Building your personal winning team. The foods and drinks we consume, the people with whom we come into contact, and our activities could be said to be our "personal team," our support system. They compose our life experiences and trace its overall trajectory. Together these components determine the direction of our lifespan and healthspan. Of course, there are genetic components to some extent. Still, by and far, our choices play the most significant role in our personal "draft" process. Pick a winning team by reading through today's topics:
Building your personal winning team.
Draft picks
Taking inventory
Nutritional entourage
Choose salutogenic
Coach's secret stash
Draft Picks
Draft picks are almost as exciting as the season itself for many sports fans and are followed with vigor. But even within the overarching draft process, were you aware that individual athletes run their own drafts? They carefully recruit, handpick, and build their own personal teams for themselves. Think 'entourage.' Having a complete entourage is commonplace in professional sports now more than ever before. An elite athlete's personal entourage comprises the people and tools associated with the athlete – trainers, coaches, nutritionists, therapists, equipment, and technologies.
Accomplished athletes like Roger Federer, Naomi Osaka, Tom Brady, Serena Williams, Simone Biles, Jin Young Ko, Ashleigh Barty, Nelly Korda, Candace Parker, Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James, Conor McGregor, or Mike Trout don't succeed by themselves. They carefully select their support teams. Athletes with the longest careers typically have adopted the most detailed training regimens, sports gear, and nutritional protocols. These career extenders consist of their own personal draft picks.
Each of us must recognize how foods, people, and activities make up our own personal draft process. What kind of personal team or entourage are we creating? Do our personal draft picks have our best interests at heart? Does our entourage support the highest mental and physical readiness level? To be successful (lifespan and healthspan), we must judiciously develop our personal support team – our life extenders.
Taking Inventory
Consider your personal support team. The conscientious discernment of your draft choices determines your power and success. It's your life, so build out your team wisely. The more you lean into this concept of 'draft choices,' the healthier and more vibrant your life can become.
Wherever you are right now, stop and take a quick inventory. Honestly, review your current personal draft picks. Name them. These 'picks' are not only the humans with whom you interact but also books, music, clothes, food, exercise equipment, digital tools, etc. Your surroundings, possessions, consumables, and people are parts of your team. Might there be possessions that are weighing you down? Or foods that are not optimal for your health?
How about the restaurants you visit? Are your food shopping locations and choices on track? How about your fitness goals? Don't forget your time commitments. How much time do you allot each draft pick? Is there too much screen time (and its implications)? Or not enough time for personal development or mindfulness? Do you give yourself permission to have adequate time for your key draft picks?
Expand your team from your immediate environment to the larger support team around you – coaches, trainers, nutritionists, therapists, and health care providers. Your world is the ecosystem of your personal team, your entourage, your life. All these are draft picks that make up your personal team.
Coach's sidebar: I frequently reflect on the following truths. Loving ourselves enough to be accountable for our ideals and forgiving ourselves when we fall short assures that we are more than the sum of our "stumbles." If we allow our stumbles to shape us, not define us, they can become building blocks to greatness. We are always at the mercy of who we were yesterday. Be kind to yourself.
Nutritional Entourage
Last week's blog extended the "Power of One" challenge. I suggested that you indulge in foods with only one ingredient over 30 days. The Power of One is a simple tool that helps refocus and reinforce the need for wholesome foods (organic if possible) in our diets. It provides a break from sugar-laden packaged and processed foods with a long list of artificial ingredients, added dyes, and chemicals. This tool is a great draft pick. It encourages the choice of healthy endurance fuels for our bodies.
I'm taking the challenge with you. I've done pretty well over the last few weeks. Along this journey so far, I've learned a great deal. I am healthier and feel more empowered to take better control of my health. If you can hit 25 out of 30 days in the challenge, you are well on your way to a healthier state. Don't quit if you miss one day here and there. Keep going. Every day brings value to your healthspan.
In case you missed last week's Power of One 30-Day Challenge blog, here is the link. https://bodyhelix.com/the-power-of-one/
Eating one-ingredient foods is not a long-term plan – although it is a great habit and an easy tool to include when you need to redeploy your nutritional draft picks. Trying this experiment in earnest for 30 days will establish reliance on whole foods. Doing so will tamp down the urges for packaged pseudo foods full of sugar and simple carbs. This practice will help you unplug from the Big Food matrix. You can step back and examine the role of every food that you feed yourself and your family – and the impact on your health and theirs.
Another benefit of the Power of One Challenge is that you will experience a more stable energy level. Unlike some diets and food plans that make you even hungrier, eating nutritious foods keeps that at bay. Genetically we are not designed to graze all day long. The ebb and flow of eating and not eating (intermittent fasting) boosts and reboots our system. Autophagy, which is activated during fasting, allows toxins to move out of our body and our cells to be cleaned. Processed, packaged, refined, and restaurant/fast foods rely on sugar (or sugar substitutes) and simple carbs that inevitably destroy this natural healthy process.
Another phenomenon you may experience during your Power of One challenge is a 'change' in your taste preferences over time. If you were habitually (think addictively) drinking sugary drinks (i.e., sweet tea, soda, Gatorade, Powerade, Body Armor, IV Hydration, Scratch, Tailwind, etc.), you would find that allowing your body to be rid of these for a substantial amount of time re-attunes your taste buds.
If you try a sugary drink after your 30-day challenge, no doubt, it will taste syrupy sweet to the point of disgust. And, hopefully, you'll concur that these do not need to be part of your life anymore. When you let go of unhealthy things in your life and replace them with healthy draft picks, you are on your way to a much better personal support team and a much healthier lifestyle.
Choose Salutogenic
Life is simple, but humans make it complicated. If you approach your life through the lens of making salutogenic choices, the mystery is solved. Salutogenesis (a focus on the causes of well-being) will guide you unerringly to choose the best draft picks. Ask yourself if this food, this person, this activity supports your personal well-being. When you answer yes, lean toward it, and nurture this choice. Whether it's your time commitment, resetting priorities, or adopting healthier habits, ask yourself if this moves you to a better you. You will know deep inside if it does or doesn't. As you neural-cultivate this concept, your mental and physical ecosystem will flourish.
Body Helix prides itself on being a salutogenic company. Since its inception, the well-being of our customers has been our core value. Our primary directive is to make your life better. We believe we've succeeded in helping many of you along the way, whether it's helping manage your pain, allowing you to continue to play or train, or enabling you to participate in life activities that bring you joy and health. Our compression products are crafted using the highest-grade neoprene the world has to offer. Why? Because we want the absolute best for our clients – no substitutions, no substandard raw materials, no knockoffs, and no shortcuts.
We bring the same robust benchmarks to our new Hydro Helix. If you see our product through salutogenic optics, you'll realize why we have chosen the most effective ingredients possible. Our drink mix has no sugar; thus, it will not taste sweet. It is intentionally designed to have a slightly salty edge (preferred by most athletes). The faint saltiness is from essential electrolytes. Further, our drink mix is not made with harmful emulsifiers.
So, yes, you do have to shake it as it settles. That's a great characteristic. It points directly to our uncompromising salutogenic standards. Lastly, we never use brightly colored, artificial dyes proved to be detrimental to the human body. After researching and considering ingredients like ours, I find it bewildering how companies get away with so many false claims, inaccurate assertions, deceitful promises, and phony declarations. Stop being manipulated. We all have the right to choose. Choose salutogenic options. Body Helix brings those to you.
Coach's secret stash: Thanks for sticking with me through this blog. For my avid readers, here are some pro secrets. I recommend two companies that are top draft picks in my personal entourage. I consider each of these authentic salutogenic choices. But don't take my word. Check them out for yourself. I have no vested interest and am not sponsored in any way. I have thoroughly evaluated and used these products. Consider adding them to your personal support team.
This company is salutogenic! One of their products, Maximum Vibrance, has been a morning staple for me for as long as I can remember. It is part of my smoothie regimen. Vibrant Health was started in 1992, and I have been using its products from the beginning. (Watch for follow-up blogs with my smoothie recipes.)
This company, founded in 1995, offers the world's safest, most effective nutrients essential to health. Their Ultimate Omega product helps me get high-quality omega 3. I've tried others, and I have found this company to be the best. In Western cultures, we typically eat less fish, which is a great way to maintain a balanced diet. Consider checking out their products.
Until next week my friends, eat wholesomely and pick your drafts carefully.
Learn, Share, Inspire.
Coach Fred
