A Philosophy of Health, Balance, and Performance

Time. Something we always need more of, especially if we are juggling commitments with work, relationships, and social activities while trying to squeeze in exercise and training. If you are training for an event or planning for this year, you likely wish you had an extra two or three hours each day to get in the training you need.

Unfortunately, you will never get those extra hours, hence the importance of adopting a strategy and philosophy that will help you maintain health and provide you with great results with your limited time. Whatever your goal is, ranging from winning the Hawaii IRONMAN, competing in your first event, or even just improving body composition; your performance and adaptations will be governed by the status of your metabolic health. In this case, being healthy does not mean an absence of disease, but rather functioning with a strong immune system and hormonal profile that will allow you to make positive adaptations to your hard training.

Metabolic Health

Metabolic health is limited primarily by stress, yes, that magic word! Considering stress as a physical or emotional strain on the body, you should be able to identify many of the stressors in your daily life that may negatively affect your metabolic health. If you think about it for a minute or two, you may come up with factors relating to stress from work, relationships, time management, financial, and even a little self-stress (such as body image or your place in the world). These are stressors that are part of life and will always need to be managed in order to stay healthy.

What you may not have considered in your list was... (continued in attached PDF).