18.
THE WEALTHY BODY Q & A
This chapter answers some of the questions we have received from clients, readers and session attendees.
Eating in the Office
Q: How do you deal with eating proper, regular meals when you’re stuck behind your desk or in back-to-back meetings? It’s difficult not to nibble on snacks when you’re hungry, and often lunch is eaten at the desk as well.
A: That’s a common problem, especially when most snacks are ‘low-performance’ foods, and there’s no real measure of how much you end up eating during the course of a day. To answer your question, it’s probably easiest to just cut straight to our top ‘best practice’ strategies for eating in the office.
Keep a bottle of water at your desk. (Don’t buy commercial brands of flavoured or fruity water – they are full of sugar.) Sometimes perceived hunger is actually a signal you’re getting dehydrated, so stay alert by taking on plenty of water during the working day. Whether in your office or working a trading desk, fill up a glass bottle with filtered water (a bottle is less likely to spill on your keyboard or phone, and glass is preferable to plastic), and pop in a wedge or two of lemon or lime, for a more interesting, flavoured and nutritious way of keeping your water levels topped up.
Breakfasts are quite straightforward. Many food bars and takeaways now serve hot oatmeal porridge to go, and a paleo-style Bircher muesli is another option. Even better, if you’re sitting down at a cafe, order an omelette, or scrambled/poached eggs with tomatoes, mushrooms and beans (high fibre, protein and some starchy carb energy). Stay away from the ‘beige’ breakfast items such as Danish pastries, croissants, pain au raisin/chocolate, white toast or bagels – all are empty fast carbs that will only suck the energy out of you. Bad move at the start of a day. (Do we really need to point that out?)
If there are no easily accessed outlets for healthy foods near your office, invest in high-quality food containers for bringing meals to the office from home. You can also buy containers for keeping soups, stews and casseroles hot all day, or your home-made super smoothie cool all day. Meals like that are easy to keep by your desk and take in small portions at any time without any additional preparation or heating. Successful physique competitors and athletes know they’ll never reach their nutrition targets by relying on bought-in or eat-out food. Hard-boiled eggs are also brilliant to bring into the office, as you can eat them cold at any time, although your colleagues might disagree.
If you’re grabbing lunch at an eatery near work, buy two meals while you’re at it: one to have for lunch, and one to eat later in the afternoon when your energy levels start to fall. The choice is wide, and can include dishes like chicken or shrimp salad, sushi/sashimi, three-bean soup, vegetable sticks with hummus, low-fat burritos, healthy wraps, hi-vitality smoothies and quinoa-based salads, just to name a few! (Watch out for some of the hot Asian dishes and some ready-to-go soups, though, as they can be really high in salt.) All of these are good to eat at your desk as they’re portable and low mess! Stay away from sandwiches, which tend to include too much simple and processed carbs from the bread.
If the office has a restaurant or canteen, avoid bread-based meals. Hot meals are usually fine, though: roast chicken/beef with steamed veg, soups (not creamy), stir-fries, custom wraps/burritos, etc. Most ingredients from the salad bar are great too, but stay away from too much cheese, instead opting for grated Parmesan (which has high flavour for lower volume and calories).
Nuts and dried fruits are generally healthy, but be careful about eating too many. Remember: a small handful of raisins is a large bunch of grapes, a prune is a whole plum and a dried apricot is, well, an apricot. So, to keep your sugar intake down, eat only one or two pieces. It’s also worth bearing in mind that a large medjool date has the same number of calories as a banana, and two glasses of fruit juice the same calories as a cheeseburger. Nuts are good energy and brain food, but again don’t over-consume. Brazils, almonds and walnuts are best. If you’re buying trail mix as an emergency meal (also great for when travelling), make sure it’s only one of those single-portion-sized packets that may also include seeds such as pumpkin, sunflower or linseeds, and even 90 per cent cocoa organic chocolate.
Things to keep in your desk drawer: a small bottle of balsamic vinegar or low-fat dressing; knife, fork and spoon; wet-wipes and tissues; a dessert bowl/small plate; green tea bags; organic oatcake biscuits; some fruit; small container of home-made trail mix; a can of tuna in spring water.
Q: How do you deal with extended meetings, when they only serve cookies, cakes and sandwiches?
A: If it’s going to run through lunch or afternoon mealtime, when everyone else makes a dive for the sandwiches, break out your own meal. Everyone’s going to be eating something, right? So you might as well eat healthy. If you have the seniority to do so, instruct corporate catering to serve something else. Ask for things like vegetable sticks with hummus dip, sushi, chicken salad wraps, fresh fruit, etc. Opting for nutrient-dense foods as opposed to nutrient-dead foods can be slightly more expensive, but it’s also the difference between having your team highly energised, engaged and creative, or foggy-headed, fractious and unfocused. Which do you think will waste time, and cost you more money?
Eating with Clients
Q: OK, so what about a client dinner or meal out with your team?
A: Two issues here: food and booze.
One of the keys to eating right when you go out to restaurants is remembering this: the right foods (variety); the right composition (protein, vegetables, carbs, fats); the right amounts; the right assertiveness; and the right times. When you keep those five elements in mind, you can almost always find something that will work for you. And if you don’t – be assertive anyway and explain to the waiter or waitress exactly what you need.
Task your assistant to find out (if possible) where your client dinner is going to be held, and to go online to check the menu options, or call the exec chef to find out what options they have that would suit. Have them text or email those options across to you so you know exactly what to order when you get there. They may have to pre-order a special dish for you, but then at least the restaurant is briefed and prepared and there’s no fuss on the day. If need be, instruct your scheduling team to say you have an allergic reaction to certain sugars, fats, alcohol, wheat, dairy, nuts, or whatever it is you need to avoid or reduce. (This has proven to be such an important strategy that we now run special workshops specifically for PAs and EAs to instruct them on these skillsets.) It may also pay to let your client know that you only eat a ‘high-performance’ diet.
When it comes to alcohol, there’s a great deal of pressure in corporate culture to drink and get drunk as an act of collaboration and bonding. However, this will only compromise your performance the next day, and your travel schedule will be challenging enough without making it worse. If you’re the most senior person present, toughen up and set an example.
If your clients are entertaining you, go ahead and have a couple, but then pull the ‘high-performance’ card and switch to non-alcoholic drinks. Alternatively, play a more strategic game – drink sparkling water in a champagne glass; take a sip out of a full glass and then drink only water afterwards; or alternate one sip of wine with two sips of water.
The bottom line is that other people cope where they have to (vegetarians, kosher, recovering alcoholics), so you can be inventive and play a smarter and higher game if you need to as well. An athlete doesn’t drink alcohol before or during an event. Neither should you.
Business Travel
Q: How do you handle getting the right food when your first meeting of the day is a breakfast meeting at the office and they only serve croissants, pastries, toast and coffee?
A: The best way is to get up a little earlier and get room service to bring you a breakfast of porridge oats, Bircher muesli, an omelette, scrambled eggs or poached eggs with wholegrain toast. Stay well away from fruit juice, but instead eat a piece of fresh fruit on the way into the office. Even if you got in late the night before, getting up half an hour earlier to eat an energising breakfast is a smart strategy. If you have the luxury of a little breakfast time at the hotel buffet, ask for an omelette with lots of vegetables (onion, peppers, tomato, mushrooms). Alternatively, order scrambled or poached eggs to have with grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, beans and maybe lean ham. Often there’ll also be hot porridge oats, sugar-free Bircher muesli or a dry Swiss muesli you could have with fresh fruit or Greek yogurt to get the day rolling, and you can always take a couple of hard-boiled eggs, a banana or apple with you when you leave.
Q: How do you cope with tiredness when your schedule is wall-to-wall from the moment you fly in to the moment you fly out and on to the next jam-packed day of meetings in another time zone?
A: Most times when we hear of this, it becomes clear that there is a failure to organise the schedule effectively, and/or a failure to train for the trip. Again, your EA needs to be fully briefed about your requirements when travelling, and they need to enforce your preferences with an iron fist! Your chain is only as strong as the weakest link, and you need to be performing right at the top of your game to be effective. Otherwise, the trip is for nothing!
You will need access to the right nutrition at the right times. You need your meals and events planned to allow you adequate refreshment breaks. Make sure you take all your supplements with you, including melatonin, 5-HTP and magnesium (to help you sleep), plus your multi-vitamin/minerals and vitamin C.
You need one or maybe two 30-minute spaces somewhere in the day or evening for exercise.
And you need sleep. Catching up on sleep in the plane is not something you can guarantee, so it shouldn’t be taken for granted.
Before embarking on any business trip, you also need to make sure you’ve done your homework. In other words, you need to make sure that you are in peak physical shape. It’s like an athlete going to the Olympic Games. You will need to be lean, strong, fit and healthy to endure the challenges that business travel throws at you. If you’re not in top shape before you travel, you will struggle. You will under-perform. And you will come back in worse shape than when you left.
Our Top Tips For Travel
As soon as you can, when arriving in a new time zone, get a workout in. This one strategy is the single most effective thing for busting jet lag. Even if there’s no gym in your hotel (seriously?), you can do exercises in your room using bodyweight or bungy ropes, or even climbing stairs on the fire escape for 20 minutes. Do the same first thing in the morning and you’ll be all set to go.
Take 5–6mg of melatonin, 5-HTP and magnesium 30 minutes before going to bed.
Take a hot bath before going to bed. This relaxes tense muscles, calms the mind and artificially raises body temperature. One of the key triggers to getting to sleep quickly is a drop in core body temperature, so raising it slightly higher creates a bigger, more dramatic drop, and thus a faster pathway to sleep.
Don’t drink coffee within six hours of going to bed, and certainly avoid any nightcap.
Drink lots of water during your flights, and stay away from carbs, sugary drinks and snacks on the plane. During the day, drink green tea to help stay alert, eat quality protein, lots of fibrous (crunchy) vegetables and double-dose your multi-vitamins. If you are under stress/fatigue your body places a massive extra load on your immune system. Most multi-vitamins are created to cover RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance), which is formulated as a base line to prevent malnourishment only. Double-dosing is the least you could do to support this, and if there are surpluses of any particular vitamin/mineral, the body will simply excrete them. The thing is though, because your meals will be different in composition from day to day, you have at least covered any possible deficiency, and as such this is a sound insurance policy. The body will have to work slightly harder to excrete these, but nothing near as arduous as coping with a glass of wine...
Take time for a ‘Deep Five™’ (five deep breaths), neck stretches and regular toilet breaks – and stay as active and mobile as you can during the day.
If you get constipated when travelling, take a mild herbal laxative with plenty of water to keep things moving. Stagnant material in your bowel leeches toxins into your bloodstream and will make you foggy-headed and sluggish.
Delegate all your follow-up work to your EA so you have time to work on your exercise, energy and recovery rituals.
Grab sleep wherever you can and whenever you can. Even short naps can make a big difference.
Don’t cram your flight schedule. You’ll perform much better and be more effective at business when you’re less rushed and stressed. Thinking you can grab something to eat in the taxi on the way to the airport is foolish, and you can guarantee there will be nothing useful to eat when you get there either.
And finally, when you’re travelling on business, remember that you are not away on holiday. You cannot afford the luxury of letting your guard down at any time. With all the additional pressures and challenges that international travel demands, you have to be right on top of your game at all times – even more so than when you’re at home. It is our observation that being successful at mastering business travel and staying in great shape for business is the domain of only a few very disciplined, dedicated and switched-on individuals. Are you ready for that?
Cooking
Q: Do I really have to cook?
A: Cooking up a lean body is essential. We have clients who enjoy a fantastic lifestyle with multiple homes in various locations around the world. Their homes are designer-built and decorated, including the stunning kitchens that would be the envy of any professional chef. The most unusual thing we’ve noticed here is that in many cases the appliances in the kitchen have never been used. Not the oven, nor the grill or even the hob! It seems that eating out is becoming the default mode of dining for more and more people every year.
Recent research published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that eating out at a restaurant may be just as bad for you as a fast-food meal. Perhaps the temptations of hot rolls, dessert menu and that extra glass of wine all combine to create the perfect dining storm. Either way, this is not the first study to suggest that eating at fast-food outlets and full service restaurants is worse for your health than eating at home. In February 2013 the USDA released a report that showed that over the last 40 years more Americans are defaulting to eating out, consuming 32 per cent of their daily calories away from home, up from 18 per cent in 1977–78. It found that those who relied on eating out ultimately consumed more saturated fat and sodium, and less dietary fibre than those who ate at home.27 Similar trends were observed in the UK in the 2014 Expenditure and Food Survey.28 To be on top of your game, avoid the temptations and hidden calories that will side-swipe you, and reacquaint yourself with the joy and creativity of your kitchen.
Dietary Supplements
Q: How do I pick a good dietary supplement?
A: Here’s what we recommend:
1.Purchase your supplements as close as possible to their natural form. Choose concentrated whole food supplements rather than isolated or synthetic products. Vitamins and minerals in your body shouldn’t be viewed as independent substances, but rather as a cooperative network of nutrients working together to be of most benefit to you.
2.Check that the utmost care has been taken in all phases of their production, from growing their ingredients, to manufacturing, testing for potency and quality control. Unfortunately there are some charlatans out there who are only involved in the industry to profit. Also be aware that some importers and retailers of natural products trust the lab results provided by the manufacturers and exporters without checking or validating them.
3.Select from a range of companies that have a long track record of providing high-quality products that produce good clinical results. Know where they have been made, rather than packed. Many different brands can be still be tracked back to just one country or one source. Look for evidence of independent testing. We belong to a subscription site www.consumerlab.com. There are other sites also that give good independent reviews of popular supplement lines.
The Impact on Your Business
Q: Why is any of this relevant to my business? We don’t have any major health issues on my team.
A: Really? Did you know that for every 10 Senior Managers in your business:
9 are already feeling the effects of burnout to some degree...
8 are failing to prioritise healthy behaviours in their professional and personal lives
7 are disengaged, or actively disengaged, meaning that only three are functioning effectively in their roles
6 are taking time off work for stress-related reasons
5 say that stress is damaging relationships with colleagues and clients
4 lose sleep worrying about work, and will want to leave your firm in the next two years
3 are overweight or obese
2 haven’t had a medical examination in the last five years, and
1 will die from a stroke, heart attack or cancer due to work-related stress...
Not only that, but on average: two key earners will leave your firm this year, one because the competition has more attractive benefits. You will also spend half a million dollars, and nine months of wasted downtime finding and recruiting suitable replacements.
It doesn’t have to be that way...
Did you also know that for every 10 Senior Managers who follow The Wealthy Body protocols:
9 manage their stress more effectively, and have energy to spare at the end of the day
8 enjoy a more satisfying work-life balance
7 successfully lose weight, get fit and reduce their risk of illness and disease
6 sleep better and say they are more refreshed when they wake up in the morning
5 reduce their alcohol intake and caffeine dependence
4 improve their mental agility, clarity and resilience
3 increase their capacity for current workload demands
2 take on more senior and visible roles in the company, and
1 will improve their golf swing and be longer off the tee ...
Which set of numbers would your shareholders like to read?
The Wealthy Body Kicker
We chose the title of this book after much thought, care and deliberation. Of course we wanted you to pick it up and read it. But more than that, we wanted you to reframe the concept of well-being in business, understand the principles put forward and follow the advice we recommend. In doing so, we’re convinced you can live a longer, active, healthy and more productive life, thus gaining the ability, capacity and functionality to accomplish all you want to achieve in the years you have. By now we hope you ‘get’ that.
But it’s just the first step.
Now we have your attention, there’s something else we want to tell you. In working with hundreds of business leaders over the years, we’ve discovered that there’s a point where high achievers in business realise it’s not about the money anymore – it goes deeper than that.
You see if you’re at the top of your game, The Wealthy Body will extend your influence for longer, and also wider and deeper into society. It will enable you to inspire, change and shape the business and social communities of tomorrow. Instilling values, setting standards – and changing the future.