My own health journey started like many others, with the intentions of losing weight and getting in better physical shape. I had spent year’s yo-yo dieting, getting in shape before holidays only to sink back into old habits and go right back to square one before doing it all over again. Sound familiar?

 

Christmas 2017, after an eventful year riddled with low points and bad times, slumping to the most overweight I had ever been whilst consistently making poor lifestyle choices with blissful ignorance, I decided that enough was enough. I was going to dedicate the next 18 months to getting back in shape and maintaining it long term. Summer 2019 was the goal. Before I knew it, by September 2018 I had achieved my goal almost an entire year early. The light bulb suddenly went off, this sparked a realisation in me that the key to effective weight loss was to allow enough time to enjoy the process and not chase short term results.

 

Little did I know that this foundational experience was to be the springboard for bringing Incremental Health Coaching into existence today.

 

So how did I go from that lightbulb moment to where I am today? As odd as it may sound, it was actually my job which was the catalyst for my rapid ascent into learning all things health. While it has nothing to do with health itself as I am a mechanical engineer by trade, my job provided the environment for me to ingest large volumes of information on the topics that interested me the most. In 2020, my job role slightly changed and I would be spending anywhere between 1 and 6 hours driving per day to and from different places of work. Although the thought of being sat behind the wheel for up to 6 hours per day seems dreadful to most (including me), I quickly became extremely grateful for the opportunity it had presented me to learn, grow and develop.

 

I found myself using almost all of my time driving deeply immersed in podcasts and audiobooks, starting off heavily nutrition based and as my nutrition knowledge started to grow I found myself branching out into all other aspects of health and lifestyle such as sleep, movement, mind-set, stress, breathing, sunlight, the list is endless. Over the coming years I had absorbed thousands of hours of material on all things health, lifestyle and mind-set.

 

We’ve all heard the old saying “knowledge is power” right? Well not so fast. Actions taken from knowledge is true power.

 

I began implementing things I had been learning into my own life, slowly and steadily experimenting with things over time and the results were incredible.  Although I had previous success with weight loss and effective weight management (over 2 years had passed by this point and I had maintained my weight and body composition that I achieved in 2018), it was only when I started really paying attention to my routine, my sleep, and optimising my eating for complete nutrition not just weight management, did I truly begin to understand the vast difference between weight loss/results and true health.

 

Although being a healthy weight has incredible positive effects on overall health, I quickly came to realise that just because someone isn’t overweight, or is physically fit, it doesn’t guarantee good health, especially long term. Even though I was in good shape and maintained a healthy weight, I realised that I had been constantly tired, struggled to sleep properly, suffered joint pain and most notably struggled with a very restless mind to the point where I always had to be stimulated, whether through music/TV or just always keeping myself busy with work or activities. Any time I spent alone with my thoughts would cascade into overthinking and playing out scenarios over and over to the point where it became exhausting. But as many people do I thought “that’s just how I am” and how I was destined to be.

 

The biggest realisation I had was once I continued on the journey of slowly but consistently improving all aspects of my lifestyle I was able to look back and feel the enormous differences in how I looked, felt and thought compared to a few years previous. I was now falling asleep and maintaining sleep with ease, had more consistent energy throughout the day, wasn’t feeling hungry between meals, my cravings for bad foods was almost non-existent and my ability to think more clearly with a wider perspective had improved massively.

 

While my weight and body composition remained relatively unchanged, I looked back to late 2018 and the noticeable differences in how I felt and performed mentally was by far the biggest change in my overall health. By the end of 2020, I suddenly realised one day that I had been driving for a couple of hours with no music or podcasts or any other sort of stimulation, the restlessness and overthinking was gone, for me this was huge. I realised that I felt so calm and happy to be alone with my thoughts and this is something that I never thought was possible for me. I instantly put 2 + 2 together and realised that all these small changes I had been making to my lifestyle were not only improving my physical health but also my mental health.

 

I started playing around with this thought, maybe it was a one off? I began seeking out situations where I purposely chose to spend time without stimulation and soon realised that it was not a one off but I was really starting to enjoy it. I had become so calm within myself and all of the restlessness and overthinking had disappeared from my mind. It was an unbelievable progression for me, it’s like I had accidentally stumbled across improving my mental health without ever realising that I needed to.

 

Now, I am not claiming to have come back from the depths of serious mental health challenges like many people unfortunately endure today, but what I had achieved in coming from a having a restless and overthinking mind for as long as I can remember to landing in a place where all that had gone and not only was I comfortable with my thoughts when I had to be, but I was actively seeking out opportunities to purposely spend time alone with them and was enjoying it. I realised that with today’s increasing focus on mental health, I could have a part to play by bridging the gap between physical health and mental health for the benefit of others.

 

It begged the question, if I could improve my own mental and physical health so much by implementing consistent lifestyle changes, then could I also help others do the same too?.

 

I think this is the birth place of Incremental health. The more I learned and improved my own health and lifestyle, the more and more I thought that it’s my responsibility to share my experiences and what I have learned to potentially help others improve their mental and physical health too.

 

That’s when I decided to take the plunge and enrol in the Primal Health Coach institute, I felt that pairing this official certification with my experiences and the knowledge I had gained, I would be best placed to turn my thoughts into actions and put myself out there to help other people change their lives in a positive way. I have also recently been certified as an Oxygen Advantage functional breathing instructor. After spending years learning about how absolutely crucial proper breathing is to achieving and maintaining optimal health, I felt compelled to gain an official breath coaching qualification thorough the worlds leading recognised functional breathing instructor institution Oxygen Advantage.

 

So that’s how I got here, now I aim to educate and coach others into forging a new mindset towards change, taking responsibility for their lifestyle and securing the long term health of themselves and their families for generations to come.