Food/Diet and training hobbies
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@matt-ayles I am going to offer you the most common and most used answer in fitness and nutrition circles... 'it depends'.
But that is never a helpful answer to people not immersed in the industry so ignore that bit
If you are SUPER fussy about what goes into your body then I would say a flat no. This does not really apply to most people either though.
I have read so so much in the way of studies, scientific reports, etc on vit and mineral needs/supplementation. Most of it directly contradicting another report.
The conclusion I have taken for myself is that, yes, I take a good, high quality (that is important), multi vit. I take it about 30 mins before I eat therefore any excess in the tablet is washed away by the following meal and does not 'hang around' unused in my gut.
If you eat a full and varied (this being the important word here) diet you should not need one. But I don't think it hurts to have a little insurance. I have a pot that states two a day, I only take one. The exception to this is, like now, when I am losing weight and my diet is fairly restricted plus calorie intake is less than my body needs. Then I use two a day.
I can recommend the Alpha Man supplement from Myprotein. It is a good quality tablet that does not cost the earth. Im not sponsored by them or anything (be nice though
) I buy these with my own money.There will be better ones around but you can start paying a small fortune for them.
Hope that helps a bit
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@Matt-Wood would you offer any confidence in taking a multi vitamin supplement to help support a more balanced diet?
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@matt-wood have it in the cupboard for exactly this time of year. Great advice mate.
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Random post time again.
This time of year with our lovely British weather the sun tends to... shall we say... be absent more often. This combined with people staying indoors more often leads to much less vitamin D being gained by our bodies.
But I'm sure most people know this anyway.
A good quality Vit D supplement is needed by most people at this time of year. Note going outside will still get you vit d from the sun even if it is not there, just much less than in the summer months. Also note that the darker a persons' skin the less vit D it absorbs from sunlight.
The supplement you would want to look for is D3 specifically. Also if you can find it, get one with a K2 addition (sometimes sold as a complex). Alternatively take a separate K2.
K2 helps the body absorb the D3 that you take.
Also foods high in K2 would be things like:
organ meats and fermented foods (think saurkraut) -
@matt-ayles another benefit of going for a walk is it helps clear your head. Go outside with no music, podcasts, distractions, and just walk. Even a short walk will help plus you could use that time to mentally plan out your exercises/ trades for the upcoming week.
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Wow, some brilliant responses, thanks everyone.
Once upon a time I did go for lunchtime walks, but with the staffing issues all over the industry just getting a lunch break at all would be a novelty! We spend the majority of our shifts alone these days. I do however refuse to pay for parking at work so have a 15 minute walk to and from the car each day (i don't work in the town i live in).
I like the idea of planning, I have started doing this with trading so why not with my life!
I guess i am just making excuses so need to try harder! Oddly enough life was easier in lockdown in regards health.
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@matt-ayles never underestimate the value and the power of a good walk. Every day I try and get an hour in and or as close to 10K steps as I can.
Without fail I always pack my gym clothes before I go away with work but strangely enough I always seem to find the hotel bar before I find the gym. It’s because we are creatures of habit. (Check into room go downstairs to hotel bar catch up with people) The habit and routine can be changed in order to make something else the norm but it’s easier to just keep plodding along doing what we are doing. I try now and just do s**t like stretches take a resistance band with me whatever I can do
But having said all that it’s diet that’s key.
I find that if you’re making the effort to eat well that’s half the battle. It’s tough when you work shifts or crazy hours and it’s easy to just grab Macca’s on the way home but processed food is the worst thing if you’re not getting any physical exercise. -
@matt-ayles I would always say to people to just aim for small improvements at a time. So often people say ‘right I’m going to the gym (which they hate) 4 times a week then I’m going to eat 3 perfectly macro’d meals (which they hate) per day’. But after a couple of weeks it drops off and they think they’ve failed. But in reality smaller improvements added slowly will stick around. If you struggle food wise (which is where I struggle too) then maybe just aim to start by eating better on your days off. It’s not perfect but it’s definitely better. With breakfast I tend to make a smoothie in the morning; it has plenty of calories and takes 2 minutes. Dinner you could prepare the night before, again even making sandwiches or something is better than buying fast food
With regards to exercise then something is better than nothing. Golf is better than sat watching Netflix! Maybe aim for a couple of 30 minute walks in a week (could you do these on your lunch hour). Go for a 20 minute run, if you find that time easy just pick up the pace a bit. It doesn’t have to be aiming to smash your pb, it just gets you doing something
Progress over perfection!
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No slacking when @Matt-Wood is around
I've started going back into the office and walk each way. It's 2.5 miles so 5 mile walk in total. Plus I walk more in the office than at home.
I'm going to try and go for a 2 mile walk in the morning and afternoon when I'm working from home.
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@ryan Excellent stuff.
Stairs not lift is a superb one, walking up stairs, assuming no injuries is a great bit of excercise.
I would advise not rushing, and therefor combining, the take a pee, do 5 squats. Could get very messy and get you into BIG trouble with the wife
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@matt-ayles Morning Matt
I feel you pain on the shifts. I used to work 50-60 hour weeks with shifts including night shifts twice a week. Granted I have no kids so thats less stress
but nights and shift patterns are brutal.Planning and small things at first are going to be your best friends here. If you do a weekly shift pattern then plan what each week looks like and have it written down, then you can just whichever plan applies to the corresponding week.
Time restricted eating could work well for you also. Aim to eat your meals within an 8 hour window. This leaves 16 hours a day free. Another thing to try is get pots and on a day off cook your meals for the week ahead. Not all of them but the ones you know you will have little time for, then you just have to grab a pot which already has a portioned meal in it.
Exercise is just a time commitment essentially. Following the above, 16 hours a day free, minus 7 for sleeping leaves, roughly, 9 hours a day. Most people can fit 30mins a day into that or 60mins a few times a week.
Walking is absolutely a great form of exercise. Ultra low risk of injury, encourages bodily functions to work a little harder without any real stress on them.
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Great post, I've told my wife I have to train otherwise I will be moody lol
You are right though it does drop. There's things you can do though, making a cup of tea? press ups while the kettle is boiling....
Take the stairs not the lift
Swap out snacks for better options
Struggle to get greens in blend them - not the best way to get them in but its better than what's happening.
After every pee 5 squats
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Interesting thread. I'll be brutally honest with you then...
My diet is rubbish, my exercise level is rubbish and I "don't have time" to change it...
Some of thats true unfortunately.
I work 40-45 hours a week, in shift patterns, so some mornings, some late evenings etc. So I rarely eat a proper meal. The kids get better food than I do! Breakfast almost never happens.
I used to play football twice a week but injuries lead to the wife banning it. I play golf, but I question how good a long walk really is for you. I absolutely love competing though, just haven't found anything to do since lockdown. I'm a decent darts player but again, fitness?! Hardly! I also have been a runner, I did the London marathon in 2012 but these days struggle for motivation.
Unfortunately I'm currently one of those annoying people that would love to be fit and more muscular but put in no effort. You can hate, its ok...
I dream of one day being a pro trader, taking the kids to school and having all day every day to do these things but we're a few years off that... what to do in the meantime, I'm all ears!
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Right a preachy morning here
This is the time of year when most people start to drop off the consistency in their fitness/sports.
Obviously some sports are not played at this time of year but this is all the more reason to keep up with your fitness training. After all you keep fit to play a sport, not play a sport to keep fit.
Gym attendance normally goes way down this time of year so if that is you thing make sure you keep going and keep it up.
Outdoor pursuits are dropped due to the change in weather and lighting at this time of year. But there is always something you can do in that time slot instead. Don't give up the time you spent walking/jogging etc to the TV, do something else active if you cant do your chosen activity.Not only does this help keep us in good shape, before the inevitable xmas blowout, but this time of year SAD is a thing and keeping up with physical activity has been proven to help loads with this sort of situation.
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@dan-mackinnon Thats a lot of push ups! be lucky if I got to 500 in one go now Im old and broken down
