Keri McKibbin Personal Training

Whatever you focus on, you automatically tend to use energy on it.

I know people who focus all their energy on their cars, they shine it once a week, it’s spotless inside and it means the world to them, they often treat their cars better than they treat their own body.

Some people focus on eating out, going to the best restaurants, avidly following the latest reviews and trends, and are proud to be called a “foodie”, or are wine “experts” and are highly knowledgeable about wines around the world after a lot of research.

The truth is for many that they don’t focus on their health until something goes wrong. A visit to the doctor may include a high blood pressure diagnosis, so reducing salt in one’s diet, reducing alcohol consumption and exercising regularly suddenly becomes a big focus.

I’ve seen some people being referred to a scooter shop so they can manage to get around in the future because of breathlessness and weak legs, but I’ve also seen the same people RE-focus on getting fit and healthy again, getting their legs stronger and not accepting the help  of a mobility scooter, because they know once they accept it, they are never likely to walk much again.

When things go wrong with our health, eating well turns from something we put off to “someday” to something we do with great urgency, because time is ticking quickly to our next doctor’s appointment, and we don’t want a bad reading and diagnosis that means we end up on medication to treat it.

Prevention is always better than cure, and staying in a good routine with our food and drink, as well as our workouts keeps us in good health and avoids the need to suddenly start panicking about our health.

Sleep has been a secret weapon of mine for years. I always get to bed early, and it has enabled me to have a career of 430am starts.

I don’t start my day at 430am for fun, it’s just the time I start my day based on the availability of individuals I train, but if people I train are making that commitment, then I had better prepare well for them too!

When I get home lunch time, a nap is always vital to recharge, to re-energise, and to reboot my system after such earlier starts, even 20 mins is good, an hour better but I don’t always reach that figure, but when I do I have a lot more energy for afternoon and evening session.

Life is often a sprint when you want to do your best work. I tend to go all out in the morning, then rest and recharge, then early afternoon I do a lot of computer work such as right now and prepare for afternoon/evening coaching when I also need to go flat out, it’s worked well for decades for me.

If you are struggling for energy in your day, then sleep is one of the first place you need to look at. 8 hours a night is desirable but deep sleep and high quality sleep is even more important.

Things that will stop this happening is screen time right before bed (highly disruptive it’s been proven).

Alcohol before bed (there are 120 sleep disorders, EIGHTY are linked to alcohol).

Not exercising-if you don’t train you won’t sleep so well (endless scientific papers on this subject), if you just do one thing, make sure you exercise most days to get a deeper more relaxing sleep.

Rest and recuperation is so important but I know many of you don’t sleep as well as you could or should, there’s no shame in taking a nap in the day, in fact its highly beneficial, get serious about your sleep and this helps you get serious about your results, your body healing well and your overall performance.