy, body composition, digestion, and fitness.

If you've enjoyed what you've heard on this episode and it's added value to you, share the episode with someone you think could benefit from it. And don't forget to leave a rating or a review and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts.

More from Leanne Spencer:

Bodyshot Performance

Bodyshot Performance Limited Facebook page

Remove the Guesswork BOOK by Leanne SpencerRise and Shine BOOK by Leanne Spencer

Leanne's Email

Twitter: @BodyshotPT

Instagram: @bodyshotperformance