Healthy Habits for High Performers

People pursuing high performance love ‘hacks’. They seek those quick game changer actions and behaviours that give them an advantage and help them to squeeze that bit extra out of life, out of the time they have. I know, I’m one of those people!

My experience as a GP of over 20 years, is that there are no hacks for health. Anything that presents as a quick fix doesn’t last, we adapt to the stimulation and nearly always make things worse in the long run. From caffeine to alcohol, likes on Linkedin, sex or cocaine, extreme stimulation leads to ‘down regulation’ of our receptors, tolerance and dependence.

Signs we need to pay more attention to our health

There tends to be 3 key markers, that your health is suffering, particularly as you drive for high performance. These are your mood, fatigue and pain (there are others like skin and bowel reactions, but I think these 3 are most important because of their impact). I see them as the key ‘override’ systems our brain has of grabbing our attention, of literally stopping us in our tracks. The first, our mood, is more an early warning system. Initially the signs are being snappy and aggressive, but can build to feeling low and helpless, even panicky and anxious about the tiniest of things. If we don’t listen the brain moves onto its main levers to protect us- Fatigue and Pain. And they are protectors, our brain is desperately trying to warn us and look after us, even when we are not doing it for ourselves.

Fatigue makes us feel tired all the time, sleep doesn’t refresh us even though we are sleepy, we struggle to concentrate and focus, and energy for life is low. It forces us to slow down whether we like it or not. Once set in it can require quite a ‘reset’ before it lifts.

Pain is the most poorly understood symptom in medicine, I think. We are all used to pain indicating tissue damage or injury, and yes that is part of its function. But really that is only a subset of its function. Pain is our master protector. It is really designed to prevent us from harming ourselves. Pain after an injury is designed to set up memories to warn us next time. But what pain should really do is stop us getting injured in the first place. That is why pain is very influenced by our sense of threat…..be that emotional, psychological, social. Therefore, most pain (especially pain that sets in for a few weeks or more) is not about injury, but a response to accumulation of other ‘threats’. It sounds counter intuitive but we should think of pain as a benevolent message from our subconscious brain, like a friend trying to tell us something we are missing. I could say a lot more, but I’ll stop there for now.

The final red flag to be especially aware of, if you using ‘medication’ to manage these symptoms without thinking about the root cause it’s a real warning sign. I say ‘medication’ because this can be ‘self-medicating’ with thinks like binge eating, coffee, retail therapy, as well as prescribed or over the counter medication. All these can be emergency get out of jail cards when you just ‘have to be on form’, but they ALWAYS come at a later cost, and they are NEVER a long-term solution. If you are using things regularly and especially if the dose is increasing, that should be a wake-up call.

Smart solutions

Enough of the doom, we are striving performers looking for the solutions right. The good news is with some key information we can be smart. We can develop habits (that’s a key word) that compound over time and help us to maintain optimum health, to ward off the need for our brain to protect us. The real power of these approaches comes in regular practice, getting better and slicker at them, so they take less time and energy and have greater effect

The beauty of a habit is once established it becomes automatic and requires very little emotional or psychological energy to maintain. It becomes the default and not doing it feels more uncomfortable. Many people have written books on the topic of how to set up these habits (I like BJ Fogg’s ‘Tiny habits’…..James Clear’s ‘Atomic Habits’ is another), I’ll not go deeper on that here, but often getting some insight and support on implementation really helps……you’ll not be surprised to hear me say that’s where health coaching comes in. But you guys are striving performers, so may need less help than many others. Good information may be enough.

There are a huge range of healthy habits you could choose from. In fact, you could spend your whole day dedicated to health, leaving no time left for the rest of your life. That would be very counterproductive to performance in business, relationships and the things that matter most to you. The purpose of this short (ish) piece is to highlight those I think are most useful, for most people, most of the time.

 You may have sensed a warning in that last sentence. I think the trick is to be aware of the habits that will be most impactful for you, given your unique circumstances (physiological, emotional, social etc), and the opportunities available to you. Then do what you can, without beating yourself up about what you don’t manage. There will be times when some habits are easier than others, and some may need to go temporarily or permanently on hold. But there will be others that may become easier. It is personal, and you may need the support of a professional to help you interpret your personal data……that’s where doctors can be helpful, just don’t let them take over, make sure you understand the ‘situation report’ and then take the lead in deciding what habits will suit you best.

Whatever the bottom line is be kind to yourself. Life is tough, seeking to perform well at anything is challenging and at times you’ll fail (sometimes spectacularly). Self-compassion (worth looking up a definition, because it’s not at all tree hugging!) is the most powerful health asset of all ……..all I can say is good on you for daring to believe you can improve, and being open minded enough to read on.

So here is my attempt to distil what I have learnt over the last 30 years as a doctor, in a simple explanation, I group habits for 'performance health' into those that support high energy and those that support sharp thinking.

High Energy

The 3 themes I highlight here are how we fuel, tune up and repair our energy system.

 1.Fuel – Most of us are taking in too much ‘rocket fuel’ and not enough ‘clean’ fuel. High processed carbohydrates are the rocket fuel – great for short extreme burst of energy, but very damaging to our energy system in the long run. You may be surprised to hear that the cleanest fuel is fat! Most of us have an energy system that is being over fuelled on rocket fuel. We can generally cope with it for a while especially when we are young and very active, and if we are compensating in other ways, but over time we must adapt. This involves our insulin system and starts with us producing escalating levels of insulin (very damaging in itself), but over time (usually 10 years+) leading to insulin failing to keep up, and type 2 diabetes.

Poor fuelling is an immediate set back to our energy system, but the damage overtime can lead us literally to operating at 20-30% energy capacity…..not good for performance!

 Good news- it is fully reversible, and quite quickly.

 Top tip – reduce processed carbs AND starchy carbs, eat more healthy fats.

2. Tuning up- This is where exercise or movement comes in. To put it simply exercise tunes up our energy system, it makes the generation of energy work better and enables us to transport all the components in the supply chain for making and distributing energy work better.

Good news – there are a huge variety of ways you can do it, and anything is better than nothing. Maximum benefit reached around 150 mins/ week of moderate activity (like walking), or 75 mins of intense activity (like running, or aerobics class). The first 30 mins/ week is the most beneficial.

 Top tip – look to build moderate activity into everyday life – walking phone calls; make it fun- eg do it with a friend

3. Repair – This is all about sleep. Sleep is the performance superpower- it repairs both energy and thinking systems. If you are not getting enough good quality sleep (its individual), it will likely be having the biggest impact on everything else.

 Good news – there are a number of psychological and behavioural advances in understanding of sleep that can really help you manage sleep well . Also you don’t have to sleep all the way through without waking up to have good quality sleep.

 Top tip – have a regular get up time (irrespective of what time you go to bed), and get some natural light into your eyes as soon as possible . The quality of your (next ) nights sleep starts as soon as you get up.

If you are someone that needs a specific program to follow – this 28 day plan to clean up and recharge your energy system (metabolism) is brilliant.

Written by a visionary GP from Bristol, who really knows his stuff

https://metabolichealth.guide/metabolic-health-28-day-programme/metabolic-health-28-day-programme

The rest of the guide is worth reading if you want to go deeper than I have here.

Sharp Thinking

The Brain is our most metabolically active organ, it takes up around 25% of all our energy, so getting the energy bit right really helps thinking……but there is more, again I’d put this into 3 areas.

1.     Managing stress. Stress is positive for us up to a point. The right level of stress on any system (be it physical or mental) encourages growth and positive adaption. But there is a tipping point where increased stress becomes detrimental and triggers a decline in how our brain functions. This restriction accumulates over time.

 Good news – we can get better at recognising markers of ‘too much stress’ (see above mood, then fatigue and pain), and get better and staying in the ‘optimal stress zone’ (most of the time!)

 Top tip – tech is a good asset here. Heart rate variability (HRV) is a reliable marker of stress, and used in many smart watches (I’ll expand in autonomic section below)

2.     Positive psychology. There is loads to draw on here around generating positive emotions and the power of relationships, but my favourite aspect of PP is what they call ‘flow state’. We know that time spent in flow is like a natural refresher of our thinking system. There’s overlap with good sleep and exercise, but I think flow stands out as a unique tool to actively develop. You may already be doing plenty of flow activities, maybe all you need to do is give yourself permission to really enjoy it and know you are sharpening up your mind at the same time!

 Good news- There are loads of options for getting into flow state. It can be very individual and is usually something you’ll enjoy. It generally requires you to be doing something you find interesting but challenging. This means it demands you concentration and holds your attention. It might be playing a computer game, reading a book, riding a mountain bike fast downhill, playing a game of table tennis

Top tip- Flow states hold the slight risk that you can forget time and literally loose hours!  You might want to set some time limits, and keep this sort of habit outside working hours……it can be a leisure pursuit, a purposeful way to unwind.

3.     Autonomic balance. This might sound a bit technical but bear with me. Our body has a very clever subconscious nervous and hormone system that controls whether we are in ‘flight or fright’, or ‘rest and digest’ mode. The ‘on’ system that winds up flight or fright is called our sympathetic system. It raises our heart rate, breathing rate and raises our alertness. A sign of sympathetic activity is our heart beating firm and regular….no variability in rate. The ‘off’ system is called the parasympathetic, it relaxes us, sets our body into recovery mode.

 Getting the balance right, having times of on and off, is important for clear thinking. As we all know a little adrenaline (one of the ‘on’ hormones) can sharpen us up and help us peak perform. Too much ‘on’ and we are a quivering, sweating wreck. Too much ‘on’, over time, clouds our thinking. Us performance junkies often love being ‘on’ (some say we actually get addicted), but it comes at a price.

 Good news – we can become good at activating the ‘off’ system, there are great simple techniques and with practice they can be highly effective in just a few seconds. A regular routine (habits) can set up a protective buffer to prevent the ‘on’ periods from getting out of control and causing us harm.

 Top tip – Breathing and meditation are great here, and they often go together. The simplest and most effective tool I use often is to 5:7 breathing. 5 seconds in 7 seconds out (4:6 might suit you better). Lengthening the out breath more than the in breath is a powerful parasympathetic activator (vagus nerve stimulation) ……..there are many variations and enhancements. Even 1 minute of this is helpful, 10 mins a day works for me (combined with some mindful/meditation exercises)

I’m going to stop there, I haven’t even mentioned the microbiome, looking after your gut bacteria so they look after you……. But I don’t want to overwhelm you!

 There is so much opportunity to find some habits that work for you. You definitely don’t want to do everything, and not all the time. Looking after your health should become a background set of habits that tick over in the background, while you perform brilliantly in the foreground.