Understanding the Concept of Health

Speaker 1 0:00

nutrition can be so different between two people , depending on their lifestyle or their preferences , or what they have access to , or how their family is like , whether they have children , or whether they have a partner , if they're living by themselves , how they are financially , do they have any debt ? Or if they have a stable job . These all play into what health is for a person .

Speaker 2 0:29

Shift work can be brutal , but it doesn't have to be . Welcome to a healthy shift . My name is Roger Sutherland , certified nutritionist , veteran law enforcement officer and 24 seven shift worker for almost four decades . Through this podcast , I aim to educate shift workers using evidence-based methods to not only survive the rigors of shift work but thrive . My goal is to empower shift workers to improve their health and well-being so they have more energy to do the things they love .

Speaker 2 1:02

Enjoy today's show . Hey there , and welcome back to a healthy shift podcast , where I uncover evidence-based strategies that help shift workers thrive , not just survive . I'm your host , roger Sutherland , a veteran shift worker of almost four decades and an evidence-based nutritionist . I get great pleasure every time I get to personally . Welcome you to this episode of the show and I'd like to thank you for listening . And please don't forget , if you just got a spare 30 seconds to just go back on Spotify , hit the three buttons on the main page when you go back to my main page of the podcast and give it a five star review . I would greatly appreciate it . And on Apple , if you go back to the main page of my podcast , scroll all the way to the bottom . When you get down to the bottom . There you can actually give it a quick five stars , and I would be even more indebted if you would actually just give the podcast just a few words of encouragement . It's always good for other people , when they're scrolling looking for podcasts , to read the reviews . That's how , probably , you found it , so it's a really good way for people to discover the podcast , and it helps me absolutely enormously .

Speaker 2 2:16

Today's episode I'm bringing back my excellent friend , rachel Lee , and Rachel and I've been working together on a number of special projects , but in a walk yesterday we actually discussed that we wanted to talk about what is health , because anybody that comes to me always says to me I want to be healthy , and what they actually mean is that they want to look fantastic naked . That's the bottom line , isn't it ? But you know what ? There are so many different aspects to health and what I wanted to do was I wanted to get Rachel onto the show because she's been doing a bit of work in this area and I wanted you to hear what she's got to say around the six facets of health , because every single one of them are intertwined and they're all super , super important . So , without much further ado , let's get on with the show . Welcome back to the podcast . Rachel , how are you ? I'm good thank you .

Speaker 2 3:10

I have you sitting in my lounge room again now . You've guessed on this podcast before , and we discussed all hypothalamic aminorrhea around that , but today I've got another topic that I really want to pick your brains on , and that is because every time someone comes to me as a new client , all they ever want to talk about is they want to be healthy , and I want to ask you because I know that you've been doing some work on this what does it mean to be healthy ?

Speaker 1 3:40

I think a lot of people see health as just one thing , or like having just one aspect , say that might be physical health , because that seems to be most tangible . You get your biomarkers or you think about what you eat and how that affects your physical health , so that's the aspect that most people think of . But actually there are so many different aspects that determine what is health to one person and what is healthy in terms of an exercise routine , sleep , what they eat , so their nutrition can be so different between two people depending on their lifestyle or their preferences , or what they have access to , or how their family is like , whether they have children , or whether they have a partner , if they're living by themselves , how they are financially , do they have any debt ? Or if they have a stable job . These all play into what health is for a person .

Speaker 2 4:42

Yeah , because I think one of the main things that people come to me for around health is they want to say to me I want to be healthy . And I say to them what does health look like ? I want to be 60 kilos ? Yeah , that's always , I want to be a particular weight . Well , we know that you can get to 61 kilos and you can be super healthy and in really good shape . But the person can think , oh , I'm not healthy because I'm not at 60 kilos

Exploring the Pillars of Health

Speaker 2 5:07

. So if we remove weight and we talk about pillars of actual what is health because I know you've been working on the pillars of health and let's go through those pillars to see how they tie into what health actually is so talk to me about what one of your pillars of health would be .

Speaker 1 5:25

I think it's interesting that you mention people think of a weight as healthy , and if you are one of those people , a good follow-up question to ask yourself is that what do you think or envision yourself achieving in life , and how do you see your lifestyle at that go weight that you're thinking of ? So you might be thinking , oh , I'll be healthy at 60 kilos . How would life be for you ? What would you be doing on a daily basis ? What would you like to be achieving in life ? How would you like to feel emotionally and how would you like your social life to be at that weight ? Then this can help play into what we're going to discuss now in terms of the different facets of health . So if I start off with what the different facets of health are , there would be physical health , which we've touched on , emotional and psychological health . You can see them as separate but also very similar , so this can be anything around mental health . And then we have social health , intellectual health and economic health . So do we want to start with one of the facets ?

Speaker 2 6:36

let's start with one of the facets and tell me how it ties into when you talk about what is health , because we really do need all six of them , don't we ? Because it's no good being 60 kilos if your mental health is poor , because it's going to complicate your emotional eating , or it's going to complicate just your emotional well-being . Yeah and stop which is not health .

Speaker 1 6:59

Yeah , and they play into each other . So if your mental health is not in a good place Then that's going to affect how well you can achieve your physical health or economic health , because if your mental health is In a challenging place then that might affect how well you perform at work and that might affect whether you can Secure your promotion or just perform well in general at work .

Speaker 2 7:24

Let's talk about the first facet . So physical health , physical health , yeah , let's go down that one easiest one that most people think of .

Speaker 1 7:31

That can range from your biomarkers To the things that not many people think of , like the ability to stand up from a seat or the ability to do the house chores without assistance , the ability to shower without assistance . All these things that we might take for granted are part of our physical health .

Speaker 2 7:54

I think that's good . This is where we need to have a gratitude practice as well in place . I'm sure of that , because when people have a gratitude practice and start to acknowledge and see those things that I Can shower by myself , I can cook , I can actually carry the shopping in , I can drive a car , I can do these things when we start to look at these things with a gratitude practice , we tend to actually Acknowledge and notice more of those things that , well , I'm actually quite healthy because , let's be honest , mike doesn't define us , does it ?

Speaker 1 8:23

Yeah , like it's part of physical health . Yep , the body mass index , bmi , is one piece of the puzzle within the whole picture of health , and what a lot of people have now realized is that it's not everything . Bmi can help guide us in Understanding a person's health , but we also need to look at everything else To get that full picture of whether a person is healthy , like their muscle mass . Is their lifestyle healthy ? Is their eating style healthy and helping them meet ?

Speaker 2 8:56

their needs . Yep , so that's physical health . So there's so many different aspects to our physical health . Can you just let our audience know , when you talk about biomarkers , what is it you actually mean by that ?

Speaker 1 9:06

So these are what you get on your report when you do your body check . So that might be things like your cholesterol and triglycerides , or into insensitivity . All those kinds of things show how Well your body is functioning to metabolize or to process the foods that you're giving it and the ability for it to use different energy sources so that you have the energy to do the sprints or your weights or Just to walk down the road . So , yeah , it's all these things , and the biomarkers are kind of the Figures that help us gauge where you are in terms of physical health or metabolic health and the best way to get our biomarkers done is to Regularly get our blood checked , isn't it ?

Speaker 2 9:55

because getting a full panel of bloods done really is a good indication To our internal health and how our body is actually performing , isn't it ?

Speaker 1 10:03

Yeah , because it's sometimes quite hard to know how you're performing internally . There might not be symptoms , or the symptoms might come quite a while after these Things start popping up . So it's good to be in the front foot , be regularly checking and then you can see all that marker seems to be going in the wrong direction . How can we bring it back ?

Speaker 2 10:28

I think the message for people in relation to physical health here is to at least Every 12 months , get your blood checked . I get mine done every six months , but I think it's really important that people get their bloods checked every six months to show Deficiencies and shortfalls in their biomarkers so that people can actually address those Through nutrition or lifestyle practices , so that they're aware , particularly if we get things like LDL cholesterol it's elevated . Now our LDL cholesterol is something that we really do need to keep low . That's our bad cholesterol . Whenever we hear cholesterol , we have to remember this good cholesterol , this bad cholesterol , but our LDL cholesterol is something that we do need to keep low .

Speaker 2 11:11

Getting our blood panel done and identifying that we have high LDL cholesterol , it's a really good way for us to Change our lifestyle , adding more fiber and more lifestyle choices into that to address that , because it will lead to Really really poor outcomes in our health with cardiovascular disease , heart attack , stroke etc . So that's physical health and we can monitor that , but I notice you haven't put a weight on it . We don't need to get to that BMI , do we ? We don't need to look at oh , I'm over in my BMI because I'm obese . We're not putting a weight on that . We're actually just looking at getting our blood into a really good shape , and I think that's probably a good measure . Do you agree ?

Speaker 1 11:51

Yeah , I think weight does play into it , but there's just so much more than that . And when it comes to improving Physical health , just fixating on the weight Usually doesn't do a lot , because , if you think about , no one just decides to be at a much higher weight . There's usually a lot of things that play . It might be part of their lifestyle , part of their nutrition or their psychological health that Leads to that body weight . So if we want to improve someone's health , there's not much use in just either shaming them or just pointing out that all your overweight or your obese .

Speaker 1 12:32

It's usually more helpful to look at Okay , how is your lifestyle right now ? How is that serving you ? What are ways that we can work together to find new solutions or new ways to improve your life to allow you to do things that you want to do ? So it might be that you want to do a pull-up , just going into the gym more often or having a pull-up bar at home . That might be a way of improving your physical health . And then , when you build up those Exercise routines and those habits , that naturally Leads to a healthy weight for you .

Speaker 2 13:07

I've had a client that came to me some time ago , was a very , very fatigued shift worker that couldn't even walk . She wouldn't even have the time to walk at all , so for her to be doing anything more than that was going to be nigh on actually impossible . We'd instead a step goal for her . I started out with her just getting her to just go for a walk , just walk around the block and Listen to a podcast or listen to a book or something , and if she got back to the front gate and wasn't finished , she could go for a walk around again or do whatever . And on place to say that within six months she's actually registered for a half marathon and for someone who literally wouldn't walk to be out running . And now we're doing nutrition around her running , because she's running about an hour hour and 15 hour and 20 minutes and now we're having to start to consider Nutrition around her running , which has been like fantastic for me . But what an achievement for her .

Speaker 2 14:06

And this is what started on her Just walking , just putting little practices in place and getting 1% better . So and going out for that walk , so that made a big difference to her and , of course , because of that , her energy balance has completely changed and her bloods are so much better and her health all around is so much better her mental health , she feels better . I knew that that was just going to be a simple strategy , but it was just a matter of encouraging her to get to that actual stage . So that's physical health . Is there anything else you'd like to sound physical health at all ? Right ?

Speaker 1 14:39

You know , I think we already start touching on the next one , which is emotional slash , psychological health , and I think this gets missed a lot of the time , especially when people consider Going on a fat loss diet or whatever type of diet that involves restricting foods or limiting certain macro nutrients , because a lot of people don't Think or they don't really realize the amount of emotional and psychological stress that causes in the way it changes how the brain thinks .

Speaker 1 15:14

You might see that , oh , x diet will Improve my physical health , it will improve , say , inflammation , or it might be a fat loss diet and it will make you feel so much better . But then , in the process of , say , limiting carbs or Not being able to eat cake or cookies or the foods that you really enjoy and are part of your life and happiness , even social interaction , that can really damage your psychological health because you're feeling restricted and you might even start going down the path of Labelling foods is good and bad and then feeling guilty if you on one occasion Were so happy to be celebrating your partner or your mom or your dad or your friend's birthday and have a piece of cake , and then you feel guilty after it rather than feeling happy that you had that time to celebrate .

Food's Impact on Mental and Social Health

Speaker 2 16:11

This is so underestimated , isn't it for our health ? Like ? Think about the times when people they track their food , they preprepare their meals and they turn up to family functions with a Tupperware container with food in it . It helps them to get to a goal . I understand if that's what their goal is , but the emotional impact on that is massive , isn't it ? Like it's enormous to have to think oh , what am I gonna take ? Oh , there's gonna be all this food , and I think the fact that they Realize that they're gonna lose control is an emotional impact as well . Like they might go there and have a piece of cake . They're gonna feel guilty . They're gonna have to go and do cardio for the next day to burn it off . That's just a massive emotional . I nearly used the word , but it's just an absolute head case , isn't it ?

Speaker 1 16:53

it causes you all sorts of problems in that yeah , that Anxiety of like I'm gonna lose control , I'm gonna gain 10 pounds of fat the next day , that can really impact how much you enjoy the occasion .

Speaker 1 18:01

Yeah , of course , and with a lot of my clients , what we go through is trying to challenge those fears of , okay , have your normal meals , make sure you're satisfied , going into , say , the celebratory dinner , and then See how you go and then have the cake if there's cake or ice cream or pizza or whatever it is and a lot of the time they realize that with Not restricting anymore , they're able to enjoy the food a lot more .

Speaker 1 18:35

They Can eat maybe two slices of pizza and they feel like , oh , yeah , I feel like I'm satisfied . Now I'm ready to move on to something else or I'm ready to finish the meal , and then , with Showing themselves that , oh , I actually don't lose control all the time , and challenging that belief , challenging that fear , then the next time they have a Night out , they no longer have that anxiety or the level of anxiety is a lot lower because they have that Experience and evidence to show them that I don't always lose control . I have in the past , but I've also shown myself that , yeah , I can do this , I can enjoy it and have a great time .

Speaker 2 19:19

Yeah , and I think that's important that we can go along , because I know people , I've got clients that you can dig into their history . They've Not gone to social occasions purely because they're worried about the food that's going to be there , or they haven't gone out with friends , and I think the impact that that has is enormous because you're missing out on your quality time , which is another facet of health , social health , our social health . We've sacrificed our social health to stay at home , to stay in control of what we're doing , and I think by controlling that one aspect actually leads to very , very disordered behaviors around food . So I think what you've covered there is something that I work very hard with my clients on is giving yourself permission to eat , but being mindful and checking in with yourself , because sometimes , right , people do find that when they actually just check in with themselves , it can be enough kind of we do it mindlessly , mindlessly , without checking in , we just keep eating and then we go oh my god , I feel so fat when it's just your stomach's full and it's extended , you're not fat , you're just full . And then the next thing that happens is if we were to check in with ourselves as we're reading ago oh my god , this is delicious . I'm really enjoying this , but you know what it's gonna be there tomorrow where I don't really need anymore . I feel quite comfortable . Sometimes that's enough to stop you . In fact , the research does show that that can be very much a really good strategy Just to check in with yourself and just stop you from actually eating or eating more than what you would do , so that you don't Elevate yourself high on this hunger scale and feel really uncomfortable . So that's the emotional and mental health side .

Speaker 2 20:55

I think my personal opinion is and I've done it and I'm sure you've done it as well is tracking calories can be a real mental Challenge . You've got to track this , you got to track that . I don't track with my clients unless they're a particular client that wants to Track for a specific purpose , which can be a performance goal , which is different again , because we want to make sure that we're getting the right macronutrients at the right ratios and quantities for that Performance . That's different , but I think the general population don't need to be tracking food at all . I think that's important . I hope you're enjoying the show . If you are , please don't forget to rate and review once you've finished .

Speaker 2 21:35

This helps the show's reach enormously . And have you got my free ebook the best way to eat on night shift ? Well , this is a comprehensive guide to the overnight fast , why we should fast and how to best go about it . I've even included a few recipes to help you . I've put a link to the ebook in the show notes .

Speaker 2 21:55

And Are you really struggling with shift work and feel like you're just crawling from one shift to the next ? Well , I've got you . If you would like to work with me , I can coach you to thrive , not just survive , while undertaking the rigors of 24 seven shift work . I also conduct in-house live health and well-being seminars where I will come to your workplace and deliver Evidence-based information to help your well-being team to reduce unplanned leave and increase productivity in your workplace . I've put the links in the show notes to everything mentioned . You can find me at a healthy shift comm or on Instagram at a underscore healthy , underscore shift .

Speaker 2 22:40

Now let's get back to the show , anyway . So that's how working on our mental health side of things . So what we're saying to the listeners here is really important . We want to make sure that if you have to start questioning yourself what food's gonna be there or what's gonna be on the menu or what can I do , or what can I do . That's where there's a mental health impact . If you think , oh , I can't go to Jenny's house because she's gonna have cake and desserts and it's gonna be all sweet treats and things like that , that's impacting your mental health and you need to find someone that can help you to address and deal with those issues to improve your health in that area . And I think that's a really , really important area to address , because you need to be able to go to Jenny's because of social health .

Speaker 1 23:29

Yes .

Speaker 2 23:29

And that's our next one , isn't it ? Social health ?

Speaker 1 23:31

Yes . So it leads well to the social aspect of health , which involves going out with friends and family , and then also culturally , if you're from a , say , chinese background or Greek or Italian . These are all cultures that really bond with those Over food , annual occasions or special festivals or days throughout the year . And if you're not able to enjoy those occasions and embrace those occasions

Social Health's Impact on Mental Health

Speaker 1 24:07

, that can also impact how you feel and this might tie back into that psychological health as well . If you're going to Christmas dinner and you're fearing what food might be there or what food is bad or what food might be causing fat gain , then that's impacting how much energy you have to enjoy the occasion to interact with people , to relax and enjoy your time , to lower those stress levels . These all tie into each other . So remembering that social health is important is quite crucial .

Speaker 2 24:45

It's very important for our mental health . It supports each other , doesn't it ? Social health and mental health , because I think one of the main aspects of poor mental health is isolation . And I think we have to look at this in a very big way that if you are withdrawing from social occasions or you are not fully present in your social occasion because you have this fear around food or fat gain , hiding in the corner and sucking your thumb , pretending that the food's not there when it is , you're withdrawing from that social connection with your family , your cousins , your friends , the actual celebration of why you're actually there . It could be Jenny's birthday or it could be anything else that you're there , but you're not there because your mind is so preoccupied with freaking out around food and there's ways that we can work on that as well , which is really important . And once again , that ties back into our mental health giving yourself permission to eat and actually embracing and enjoying the food , but doing it mindfully , and I think that's a really good one . We've probably gone over it a couple of times , but I think the social health is something that I really work hard on with clients as well , when people say , oh , I've gone out and I've fallen off the wagon . What do you mean ? You've fallen off the wagon . Oh , I went to the party and I had two pieces of cake . And did anyone die ? No , so what's the problem with having two pieces of cake ? It's one day , it's one meal in one day and we just move on . And I think that's the most important thing and the one thing that I wanna highlight with social health , with people , which I talk about .

Speaker 2 26:18

When you look at your calendar over 30 days in a month , how many green ticks have you got and how many red crosses have you got , you might call your day a failure . And if it's a complete failure where you've massively overeaten all day , that's a red cross . But if you've gone through the day where you've gone 80% , where you've been very mindful , you've eaten well , you feel good , you've socialized , you've done everything , that's a green tick , because you're ticking all the facets of your health . And when you get to the end of the month and you have a look at your calendar , how many red crosses are on it and how many green ticks are on it ? Because you'll find the consistency is the more green ticks , and without actually literally doing that to track . I'm talking about that as an analogy , as long as we are more consistent with good behaviors , two pieces of cake and overindulging in a pasta bowl one meal is not causing you massive problems all around .

Speaker 1 27:12

I even say that those aren't even red crosses , because from that occasion what I would do with my clients if they've come to me and said , oh , I've overeaten . On this occasion , I've gone so much over what I would see as the right amount of calories in quotation marks . I would say , okay , that's a great learning for us . How did you feel after that ? Did you feel satisfied ? Did you feel sick ? Did you feel happy ? Did you feel frustrated ? How did you feel about that ? Because that will inform future decisions and it's still a green state , because you've learned something from it .

Speaker 1 27:50

And also I think this is a really good point to highlight that it is very much a balancing act . It's not about saying yes to all social occasions . It's not about just saying , oh yeah , I can eat whatever I want and then eat until I'm sick and everything . It's a balance between because we've covered physical , emotional and social health to this point .

Speaker 1 28:13

It might be on some occasion you're saying no at a social occasion because at that point in time you're feeling I want to balance a bit more towards my physical health . Or you're saying no to alcohol because you don't enjoy how that makes you feel or how that impacts your , say , psychological health . So there's always the permission to say no and the permission to say yes . It's opening those options out and understanding that I don't need to just focus on physical health . On some occasions it is the right decision to overeat on that pasta because that is one of your family celebrations that happens once a year and you really enjoy that and that really benefits your emotional and psychological health . So it's not that it's wrong to overeat . It's making that conscious decision and being able to balance all these facets .

Speaker 2 29:11

Excellent . I've been working with a client who loves her date night with her fiance and she always was someone who over ate on the date night . Always she called it a treat night . That's her date night , that's her big night with her fiance . And I actually went down the line of exploring that with her and how it made her feel afterwards . And of course she'd overeaten . She had the food baby . She felt gross right as in because of how much she'd overeaten and I said to her so it's date night .

Speaker 2 29:48

How did that impact on your feelings of wanting to be like intimate with your fiance as well Post date night ? Because date night's all about just celebrating . What's saying . It's all about that . It made her stop and think . I go out and I overeat and then I blow up and then I feel gross . The last thing I feel like doing is feeling like being intimate with my fiance . It was enough to make her think and stop and that's what you're saying to explore . It's a learning process . So now she leaves food on her plate and that's a great time . End of story .

Speaker 2 30:20

I won't go into detail because I don't know any more detail , but what I'm saying is this is the difference that that can actually make to someone to . As you've rightly pointed out , it's probably not a red cross , but it's a learning process without realising and it isn't until you stop and you think about I go out for date night and have a great time , but then I do feel gross and the last thing I feel like doing is putting into it . Or it's really uncomfortable or I feel really awful . You can fix that . It's been a real game changer for her and obviously a fiance , but I think that's been really good . Talking about that , social health , mental health , physical health , the whole thing all around and being around that .

Speaker 1 30:57

I think we've done that one

The Six Facets of Health

Speaker 1 30:58

Intellectual health , which I kind of touched on in terms of intellectual health , is about making informed decisions , and we talked about most people not needing to track calories , but it can also be quite helpful for people to understand calories and understand how to read a nutrition label , and many might be surprised to know how many people don't really know how to navigate that table on the back of a package .

Speaker 1 31:29

Just by learning how to recognise how much protein , how much fat or how much saturated fat , how much fibre , is in a specific food , that can help them make better decisions . So someone might be tossing between the lighter version of digestives versus the regular digestives and then thinking are the pricier ? Light digestives might be better for me in terms of physical health , or they might have fat loss goal or muscle gain goal or whatever , and they think that that choice would be more in line . However , if they flip to the back of the packaging and had a look , they would realise that there is a five or six calorie difference between the light digestives and the regular digestives , and they also know that they enjoy the regular digestives a lot more . So just by recognising that there's such a small , negligible calorie difference between the two options , they could just go for the cheaper regular digestives , enjoy a lot more and still be living in line with their goals .

Speaker 2 32:37

Spot on , and I think the fact that you use something like that , the amount of times we see people reach for the light versions , it's literally as a marketing employee , isn't it in a lot of cases ? Because what we don't realise is when we have fats and things like that removed out of foods , it takes the satiety level of the food away , whereas if you were to have and let's use your digestive as an example and you might have one , two and you're satisfied with the normal version , you might end up eating four of the light ones because there's not enough in it . It doesn't give you the satisfaction that what you actually need , and I think people need to be educated around that . Now I'm not saying you have to pick up and read every single label .

Speaker 2 33:18

What Rachel's saying is , with the intelligent side of health , it's understanding and being able to call out the bullshit in marketing . I think that's the most important thing that where it's like this and like that , being able to compare the light version with the full version most of the time with a lot of things you could just have the full version , have less of it and be more satisfied than you would be if you had the light version there . So I think that's sort of not only that summing up the intelligent side of health , but it's also being able to call out being intelligent in relation to fat diets . Do you want to talk about like fat diets with the intellect around fat diets ?

Speaker 1 33:55

Yeah , so being able to understand what energy balance is , and that it's not about specific foods . It's about the overall diet over time that impacts health , weight and biomarkers Everything about health . It's not about that one food or sugar or fat or carbs . It's about everything added together .

Speaker 2 34:20

Yeah , and I think the other thing is too . It's important to understand that when you see a regular diet , a particular diet like your keto diet , and it's low carb to start off with and you will lose weight on a low carb diet but there's a reason why you do it . It's having the intellect to understand why it is that you're actually losing that weight . You're not losing body fat , you're losing weight per se and I think that's one of those things . It's just being intelligent all around in being able to call out the rubbish , being intelligent enough to pick something and just roll with it over a period of time , and understanding energy balances , the overall factor . So that's the intellect side . Anything else you want to say on that ? The intellect side ?

Speaker 1 34:59

No , but also I think it feeds into the next facet , which is economic health . So about reading the labels , and it's not just about calories , it might also be about fiber . So you might see a cereal that is marketed as contains fiber . However , if you were able to read the ingredients list and then also the table , and see how much fiber it contains , you might realize that the plain oats that are 10 times cheaper might contain more fiber than the expensive package . Beautifully marketed cereal or muesli contains Yep , and if you are trying to save up or just trying to live on a lower grocery budget , that can be really helpful , because then you know that I am actually still making a choice that is in line with my health goals or nutrition goals or whatever you're trying to aim for , without breaking the bank .

Speaker 2 36:02

Yeah , spot on Economic health is really , really important because it does impact on us and I know , in particular with our shift workers that really struggle with meal prepping and going along whatever they need to do and they get tired and then they get decision fatigue and it causes them all sorts of grief around what to cook and when and how and they end up reaching for the Uber Eats , whereas they may sometimes looking at pre-prep meals like my muscle chef meals or some of the other pre-prep meals that they actually have .

Speaker 2 36:33

Sometimes that might look like it's expensive from the outside , but having it there and ready to go , you're making a healthy financial decision around your health so that you're getting a good meal around that .

Speaker 2 36:46

You've got the emotional intellect to be able to weigh it all up as well because you're intellectually healthy as well , so you can weigh it all up and go albeit I have to go out and buy all these different things . I'm not going to put a meal together and then I end up getting Uber Eats and I don't eat what I've got in the fridge anyway . I might have been better off having a pre-prep meal that I could just reach for and grab when I'm seriously tired and make sure that I'm getting the right amount of protein , carbs and fats , and it works really really well for me . And that's what we're talking about when we talk about that financial health around that , making those informed decisions , which , once again , these all tie in together , don't they ? Because it comes back to the emotional health , it comes back to the intellectual health , it comes back to the mental health . It covers everything , really .

Speaker 1 37:32

And it's a balancing act again , because for some it might be the best economic decision , for the economic health to choose the home-branded quick oats . For someone else who is a bit tight on time and they don't want that psychological burden of having to wake up and then prepare the oats and then bring it with them , it might be wiser for them to get the quick packs which have a tub of yogurt below and then some muesli on top , and then grab some raspberries or strawberries or something for some fruits and fiber , and that's the easiest way for them to do it . That might cost them a bit more but for them it might be the healthiest decision because they might think or decide that that's a kind of fair opportunity cost . So a bit more expensive , but I'm getting what I need , what I want and then saving on time as well .

Speaker 2 38:26

And taking the mental pressure out of it . So therefore the mental health stays good too , because people don't have to actually think , oh , stress out , it causes some stress to try and decide how they want to go about it . So it takes that mental stress out . That's awesome . What else is there ?

Speaker 1 38:41

I think that was all of it .

Speaker 2 38:42

Yeah , that's six .

Speaker 1 38:43

We covered all of them , so physical health , emotional and psychological health , social health , intellectual health and economic health .

Speaker 2 38:51

Fantastic . You summed that all up really , really well and we didn't want to bore people with going into great detail around it . But I just want people to really understand when I say to them what does health look like ? Take all of this into account . So when you decide that I need to lose weight , have a look at the other facets of what actually is going to impact on your decision that you're making and ask if you're sacrificing one or sacrificing four or five others for the sake of one . Like I want physical health , but what am I going to do ? Is I'm going to impact the other five ?

Speaker 2 39:22

My mental health , my financial health are going to really start to suffer and it is a balancing act between all six of them , and it's really important that you factor in all six when you're making these decisions , because while you've got a harmonious balance there , that's health and I think that's what we are referring and some of them are going to be up sometimes , aren't they Like ? Physical health might be down a little and mental health can be down , but your financial health might be up at different times . But the idea is to try and keep them all on a medium and , if you can keep them all in or around a medium . Then we look at health . Really well , very good . Anything else you would like to sum up with Rog ?

Speaker 1 39:57

Yeah , I just want to sum up with saying that there is no one way to be healthy . It will vary between people , and also remember that it will vary for the same person throughout their life , because their circumstances will change . Their job might be a lot more busy now and it means that they need to make tweaks . So treat it as an ongoing process there is no right or wrong and maintain a curious mindset , because then , whatever the experience is , you're learning from it rather than seeing it as a failure .

Speaker 2 40:30

Wow , I think that's a really , really good way to wrap up . Thank you , rog . You've obviously got two separate accounts that you run there , both of them very successfully , which is amazing . So whereabouts can people find you the ?

Speaker 1 40:43

easiest way would be Instagram . So I have a main account which targets mainly Chinese speaking audiences across Hong Kong , taiwan , singapore , malaysia . So the Instagram handle for that is LeeRachelLiRACEL , or you can reach me at my English account , which is RxR Nutrition .

Speaker 2 41:09

Fantastic . You've got to go and have a look at Rachel's Chinese account . I'll link to both accounts in the show notes for you . You've got to go and have a look at the little emojis that she puts together to tell their stories . They're all very , very cute all the way , spread right through her account . Rachel , let's go and have some lunch .

Speaker 2 41:25

Yes , thanks so much for having me again and thank you so much for doing that , and it's been such a pleasure . I really do enjoy having you on and here . You've been with me here for the last three days working on our special project that we're working on at the moment , which people we will let you know all about very , very shortly . Thanks for joining me , rach . Thank you , and there you go . That's Rachel Lee , isn't she fantastic ? I absolutely love my time and my chats with Rachel . She's so highly intelligent and just articulates things so beautifully from an evidence based perspective , and you've now heard what the six facets of health are amazing . Don't forget rate and review . So thanks very much for joining Rachel and I on this .

Speaker 2 42:08

What I hope you found was an insightful journey . If you found today's episode helpful , don't forget to hit follow and please share with your fellow shift

Mental Health Tips for Shift Work

Speaker 2 42:17

workers or with anybody that you feel could get value from this show . I love getting the questions that I can read back on the podcast and I'm going to start doing like one a week , which would be really good . And remember , you've got the power to be a true shift work champion and , as always , please remember to be patient and kind to yourself as you navigate the challenges of shift work and prioritize your mental health and well being . And also , I want to thank you for tuning into a healthy shift and keep moving forward one percent and one step at a time , and make yourself a healthy shift . Thank you for listening .

Speaker 2 43:00

If you enjoyed this episode , be sure to subscribe so you get notified whenever a new episode is released . It would also be ever so helpful if you could leave a rating and review on the app you're currently listening on . If you want to know more about me or work with me , you can go to a healthy shift dot com . I'll catch you on the next one .