There is a great talk by Dr Alan Watkins, “being brilliant every single day” which you can check out from Tedx on You Tube. Watkins talks about how our results are influenced by our behaviours and what influences our behaviours is our thinking, which is determined by the way we are feeling. Feelings come from our emotions, which are ultimately a result of our physiology.
Dr Watkins says ““what we feel has a far bigger impact on what we do than thinking does.”
As you will see in his diagram he describe coherent leadership and great results as “learning to control all levels of the human system and not just the surface behaviours”.
Watkins shows how “emotion is significantly more important to health and happiness than exercise or what you eat” and how “mismanaged emotion is the superhighway to disease and distress.”
This made me start to think about how what we eat actually effects our emotions. Just think about it – how do you feel if you eat a massive greasy take away versus how you feel after you’ve eaten a nutritious salad or grill? I’m not talking about how your gut feels but how are your emotions? Is there any regret or guilt from eating too much of the take away for example? Do you feell tired and sluggish?
Bearing in mind all the foundations that need to be in place to achieve great results, making the right food choices can play an important part when it also effects your emotions as well as your well being. Your food choices also affect your energy levels, alertness, and your ability to concentrate. It therefore makes sense to make the right food choices.
Eating healthy isn’t always easy when we are busy with work and surrounded by the temptation of sweets, chocolates and fast food! The trick to eating right is learning to resist temptation, so here are 3 pieces of advice on how to do that:
- Be prepared with your own snacks so you don’t go hungry (my personal favorites are from Novo Nutrition)
- Don’t skip meals. Make time for healthy breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you need to then schedule this time into your diary.
- Remind yourself how you will feel after you have eaten the food. If it won’t make you feel good, avoid it.
If you’re serious about achieving top performance at work and looking after your own well-being, making intelligent decisions about food is essential.
