Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Good Health and Well-Being is a Habit – a conversation with Rachel Richards
10 Plays8 days ago
Achieving good health and well-being is the result of adopting good habits and ditching the bad ones.
Rachel Richards is known as the Good Habits Coach and founder of Wight Ways a coaching company that provides structured help to people who want to develop the good habits that will deliver higher levels of health and well-being.
In this episode of the Abeceder health and well-being podcast Fit For My Age, Rachel and host Michael Millward discuss:
- What a habit is, and how we develop both good and bad habits
- The consequences as we age of the bad habits we develop in our younger years
- The different between life span and health span
- How we can change our habits
- The speed at which we can and should change our habits.
- The role positive support plays in our chances of being successful
- The role that coaches play in helping us to change our habits
Rachel provides Michael with advice on how he can change his own embarrassingly bad habits.
Rachel also mentions the song Higher from The Saturdays.
Find out more about Rachel Richards and Michael Millward at Abeceder.co.uk.
Audience Offers - listings include links that may create a small commission for Fit For My Age that help keep Fit For My Age free to air.
Fit For My Age is made on Zencastr the all-in-one podcasting platform. Zencastr really does make creating content so easy.
If you would like to try podcasting using Zencastr visit zencastr.com/pricing
Proactive Positive Ageing.
We recommend The Annual Health Test from York Test, because knowing the risks early means you can take appropriate actions to maintain good health.
York Test also offer a test for Vitamin D levels.
Visit York Test and use this discount code AGE25.
Fit For My Age is made on Zencastr, because Zencastr is the all-in-one podcasting platform, that really does make creating content so easy.
If you would like to try podcasting using Zencastr visit zencastr.com/pricing
Travel Members of the Ultimate Travel Club enjoy travelling at trade prices on flights, trains, hotels, holidays and so many other travel related purchases. Use the link to access discounted membership.
Matchmaker.fm If you are a podcaster looking for interesting guests or if, you have something interesting to say Matchmaker.fm is where great hosts and great guests are matched and great podcasts are hatched. Use our offer code MILW10 for a discount on membership.
Being a Guest
If you would like to be a guest on Fit For My Age, please contact Abeceder.co.uk.
We recommend the podcasting guest training programmes available from Work Place Learning Centre.
We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.
Thank you for listening.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Guest Introduction
00:00:05
Speaker
made on Zencastr because Zencastr is the all-in-one podcasting platform that makes every stage of the podcast production process so easy.
00:00:15
Speaker
Hello and welcome to fit for my age the health and well-being podcast from Abysida. I'm your host Michael Millward. Today my guest is Rachel Richards the healthy habits coach Rachel is passionate about helping women over 40 feel stronger in their bodies, clearer in their minds, and more connected to their purpose, without falling for fad diets, toxic positivity, or the belief that it is too late.
00:00:46
Speaker
As with every episode of Fit for My Age, we will not be telling you what to think, but we do hope to make you think.
Travel and Journey to Coaching
00:00:55
Speaker
Rachel is based on the Isle of Wight, a place I have visited, although a long time ago. If I do go again, i will make my travel arrangements with the Ultimate Travel Club.
00:01:06
Speaker
It is where I can get trade prices on flights, hotels, trains, ferries, all sorts of travel-related purchases. You can as well if you become a member of the Ultimate Travel Club, and you'll find a link with a built-in membership discount in the description.
00:01:22
Speaker
Now that I have paid some bills, it is time to make an episode of Fit For My Age. and say hello Rachel. Hello Michael. Could we start by you explaining how you ended up on the Isle of Wight and how you ended up as the Good Habits Coach?
00:01:38
Speaker
I started living on the Isle of Wight in my early twenty s So not long after I sort of reached adulthood for the first sort of 25 years of my time here on the island, I was probably reached. I reached the age of 45 in exactly the same way as many other women like me. I was overweight. I was inactive and I was full of excuses, frankly.
00:01:59
Speaker
I was living in an area that was probably more more commonly populated by people who were slightly older than me. And what I noticed is that these people had chronic health conditions or they had limited mobility. And I was starting to approach their age and I was starting to think that's going to be me one day. And I didn't want that to happen. You saw into the future and decided you didn't like it. Exactly. You know, i was I was coming into contact daily with people whose lives were being limited by either chronic health conditions or the fact that they couldn't do the things that they wanted to do because their physical limitations prevented them.
From Admin to Personal Trainer
00:02:37
Speaker
What do you mean by a chronic health condition? There are lots of chronic health conditions that can be caused by a lifetime of inactivity. Things like type 2 diabetes, um arthritis and various other just limiting conditions, heart conditions and um cardiorespiratory conditions as well.
00:02:55
Speaker
If you don't use it, you lose it. If you're not actually going to use your limbs, you're not going to use your muscles, you're not going to be physically active, then your body is going to say, well, we don't need to be physically active.
00:03:05
Speaker
Absolutely. That is the case. As we get older, if we don't use our limbs, if we don't use our muscles, if we don't use our brains, everything starts to slow down and doesn't work as well.
00:03:16
Speaker
That's the sort of the big wake up call. You saw the future in other people and decided you didn't want that for you. So you could just have gone off and know gone to the gym, done a bit of running, a bit of swimming, all those sorts of things. But you decided to make it your life's work now. How did you get from i want to be fit to being I want to be a coach?
00:03:38
Speaker
It wasn't actually that at all. It was almost the opposite. i decided that I wanted to to make some changes. And I knew that through through experience, I think, I don't think there's ah there's anybody in the country who hasn't um at some time or another thought, I want to make these changes. And they do an all or nothing kind of blow out and they they just try everything for a few weeks. nothing changes they run out of steam and so they they stopped doing it so I decided that I was going to do it differently and I just made one or two very slight changes to my life however when I started looking around to see who there was who could support me there wasn't anybody so I looked at the local gyms although really gyms weren't my thing because I was you know I was far too overweight and I was far too unfit to go to a gym the irony is not lost on me now
00:04:23
Speaker
So I couldn't find anybody I could relate to. And so having gone through the journey of becoming more active and having a healthier lifestyle and having a more active lifestyle myself, I found myself drawn to helping other people.
00:04:39
Speaker
And so in order to make sure that I did that in a confident and qualified way, I did retrain.
Stereotypes and Personal Transformation
00:04:45
Speaker
And I left my previous career, which was administration, a very so sedentary job, sitting down at a desk with a computer. And I retrained as a personal trainer. I've become an accredited coach. And I'm also England Athletic Run Leader.
00:05:00
Speaker
That sounds interesting. Yes. When you said that you couldn't find anyone that you could relate to who was going to support you, one of the things that I have read is that We very often think about personal trainers being young, extremely fit. yeah know, if they're a chap, they're sort of covered in muscles, very little body fat, all that sort of stuff.
00:05:21
Speaker
And yet what the recommendations that I've seen are exactly what you said there. If you are in middle age, try and find a personal trainer, a coach, you know, somebody at the gym who's been on the journey that you want to go on.
00:05:36
Speaker
Absolutely. And that's what I wanted to share with people. Obviously, living on the Isle of Wight, had a limited number of gyms that I could access and a limited number of personal trainers who I could access. I'm really pleased, actually, that in the short period of time I've been involved in the sector, I am seeing more older women coming into the sector. But when I started, it when I was 45, there just wasn't people there to support me. There weren't the kind of people like me who'd been on the journey, who weren't focusing on it solely for the purpose of what you looked like at the end of it. Ah, that thing about how you feel about it as well.
00:06:12
Speaker
Absolutely. For me, it's all about how I feel. When I started losing weight, and I have gone through quite a transformation in terms of a weight loss, I i went from 15 stone to 10 stone. So that's losing a third of my body weight in a relatively short period of time. Everybody around me was focused on how I looked. Actually, I struggled a little bit with that, but what I couldn't get away from is how I felt. I felt so much better. I felt so much younger. I felt so much more energized. And that's what I kept emphasizing back to people. And that's what I share with them today. Yes, it's how it makes you feel.
Understanding and Changing Habits
00:06:46
Speaker
they say yeah the The act of physical exercise is is good for your mental health because it releases what I call all those happy beans in your head.
00:06:55
Speaker
But it's how you feel after you've done the exercise as well. You can arrive at a gym or a sports activity, any type of physical activity, even going for a walk feeling miserable. But you always finish it with a smile on your face regardless of how tired you are. Absolutely. And it's about who you are as a person. It's about your own personal identity.
00:07:15
Speaker
Are you the kind of person who can't get up and walk down the road? Or are you the kind of person who goes and does a run three times a week? Well, that's your story then. i want to know about these habits. You're focusing on supporting women who want to go on the journey that you've gone on.
00:07:32
Speaker
Do women have different bad health and wellbeing habits towards men? Yes and no. And I was sitting firmly on the fence there because all of us are individual. Reveson, who is a French philosopher, said something that actually stays with me all the time, which is he described habits as familiar yet mysterious. And I think when we think about our habits, we think about the fact that actually we know they're no good for us. So why on earth? What's this great mystery that keeps us actually focused on them and keeps them keeps them happening?
00:08:03
Speaker
The purpose of habits and the reason that we have habits is all to do with our brain wanting to save energy. Our brain uses a huge amount of energy and we want to ah the brain always wants to save energy as much as it can. So it automates as many processes as it can. But where the difference between men and women come in is the which processes that it it automates. And so we might find that men and women develop different habits, but that's because their brain is automating different parts of their their life.
00:08:32
Speaker
It's not necessarily something that's down to gender. It could just be different lifestyles, create different habits, but they can be equally as unhealthy.
00:08:43
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. There are things that come with different cultures as well. And also, know, obviously where where age is and where you are in your life. Gender does have a part to play, but that's more about how the gender role in society is is setting expectations on you.
00:08:59
Speaker
What's the most unusual habit that someone has turned up with? Oh, I'm thinking about some of mine, actually. It's confession time. think there's there's habits that we all know about and we all think about. So we've got things like doom scrolling, watching videos late into the night in bed. So poor sleep hygiene is often considered to be ah about a common bad habit.
00:09:23
Speaker
not enough activity, yeah processed foods, all of those sorts of things. But there are some habits that are less considered to be habits. And one of my worst habits is procrastination. And I always think of the Saturdays song that they released in 2010, in which the line is, I'm doing nothing because then at least I'm doing nothing wrong.
Procrastination and Poor Habits
00:09:44
Speaker
I think we can all relate to that. Oh, can we all relate to that?
00:09:48
Speaker
I'm doing nothing because then at least I'm doing nothing wrong. Whoever wrote that was having a very bad day. But it is true, isn't it it? Especially if you're trying to do something for someone else. When I think about my habits, and I know that they're bad habits, it can be something that I'm eating. And I know I shouldn't be eating it, but oh, it's so good.
00:10:07
Speaker
And that's why it becomes a habit, is because you get that instant reward. It feels good. And so that's why your brain automates it. When you need to feel good, you turn to that particular thing and you get that instant reward. And that's how it embeds in your lifestyle, whether that is ah a quick fix. So it might be sugar, it might like be toast, toast, toast. Now that is an unusual habit.
00:10:32
Speaker
It's not good for me. I shouldn't do it, but it's convenient. It's quick. There's all sorts of various different logical reasons to have the slice of toast. At the same time, it's not good for you. Bread does all sorts of strange things to you, blood sugar levels and all that sort of stuff.
00:10:49
Speaker
And I really know that I shouldn't. The habit takes over. It becomes controlling of your behavior because it's easier and the brain doesn't need to make a decision. No, it's all automated. It's in your head and it's all automated. Your brain is just saving energy by not having to think about it and you just automatically do it.
00:11:08
Speaker
When we talk about the bad habits, yeah there's the social pressures on us to do it because everyone else is doing it. And I'm thinking there about the people who don't really like beer, but going out with their mates for a beer because everyone else drinks beer. And if they don't go to the pub, then who are they going to hang out with?
00:11:27
Speaker
And then also those habits where it's just easier for us to do that. But the What you started off by saying was like, it's those bad habits that once in a while, but as a habit, they build up, the consequences build up and and you end up with the chronic illnesses and the lack of mobility, the lack of brain power, all sorts of various different things. Absolutely. And the the physical impact of...
00:11:52
Speaker
poor habits and poor diet and lack of activity and poor sleep and all of those things that we've talked about are absolutely crucial for your your future future health and and and well-being. But some of the things that we don't think about when we're we're thinking about bad habits is the impact they had on us. You were talking there about how you felt when you gave in to that bat toast craving and you you know that it's wrong for you. And so in time,
00:12:21
Speaker
those habits can lead to low self-esteem, self-loathing in some cases, but also practical things like poor productivity, not exploring things that you might want to do, and just generally missing out on the second half of your life. It's interesting there that you said the second half of your life.
00:12:39
Speaker
Is it that when we're going through that indestructible stage in our teens and early 20s, we don't notice the damage that these bad habits are storing up for us?
00:12:49
Speaker
I know I didn't. I don't feel as bad about saying that I didn't either. then I think what's interesting is that what I'm seeing now amongst young people is more of an awareness of the
Lifestyle Awareness and Habit Changing Techniques
00:13:04
Speaker
impact of the choices that they're making. I wouldn't say that they are necessarily fully aware, but they are responding to the advice and the the information that is is being provided to them as we learn more every day and hopefully what they're seeing is also better examples being set by their parents who perhaps are going through the journey that i went through We could talk for a while about bad habits.
00:13:31
Speaker
I think we just need to set like we all have them. We're all suffering or going to suffer as a result of them. And we all know that those days when we've tried to break a habit, just how difficult it is. So by becoming the good habits coach, you've almost taken on. It's a huge task and will be a huge task for for lots of people, but you lost a third of your body weight, you must have had to break some big habits in order to do that. And remember correctly, you it didn't take that long to lose a third of your body weight.
00:14:07
Speaker
I didn't. And actually, I would always say that I didn't make massive changes to my life all at once. And I think that's what's really important is that we see we see the outcome.
00:14:19
Speaker
And the outcome in my case was, you know phenomenal. It was it was visible very visible very quickly. But in fact, what I did to get there wasn't a massive step.
00:14:32
Speaker
There's that wonderful saying about eating an elephant a bite at a time. And that's exactly what I did. I didn't try and eat the elephant all in one go. I made very small changes, but consistently. And I put things in place to ensure that i set myself up for success. How do you mean set yourself up for success?
00:14:51
Speaker
I did. Sounds a very straightforward thing to say, but more difficult to put into practice, I should think. i think that depends on who you are and what you have around you. Most habits, if not all habits, are have have what we call a cue. So there is something that happens that leads you to have that that that habit. So let's talk about your toast. the reason yeah I'm loving your toast. It's brilliant. It it works great.
00:15:16
Speaker
Let's talk about your toast habit. You crave toast when you see the bread. um It it um becomes one of those things that like that's why the bread is there. It's crying out. for So one of the things I would do if if toast was was my particular habit that I was trying to break is that I would either not have the bread or I would put it somewhere where it made it more difficult to get to. so I possibly for the first few weeks of trying to break my bread habit would pop the the loaf of bread in my car.
00:15:50
Speaker
So it made it, unlock it in my car. So it made it harder for me to have to, the effort of making toast. It would just put that break in place to stop me going and making that slice of toast without having to put a pair of shoes on, find a coffee, go out in the cold of the dark, find the loaf of bread out of the car and then come back in and make my toast.
00:16:09
Speaker
Yeah, I get what you mean about making it more difficult for myself, but adding some inconvenience into it. And I've often thought about the best way to avoid a food is not to buy it in the first place. I agree. However, that's not realistic for a lot of busy families.
00:16:26
Speaker
yeah It's very true. i should I imagine that it is easier to adopt healthier habits as a family or as a couple than it is to do it alone.
00:16:39
Speaker
Now, again, that's an interesting one, isn't it? Because that depends on what the habit is and how you want to achieve it. One of the the most important parts of changing a habit and making any change in your life is actually accountability. Who is supporting you? Who is around you? Who is there to remind you?
00:16:59
Speaker
And it doesn't have to be your family who may also be in a position to sabotage, because as we've said, you actually, if you've got a family of four, they may all need the bread, even if you don't want it. Oh, now you're reminding me of those times when family members or colleagues have announced they've been on a diet. There's then been a plate of cakes and you will hold, well, I will hold the plate of cakes right underneath their nose.
00:17:22
Speaker
But you're sure I can't tempt you? I am terrible. Well, no, I'm not terrible. that's I feel guilty about doing it now, looking back. I apologize to them all.
00:17:32
Speaker
There is no harm in bringing people into your if who you trust and who are in your circle into your support network for breaking those habits. And it's about both breaking that that that cue and the the process that goes on in your brain. but also ensuring that people around you are seeing your success and celebrating you. So seeing you becoming person that you want to be. From your perspective, the person you want to be is the person who feels the way that you want to feel, not necessarily the person who looks the way that other people are going to want you to look or be impressed by the way that you look. It's much more of an internal type of change that you're helping people to achieve.
Feelings, Longevity and Sustainable Changes
00:18:16
Speaker
Absolutely. And looking back on my journey, while I had a very strong support network around me, and many, many of them were giving me positive feedback about how I had changed in appearance, what I was far less provided with was support about how I was feeling, how I was behaving, how I was presenting myself, how I was showing more confidence. And that's what I want to bring to
00:18:44
Speaker
particularly women who are going through this journey, because they will get the praise, they will get the the support from their network. Oh, my goodness me, you look great. How wonderful is it that you know you've lost all that weight? What they're not getting is that praise. Do you know that means you're going to live another 20 years?
00:19:00
Speaker
Or isn't it wonderful that your knees don't hurt anymore? Yes. As one friend said to me it's not necessarily the the length of the time that you live, but it's the time that you can live and be healthy.
00:19:13
Speaker
Our first guest on Fit For My Age, Andy Romero Birkbeck, who's a corporate well-being person. saying that we can live longer, but if we're going to live longer and be dependent on others or live longer in ill health, then we're not really living as good a life as we might possibly be. and But of course, the way in which we live later in life, like you're saying, can be determined by how we lived in our younger life.
00:19:42
Speaker
Absolutely. And I've heard previously of your guests referring to the phrase health span rather than lifespan. And health span is the length of time we live healthy. We are all actually living longer, but we're not living any longer in a healthy state. We're just living those those extra years that we're gaining are being being lived in a chronic illness and unhealthy state. And that's not great for everybody anybody. But the way in which you build good habits is, like you say, one mouthful at a time.
00:20:14
Speaker
That's a metaphor, I know. It's not necessarily that the good habit will be about food. The good habit could be about ah exercise. If you're working in a building that has several floors to it, you have to go from one floor to the next. You don't have to walk all of the the seven floors that you've got to get up. You can go in the lift for four of them, walk for three of them, those sorts of things. is It's small, little, incremental things that you're talking about.
00:20:42
Speaker
Brilliant example, actually. Stairs are a key part of my conversations living on the Isle of Wight. We have lots of hills and hills and stairs are a common feature of everybody's life walking around here and that's a a really great example is actually using what you've got around you to just introduce those new habits very gradually so yeah you might start with just one floor and then you get the get the lift from floor one upwards or you might get off the lift at floor six and walk the final floor to floor seven similarly hop off the bus a stop earlier and just walk that extra distance with the goal of being the kind of person who walks to work
00:21:21
Speaker
But you don't start by walking to work on day one because that heads into what they call the all or nothing trap, which is where you want to do it all at once. And I've been there and I have done it. i remember deciding I was going to be more active and i was actually on ah on a trip to London when I was staying near Parliament and I thought, I'm going to walk down the the riverside. walk down. And I walked all the way to Tower Bridge, went across Tower Bridge and came back the other side. I couldn't move the next day.
00:21:50
Speaker
well i thought, you know what? it would have been far more sensible to have just walked a little way and then come back or walked a little way and then got the river taxi rather than thinking about doing all of that all at once. And those are the kinds of things you just build gradually to become the person you want to be.
00:22:07
Speaker
Yes, I know what you mean. i find most cities in the United Kingdom are very walkable. and You can get off the train at King's Cross in London, for example, because I'm coming down from Yorkshire. You can walk to most of the places that you want to walk to.
00:22:22
Speaker
And most of it is flat, I have found as well. Yes. Yes. For those of us who live in hilly places, London is quite flat, isn't it? Yeah. For someone who lives doesn't live in a hilly place, it might not be. No.
00:22:33
Speaker
like Walking is one of the best exercises you can take. But that key thing, don't attempt a marathon before you've attempted five kilometres. It's build yourself up. Don't take a body that has been used to sitting and watching TV know for hours on end or sitting working at a desk or even a a workstation in a factory and then expect to be able to do like lots of athletic things do things like we say one mouthful at a time a little bit on day one a little bit more on day two and you will gradually build up everything in a sustainable way i think that's the key thing as well isn't it you've got whatever changes you're going to make you've got to make them in a way that is sustainable
00:23:18
Speaker
Absolutely. Not only should they be sustainable, they should also leave you feeling good. And that helps break the poor habit cycle and turn it into a positive health cycle. So if you can have it, if you can finish that walk feeling great, I've just done a fabulous walk. I'm feeling really good about myself rather than finishing the walk feeling, oh, my goodness, I'm exhausted. I don't quite know what to do with myself.
00:23:45
Speaker
The former we' create will create the desire to do it again. The latter, you'll never want to go out and walk again. It is true. There is a difference between the physical pain of the exercise and that psychological feeling of I've achieved something.
00:24:03
Speaker
But like you say, whatever whatever habits you need to change, do them one small piece at a time rather than the big dramatic change.
00:24:15
Speaker
Because I suppose a habit is in some ways a bit like a drug, isn't it?
The Power of Good Habits and Closing Notes
00:24:19
Speaker
Yes. In fact, if you look at what many habits actually provide you with, that is dopamine, which is your feel good hormones.
00:24:28
Speaker
And that is that gives you all the same responses than some of the the the drugs, the common drugs that are used. What you want to be doing is you want to be saying,
00:24:39
Speaker
I'm going to leave this bit of exercise, this bit of um activity with ah a dopamine high. So that's what it gives you is that dopamine high. And then I'll want to do it again. But it takes a little bit longer to get that same dopamine high the next time, just as it would in the way that you become addicted to alcohol and drugs. Yeah, it's quite a thought, isn't it? When you think that a bad habit is like a bad drug, a good habit is like a good drug and can have such a dramatic effect. You know, I've really enjoyed this, you know, Rachel, I've learned a lot. really It's been great. Thank you very much. Do appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you.
00:25:20
Speaker
We must do it again. But in the meantime, if people have been listening and thinking they want more information from you, Rachel, where's the best website for them two to go to? You can find me online at White Ways, which is the Isle of White, W-I-G-H-T, ways.co.uk. On there, you will find all the details about my healthy habits coaching and also some wellbeing and lifestyle tips.
00:25:48
Speaker
Great stuff. Thank you very much. I am Michael Millward, the Managing Director of Abbasida. And in this episode of Fit for My Age, I have been having a conversation with Rachel Richards, the Good Habits Coach.
00:26:02
Speaker
You can find out more information about both of us at abbasida.co.uk. There is a link in the description. At Fit for My Age, our aim is proactive positive aging.
00:26:13
Speaker
Knowing the risks early is an important part of maintaining good health. That is why we recommend the annual health test from York Test. York Test provide an assessment of 39 different health markers, including some of the chronic illnesses that Rachel was talking about, vitamin levels, organ functions,
00:26:33
Speaker
All sorts of things. The annual health test is conducted by an experienced phlebotomist who will complete a full blood draw at your home or workplace. Hospital standard tests are carried out in a yeah UK AS accredited and CQC compliant laboratory.
00:26:49
Speaker
You can access easy to understand results and guidance to help you make effective lifestyle changes anytime by your secure personal wellness hub account. There is a link and as you would expect a discount code in the description.
00:27:04
Speaker
I'm sure you will have enjoyed this episode of Fit for My Age as much as Rachel and I have enjoyed making it. Please give it a like and download it so that you can listen anytime, anywhere. To make sure you don't miss out on future episodes, please subscribe.
00:27:19
Speaker
Remember, the aim of all the podcasts produced by Abusida is not to tell you what to think. but we do hope to have made you think. Until the next episode of Fit for My Age, thank you for listening and goodbye. Rachel, I've really enjoyed this. I think I've learned quite a lot as well. so oh Thank you very much, Michael. It's been great being here and it's been great to hear all about your toast habit.
00:27:45
Speaker
Tomorrow morning, there will be no toast. There'll be no toast. There'll be no toast. There'll be no toast. Definitely no toast. Thank you very much. Thank you.