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Micro wisdom delivered to your ears every morning in voice notes ranging from 3 to 15 minutes long. Wisdom on how to live a healthier and more fulfilling life. Every podcast will ground you in the present moment to ensure you know what's important, the here and now.
Right then everyone, we're back again 2026. Use five things I want to think about today and you'd think about as well. And it comes down to when we're managing weight, we're actually really managing our stress as well. They come very closely tied. And one of the reasons for this is that if we are chronically stressed, it does actually alter where you do store fat.
Speaker 1:So whilst calories and overconsumption determines if you're going to gain or not gain, Chronic stress elevates cortisol essentially, or glucocorticoids to be more specific, which not only stimulate appetite, but also increase cravings and stuff, know, annoyingly for starchy, sugary, fatty foods, this does happen. When we are in a chronically stressed kind of position, we do tend to gravitate towards high calories, which is high fat, high sugar, high salt foods. Now, why do we do this? What is the science behind that? The reason is the stress response is actually an amazing mechanism that we've come up with as humans is amazing.
Speaker 1:When you put the stress response on, it usually means you're ready to run away, fight for your life, and your body is getting primed for it. You know, your digestion essentially shuts down or goes lower. And that's sometimes where you feel like you need to go touch that when it's fast because you just get rid of, you know, the deadweight basically. And you're priming your muscles to be ready. Your your pupils dilate, so you're more focused.
Speaker 1:Adrenaline goes through the body. And what happens is that this is a very energy intensive process. It costs a lot of energy to do this. Right? Does that make sense?
Speaker 1:So if you're always turning this on five, six, seven times a day, it's very expensive to turn your own. And when this gets turned off in between, the body needs to get our energy back essentially. It's like a loan to be paid. And the quickest way to pay that loan back is with quick cash fast essentially. And the quick cash is quick calories, and quick calories tends to come in high sugar, high fat foods such as chocolates and ice creams and savory goods and all that stuff.
Speaker 1:So that's why we kind of, want that stuff. And we do tend to prefer the body tends to prefer storing fat in the abdominal area as you're chronically stressed. So you're going to look at apple versus a pear shape, and this is mentioned in why zebras don't get ulcers, a book I recommend all the time. So, yeah, that's just it's nothing to, like, be overly concerned about, like, the distribution, but it's just like these signs, and it's just that weight management is stress management. And it's very important that we manage our stress this January, and don't let other people come in and really run ruckus in your brain because you you'll protect you'll probably protect the fiver more than your brain.
Speaker 1:And I'm snorted to be offensive, but all of us are in that position. Someone sees £2 of you. Hey. What are doing? What are stealing £2 of me for?
Speaker 1:Give it back, you know? No way. Someone can enter your brain and cause all sorts of chaos through Instagram and and TikTok and saying comments, and your mind's gone and lost it. So we've got to be very protective of what we let in really. The second point is, and this is a very, very important point is that rigid dieting, which means dieting with very with a huge constraints, like I'm gonna follow this exact meal plan.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna follow this exact macro split every single day. I'm going to follow this exact recipe. I'm going to follow this exact worker program. I'm going to follow this exact thing. That's rigid.
Speaker 1:Right? There's no move for flexibility or rigid. So rigid dieting predicts weight gain, not weight loss. Now, some people think, well, if I have a solid plan and a plan is different to rigid diet and a plan that needs to be flexible. Plans need ABCDs, Right?
Speaker 1:Rigid item is no such thing. Rigid item is a plan only. And if a plan fails as well, what's the point? Right? So this new year, new me, all or nothing mentality and having this rigid control, so inflexible rules, banning foods, that type of stuff, right?
Speaker 1:It is associated with higher BMI and a more likely chance of having disordered eating patterns, but flexible control, which is allowing variety of foods compensating for heavier meals later. So, okay, I just had a big breakfast because we went to work and they wanted to give us a big breakfast to celebrate something. I had those options with a Cornish pasty and, like, some cakes, and I did eat them. So a flexible approach would be, well, I've gone heavier than I expected for breakfast, so I'll go a bit lighter in the evening. Not that's it.
Speaker 1:There's nothing more to it. There's no bloody not like I'm an idiot. No. It's just you're just being flexible. You're actually being very smart about things.
Speaker 1:That's the purpose. You've been smart about things. So we need to avoid this good and bad approach to food, because this is one of the strongest predictors of weight regain because nobody's perfect. And I'll tell you again, you're not perfect. And I was a shock.
Speaker 1:It's a shock to hear every day. Everyone tells you you're perfect and you're the best person in the world, but we're not perfect. So if you accept that fact, then you are already on the way of being flexible because you are expecting yourself to have a chocolate bar, have a pasty, have a drink, eat more calories than you really were were targeted to. That's fine. You were or you weren't gonna read your 10 pages today, but you didn't.
Speaker 1:You know? Okay. Be flexible about things. If you're flexible, you don't turn the stress response on. But if you are inflexible and rigid, you turn the stress response on in a big way when you do eat one of the forbidden foods on the list that you said you'd never eat again, but you eat two days later.
Speaker 1:Shock. Twenty five years in a row has happened and it's gonna change. How's it about we change our way? Right? Third thing, protein is a non negotiable anchor.
Speaker 1:If you change anything, alright, anything you change, you wanna focus on your protein target and your calorie target, that's it. You could focus on macros if you want, but be flexible. The macro ratio of carbs and fat ratio doesn't really make a difference as long as your calories and protein are hit. And that's just a fact. So you can just focus on calories and protein, which gives you more flexibility.
Speaker 1:You add in a macro target and a fat target. You're adding a bit more constraints. You're going down the path of being a bit more rigid, but flexible mindset is needed. You know, during any deficit whether natural or drug induced through GLP ones, the body is likely to break down muscle for energy if protein is insufficient. You know, losing muscle will lower your metabolic rate, increase hunger signals to an insane way.
Speaker 1:And if you are hitting your protein target, you're on the way to being like 90% of the optimal results really. So there's a way to think about this is that if you don't give your body enough protein, amino acids, right, and you're in a deficit, unfortunately, the body, can't just go and use fat instead. Does that make sense? It's going to just break down the muscle. So to protect the two stores so basically, you want your body to be using your fat stores, but then not touching the muscles.
Speaker 1:Right? The way for it not to touch the muscles is if there's an abundant of amino acids in the bloodstream. So you wanna be in a deficit for the fat loss, but you wanna be in a surplus protein wise. Does that make sense? Because there's something called muscle protein breakdown.
Speaker 1:Your body is breaking down muscle and rebuilding muscle, breaking down muscle and rebuilding muscle. But we wanna make sure the body's got the building blocks at all times to keep rebuilding, rebuilding, rebuilding, and not net losing muscle. Does that make sense? So that's what's stopping that. It's like saying, hey, buddy, we got enough.
Speaker 1:As a mini acid, you're ready for you. Don't touch the coal. Right? Don't touch the gold. And we've got enough for you.
Speaker 1:If you need anything, it's there. But go for fat. So we're be protective. Fourth thing is motivation is a fair weather trend. We might be motivated right now.
Speaker 1:We might have lost motivation already. But motivation is an important factor in behavior change because if we look at what BJ Fox said in tiny habits, and he's one of the experts on habits and you guys, if you want to read a book about habits, read it. It's called tiny habits. It is better than atomic habits. He talks about his map.
Speaker 1:So it's called motivation, ability and prompt coverage. Right? So if your motivation is very low, but your ability to do something is very high, then the chances when you're prompted to do that behavior, you're gonna do it. Does that make sense? So a classic example of this is if I go to the gym, which is thirty minute drive away, your ability to go to the gym is actually quite difficult, especially when the weather's bad.
Speaker 1:So your motivation might be skyrocketly high, but your ability to go to the gym is super low because now it's snowing outside. So you don't get past the action line. So when you're prompted, it's time for the gym, you can't actually go to the gym. Does that make sense? When it comes to designing our environment and life, we have to be flexible with workouts as well.
Speaker 1:That's why LeanShield is gonna be amazing. It's gonna give you the workouts you could do at home and the gym, whatever equipment you have. If you can do workouts at home, your ability to work out is now very, very high. So even if your motivation is low, you're still gonna likely cross the action line, do the workout. And if your motivation is really high and your ability to do is really high, then you can obviously do it.
Speaker 1:Right? That's the key thing is understanding how they interchange is that if your motivation is low, the ability must be easy. Right? So if your motivation is low to get off the couch, to go and gather remote control on a Sunday, but the remote control is in arm's length, you're grabbing it. But if it's a six foot away and studies show this, you don't.
Speaker 1:Right? Because it's just out of your range. The ability to do it is not immediate. So you go about my motivation is high from a minute, but it's not high enough. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1:But if your motivation is high enough, you'll do anything. As in, there's an example in tiny habits talks about when a mother is to defend its child in a dangerous scenario, maybe the ability to defend is super, super low, but the motivation is sky high. Like, the maximum motivation is nothing stopping the mother and even in the animal kingdom, right, stopping the mother protecting their cub. Even if it's the most difficult thing, motivation is sky high, therefore, action is taken. So it's important that we try and stack things as well.
Speaker 1:Habit stacking is called is a very, very good thing. So examples in the book, whether they're realistic or not. After I brush my teeth, I will floss two tooths or two, you know, my front teeth and then eventually do all of them. When I put the kettle on, I will do five press ups. You know, when I put the kettle on, I will do 10 squats.
Speaker 1:What else can we do? When I eat my food, I will immediately put things in the sink and I will go for a light walk. So the stuff like that, it helps a lot. But definitely, definitely do read it. It's a great book.
Speaker 1:And the fifth thing I wanna mention is, it's called the stoic reverse clause, and you need to apply this to reduce anxiety. So much of our stress comes from controlling outcomes, like a specific number on the scale on a specific date rather than the actions. So the stoics use something called the reverse clause. Basically, the caveat was if fate permitting. So you control the aim, which is, you know, to lose weight, maintain weight, whatever, but not the arrow.
Speaker 1:So the exact weight loss this week. You can try and control at your best. You can do actions that can give you an estimate, but you can't control exactly. And Donald Roberts mentioned this. So detaching self worth from the outcome reduces the anxiety that leads to quitting.
Speaker 1:So if you haven't made your weight loss goals by the end of Jan, but you've done amazing actions such as you've been reading, you've been walking, you've been increasing your protein, you've been looking into lean shield, you've been looking into how to protect your muscle, you've done so much for yourself there, so much for your future self, so much for your older self, which I'm gonna thank you for. It's not all about the total weight on the scales because we're looking for fat loss, not weight loss. And if you start training this month after a long time out or you've never done resistance, you're likely gonna be gaining muscle at a quite a quick pace as a newbie gains whilst losing fat. So your weight your total weight not might not change at all. So that's the key thing to remember.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it's it's it's important that we look at that. And I just want you all guys to just enjoy the month. Like, I know it's, like, quite a, I don't know, basic thing to think about, but often there's some stress on January. We have to do this, have to do that, get into it. You know, people are starting.
Speaker 1:It's just cold start. You you know, you're warming up this week. You're getting into things. You don't have to be perfect. You never have to be perfect in Jan.
Speaker 1:You you don't have to be completely different from a week ago. You can make changes. You know? A week ago, I was eating five, six hundred calories more than I did yesterday, and still yesterday was a bit higher than I need to be. And today, I'll be a bit better again.
Speaker 1:I'm back in my routine, back in London. I'll be back better. There there's no stress about it. And I'll slowly improve, and I'll slowly get back into training. First training day today in over a week or two.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna enjoy it. I'm gonna feel sluggish. I'm gonna feel like, wow. I've lost some fitness, but I'm just gonna thank the gods that I've got the ability to go and train. You know?
Speaker 1:Because one day, maybe I won't be able to train, and I regret ever, you know, complaining that I was gonna train. I'm able-bodied and stuff like that. Know it's important that we can look at what we actually can do because it could be worse. And I put a smile on our face and get along with it. So that's it for today, guys.
Speaker 1:Have a good day. Speak to you soon.