Personal Lessons and Experiences From The Past Week
Health
Each week I deliver health assessments to employees of businesses within the UK and what comes up as a requiring theme is someone's cholesterol.
For the most part, the employee has never had their cholesterol checked and if they have, GPs normally just inform them what their total cholesterol reading is.
Your total cholesterol is just how much your body has and while a level below 5 mmol/l is recommended, this value tells you very little about how healthy it is.
Your total is made up of good (HDL) and bad (LDL) cholesterol and understanding how much of both you have is far more valuable.
HDL (high-density lipoprotein) acts as a sink unblocker and helps to remove all the bad (LDL) cholesterol within your arteries.
While LDL (low-density lipoprotein) is the fat that is poured down the sink and blocks the pipes.
So understanding how you can keep the pipes clean is vital if you are looking to lower your risk of cardiovascular disease in the future.
To do this, aim to cut back on the saturated fats in your diet from meat, cheese and chocolate. Basically, the fewer animal fats you have the lower your LDL cholesterol will be. On average, 20 grams a day for men and 30 grams a day for women is recommended.
On top of this, aim to increase the amount of HDL cholesterol you have by enjoying more healthy fats like oily fish, nuts and seeds and good amounts of cardiovascular exercise (running, swimming, cycling etc).
Research has shown that making healthy lifestyle choices earlier in life may wipe out 90 % of our risk of having a heart attack.
Check out the research here.
This is why having a regular health assessment is key if preventive care for your health in the future.
That is why we provide a health assessment for all of the clients that we work with one to one along with providing these assessments to employees of businesses within the UK to support their companies' health and well-being policies.
You can find out more about our Workplace Wellness Solutions by clicking here.
And if you want to find out more about our one-to-one coaching options then check out our options below!
Wealth
Last week I talked about how easy it was for me to get into £12K of debt.
What I didn't talk about was how I got out of it.
To start with I want to be very honest and transparent so you know the truth.
Because it is important not to present a false identity of yourself to others.
So in order for me to start paying this money back I managed to bring in more money on a sustainable basis. This was a key change to what I wasn't doing before.
My work was up and down and as a result, this proved difficult to save any money to pay off the debt because my income was only enough to pay my current bills.
On top of this, I cut back on unnecessary spending which was a big factor in the relationship I had at the time. As I tracked my spending to the penny I can tell you that I was spending around £200 a month on just eating out. For me at that time wasn't within my budget so you can see how easily the debt racked up.
Just by doing these two things, earning more and spending less, I was able to pay off £1000 on my bank overdraft to get things going.
So all I had to do was continue this process in order to get my credit cards paid off.
However, I was very fortunate that not long after this I was left some money from a friend's will. This was enough to pay them all off in one go and have a little left over.
I did consider not using the money to pay off the debt but credit card debt is not the same as mortgage debt. The interest I was paying was a lot and the longer it took to pay off the debt, the more I would be paying.
So, if you have the chance to pay off any credit card debt in full or as soon as you can, then I would highly recommend it.
That year I continued to save more money than I spent and I feel I would off been debt free within a year. As a result, I used that money to save for a once-in-a-lifetime holiday to Australia for a month.
So my key lesson here is to track your spending weekly, earn more and find a way of doing so and make sure you are saving monthly (any amount is key)so you can pay off any debt or save more for a holiday, home or anything else that is a desire of yours.
Mindset
How often do you have a quiet mind?
I thought about this while out walking in the countryside in South East England. While sat quietly, the sun on my face and the chill in the air, it dawned on me that when the environment around you is quiet, it is a lot easier to quiet the mind.
Living in the city, sitting quietly is possible but there are often noises going on around you. People, cars and other noise pollution that your mind has to contend with.
So experiencing this quiet mind was a refreshing change that I haven't had for a while.
That is why getting out in nature is so important for our health and minds. Detaching from the world we live in that is full of noise (in real life and online) and just getting away from it from time to time helps you to reconnect with yourself and is a nice reminder that we are all part of nature too.
Giving you more appreciation for the world around you and how you take care of it and respect it.
So, when was the last time you were out in nature and how does being in nature make you feel?
Let me know by sending me a message on Instagram.
Lyric/ Quote I'm pondering
Look deep into nature, and there you will understand everything better. - Albert EinsteinTweet
Join Me
Thanks for reading. You can get more Health, Wealth and Mindset thoughts and tips in my weekly email newsletter. Each week, I will share my personal lessons and experiences. Enter your email now to join.
P.S. Want to experience more about how I care for my health, wealth and mindset? Follow me on Youtube and Instagram.