The Irony of Illness: Self-Care Strategies for Busy Entrepreneurs

Welcome to the podcast and great to have you with me this week.

And I also hope that if you're listening for the first time you're thinking who is this guy and what's he about?

So my name's James, here to help you get sales results.

But if you've been listening for a while, welcome back.

So it's ironic this week because this week I set myself a goal to do a podcast to talk about self care and self help and this is on the basis that I normally don't get ill.

But see the irony at the moment is over for 15, about 10, 15 years haven't been ill.

I say ill properly once but then I was ill for a couple of days on holiday and I'm actually my wife's give me a little bit of a head cold in the last couple of days but in the main I generally don't get ill and what but more importantly I wanted just to use this podcast to explain some of the things that I do personally to try and improve and do self care for myself and more importantly to be able to try and improve and develop and grow as a person.

And I wanted just to share this list with you so it gives you some insights into what I try and do.

I am by no means the epitome of perfect health at all, but I am someone that believes that the body is the business and I think if we are operating at our best physically and mentally then it can help us do things in the right way.

And so what I try look to do is to use these elements I've got and I'm going to talk through today and I bring them all into my sort of life and way of operating, to try and be the best possible person version of me, to help me achieve success and to do things on a regular basis.

So I'm going to talk about a few different things that I use and by the way, I'd love to hear your thoughts into this.

This is a session so many people have different ideas and thoughts and what works well for them and what they do, different devices, different practices, whatever else.

I'm just going to show you some of the things I do to try and keep me as healthy as I can and as more as going as best I can in the most positive way possible.

And then I can't think from my perspective.

As a result of some football injuries from years ago, I have quite severe, I say severe arthritis in my knees.

My knees aren't the greatest.

So all the things I try and do is try and help Me do that and basically lead the most active life because I'm a firm believer that if you stay mentally active and physically active, then you can pretty much do most things.

And I think actually the biggest problems happen in old age when you stop walking and doing things and staying active.

And I, and I look and think that's a real reason for me, I want to stay as active as possible, both mentally and physically, for as long as possible.

So a couple of things that I'll start with.

What do I do?

So the first thing is this.

I have something on my arm.

People have asked me sometimes when I'm doing videos, what is that on you have on your arm?

And what this is is something called a whoop.

And I've had a whoop now for just over five years.

I was one of the early adopters of whoop.

So if I look at my WHOOP outlines today, I think it says how many days in a row?

17, 16.

There you go.

You can see now if you're watching this, 17, 16 days in a row that I've been using whoop.

And I'm a big whoop fan.

Whoop measures.

It's a paid for membership per month.

So not gonna.

And by the way, I can tally up all the elements of what this sort of stuff sort of cost to me, but it's a paid for membership every month.

And it's something that helps me do a number of things.

It enables me to recover my sleep, monitor my sleep, which I think is all the research I do and all the listening and learning that I do indicates that sleep is so, so paramountly important to our way we operate.

I was a bit carefree about it years ago.

I'm not so much now.

So much so.

I was having dinner with my brother all the other night and he didn't talk about sleeping very well.

I'm like, right, we need to get you fixed on that.

I've tried to help my wife get sorted on from a sleep perspective.

I think sleep is so, so important for us to operate as human beings.

And what the whoop does is it measures the sleep for me and it measures my.

There are four stages of sleep.

So it measures my deep sleep, which is my REM sleep, which is called rapid eye movement sleep.

And those are the two bits of sleep which are most important, where your body recovers and then it also measures your light sleep and when you're awake.

So the sleep stats that I see on a regular basis, by the way, I'll share some examples of this because I probably Share in details around it.

You know, you should be.

I think most of the stats show you should be getting between seven and eight hours of sleep per night.

I'm not getting that.

I generally don't.

I generally get between six and a half and seven and a half.

But sleep is a really, really key thing.

But what the WHOOP also does is it measures my recovery.

So basically based upon some health monitors, so my resting heart rate and things such as my heart rate variability and also blood oxygen levels and respiratory rate.

So it's a good example of it.

You know, there's today's stats again, you can see on there.

My resting heart rate last night was 56.

So for a 50 year old man that's not bad.

I'd like it to be a bit lower.

I'm always working physically to get as physically fit as possible.

I'd like to get that down into the sort of early 50s, 52, 53.

And the heart rate variability, I want that as high as possible.

I mean I ideally would love that to be in the 50s, but you know, sometimes being in the 30s to 40s.

So what that and I'm not quite sure the science behind it.

Search for heart rate variability.

There's some information on there that shows it.

And the benefit about whoop, what WHOOP does is it shows me when my body's in recovery.

And by the way, what's really interesting about wearing the WHOOP is that you don't really stand to see when you're drinking alcohol how it affects your recovery and the impact alcohol on your body.

So it has maybe a number of times.

Think that's why I don't drink that much.

I drink on certain occasions because it has an impact that.

So whoop is something costs me £27amonth.

I think it is, I think about £27amonth.

But it's something I've just had for a while.

I love the data that shows me and I think it's a really important thing to put in place.

Okay, so what else do I do?

A couple other things for me because I've got arthritis in my knees.

One of the things I gave up about four years ago was coffee and tea.

So if you ever see me have a meeting with me, you'll notice I only ever drink something called rooibos tea, which is an equivalent South African sort of rooibos or redbush tea.

And I'll drink herbal teas but I won't drink coffee and tea.

And two things that I learned from doing that A, I did that because coffee and tea are both inflammatory so they inflame joints and parts of your body.

So if you've got those, those challenges then it's definitely worth being aware of that because it can, it can stop you from, or can, can help, you know, can harm your, those aspects.

But for me, the other thing I noticed from, even though I used to love coffees, to love a double espresso and having that coffee with me on a regular basis, the thing I learned about that was that the caffeine spikes used to kill me and I used to drink a lot of Red Bull and that sort of stuff.

I don't drink any of that sort of shit now.

I call it shit.

It's a bit harsh but I don't drink any of that sort of stuff now.

Just, just don't think it's good for my body.

The stats and studies show that it's not particularly good for me.

So don't, don't touch any coffee.

So a couple of things I also tend to do on a regular basis in the morning when I can and I try and do this at least.

I have a little app on my phone called let's Meditate.

I think meditation is a free app.

It's called let's Meditate, the little orange app there, let's meditate.

And it's a really, really good simple App to have five to 10 minutes every morning to meditate.

And again, a lot of good practices talk about meditation.

Everything's always a bit woo woo and a bit sort of weird and a bit out there.

But for me meditation is one of those things that's incredibly important just to start thinking about your process for the day and what's happening, what's going to, what's going to go on and get your thoughts in order.

So meditation is something that I've done for a long period of time and I think it helps me just try and set up the debt for the best data.

There's a number of those different meditation which is a walking vers I listen to.

There's a, there's the best day ever.

There's a gratitude one.

And these little things I do, by the way, little things I also try and do.

I know it sounds a bit weird but every day I wake up I say thank you.

Not sure who to because I'm not particularly religious but I say thank you.

And every time I go to bed in the evening I say thank you because it's given me a chance to have a good day.

And I'm also aware that there's a lot of people in the world that don't wake up in the morning, don't get the chance to have that full day.

So I'm always showing gratitude for those things and I think these are elements that I think are important to do as much as anything as possible.

So obviously, like anyone else, I try and go to the gym as much as possible.

I try to exercise four try and go to the gym three or four times a week.

And we've got a busy lifestyle.

I'm traveling a lot, so I don't always get into the gym as much as I'd like to, but I try and get to the gym three or four times a week and I try and do a lot.

I do a lot of hiit exercises, hiit workouts all.

I have just hired up a new PT to do more weight work and the reason being because as you get older, weights is again, statistically proven to be very good for you as you get older too, especially as an older man, to be able to do weights work is very good for you.

So I'm certainly trying to be in the gym three or four times and if you've seen some of my challenges and sorry, things I've talked about, I always like to do a challenge.

And this year I've said I'm 20, 26, I'm going to do two challenges.

One is on the 29th of May, called 1 million meters, which is where for me and three other colleagues in the gym are going to basically do a million meters on the, on the gym equipment.

So whether it's the skier, the rowing, the rower, the runner of the bike, we're going to do a million meters over a 24 hour period.

So that's one.

And I've also got another challenge at the end of the year, which is to ride from San Sebastian, San Marlo on a bike.

So we're going to do those two challenges, but going to the gym, I think, you know, don't need me to tell you how good going to the gym is for you, getting that heart rate going.

I think when you start to sweat, it just makes the body feel great.

And for me I need to do that because I love my food.

I'm definitely a foodie.

So, you know, making sure I have been able to eat a bit more of the things I want to do, I can do that when I'm in the gym and obviously I pay for gym membership, as most people do per month.

What else do I do?

So one of the things you might have Seen for me, if you follow me on social media, by the way, I'm on social media and James White sales on all the different channels is I do ice dips, cold dips.

So I've got a polar.

I call it Polar Express.

It's not Christmas Polar Discovery ice bath in my garden.

I used to do it into lakes and, and the cold, the sea itself, near.

Near where I live.

But I've invested in a, in a polar, like a little ice dip thing.

And obviously, as we're now in February, February Arch.

Then, then this is.

The water's not as cold.

It's about 9 degrees at the moment, which is pretty warm.

Normally I've been in when it's 2 or 3 degrees and that's pretty cold.

And I generally try and spend three minutes in there in the morning.

And again, cold dips has been proven to me statistically to help you and help the body.

But.

But for me, they just give me so much clarity.

Just challenging yourself, it clears my mind.

I feel like it's a good thing to do and it makes a difference.

And if I don't get in the.

And if I don't get in the cold dip, I will always turn the shower cold every morning.

Every morning, whichever, regardless where I am, I will always have 30 seconds, 45 seconds of cold water.

One thing is a good thing to challenge yourself every day, which is good to do.

But cold therapy is.

There's so many good studies and stats that show that it's very good for you and can reduce different types of fats in the body and help you in lots of different ways.

So for me, cold baths are a part of that process.

Okay, so a couple of things that I try and do then every morning when I'm away or when I'm at home.

So I have a lot of people take vitamins and different types of tablets and all those sort of things.

I've taken over my.

Over the period of time, three, three main things that I take in the morning.

And first one is something called a black powder.

There's a lady called Felicity J.

Who I've done a podcast, actually interview with Felicity, which I'll share a link to.

Felicity is someone that I actually go to.

And I'll talk about the colonic part in a moment.

But she produces this black powder, which she calls a face mask for the gut.

And I'm a big believer that gut health is so, so important in everything we do.

In fact, one of the things that I wrote, one of the reasons why I think I've been a little bit more susceptible to illness over the course of the last four to six weeks is because I've basically had a bit of food poisoning when I was on holiday and I think my gut just took a bit of a reschedule of that.

But I have a black powder which is sort of known as a bit of a face mask for the gut.

It helps or cleanse the gut.

I'm a big believer that your gut health is so critical to your personal and life sort of health in general.

And I guess just to add on to.

To that.

So I take the black powder every day and I'll come on and talk about the colonics in a moment, but to every other morning what I will also do is I will also take some vitamins called juice plus.

I've been taking juice plus again now for 10 years, maybe 15 years.

I find it really helpful.

It's.

It's quite expensive, so it's about 59, it's about £65amonth, but it's got all of the fruit and vegetables in tablets that you need.

And it's something that I've taken for a long time, I think has a huge amount of value and something I think really works for me.

And the other thing I also do is I take.

I used to take a barocca every morning, but I've since moved to something called Tonic Health, which is a.

It's called not an energy drink, but it's a re.

It's an immune system.

Helps your immune system with a number of elements around it.

And I'll take some photos and show you what that looks like as well by taking a Tonic Health drink in the morning as well as a turmeric shot.

Turmeric and ginger shot.

And I get that from the Turmeric Company.

I've had that for a number of years now as well.

And that really works well for me.

I like the taste of it.

And again, it's pretty good.

Not always as right now case, but preventing injuries and illness.

And for me it's also about reducing inflammation.

Tumour is very good for reducing inflammation.

So again, for my knees and my body, it helps an awful lot.

So the other thing I try and take as well, which I've only started to take recently, but again read up about it, is creatine.

So creatine is really good for you from a male's perspective to take to help with performance, especially if you're exercising and doing a lot of activity to, to help in performance of the body and to create it's.

One of the things I'm reading more and more about at the moment to see how it operates and what it does to people.

But there's a good friend, a guy I know called Graham.

If you listen to this, Graham Salmons, who is a pilot and has used creatine for a long time, thinks it helps him with mental clarity as well.

So I'm always on the lookout.

By the way, if you, if you're listening to this and you're thinking, actually what are some of the things that you know that you take that could be really powerful for you, then please do send them through.

I'm really happy to.

Would love to know what it is that, that you take that makes a difference for you and very open to trying those things.

Couple of things that I do on a regular basis that I think would be good for people to think about.

And then I'm going to shut up and get your comments in hopefully and get some feedback in for people.

The thing I mentioned I do on a weekly basis is Pilates.

So I do Pilates and I've done Pilates for again about five, six years.

I felt like I wasn't as flexible as I needed to be.

Pilates was something that people talked about as being a very female dominated thing.

But actually I feel like it's a, it's an important thing for men to do.

And for me, Pilates has helped me become much more flexible.

I'm definitely.

My knees are not great and Emma, my Pilates teacher will tell you that my knees don't move as much as I'd like to be.

But my hamstrings and because my knees are in a difficult position, every other part of my body becomes sort of more, more tight in those areas.

But I've definitely become more and more mobile with my Pilates.

There's no doubt in my mind.

Actually my golf has.

I play golf on a regular basis, put on my exercises, things I do and my golf handicap has dropped, I think because I've become more flexible.

So definitely Pilates is something.

I think I do it once a week as a private lesson, but I think it's something people should look at doing more.

It's so good for you.

Medicine for the muscles is what I call it.

And I think it works really, really well.

Something to do.

So if you're not doing that, give it a go, give it a try.

I think it can help you, just helps you.

And look, these are things that I do on a preventative basis.

There are some things you can obviously do to, you know, once you've had.

If you go, you've got a bad back, you go to the chiropractor.

But I do these things to try and prevent myself from.

From having further issues in time, as well as Pilates.

What I also do is I have something called a deep tissue massage.

So a lady called Sara who is fantastic at doing a deep tissue massage.

Again, because my body's getting older and I'm.

I sit in the car a lot, do a lot of stuff in the car or traveling around, I want my muscles to be as flexible as possible because my muscles being tense isn't going to help me.

So she does a deep tissue massage.

This isn't a relaxing massage.

She'll literally.

It causes sometimes a bit of pain, but it's about trying to make my body perform in a better way.

And that really works for me.

So I do that generally on one suit every two weeks for an hour or so just to help my muscles become more flexible and to perform in a better way.

So deep sushi massage is another thing I'd recommend.

And then the final thing that I'm going to talk about, or finally, there's two other things that I do.

The first thing I do is I read 10 pages of a book every day.

And this is something I've tried to do for a little while.

It's a habit I've tried to build up of reading because I think reading is one of the key things we learned about.

I listen to stuff in the car a lot, but actually having a physical book.

So, for example, at the moment I'm reading a book called how to write your best business book by some guy called Nicola and Peter Russell, who I've got to know.

Great book.

I. I think reading it was a great quote.

Someone once said to me, if you want to hide something, put it in a book.

And I think life is about learning.

If we can learn something and if you can read 10 pages of a book every day, then over the course of a year, you're going to read about five books and you're going to learn some stuff as a result of that, which is.

Which is good for us all.

And Michelangelo, age 87, painted the sister in chapel.

I'm still learning.

So if he does it, it's good for us.

And then the final thing that I do, which I want just to sort of end this with, is a colonic clonic hydrotherapy.

So this is really weird.

And people might.

If you search on clonic, I'm not gonna get, you know, graphic with people now you can have a look at what it is.

It is a bit of a strange thing.

Why did you do that?

For me, it's been something, I think, again, gut health is something I found really, really fascinating.

There's a lot of elements around it that are so, so important.

And for me, I found it something that is a really important thing to do.

And so I have a colonic every, probably every two to three months, just to where I also can check with Felicity that does that with me, that things in good order in that way as well.

So.

So those are the things that I do on a regular basis to help me stay healthier and fitter and stronger and be able to operate and do what I do day to day.

And I've shared this on this podcast today because I just thought it might be interesting to you to see the type of stuff I get up to.

And that's not because I'm trying to be some narcissistic person, but just these are the things that I invest in to help me become better and fitter and stronger.

So hope you found it useful.

Hope you have let me know what are the things that you do or do on a regular basis that are things that you find really helpful is the things you take or the things you do.

But I'd love to know, because I want to get better as I get older.

I've got to keep that body, as I said at the start, mentally and physically active.

And if I can stay as mentally as physically active as possible, then I know I'll be in good shape to hopefully last for another 50 years maybe.

So, let's see.

So, as I always do, I try and finish the podcast off on a positive story.

And I'm going to do a story this time on a lady called Rosie Swale Pope.

And Rosie basically was.

She lost her husband to cancer.

She was always an adventurer, and she lost her husband to cancer, and she decided to run around the world and she turned the sort of grief of her situation into a really positive situation.

And I always think this is quite poignant for me because I lost someone that was really important to me last week with cancer.

And I always think about, what are the things that you can do to help people?

And Rosie suffered that loss with her husband, but decided to make sure that she used it to inspire her to do other things and has now created this movement that's doing great things.

So Rosie Swale Pope is the inspirational story.

And as I always say, if someone like that is doing something, what can you do that can interest and support you, and how can you inspire people in the work you're doing?

And sometimes we think, oh, we can't inspire.

But we can and we do over time.

So that's it for this week's podcast.

Hope you enjoyed it.

That's the practical things I do to help me keep fitter and healthy.

I'd love to know what you do.

Let me know in the comments section or reach out to me on on social media.

But I hope you enjoyed it.

Podcast if you have, then please stay with me until next week.

If you obviously could rate and like the podcast, that helps us an awful lot as well.

But I hope you've enjoyed it.

Let me know your thoughts, as ever.

But until next week.

See you soon.

Take care.