How I Consistently Stay Fit Working 100+ hrs a week

Summary

In this video, Fay shares her journey from being clinically overweight to regaining control over her health and fitness while working in the NHS and managing a YouTube channel. She outlines 10 strategies, including reframing exercise, meal prepping with a vegetable chopper, addressing sensory cravings with healthy snacks, and the importance of emotional awareness to break the binge-restrict cycle. Fay emphasizes the significance of consistency over intense workouts and finding a balance that supports a lifetime of healthy habits.

Takeaways

• 😀 The speaker transitioned from being clinically overweight and having a poor relationship with food to regaining control over health and fitness through simple strategies while working full-time and managing a YouTube channel.
• 🏋️‍♀️ The 'Time Thief' strategy involves using time that's already spent on activities to incorporate exercise, such as suggesting a fitness class or a walk when meeting a friend.
• 🚴‍♀️ Cycling to work is presented as an efficient way to integrate exercise into a busy schedule, providing an example of how it adds up to an hour of exercise with minimal extra time spent.
• 🤽‍♀️ The 'Ants in Your Pants' principle encourages being more active throughout the day, such as taking short yoga sessions or walking around the library to avoid sedentary behavior.
• 🍏 The 'Anti-Apple Watch' principle emphasizes the benefits of exercise beyond just burning calories, like boosting self-esteem, improving concentration, and relieving stress.
• 🥗 The '12-in-one vegetable chopper' is recommended as a time-efficient tool for meal prepping, which can help maintain a balanced diet even with a busy lifestyle.
• 🥤 The importance of addressing sensory cravings with healthy alternatives, such as sparkling water with lemon or carrots, is highlighted to prevent reaching for less healthy snacks.
• 🍮 Recognizing the 'dessert stomach' concept, which is the idea that even after feeling full, there's still room for foods that provide a sensory satisfaction, like sweet treats.
• 🧘‍♀️ The 'Gold Star' strategy involves using habit trackers and rewards to implement and maintain healthy habits, flipping the dopamine balance away from unhealthy behaviors.
• 🤝 The 'Millionaire Matchmaker' strategy is about creating rituals around desired habits to make them stick by reducing the effort needed to perform them, which is crucial for those with demanding careers.
• 📝 The 'Gratitude GC' (Gratitude Group Chat) is a method to practice daily gratitude and hold each other accountable, which can improve mental health and emotional regulation.
• 🧠 The 'Brain DMC' (Deep Meaningful Chat) emphasizes the importance of emotional awareness and addressing the root causes of unhealthy behaviors, such as emotional eating, through self-reflection or brain dumps.

Q & A

What was the speaker's initial struggle with health and fitness?

The speaker was clinically overweight, had a poor relationship with food, and was stuck in a binge-restrict cycle, feeling resigned to this being their life due to the anticipation of an even busier life as a doctor.

How does the speaker manage to balance a full-time job in the NHS and a YouTube channel while maintaining health and fitness?

The speaker has implemented 10 simple strategies that have helped regain control of their health and fitness, despite the demanding career and content creation responsibilities.

What is the 'Time Thief' strategy mentioned in the script?

The 'Time Thief' strategy involves stealing time that's already been allocated for other activities to exercise, such as suggesting a fitness class or a walk when meeting a friend, rather than just sitting down for a catch-up.

Why does the speaker advocate for cycling to work?

Cycling to work is a time-efficient way to incorporate exercise into a busy schedule. It provides an hour of exercise with only an additional 14 minutes of time compared to driving, without the need to go to the gym afterward.

What is the 'ants in your pants' principle regarding exercise?

The 'ants in your pants' principle encourages being more active throughout the day, such as taking short yoga classes or walking around, rather than focusing solely on formal exercise sessions.

What does the speaker mean by the 'anti-apple watch' principle?

The 'anti-apple watch' principle is about forgetting about calories and focusing on the non-caloric benefits of exercise, such as boosting self-esteem, improving concentration, and relieving stress.

What is the significance of the 12-in-one vegetable chopper in the speaker's meal preparation routine?

The 12-in-one vegetable chopper is a time-efficient tool for meal prepping, allowing for quick and easy preparation of balanced meals with vegetables, which is essential for maintaining a healthy diet.

How does the speaker address the issue of meal prepped food becoming unappealing the next day?

The speaker suggests mixing up the carb, sauce, or dressing to keep the meal interesting and assembling different parts of the meal to personal preferences on the day of consumption to avoid boredom.

What is the 'sweet sensory sensation' strategy for dealing with non-hunger cravings?

The 'sweet sensory sensation' strategy involves having healthy sensory snacks and drinks to satisfy cravings that are not based on physical hunger but rather on the desire for a certain sensory experience, like crunch or sweetness.

What is the 'dessert stomach' concept mentioned in the script?

The 'dessert stomach' concept refers to the idea that even after feeling physically full, there is still a desire for something sweet or enjoyable, which is why it's important to include enjoyable elements in meals and snacks.

How does the speaker suggest using a habit tracker to implement healthy habits?

The speaker suggests using a habit tracker to increase dopamine from performing healthy habits, making them more rewarding and thus more likely to be consistently performed over time.

What is the 'Millionaire Matchmaker' principle for habit formation?

The 'Millionaire Matchmaker' principle involves creating rituals around desired habits to make them stick and become part of muscle memory, reducing the need for motivation and discipline in maintaining those habits.

Why is the 'Gratitude GC' method effective for the speaker?

The 'Gratitude GC' method, or Gratitude Group Chat, is effective because it makes gratitude practice social, accountable, and part of daily interaction with friends, making it easier to implement and maintain.

What does the speaker mean by the 'brain DMC' and how is it used for emotional awareness?

The 'brain DMC' stands for deep, meaningful chat, which is about having emotional awareness and understanding the reasons behind behaviors like emotional eating. It involves addressing the root causes of these behaviors rather than just the symptoms.