Strategy #1: Maximize Your Nutrition
Good nutrition is a key pillar providing for our physical, mental, and emotional stamina. There are too many guidelines about "what" to eat, but few to guide people in "how" to eat healthy. The bottom line is simple: implementing a healthy diet demands discipline and adhesion to a schedule. Balancing carbohydrates, fats, and protein is key, and will depend upon each individual. As a rule of thumb, think of breakfast, lunch, a snack, and dinner as the essential structure of a healthy diet. An additional couple of healthy snacks may be okay for the busy executive and entrepreneur, but only if complemented with daily exercise.
As a general rule, consider dividing the "awake" day into even intervals — say, four-hour intervals. Meal times ought to be included in your schedule, just as you would include a business meeting or an appointment to hire a new employee. A thirty minute break will suffice if you can eat at your facility. Consider meal times sacred: sit down and concentrate on your meal, rather than eating while you are checking on your email or catching up with work. A ten minute break for a snack may suffice as well, using the same strategy. Eat with your family at home. Not only will this enhance your relationships with your loved ones, there is also strong evidence showing that children who have dinner with the parents are smarter and do better in school.
Strategy #2: Maximize Your Exercise
Exercise is another essential component of our formula for staying healthy. Morning exercise is the most effective, relaxing, and energizing. Morning exercise will allow you to start off fresh, increase your blood flow, increase your metabolism, and produce natural endorphins (neurotransmitters that make you feel good and decrease your pain perception). After exercising, your body may feel pleasantly relaxed physically, while mentally sharp, focused, and clear. Relaxing exercises tend to be the most repetitive (and boring) ones: walking, cycling, running, jogging, spinning, cross-country skiing, and swimming. These are excellent exercises (and a must!) for busy executives and entrepreneurs who spend hours on sedentary work and for those who fly and travel as a part of their busy schedules. If you anticipate a more demanding work schedule, consider challenging yourself by increasing your strength. Weight lifting or increased resistance exercises will enable you to increase strength.
Strategy #3: Maximize Your Sleep
Sleep is the third pillar of the healthy physical dimension. Many minimize the benefits of sleep and the essential properties sleep brings to our ability to produce and perform at our top level, but it is unwise to do so. Researchers have found that irregular sleep and stress can increase the risk for depression and anxiety. These problems may also have direct influences on the immune system and increase the risk for heart disease.
Stressed executives and business owners carry their worries and concerns to their sleep. When they can't relax and reenergize through the course of the night, they wake up tired and exhausted, unable to focus, further prolonging the negative cycle. In short, they are stressed out during the course of the day and stressed out during the course of the night. In contrast, sleeping six to eight hours every night will enhance your physical, intellectual, and emotional stamina. Having a "good night’s sleep" will improve your ability to concentrate during the course of the day, giving you control over your activities and responsibilities.
Strategy #4: Maximize Your Relaxation
Relaxation strategies compose the fourth pillar of the physical dimension. Sleep and exercise have a direct impact on enhancing a relaxed state. Additionally, guided imagery, visualization techniques, meditation, and listening to music are powerful tools against physical stress. These strategies include the ability to create a state of calm at the start of the day and the ability to anticipate activities or events to resolve situations throughout the day. Practicing relaxation techniques on a regular basis adds to the strategic armamentarium of the traveling executive, providing beneficial lasting effects in brain activity and the immune system.
You may want to maximize the use of relaxation techniques in the morning; throughout the course of the day, as needed; and in the evening. Just taking a few minutes throughout the course of the day may help some. Others benefit more from taking a couple of longer breaks in the course of the day. Times for relaxation range from five minutes twice a day to thirty minutes once to more times throughout the course of the day. Winding down toward the end of the evening will enable you to sleep better at night as well. Listen to music or book audiotapes daily while you drive. Meditate or use guided imagery exercises daily when you wake up, during breaks, at night, or while you travel (and are not driving).
Although there are numerous relaxation techniques that you may want to practice, the most common induction techniques usually begin with deep breathing exercises. Progressive relaxation and guided imagery techniques share a common general outline. The more you practice, the deeper the state of relaxation you will achieve.
It is vital to concentrate on each activity, one at a time, in the present moment, rather than listening to music, answering business calls on a cell phone, writing on a pad, eating a sandwich, and punching in numbers on a PDA, all while driving! In essence, the trick is to "be in the here and now" and nowhere else. My experience in the wide spectrum of scenarios along wellness and disease has guided me to understand that it is those people who can be "busy on the outside, calm on the inside" who can truly create an integrated state of well-being.
About the Author
Dr. Gaby Corá is president of The Executive Health & Wealth Institute, Inc. Her expertise in managing work in life inspired her to design a powerful program assisting executives and corporations in leading under pressure, providing for effective strategies to maximize peak performance and productivity while maximizing health and wellbeing. She is a licensed medical doctor, trained mediator, corporate consultant, has a master's in business administration, and is a professional member of the National Speakers Association. Please visit our new webpage describing Dr. Gaby Corá's executive health programs at www.ExecutiveHealth.com.
