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Every few weeks, I write about new things related to nutrition and deep health. Like creating useful and trending content, your journey to thrive does not happen overnight.
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My Journey
Stepping out of my comfort zone
For as long as I can remember, my goal was to be successful in the corporate world.
Working 7/11 (7 days a week from 7 am – 11 pm), setting personal goals to pursue the next promotion, acknowledgement or ticking off the next must-have box to take that additional step on the corporate ladder.
My business life was my private life.
It continued after realizing that my health could not catch up with my drive to pursue realistic and unrealistic goals. Particularly on a mental level, times were often challenging. It was not easy to accept that managing the same things I did a decade ago became such a struggle. The mind can play some dirty tricks on you and hardly signals when enough is enough.
My business life determined my private health life.
My mental state of mind, call it whatever the specialists are saying, determined almost everything. After all these years of drilling myself to go beyond the call of corporate duty, my physical being became affected/infected, too.
Irregular eating habits, calling the pizza line was the easiest thing to do when ‘feeling tired/no energy’ after putting the key into my front door after another 14-hour shift, unhealthy sleeping patterns, forgetting simple things, the list goes on and on.
My business life created a habit in my private life, prone to lead to potential self-destruction.
It slowly clicked.
Your mental and physical health are always connected, how deep you may look into it. It is so true. The goal-setting on a corporate level was perhaps redefining my definition of going full throttle, but it actually works counter-productive.
Can one separate business life and private life? I wonder, as both compliment each other so much. Enough rest and social interaction reset your internal clock to tackle a new day in the office with a fresh look, a clear(er) mind, and entering new fields of challenges and pursuing team-focused goals.
Business life gives you the means to interact, work towards personal development, see the world from a different perspective, and gives one the ability to support your loved ones. Everything that you do in life – not defined by clocking in or clocking out or how socially active you are – is intertwined with other parts of your mind, body, and soul.
Had I approached life differently to make myself content, successful, or a better person? My own corporate goals certainly did more bad than good. Does hard-working define smart working? Are resumes that say ‘I am hard working’ actually tick off all the correct checkboxes when it comes to not finding the right balance between business and private life?
It took me 15+ years to work on corporate goals and forget my health goals. Looking for new means to find that right balance, but it was all centred around business.
Reviewing my personal goals was never up for review, and my corporate goals were not going onto the chopping block.
it was enough
The realization that a goal change has to start from a personal point of view in getting a more work smart methodology was needed. It all came back to resetting my mental and physical health.
Developing anxiety was something that has taken away some of the more fun things in my life, simple because I did not think about the impact of how my working way of life was so profoundly impacting my private life.
Mid-2018, I took action to prioritize my personal goals above anything else.
In combination with personal training, nutrition coaching scored high as the path to move forward in getting my health back on track. But like in my line of business, I needed professional guidance.
I missed any sense of direction on how to take on this transformational change head-on, as I could not see the light at the end of the tunnel. It was a leap of faith of Armageddon proportions for me. Simply “following a strict diet regime” was not what I was after, as this lacked the motivational push and professional guidance I needed so desperately.
It became clear that I did not need a trainer – I needed a coach. I was looking for a team player that unleashes the tools inside your mind, body and spirit to move forward responsibly and leave you accountable for your actions. A guide that shows you the way that leads to small sustainable actions, turning into practices, skills, and in the end, to my goal.
By using a strategic plan based on nutrition, movement, conditioning, and rest, my life has turned 360 degrees in the past years. Bringing calories down to as low as the starvation level was not my priority – I still wanted to have a life! Setting attainable goals, one step at a time, assures a path of continued success and a responsible way to grow further. The results speak for themselves, as below.
- Increased my mental health by not taking medication, pills, and vitamin supplements;
- Sleeping much better (sleep is so important);
- Do more work in less amount of time, beneficial for my own corporate goals;
- Lost almost 40 kilos of fat within ten months, regulating and recognizing eating patterns, being carefully coached, and finding my passion in choosing my food better, wiser without making too many compromises;
- No calorie counting, standing on scales to see the progression (or getting depressed by not seeing progression), or following strict diet plans;
- Being appreciated for taking that step in becoming a better, healthier me;
- The excuse of “I don’t have time / no energy to work on my health” is no longer in my vocabulary.
My goals will not change but are more in tune by putting my personal life in the spotlight above corporate satisfaction. It has automatically turned me into a more smart working me, beneficial for myself.
What became a passion on its own was the nutrition side.
The body is a chemical soup of hormones, enzymes, and cells that can turn into a well-oiled machine when cared for and when you have your goal outlined, clarity in what you want to achieve, and have your mindset switched to success. Once it runs, the feeling of knowing that it purrs like a kitten or runs like a 900HP engine is the best sensation one can experience.
The confirmation that one thrives.
coach to thrive
I took this newfound passion to the next level by completing the Precision Nutrition , NASM Personal Fitness Trainer, and Dan Remon’s MasterMind courses, seen as the leading coaching programmes in their respective fields of expertise. These are merely the first steps of an ongoing coaching path, with deep health taking centre stage.
My journey has just begun, but my own experiences and acquired coaching strategies have given me a solid base to guide you through a similar journey.
If I can do it, so can you.