Live for your future self

Yup, it’s time for another attempt at my blog now that I’m on one leg and unable to walk! As one of my lovely clients said to me, I need to reframe this and make it positive. It’s true. I will now hopefully find the time to finish a course I’ve been trying to do and not had the time, do some CPD I’ve been wanting to do to help my clients and make health more concise on my website! 

Over the past few years, particularly the last few months, I’ve noticed a growing amount of conflicting advice on social media and the news about how we should behave. Every ounce of human behaviour seems influenced by social media and propaganda: how we should be breathing, eating, sleeping, moving, building, digging, planting, stretching, training, parenting, grandparenting…

My algorithms bombard me with everything from over-40 women’s workout routines promising beach fit in 28 days to supplements for perimenopausal symptoms and the debate over HRT to how to fold up my clothes the correct way! 

But what truly frustrates and worries me is the lack of qualification and accountability for so many of these individuals.  Their advice could potentially harm countless people.  Take supplements, for example.  Collagens, proteins and menopausal supplements are rife with more harm than good and often lack health warnings. The conflicting advice is overwhelming and confusing.

But on the positive side, I have reels sneaking in about women in their 70’s and 80’s doing pull ups and strength training, mums showing their post baby bodies, it’s inspiring and wonderful that people can share these journeys.

So, what should we be looking for when considering health? 

First of all ignore the algorithm. It can be more straightforward than what the Internet is telling you. 

What did our ancestors do? 

• They had a balanced circadian rhythm, sleeping when the sun was down. Our ancestors were generally healthier regarding their circadian rhythms because their daily routines were intimately aligned with the natural light-dark cycle, a synchronisation that modern life has severely disrupted. This alignment (or “entrainment”) allowed their bodies to optimise essential processes like sleep, metabolism, and cell repair and allowing your cortisol levels to lower (probably one of the biggest factors for disease).

• Ate whole food. They only ate what they could pick and catch. Nothing added in. Wild meat and fish, diverse fibrous plants, nuts, and tubers—free from refined sugar, processed oils, and additives. No thickeners. No stabilisers. No rubbish. Pure, clean food. We’ve messed around with this so much and our bodies are not adapted to process them resulting in disease.

• Move. Always. Continually. Their daily survival necessitated a high volume of varied, low-intensity physical activity – a stark contrast to modern sedentary lifestyles. Humans evolved as endurance athletes adapted to consistent movement—hunting, gathering, and navigating landscapes—which kept joints healthy and metabolic systems functioning efficiently. 

Regarding exercise what can you do now? 

Train for your future self.

Everyone knows I’m all about your future self. Your future health. This is why I run classes to get more women involved and all my 121’s are probably fed up of me banging on about it! 

From your 30’s you should be thinking about about what you want your 80/90/100 year old self to feel like. You can make huge differences at whatever age to achieve this. If you’re 70 and realise you can’t lift your grandchildren up or play with them at the park, you are not too old to change this. What a goal that is! We all want to be those cool active grandparents. I certainly think I’ll be a better grandmother than mum and I want to be there and able. 

I had a conversation with my dad yesterday. He’s just turned 88 and I took him out for lunch at the Royal Oak (great food by the way!). He’s always been a farmer, grew up pitching hay bales onto his shoulder and working hard physically his entire life. He has never set foot in a gym or a swimming pool and thinks going to the gym is a waste of time, he doesn’t understand it. We always have a good discussion on this and I think yesterday I may have won the bickering point! Hurrah!  

Life is very different now to when he was younger. Life for him was very physical, he didn’t actually need the gym. He would be outside all day (so important to breathe fresh air), walk miles and miles up and down hills being a sheep farmer, he would lift heavy equipment and feed bags, especially as he grew up when it was about manual work rather than tractors and combine harvesters etc. Actually his family farm was one of the first to own a combine harvester. 

But nowadays, who is actually doing this heavy manual work? Not many of us are outside all day anymore. My point was that no-one is doing what he did now. Our life now is so different physically that it’s actually damaging our bodies and minds and this needs to be counteracted with exercise to be healthy, just like he did to be strong, fit and able. 

So it goes back to good old functional fitness. To be strong and fit enough to do everything we want to do. So if it’s lifting up the kids or grandchildren, carrying your shopping or sheep food (other animal feeds are available!), gardening, dancing at a gig, running after the child on a pony who’s galloping off into the distance or being able to arm wrestle your 15 year old son at the kitchen table. You want to be able to do this. Move your body and make it strong. It is never too late to start. Our bodies are amazing.