In Progress - SoundSage

Show up everyday and do your absolute best.

Then forget about it and move forward.

Bryan Cranston will tell you.

In A Life in Parts, he says:

“I had a basket at home. I’d audition and then toss the script in the basket. I’d forget about it. I’d let it go. You can’t fake letting it go. You have to genuinely detach from it.”

Every day you’ve gotta show up.

and how that looks will be different.

Ultimately, all you can do is your best.

That might look like:

getting outside for a walk even though you don’t feel like it

grocery shopping instead of stopping for fast food on the way home

stretching and foam rolling while watching Netflix

eating at least a serving or two of fruits and veggies

writing a gratitude journal at the end of a stressful day

It doesn’t have to perfect. It just has to get done.

Your preparation and effort is in your control.

What the number on the scale says, the bench press PR you go for, or how the jeans fit, none of this is in your control.

These metrics only improve when your actions improve.

Look back and learn from the day, then let it go and prepare to start anew tomorrow.

The second you start attaching to behaviours and progress measurements as being either “good” or “bad”, rather than focusing on the process of learning and improving, you cease to build the momentum that is required to build lasting habits.

Cranston mentions emphatically,

“…What was important was I always left the room knowing I did everything I could do.”

Your health and fitness levels are constantly changing.

Your job is to ensure they are moving in the right direction by showing up and doing your best with what's in your control

You can forget the rest.

Where are you focusing your preparation and effort towards today?

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Good time management is really priority management.

What we value and perceive as being important tends to fill our schedule.

Sometimes however, what we say we want and what we actually do becomes misaligned.

We say we value exercise and cooking healthy meals. Instead, our schedule fills with work, scrolling through social media, watching television, and looking up new things we want to buy (but most likely don’t need).

“I don’t have time to workout and eat healthy.”

In reality, this wasn’t about time at all.

It was about priorities.

You prioritized work.

You prioritized social media.

You prioritized Netflix.

You prioritized shopping.

You didn’t prioritize exercise or prepping some quick meals to access throughout the week.

Are these competing priorities bad? Absolutely not. I do all of them, and sometimes more to a fault.

The issue is when we skew more towards them and away from taking care of our health, and then blame something that isn’t really to blame.

The point is clear:

Don’t mistake a time problem with what’s actually a priority problem

This is why I personally prefer to approach tasks in terms of priorities and energy. I only have so much energy in a day, so I must prioritize where I direct it. This is in my control.

Focusing on time which is ever-passing and out of my control doesn’t do me any good.

The next thing to do is focus on what healthy actions add to your life, rather than what they take away.Take exercise for example. Exercise benefits you by:- increasing strength- building endurance- boosting energy- fortifying your immunity- increasing mobility and flexibility- enhances mood- boosts memory, creativity, and cognition- builds confidence, self-esteem, and resilience- and so much moreIn the end, the upside is so much more than the cost of 30-60 minutes of effort each day.

How are you prioritizing your health and fitness today?

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People hustle for wealth at the expense of their health.Only later to use that wealth to pay to get their health back.Don’t be that person. Invest in your health now so you don’t pay the price later.

Embrace a challenge and you’ll flourish.Embrace an excuse and you’ll languish.

You can believe you’re failing or you can believe you’re learning.Change the belief to change the outcome.Which do you choose?

Caring for your health and fitness shouldn’t be about validation.You’re already f*g awesome.It should be about developing the habits that allow you to thrive in all areas of your life.

Before you start the new dietconsider that the word “diet” is derived from the Greek, “diaita”which means “a way of life.”So, is your new way of life going to support your values and goals, and can you sustain it?

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“We cannot see our reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.”

– Taoist Proverb

I’m always talking about taking action. About getting started, and not waiting for motivation to fall in your lap. Start now. Start small. Don’t wait.

Are there times where you shouldn’t just act for the sake of acting?

Where further reflection and examination might provide more value?

Well of course there is. It’s pretty much a condition for all choices you make.

However, in most of my writings this was only assumed on my part.

With your New Year’s Resolution’s about to begin, I wanted to share some insight around this topic before you decide to make a massive change in 2022, and possibly doing things that might not serve you in the long run.

Don’t act without first reflecting

The action bias is our tendency to want to do something, to do anything in most scenarios, rather than waiting and reflecting.

There are two situations where this seems to be really apparent on our health and fitness journey.

First, at the start of a new year when we feel that we must make sweeping changes to our entire lifestyle. Everyone else is, so we better get our s**t sorted out as well, right?

The second is when we hit plateaus, or start to get a sense that our progress is stalling. Rather than staying patient and sticking with the plan, we try to shake things up just because. Doing something often feels better doing nothing.

We repeat Albert Einstein’s quote as confirmation to the changes we wish to make:

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

Well, sometimes the best thing you can do is stay patient and keep pressing on.

In The Art of Thinking Clearly, Rolf Dobelli says,

“In our old hunter-gatherer environment (which suited us quite well), action trumped reflection. Lightning-fast reactions were essential to survival; deliberation could be fatal.”

We’re basically wired to want to react rather than respond appropriately to the environment around us.

He makes an interesting observation:

“Although we now value contemplation more highly, outright inaction remains a cardinal sin. You get no honor, no medal, no statue with your name on it if you make exactly the right decision by waiting - for the good of the company, the state, even humanity…Society at large still prefers rash action to a sensible wait-and-see strategy.”

Imagine that New Year’s arrives and rather than jumping to make a ton of changes, you first paused. You analyzed the things that went well in prior months and year. You look to your strengths, and you figure out what you can leverage to help yourself moving forward. You respond by making one small change that you can commit to, rather than flipping everything on its head.

And when you feel progress stalls after a couple weeks, you keep pressing on rather than quitting, or trying to do something completely different just because that might feel better - although temporarily.

Rolf concludes:

“In new or shaky circumstances, we feel compelled to do something, anything. Afterward we feel better, even if we have made things worse by acting too quickly or too often.”

Give yourself some space to think clearly before you take action. Here are some tips to help with that.

Do a self-awareness check

Why is achieving this goal of yours so important to you?

What are you prepared to say “yes” to in order to achieve your goal?

What are you prepared to say “no” to in order to achieve your goal?

Look to past successes. When did you previously change something for the better in your life, and what were the “ingredients” and conditions that made it happen? Can you replicate any of these now to better assist you?

Assess your options

Based on what you want to change, is the path you’re contemplating the one you must take? Is there another way - one less risky which might require more patience, but will spare you the burn out?

And how do you know? Is there someone who might know better and can serve as a helpful guide on your journey?

Act mindfully

Mindfulness: the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something.

Thanks Google.

I don’t use this word because of it’s buzz-worthy nature lately. I do so because it’s an important quality that needs to be emphasized. Quick action is usually done so with minimal thought.

Knowing this, it helps to bring your attention towards the present moment, and reflect on your actions with a gentle perspective.

“Is this change small enough for me to commit to it as if a no-brainer?”

“Is it “large” enough to elicit a positive impact towards my results?”

You can’t curl a can of soup towards bigger biceps after all.

As you approach 2022, take action but only after you’ve reflected appropriately. If you can get to a point where you feel as if you’re responding, not reacting, then you’re going to be acting from greater strength.

What to do next

Do a self-awareness check. Figure out what it is you really want, why it’s important to you, what you’re prepared to give up, and what qualities or skills you might posses that can be leveraged to help you.

Assess your options. Your future is wide set of possibilites based on many choices within your reach right now. Don’t limit yourself to doing what everyone else is doing on January 1st - flipping everything on it’s head. Commit to doing something that you can realistically stick with.

Act mindfully. Be aware of your choices. Make sure that you’re giving yourself ample time to feel and sense your actions and progress, rather than flailing about trying to juggle a brand new workout program, a completely different diet, and getting that 30 minute daily meditation practice started. Start smaller than you think.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this, grab a copy of my Fit for Life Method, 5 simple habits you can follow to become the healthiest version of yourself. It’s yours when you sign up!

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A series where I curate the latest news in health and wellness from around the web into actionable insights, so you can become a powerful wellness architect, and help your team perform at their best and thrive.

The score takes care of itself

Bill Walsh’s coaching philosophy has been in the back of my mind a lot this week.

Thinking about navigating business through this pandemic while doing my best to take care of my health, it can feel like a bit of a whirlwind at times.

There’s just so much uncertainty in the world these days.

So I’ve enjoyed the gentle reminder, the score takes care of itself.

The subheading in this context must be: when you focus on what’s in your control

It’s not up to me to predict or worry about the future. All I can do is shape the future version of myself by grabbing hold of what’s right in front of me, and taking action today.

Things like:

Staying hydrated

Savouring my morning coffee, and not rushing through my routines

Planning and prepping my meals for the week ahead

Exercising for 30 minutes in some shape or form

Taking time for myself to focus on my mental health

Managing to not freak out that the Canucks lost to the Jets on Friday.

Last week I shared a question to reflect on our actions or thoughts.

“Is this useful?”

Worrying about the future is usually not useful. For me anyways.

Time to focus on what’s useful, and that’s doing what I can to continue living as healthy as possible.

The score will take care of itself.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed about your health and fitness routines and need the accountability to get back on track, then we might be a good match.

I help busy professionals around the world get fit so they can finally burn fat, enjoy life, and perform at their best both physically & professionally.

Sound like you? Reply back to this email, or book a discovery call today to start your journey of getting in the best shape of your life!

On my mind this week

2 reasons why you aren’t achieving your fitness goals, and what Jeff Bezos’ advice might be

Tom Brady doesn’t eat tomatoes and what this can teach you about your diet

Paul Maurice’s thoughts on 3-on-3 overtime probably summarizes how you feel when starting a new diet or exercise program

Your call to action

Where the magic happens. Steps to better influence the health of yourself and those around you. Be sure to check your Google Drive folder for new content.

What to do today

Your intuition is powerful. Leverage this self-discovery question to guide yourself towards making “one percent healthier” choices today.

“What does commitment to prepping and planning my meals for the week look like?”

For me it’s simply grabbing my notebook and writing down each of my dinners. Then I simply use my notes app on my phone to write the grocery list I need to make all of it happen.

What to do this week

Try to cook one new healthy recipe this week for yourself or your family

Check out the new Financial Well-being folder in your Google Drive folder which first includes finance coach, Lisa Broome (who I recently interviewed), and some of her own content which you can review!

Wellness archive update

Covering a variety of wellness topics respecting the Deep Health Model.

Workplace Wellness

Upskilling should be part of every organization’s wellness strategy, here’s why (Article)

Sleep Health

5 weird ways the pandemic is messing with your sleep (Article)

New research shows the Moon influences our sleep (Article)

These 10 Sleep Habits Can Boost Brain Health And Advance Your Career (Article)

Physical Well-being (Fitness/Nutrition)

Covid-19: Five ways to avoid lockdown eye strain (Article)

Exercise can help prevent cancers, new research finds (Article)

Can a Fitness or Sleep Tracker Tell If You’re Sick? (Article)

For Better Health During the Pandemic, Is Two Hours Outdoors the New 10,000 Steps? (Article)

Research Says Regular Trampoline Use Could Be Life-Changing (Article)

Study reveals how a longevity gene protects brain stem cells from stress (Article)

Social-Relational Well-being (Diversity and Inclusion/Culture)

Doctors, researchers push academia’s ivory tower to start rewarding diversity work in promotion decisions (Article)

Nike Launches New Hands-Free Sneaker for Individuals with Special Needs (Article)

Mental-Emotional Well-being (Mindfulness/ Creativity)

Work Addiction Can Be Harmful to Mental Health (Article)

What Your Sense of Humor Says About Your Mental Health (Article)

We want students to be creative, but how do we assess this? (Article)

Environmental Well-being

Improving Children’s Wellbeing with Nature in Mind (Article)

Please let me know if you enjoyed this issue, and if you followed through on any of the call to actions. I’m here if you have any questions.

Feel free to share this content in your social media, with your family and friends, in your company wellness newsletter, or, just use it to take some small, healthy action today!

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A couple of changes for this weeks’ digest:

Moved the information section to the bottom

Replaced the titles of each sectionComprehension is now ‘On my mind this week’Transformation is now ‘Your call to action’Information is now ‘Wellness archive update’

I’m always looking to hear your feedback, so please don’t hesitate to reach out.Now, let’s get right into it!

On my mind this week

Focus on less to accomplish more

Assumption: "I need to follow a strict diet and exercise plan to get back on track. Monday is going to be the day when I start anew."Reality: "Stretching my comfort zone by doing one small thing today will make me a bit healthier. And this small win is a success which builds confidence. This confidence will keep me going."What ends up happening when we focus on less, is that we create a ripple effect which causes positive changes in other areas of our lives.Instead of all-or-nothing thinking, and following the perfect plan to a T (which anything less we feel like a failure), focusing on winning one habit at a time makes all the other habits more enjoyable, and fall into place.We start to seek out more areas we can win at because of all this growing confidence. We realize that we don't have to wait until the perfect time to start. We can start now, and do the best we can with the what we've got.Note: "Anew" is a weird word which I don't think anyone uses, or should use.

"What would this look like if it were easy?"

Whenever I ask myself this question I feel a bit of unease.Why?Because when I get really objective and focus on what variables might make a task less challenging, the excuses start to fade away.I uncover solutions.All that's left is for me to take action.I can't justify my way back out to making more excuses."What would this look like if it were easy?"Not some magical question that will get you results. It's not the antidote to inaction. But gentle, self-inquiry can often be the nudge that gets us moving in the right direction.

“Is this useful?”

When I think about the number of times I've started to overanalyze what I should do to improve my health and fitness...Countless.Recently, I've started asking myself, "Is this useful?"I instantly become more clear about what to do.I remove myself as a hopeless bystander, getting swept away in my emotions. Not reacting to what I think I should be doing, but moving closer towards taking action based off reality.If I catch myself sitting for too long..."is this useful?"If I catch myself dwelling on a poor eating choice, and getting upset at myself..."is this useful?"If I catch myself thinking too much about the future, and not taking some sort of healthy action now..."is this useful?"Yes: Then it's worth pursuing. Or maybe...delusion.No: Pivot and move towards something which is aligned to my goals.Unsure: Notice and name what I'm feeling. Mentally bookmark what I become aware of, then seek the guidance of a coach or other support.

Your call to action

Where the magic happens. Your call to action, with suggested steps to leverage these new findings to better influence the health of yourself, and those around you. Please be sure to refer to your Google Drive folder for new content.

What to do today

Your intuition is powerful. Leverage this self-discovery question to guide yourself towards making “one percent healthier” choices today.

“What would this look like if this were easy?”

What to do this week

Check out the Starting Point Wellness Blueprint in your shared Google Drive folder. Use this checklist to ensure that you are leveraging each area within your team (family, work) to maximize your wellness culture. Ask yourself which people, applications, processes, and infrastructure can support your wellness initiative.

For example: In ‘People' category, which key wellness ambassadors can help you spread the message? What’s the demographic/psychographic like of your team? Will most people physically be able to participate?

In the ‘Applications’ category, which social media platforms, company software, programs, etc could you leverage to effectively communicate this initiative?

Wellness archive update

Covering a variety of wellness topics respecting the Deep Health Model.

Workplace Wellness

24 Way to Prioritize Mental Health in the Workplace (Article)

Sleep Health

Sleep keeps teens on track for good mental health (Article)

This May Double Your Risk of Dementia, Study Shows (Article)

Physical Well-being (Fitness/Nutrition)

Study: Better Fitness Can Reduce Severity of COVID-19 (Research Article)

Long-term stress linked to increased risk of heart attack (Article)

Exercise Can Bolster Your Brainpower at the Office (Article)

Running is a Total Body Affair (Article)

Social-Relational Well-being (Diversity and Inclusion/Culture)

10 business leaders fighting to make the Black experience a permanent part of corporate America (Article)

Diversity, Equity And Inclusion Thought Leaders On What Companies Should Do To Be Better In 2021 (Article)

Maori New Zealand MP ejected from parliament gets dated tie policy thrown out (Article)

Mental-Emotional Well-being (Mindfulness/ Creativity)

Finding Mastery: Nneka Ogwumike on creating opportunities, resiliency, and confidence (Podcast)

Try These Mindfulness Techniques For The Best Antidote To Job Stress (Article)

Mental health stigma could last well beyond pandemic (Article)

Could the Embrace of Psychedelics Lead to a Mental-Health Revolution? (Article)

Environmental Well-being

New Study Finds Link Between Tree Access & Antidepressant Use (Article)

Pandemic got you down? Try a little nature therapy (Article)

Elon Musk pledges $100 million for new X Prize carbon removal competition (Article)

Please let me know if you enjoyed this issue, and if you followed through on any of the call to actions. I’m here if you have any questions.

Feel free to share this content in your social media, with your family and friends, in your company wellness newsletter, or, just use it to take some small, healthy action today!

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Over the past week this newsletter has been growing steadily. Not only am I excited, I’m scared shitless.

Okay, that’s a bit extreme.

I’m nervous - but in a good way.

I’m trying to imagine myself as an athlete, framing their nervous energy as excitement before their big event.

But this guy is no athlete in the traditional sense. He’s a word athlete.

Now that just sounds sad.

In reality, I’m grateful for every one of my readers. This year I’ve really committed myself to the writing process. I’m focused on applying the lessons I’ve learned from consistently living a healthy lifestyle over the years, to this newsletter.

Practically all of the health advice I share here, I’m using to shape the habits of this new, creative venture of mine. It’s an interesting translation to say the least. But, it’s working for me.

And, the case could be made that really anything we learn could be applied to any situation, in some way or another.

How we do anything is how we do everything, as the saying goes.

Now, to move the spotlight back onto you because after all, this newsletter is about supporting you.

How to navigate this report

Information: Your wellness news update. Covers a wide-array of health and wellness topics, respecting the Deep Health Model.

Comprehension: A quick glance at topics I’ve been contemplating this week.

Transformation: Where the magic happens. Your call to action, with suggested steps to leverage these new findings to better influence the health of yourself, and those around you.

Information: Your curated wellness archive update

Workplace Wellness

It starts and ends with employees (Article)

Focusing on wellness at work (Article)

Sleep Health

Afternoon naps can boost your mental agility - Here's why (Article)

How to sleep: Refined carbs may be the cause of your sleep loss - what to avoid (Article)

Physical Well-being / Fitness / Nutrition

Don't sweat it! U of G study supports moderate/frequent exercise over high intensity interval (Article)

5 Ways Teens Can Get More Fruits and Vegetables Into Their Diets (Article)

TG-HDL ratio: the blood-fat number to know (Article)

“…these two measures correspond to two of the strongest lifestyle habits — the effects of both aerobic exercise and a healthy diet. Both TG and HDL influence the balance of cholesterol and the health of arteries, including those in the brain and heart and the rest of the body.”

Social-Relational Well-being / Diversity and Inclusion / Culture

Three Steps To Overcoming Bias: Why Diversity Training Doesn’t Always Work (Article)

'World's largest Indigenous restaurant' part of Caldwell First Nation big plans (Article)

The goal is “traditionally inspired” Indigenous food. There will be venison, elk, bison, duck, quail and rabbit, along with vegetarian, gluten-free and dairy-free dishes.

“The misconception is we were just carnivores,” said Alexander. “But if the hunt wasn’t there or not available a lot of our survival came off the land.”

Mental-Emotional Well-being / Mindfulness / Creativity

Guy Winch, Ph.D.: Emotional first aid and how to treat psychological injuries (Podcast)

Refocused resolve: Don't despair if pandemic intrudes on goals for new year (Article)

Transcendent shows (Article)

The Happiness Project: Finding Joy in Tough Times (Article)

It seems money does buy happiness after all (Article)

“The conclusion, just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is that while the connection is stronger for life satisfaction than it is for experienced well-being, it doesn’t disappear for the latter after $75,000 or $90,000.”

Environmental Well-being / Nature

Can we really feel the benefits of nature through a screen? (Article)

A walk on the wild side becomes more than just exercise (Article)

“…being in wilderness areas can influence behaviors and contribute to psychological well-being, and supporting research shows various benefits to heart and lung health, skin care and cognitive functioning, among others, from exposure to trees.”

Comprehension: The Key 3

Things I’ve been contemplating this week

It's amazing what a little more patience will do for us when we are trying to accomplish a goal.

Think of the image of two miners, separately digging towards a reserve of diamonds, both having come so far. Yet one throws in the towel when they were just as close as the other - they just didn't know it.Research shows that a major contributing factor to us achieving our goals or not, is our level of consistency.Nothin' sexy about it.Consistency.Now, that's consistency with the habits and principles that matter the most, in the context of YOUR life and YOUR goals.

If you’re trying to (insert goal here), and are struggling to see results, ask yourself:

“Will I get there if I stay consistent with my current habits?”

Yes = Great, keep it going. You. Will. Get. There.No = Commit to making a small, positive change today.Unsure = Seek guidance and support of a coach.In any response, the answer is some form of action.Do the basics. Do them well. Do them often.

Momentum has to start somewhere. Make it happen today.

I heard a self-inquiry question that Dr. John Berardi, the co-founder of Precision Nutrition would ask himself when he coached a client."What's the one task I can coach this person to do that will be met with the least psychological resistance, and yield the greatest physiological return?"I thought it was brilliant.But that's because my inner nerd liked how much there was to unpack in that statement.From the client perspective, it just came down to the level of ability, willingness to commit, and the potential reward."Can I realistically do this thing?""Do I look forward to doing it""Will I feel great when and after I do it?""Does it move me closer to my goals"The thing with building momentum is that it takes magnitude and direction. But to get a great mass of energy requires that it starts to build from something smaller in the first place.Small doesn't mean ineffective or irrelevant. It's totally subjective. It's not an absolute in that, "you must make a teeny, tiny change, because you can't handle more."No, it's about relativity, and finding the minimum effective dose that will get the snowball rollin' in your own yard.

Ask yourself,

“What’s a small, healthy behaviour that I can (and will) commit to today, that will inch me closer to my goals?”

Figure out what your real limiting factor is.

After a long day of work last week I needed to get some food. You’d think as a wellness coach, I’d have my wild-caught salmon marinating in the fridge, with my organic produce all ready to go.

Well, that wasn’t the case.

What ended up happening was because I didn’t plan in advance and have my fridge stocked, I went for the Golden Arches.

That’s right. I had McDonald’s. And it happens more than I care to admit.

This got me thinking.

How many times do we tell people that what they need is to eat healthier, but in reality what they need is to approach the situation from a different angle.

In my case, it’s better planning skills. I needed to have healthy options on hand, before something went wrong - like getting too busy. My limiting factor was planning - not knowing what was healthy or not.

Honest coaching - hell, even some honest self-reflection - can help us uncover what our true limiting factors are. Now, to plan for the week ahead.

Transformation: Your Call to Action

What to do today

Your intuition is powerful. Leverage this self-discovery question to guide yourself towards making “one percent healthier” choices today.

What’s a small, healthy behaviour that I can (and will) commit to today, that will inch me closer towards my goal(s)?

What to do this week

Talk to a coach (or you can journal) to uncover a few of your perceived limiting factors to living a healthier life. Ask yourself if it’s really about the food, or if it’s something else. It could be the people you hang out with (helpers or hinderers), planning and prepping, or simply not knowing what you need to do. In any case, write it down and make that limiting factor known. Once you can see it, it can probably be conquered.

Try out this 28 Day Mindfulness Practice. Works great to print off and put on the fridge, so you can track your mindfulness skills you are improving. Remember, everything is a skill! If you can do it, you can improve it.

What I’ve been listening to

Please let me know if you enjoyed this issue, and if you followed through on any of the call to actions.

Feel free to share this content in your social media, with your family and friends, in your company wellness newsletter, or, just use it to take some small, healthy action today!

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What a start to 2021.

The inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, along with the moving poem written and read by the youngest inaugural poet, Amanda Gorman. Please watch if you haven’t already.

The passing of Larry King

The easing of Winnipeg COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. Although there has been some more backlash against the Manitoba government and public health officials, in light of knowledge that certain gym locations have remained opened.

"Our public health orders don't apply to any levels of government, so they don't apply to federal, provincial or municipal governments.”

Dr. Brent Roussin.

A blockbuster trade between Winnipeg Jets, Patrick Laine and Jack Roslovic, and Columbus Blue Jackets, Pierre-Luc Dubois.

The amount of Netflix shows I’ve crushed. New Girl, it’s been a slice. Any recommendations for me?

A Bernie Sanders meme taking social media by storm. This is hands down the best one:

The growing number of subscribers and supporters of this newsletter. Welcome new readers! I’m so glad for your support and engagement.

With all of the news and information put onto us everyday, it can feel overwhelming. I continue my aim at bringing you the newest health information in the form of a nicely packaged experience. This experience is enhanced by the consumption of coffee, FYI.

One things for certain: we are only as healthy as the system we are put into. Whether you’re a leader with the leverage to make policy changes within your organization, an employee that wants to voice their right for healthier corporate policies, or a parent trying to create a space of greater well-being at home, hopefully you can use the information provided in these digests to better influence those around you.

Also, please check out the subscriber-only free resources here!

How to navigate this report

Information: Your update of current wellness news. You will learn about a wide-array of health and wellness topics, respecting the Deep Health Model.

Comprehension: A quick glance at topics I’ve been contemplating this week.

Transformation: Where the magic happens. Your call to action, with suggested steps to leverage these new findings to better influence the health of yourself and those around you.

Information: Your curated wellness archive update

Organizational Well-being / Workplace Wellness

Media advisory - Morneau Shepell reveals research on Canadians’ mental health at 10th annual workplace summit (Event)

“With so much uncertainty and change throughout 2020, Morneau Shepell’s research shows the mental health of working Canadians has declined significantly, in large part due to a sharp increase in burnout and worsening isolation, optimism and psychological health.”

4 Happiness-Boosting Benefits Your Company Should Offer Employees in 2021(Article)

Sleep Health

Is your brain sleep deprived? (Article)

“Research is showing that brief bursts of brain activity during deep sleep, called sleep spindles, effectively move recent memories, including what we learned that day, from the short-term space of the hippocampus to a kind of hard drive.”

Deep sleep has restorative power to clear waste from brain (Article)

Physical Well-being / Fitness / Nutrition

7 in 10 consumers say they will keep cooking at home after the pandemic (Article)

We’ve told 100,000 clients, “There are no bad foods.” And we’re not about to stop. Here’s why (Article)

The Olfactory Landscape (Article)

“A loss of smell, anosmia, can have considerable impact on our sense of well-being. Referred to as an “invisible disability” (Boesveldt and Parma, 2021), it can be a harbinger of the onset of diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and most recently COVID-19.”

Feed Yourself Like You’d Feed a Loved One - The Happiness Lab (Podcast)

Chen X, Zhang Z, Yang H, Qiu P, Wang H, Wang F, et al. Consumption of ultra-processed foods and health outcomes: a systematic review of epidemiological studies. Nutr J. 2020 Aug 20;19(1):86 (Research)

Social-Relational Well-being / Diversity and Inclusion / Culture

NFL Makes History With Sarah Thomas, The First Woman To Officiate A Super Bowl (Article)

King toppled from throne by gender-neutral card deck (Article)

“If we have this hierarchy that the king is worth more than the queen then this subtle inequality influences people in their daily life because it’s just another way of saying ‘hey, you’re less important,” she said in an interview. “Even subtle inequalities like this do play a big role.”

Mental & Emotional Well-being / Mindfulness / Creativity

Boosting our sense of meaning in life is an often overlooked longevity ingredient (Article)

“Research reveals that people who believe their existence has meaning have lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol and more favorable gene expression related to inflammation.”

Why there’s so much money in mindfulness (Article)

Environmental Well-being / Nature

CES 2021: Home health havens (Article)

“Noting that health is at the forefront of consumer’s minds and that the pandemic has shifted major activities to the home, Deeptha Khanna, chief business leader of personal health at Philips, foresees a permanent shift to home technology that aids people in self-navigating a spectrum of health issues outside of hospitals.”

Comprehension: The Key 3

Things I’ve been contemplating this week

You don’t have to count calories to reach your goals

I’m curious to know on what turning food into math problem does from a psychological perspective to the majority of people.

Does it cause unease? An affinity to eating well? An unhealthy relationship with foods and our bodies? Extra stress and anxiety around wether we ate our exact protein target, and possible missed out on our #gainz?Whatever the case, calorie counting can be a touchy subject. Especially for those whose livelihoods depends on having the secret formula for the “right” amount of calories for your body, and you can only get this information by becoming a client.

There are simply too many downsides to long-term calorie counting, especially if we already have a challenging relationship with food. For starters, measuring the specific number of energy requirements for our goals is far more complex the elementary math.

From coaching many people over the years, I’ve come to realize that if your goal is simply to eat better and live a healthier life, there isn’t really a need for counting calories and macros.Unless…

Unless this change helps you. Wherever you are on your wellness journey, if you’ve stumbled into ‘If It Fits Your Macros,’ MyFitnessPal, or some other calorie counting method, and these changes cause an increase in awareness of nutritional composition of foods leading you to making healthier choices, then great!But understand that counting calories is not the end game. It’s simply a means of teaching us awareness. Important? Yes. Necessary for the long-term? No.

You don’t have to journal your food for the rest of your life

Okay, you might have to take some notes in the beginning, but don’t worry. This is just to create self-awareness of your calorie intake, as well as an understanding of nutritional value of some foods. From then on, it’s no notes.Like counting calories, journalling our food intake doesn’t have to become the way of life. It really just helps us do a few things, namely - shed light on what we are ingesting. And if you have a coach, getting some support on what types of foods you need to add in or eliminate in order to move you closer to your goals.I’ve seen great success for clients simply journalling food for two to four weeks, and then moving on with their life. So long as this increase in food awareness led to healthier choices thereafter.

Note how everything I’m saying is basically not blanket-statements, and could start with the preamble, “It depends.” Everything is context depended, people.

Eat mindfully, but add some objectivity with positive constraints

The issue with telling people, “You just have to listen to your body,” is that this advice is so highly subjective, and dependent on many variables. Although well-intended, it usually gets lost in the bigger picture.

Consider a scenario: What does “listening to our body” mean when we have friends over watching football, eating snacks, and drinking some tasty, craft beers?

Sometimes, we need to add positive constraints and structural cues to nudge us in the right direction.

Get up and move around every commercial break. Grab some water.

Drink lower alcohol percentage beers, and drink them out of glasses so you can see how much you are consuming.

Limit your drinking to only one or two alcoholic beverages.

Consider opting for beverages with a lower alcohol percentage.

Eat slowly. Pick a friend who eats the slowest, and try to eat slower than them. (You can do this secretly, of course.)

Take light, low and slow breaths to help calm your nervous system and aid in digestion.

Eat away from the television. Only bring water or your beverage to the couch.

I could go on. The minds the limit with these. But the idea is that in order to just, “listen to our bodies,'“ we need to be in the right setting, with proper systems in place. These act as the guardrails, keeping us in our lane and on track to achieving our larger goals. And by trusting the right system, we can better learn how to listen to our bodies.

Over time, your confidence will build, and your knowledge will grow around what foods make you feel healthy and deeply good, not merely surface-level mouthfeel and tastebud good.

Transformation: Your Call to Action

What to do today

Your intuition is powerful. Leverage this self-discovery question to guide yourself towards making “one percent healthier” choices today.

Is this action useful for helping me reach my goals?

What to do this week

Check out this movement practice I made. A simple 14-day habit tracker to help you scale up or shrink back your daily movement to help you keep consistent. This has now been added into the free resource section. Please refer to ‘Free Wellness Tools, Infographs, & Programs.’

Please let me know if you enjoyed this issue, and if you followed through on any of your call to action items.

Feel free to share the content in your social media, with your family and friends, in your company wellness newsletter, or, just use it to take some small, healthy action today!

Subscribe at paulkeefe.substack.com

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Here we are, three issues into my weekly wellness digest. Hockey is back, and things are starting to feel a little more “normal” for me because of it. I hope you’ve been learning a lot and are taking even more healthy action. I’ve learned a ton not only from the content itself, but from the process of creating this series. It’s turned out to be an awesome addition to my weekly routine. It seems that every time I share the digest I get a new insight, another piece of feedback, or some recommendations from a reader. It all helps. With that said, I made a couple of changes to the format of the digest:

Share only 2-3 articles in each category. Opposed to loading up the content in one category, I thought I’d really try to diversify the content out across all categories. This will help you get a good variety of content from many areas, but also will (hopefully) not overwhelm you.

Added in images for each section. This will help to break all of the words up, and assist in you finding the next section. I also made sure to pick images that align with the corresponding section. Sitting on a hammock, staring at the serene wilderness, presumably pondering life? Yeah, that’s definitely going into the ‘Comprehension’ section.

Please let me know what you think of these changes, or if you have any recommendations yourself.

How to navigate this report

Information: Your weekly archive of the newest wellness content. You will learn about a wide-array of health and wellness topics, respecting the Deep Health Model.

Comprehension: A quick glance at the information worth observing and contemplating more. This is highly subjective as these are my takeaways, but I simply aim to extract the most relevant materials that most of us can apply.

Transformation: Where the magic happens. Your call to action, and some suggested steps to leverage these new findings to better influence the health of yourself and those around you.

After reading this issue, feel free to share content in your social media, with your family and friends, in your company wellness newsletter, or, just use it to take some small healthy action today!

Let’s dive in.

Information: Your curated wellness archive update

Pick a couple of pieces to read whenever you have a chance, or read it all!

Estimated reading time for all materials: 45 - 60 minutes

Organizational Well-being / Workplace Wellness

Top 5 Workplace Wellness Trends for 2021 (Article)

Your organization really needs to stop talking about a second pandemic (Article)

Sleep Health

The math behind Jeff Bezos’ 8 hours of sleep - and why he says going ‘crazy’ with 4 hours isn’t worth it (Article)

Western University researchers looking at how social media and poor sleep influence mental health (Article)

Physical Well-being / Fitness / Nutrition

Optimizing health and performance through maximal aerobic function - The Drive by Peter Attia (Podcast)

Mathiesen SL, Mielby LA, Byrne DV, Wang QJ. Music to eat by: A systematic investigation of the relative importance of tempo and articulation on eating time. Appetite. 2020 Dec 1;155:104801. (Research)

Social-Relational Well-being / Diversity and Inclusion / Culture

The business case for diversity and inclusion (Article)

Update Your Leadership Style With Four Best Practices That Accelerate Inclusion (Article)

Bruins to retire number of Willie O’ Ree, who broke NHL’s color barrier (Article)

Mental & Emotional Well-being / Mindfulness / Creativity

Team links screen time and pandemic mental health risks at college (Article)

Dump Your Inner Drill Sergeant - The Happiness Lab (Podcast)

How to Boost Your Happiness and Health Scandi-style in 2021 (Article)

The secret to happiness? Here’s some advice from the longest-running study on happiness (Article)

Environmental Well-being / Nature

Supporting Physical and Mental Health Through Design (Article)

4 Reasons a Retreat in Nature Will Increase Productivity (Article)

What the pandemic can teach us about ways to reduce air pollution (Article)

Comprehension: The Key 3

Highlights worth contemplating this week

Make sure what’s around you supports your desired behaviours. If you want to eat better, keep the unhealthy foods out of your house. If you want to eat more mindfully, don’t have distractions around you (phone, television). Click to Tweet

Getting outside might feel like a chore, or not very appealing right now. But you’ll almost always feel better once you get out there. You might even come back with more energy, creativity, and joy. Click to Tweet

An inclusive wellness initiative or program doesn’t start with telling your team what to do. It starts with listening, and trying to uncover hidden perspectives. Click to Tweet

(Bonus) Reading a new book that my girlfriend got me for my 30th birthday. Some seriously deep insights. Gotta love the introspection. Just So by Alan Watts

Transformation: Your Call to Action

What to do today

Leverage your self-discovery/guiding question and take action to make yourself one percent better.

What can I rearrange or add to my surroundings that will nudge me to make healthier choices?

What to do this week

Before eating a meal this week, slow down and tune into a few things. Look at your environment and ask yourself if it offers you relaxed, distraction free eating for you and your team. Other great variables to consider are: Who are you eating with? Where are you eating? What are you looking at?Next, check in with how you are feeling. Perform what’s called a mind-body scan, and observe your mood, mental-emotional state, and physical sensations in your body. You want to try to create alignment between how you are feeling with your food choices, and try to spot patterns. Try this out: 30-Day Mindful Eating Challenge

Check out this new sleep practice!

Please let me know if you enjoyed this issue, and if you followed through on any of your call to action items!

Subscribe at paulkeefe.substack.com

Just So: Money, Materialism, and the Ineffable, Intelligent Universe

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After sharing the first issue of the weekly wellness digest, a few people contacted me to let me know that they loved the conciseness of the report, and how it's geared to helping us facilitate taking action. Based off of the good feedback, that means I'm back with another issue.

Look, it's difficult to find positive information these days. We can find ourselves doomscrolling through the news lately. And when we do find great content, it's usually scattered over multiple platforms, and I personally don't enjoy having to go through my social media to collect information through a cluttered newsfeed.

Let's face it: Social media platforms are designed to keep our eyes glued to their respective pages. It turns out that short, fragmented content works well for that. But it doesn't serve as a valuable tool to get the deeper insights of the specific topics we enjoy, all without the distraction.

That's why I find these executive summary reports so valuable. They help you navigate many different topics in one place. You can dive deeper into areas that interest you, or you could just focus on taking immediate action in the call to action section below. The other benefit, more selfishly, is that I can use these as my own personal archives for reading I wish to refer to in the future. Pretty cool, right? Alright, you don't really care about that so let's move on.

How to navigate this report

Information: Your weekly archive of the newest wellness content. You will learn about a wide-array of health and wellness topics, respecting the Deep Health Model.

Transformation: Where the magic happens. Your call to action, and some suggested steps to leverage these new findings to better influence the health of yourself and those around you.

After reading this issue, feel free to share content in your social media, with your family and friends, in your company wellness newsletter, or, just use it to take some small healthy action today!

Let’s dive in.

Information: Your curated wellness archive update

Pick a couple of pieces to read whenever you have a chance, or read it all!

Estimated reading time for all materials: 50 - 60 minutes

Organizational Well-being / Workplace Wellness

Why the Manager is One of the Most Important Roles in Ensuring a Thriving Wellness Culture (Article)

Adam Grant on how jobs, bosses, firms may improve after the crisis (Article)

Work from anywhere: Workforce trends expected in 2021 (Article)

Sleep Health

5 reasons to prioritize better sleep in 2021 (Article)

Why Sleep Matters (Article)

Physical Well-being / Fitness / Nutrition

Long Term Athletic Development: The approach to maximizing athletic potential in children (Article)

Women will avoid gyms, seek other plans to fitness in 2021, study finds (Article)

Gyms aren't coming back, here's how you'll work out in the future (Article)

Set Your Exercise Goals High, But Not Too High (Article)

Social-Relational Well-being / Diversity and Inclusion / Culture

The Future of Business Leadership: Old-School Micromanagers Need Not Apply (Article)

Color of Hockey: NHL hopeful co-authors children's hockey book (Article)

Linsday-Rae Mcintyre on the evolution of diversity and inclusion in the workplace (Podcast)

"Neuroscience shows us that feeling excluded activates the same parts of our brain that we sense physical pain."

Mental & Emotional Well-being / Mindfulness / Creativity

Yale Insights: Advice For a Better 2021-According to the Research (Article)

6 Ways to Find Joy During This Dreary Winter, According to A Happiness Expert (Article)

Worker, Interrupted: The Cost of Task Switching (Article)

8 Daily Habits to Help Keep You Calm & Centred (Article)

5 Ways to Kick Start Your Productivity 2021 (Article)

How to stop comparing yourself to others physically (Article)

Time to Reinvent: 5 Tips for Boosting Creativity and Innovation (Article)

Embrace Happiness (Article)

"Technically, emotions can be organized along two dimensions: intensity (how strong they are) and hedonic valence (how good they feel). Tranquility, for example, has low intensity but can feel really really good, a profound inner peace."

Existential Well-being / Purpose and Meaning

Scientists Publish the First Human Psychological Aging Clock Using Artificial Intelligence (Article + Research)

"The authors of the study verified the SubjAge on large independent datasets to discover that higher SubjAge is very predictive of all-cause mortality. More specifically, a person whose SubjAge is five years greater than the subjective age he or she reported is twice as likely to die as a person with normal age perception.

The authors also point out how SubjAge can be manipulated therapeutically to make patients feel younger and thus reduce their mortality risk. For example, developing openness to new experiences can reduce SubjAge prediction by seven years.Keeping the bar high, being productive and not backing away from difficult-to-reach goals will take another four years off of a person’s psychological aging clock."

Environment / Climate Change / Nature

Biological diversity evokes human happiness (Article)

Many Scientists Now Say Global Warming Could Stop Relatively Quickly After Emissions Go to Zero (Article)

Comprehension: The Key 3

Highlights worth contemplating this week

The modern workplace is changing beneath our feet, and it's crucial that we establish healthy systems which are resilient to this disruption. Managers and team leaders play a crucial role in this adaptation. Launching any initiative - wellness or otherwise - needs to have all of the managers' hands on deck. They must also aim to nurture an inclusive environment that ensures a sense of belonging. Click to Tweet

How we choose to mentally respond to events has a big impact on our health. We need to establish daily stress management/reduction practices that fit into our lifestyle. By actively practicing these techniques, we learn how to better respond to the world around us. Click to Tweet

Exercise doesn't revolve around solely going to the gym. It's about expressing our ability to move in many different environments, and ultimately that's what we are designed to do. Working out at home, getting involved in recreational sports, or participating in more activities outdoors are going to become more commonplace. It's about the integration of intentional movement into each of our daily routines. Click to Tweet

Transformation: Your Call to Action

What to do today

Leverage your self-discovery/guiding question to make yourself one percent better.

Which of my thoughts or actions might unknowingly or unintentionally be contributing to poor health habits of my team?

What to do this week

Practice conversations, not just sending surveys. Figure out ways to get make your initiatives more inclusive. Get on calls with your team to hear them out and understand what they are looking for.

Get outside. Do something in nature. Your mind and body will thank you.

Try out this new wellness practice. Feel free to save this image and print off so you can track your hydration practice.

Please let me know if you enjoyed this issue, and if you followed through on any of your call to action items!

Subscribe at paulkeefe.substack.com

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To read the article, click hereFurther reading, resources, and references

Employee Engagement on the Rise in the U.S.(Article)

Understanding the Manager’s Role In Employee Engagement(Article)

It’s the Manager: Moving from Boss to Coach by Jim Clifton and Jim Harter(Book)

The Captain Class: A New Theory of Leadership by Sam Walker(Book)

Cagas, J. Y., Biddle, S. J. H., & Vergeer, I. (2020). When an activity is more than just exercise: a scoping review of facilitators and barriers for yoga participation. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 1–62. (Research)

Subscribe at paulkeefe.substack.com

It's the Manager: Moving From Boss to Coach

The Captain Class: The Hidden Force That Creates the World's Greatest Teams

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To close out 2020, I thought I’d test an idea with my readers:

An email series where I curate the latest news in health and wellness from around the web, so you can become a powerful wellness architect and help your team perform their best and thrive.

This curated content will be synthesized into a digestible archive of actionable insights for you - a key wellness champion for your team. Your team could be your family, your friends, your coworkers, or yes, even a sports team!

We’re talkin’ topics like nutrition, exercise, sleep, mindfulness, creativity, productivity, leadership, culture, the environment and nature, and much more!In order to help you go from information to transformation - a state where you can move beyond getting paralyzed by too much information and towards taking meaningful action, I included a call to action section at the bottom of this report.

You will also be able to comment on these threads so we can get discussions going around how we can apply these strategies to our unique situations, wherever each of us may be.

How to navigate this report

Information: Your weekly archive of the newest wellness content. You will learn about a wide-array of health and wellness topics, respecting the Deep Health Model.

Transformation: Where the magic happens. Your call to action, and steps to better leverage these new findings to better influence your health.After reading this issue, feel free to share content amongst your social media, in your company wellness newsletter, or just take some small healthy action!

Let’s dive in!

Information

Your curated wellness archive update

Pick a couple of pieces to read whenever you have a chance, or read it all!Estimated reading time for all materials: 45 - 60 minutes

Organizational Well-being / Workplace Wellness / Work-life Integration

5 Ways to Measure the Success of Your Wellness Program (Article)

Sleep and recovery

Transform your sleep: The scientific way to energize your body, sharpen your mind, and stop hitting snooze (Article)

The Power of Sleep (Infographic)

Effect of restricting bedtime mobile phone use on sleep, arousal, mood, and working memory (Research)

Physical Well-being

Self-care Saturday is a walk in the park (Article)

Don’t let weather keep you indoors (Article)

Social-Relational Well-being / Diversity and Inclusion / Culture

COVID-19 Must Not Delay Diversity and Inclusion (Article)

How to Be an Antiracist Educator: An interview with Ibram X. Kendi (Article)

Mental & Emotional Well-being / Mindfulness / Creativity

4 Post Pandemic Mental Health Trends and Predictions for 2021 (Article)

In 2021 We Need to Focus on Remote Work Creativity (Article)

The Path to Enlightenment is an ego trip: Meditation and mindfulness linked to narcissism and feelings of ‘spiritual superiority’, study finds (Article)

Finding Meaning and Happiness in Old Age (Article)

Environment / Climate Change / Nature

Vertical Farms Run by AI and Robots to Solve the Land Crisis (Article)

Comprehension: The Key 3

Highlights worth contemplating this week

Mindfulness is at the centre of pretty much everything we do. Self-improvement doesn’t occur without self-awareness. Just don’t let that attention to self-improvement enlighten your ego. How are you going to make mental health, diversity and inclusion a more prominent subject with your team?

Measuring the success of your wellness programs depends on many variables, but they should not rely on incentives, rewards, and punishments. Seeing positive behaviour change in your team that lasts long after an initiative is over is one measure, as well as seeing unexpectedly exciting ideas from others on the team as this shows deeper engagement. How can you measure the long-term behaviour change of your team that doesn’t rely on extrinsic motivators?

Sleep is important. We need to ensure that we are taking ownership of the influences we have control over that help or hinder our sleep quality and quantity. Exposure to blue light can suppress melatonin and affects the time it takes us to fall asleep (sleep latency), sleep quality (REM and deep sleep), nighttime resting heart rate, and more. What resonates the most with you after learning more about sleep?

Transformation: Your call to action

What to do today

Leverage your self-discovery/guiding question to make yourself one percent better

“What would a healthy person do in this situation?” This is a great question as it cuts through a lot of the paralysis analysis and gets to the point: What would a healthy person do in a situation like this? These identity-based questions help us navigate the moments in which we have decisions to make that either nudge us to becoming more or less healthy.

For example, when you are watching Netflix and are contemplating what to snack on: chips or the freshly cut vegetables in your fridge… “what would a healthy person do?” Another example: an entire bag of chips or a portioned amount of chips in a small bowl… “What would a healthy person do?”

What to do this week

Integrate one new habit (around sleep or mental health) into your routine, or build upon an existing healthy habit. You could try leaving your phone out of your bedroom, or wearing blue light blocking glasses.

Come up with ideas and an action plan to ensure you are being inclusive in your teams initiatives - wellness or otherwise.

Do some form of activity outdoors.

Let me know if you followed through on any of your call to action items!In health,Paul

Subscribe at paulkeefe.substack.com

In Progress: Recent Episodes

Paul Keefe