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My way to animal-free (mostly)

Fri, 06 Mar 2020 15:50:14 GMT

Our diets are like our DNA - unique. With that in mind, I decided to become a vegetarian for the second time in my life. And keeping it a personal journey is why it's working for me.

In November last year I decided to turn to a plant-based diet. This would be the second time I removed animal products from my diet – the first was a 5 year period between the ages of 17-23.

Aged 23, I was living in Milan, and had spent two years in Italy struggling to be given anything other than a side of vegetables as a main when eating out! One Sunday, the smell of bacon just got me more than usual... and I was a meat eater again.

Looking back, it’s interesting how even the terminology has changed in that time. When I first became a vegetarian 20 odd years ago, the phrase ‘plant-based’ hadn’t entered people’s vocabulary. Today, I rarely hear the term vegetarian – it’s either vegan or plant-based.

I’d always known I would one day return to a vegetarian diet. And last November was the moment for me. There was no catalyst – just a conscious choice.

Choosing to change your diet

The reason to eliminate animal-products from a diet is very much personal. For some, it’s ethical and principles of not eating sentient beings (my primary reason). For others, it’s environmental and for some like my parents, faith-based. And the more you ask people; you discover there’s a plethora of other reasons too. Whatever your reason may be to stop eating animal products or animal by-products, it helps to remember you don’t have to justify it to others. 20 years ago, I was constantly challenged to ‘stop being fussy and just eat meat’. Much like when I was a smoker and was constantly told to ‘just stop’.

There’s definitely an element of willpower when it comes to dietary change as there is with giving up smoking – and I’d argue addiction. Having an awareness of these before making any changes helps.

So I set out with a mindset of being ready for days where I’d be ‘transitioning’. A few burgers were had. Oh and a bacon sandwich following a festive-period hangover in December!

Ditch the labels and throw away the rule book

I’m an advocate of not getting hung up on labels. The labels tend to come with other people’s (or a movement’s) interpretations. A person’s diet is hugely personal. And our reasons for altering our diets vary hugely. I consider myself a vegetarian. 20 years ago, for me that meant not eating meat, poultry, fish, eggs or dairy. However, I chose to still eat eggs if they were an ingredient in cakes and continued to have dairy. But I would never eat eggs – be they poached, fried or scrambled. And I had very strong feelings on how ‘wrong’ egg consumption was.

Today, I eat similarly. However, I continue to eat eggs – be they poached, scrambled or otherwise. And I plan to transition to eliminating eggs altogether. To me, that is being a vegetarian. Yet, it seems society deems vegetarians as egg eaters. Again, ditch the label and the rules.

I continue to, and will continue to, wear leather, wool, eat honey and have foods containing gelatin. Why? Because I’m not joining a movement. I’ve chosen to make changes that I feel are right for me, my conscience and my ethics. And these differ for all of us.

The rules around various diets really don’t help the wider population. My advice to anyone looking to reduce their consumption of animal products from their diet is to forget any rules and start by transitioning. Remove what you find easiest. For some that will be dairy. For others red meat.

5 tips to eating less animal products

Here are my recommendations to changing your diet to one that contains LESS animal products:

Ditch the labels – don’t make any grand statements about your choice and just start your journey.
Accept it will be a transition – don’t tell yourself you must ‘stick to it’. The mindset of restriction won’t help.
Note your favourite meals and explore meat-free versions – tofu katsu curry has replaced my chicken katsu curry penchant just fine!
Know your macro-nutrient and calorie needs – there’s a plethora of resource online showing calorie and macro-nutrient calculations for meat-free meals and ingredients. It’s vital you avoid energy slumps and vitamin/mineral deficiency by eating poorly balanced meals.
Avoid turning to microwaveable and processed meat-free meals as a go-to. Meals should be healthy whether meat-based or meat-free. The lazy-vegan or lazy-vegetarian is a thing and often convenience is the cause of poor-quality diets in vegan/vegetarian diets.

Meat-free hacks that have helped

These are the shopping and food hacks that have saved me time and provided taste!

Aldi has been a revelation – their ‘Foodie Market’ line includes Black Bean Spaghetti and Edamame and Mung Bean Fettucine. Not only do these taste just like pasta, they have no other ingredients AND have more protein than a chicken pasta dish!
Tofu – The Tofoo Company’s Naked Tofu doesn’t need pressing or draining and each pack comes with recipes for us tofu virgins.
Batch-cook – I find roasting a big batch of veg each week sets me up for the week. All I need to do is add a protein source: see pasta or tofu above.
Burgers – back to Aldi. They have two veggie burgers in their range – a beetroot burger which is lovely and meaty, and a sweet potato burger which has a nice spicy kick.
Recipes – if unlike me, you are eliminating eggs, there is a wealth of recipe resources online. This week I wanted to make a banana cake, but didn’t want to purchase eggs (something I haven’t bought in months). So, I found a lovely banana and carrot-cake vegan recipe which was quick and tasted just delicious. No complicated ingredients either.
Eating out – almost every restaurant (certainly in London) now caters for vegetarians and vegans). If you’re transitioning, eating out is a good time to have meat or poultry. I found starting by not having chicken/meat/eggs at home but allowing myself to when out was perfect.

Choosing to eat less meat or no animals at all, needn’t be a huge change in lifestyle. It’s never been easier. Just start by knowing your why, doing some research and taking it slowly and not placing yourself in a ‘dietary box’.

Set intentions not resolutions

Wed, 01 Jan 2020 16:18:10 GMT

Why most of us fail at our new year resolutions. So how about we make this the year that we set intentions, commit to them and be just a bit kinder to ourselves

Research shows that about 60% if us make new years resolutions. And a month later, only 1 in 4 of us is sticking to them. Only 8% of people who make new years resolutions actually accomplish them.

So why is that? Take a look around you – there’s the mate doing dry January who went to more Christmas parties than the Beatles had Christmas number ones. There’s Red January – doing some form of exercise every day in January – all for a good cause. And of course, Veganuary – giving up eating animal products for the first month of the year. We all have done challenges or made resolutions at the onset of a new juncture.

Inevitably, we do these challenges or make these resolutions, in the hope to do this for longer than a month. We hope this month will kick-start a fresh approach to wellbeing. And we bank on not being in this place next year (regretting how much drink, poor food or lack of exercise we’ve had during the previous year).

Resolutions and month-long challenges don’t work for the majority for a few simple reasons:

1. Research shows writing down goals and aims provides an increased chance of achieving goals compared to verbal intentions

2. The new year-new me approach of heading head first into restrictions has a negative effect on commitment and outcome – restriction mentality doesn’t work

3. When we’re part of a national campaign and momentum and it ends, we lose our accountability and motivation

4. Inevitably many resolutions are about restriction and avoidance rather than achievement and behaviour change ‘stop smoking’ rather than ‘improve my asthma/cardio fitness’

5. Our minds are set for fixed terms – the first month of the new year

Add to this, our inner dialogue which berates us for 'failing' on a particular day, which speaks unkindly to ourselves. Do your respond to kindness or cruelty from others? So why would we think unkindness to ourselves is going to get results?

The writer James Clear, touches on another critical point: “If two people have the same goal, you nothing about the similarity of their results. But if two people have the same daily habits, you can infer quite a bit about the similarity of their results. Your results are largely a by-product of your habits.”

In essence, it’s not one month of drinking more alcohol than is advisable, nor a stream of indulgent weekends which have caused poor physical or mental wellbeing. Its our daily habits over the course of 365 days.

Avoiding the all or nothing noise

So here’s our tips to avoiding starting yet another December of all and another January of nothing - the all or nothing mindset:

1. Go beyond the first month and write down your wellbeing goals as intentions for the first 3, 6 months and year

2. Look at your intentions and see how you can make them measurable

3. You have your intentions, now identify what will help you achieve them – actions, learning, behaviours

4. Don’t enter into a restrictive mindset – ‘eat a more plant-based diet’ not ‘stop having meat’

5. Revisit your goals and identify your WHY. Why do you want to achieve these goals – without a why you understand, you’re less likely to achieve your goal

6. Turn your commitment into actions in your diary – exercise, mental wellbeing practice, healthy food prep, time with loved ones, time alone

7. A final one, we champion the practice of journaling. Why not head to your local stationery shop and buy yourself a handsome notebook. Keep it by your bedside and each evening, note 3 things your grateful for each night that may have happened that day. And use it to note your progress and commitment to your goals.

Intent on a year of kindness

In short, there’s a lot of money behind the January new-year, new-me campaigning. It can be a lucrative time of year for many in the diet and fitness space in particular. Money is made from our 365-day yo-yo cycles. This year, try doing things that will provide a lasting change. Don’t strive for perfection and unrealistic expectations. Set your intentions, write them down, and don’t expect to be perfect. Not even on one day of the year. Try to be kind to yourself for each of the next 365 days

Wellbeing behaviours – habits, responsibilities and motivations

Mon, 11 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMT

If we want to be well, we need to take care of our physical and mental states. At The Hour we believe this means forming daily habits in four wellbeing foundations: physical fitness, mind, nutrition, and sleep.

By habits we mean behaviours. But not all behaviours are habits. One of the reasons our corporate wellbeing clients and their employees struggle with forming wellbeing habits is that there is a misunderstanding around what a habit is.

Some of our behaviours or actions are done automatically (habit), some are done out of needing to (responsibility), and some because we are incentivised to (motivation).

Beliefs, thoughts, words, actions, habits to values

"Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny." – Gandhi.

This quote illustrates perfectly how some actions become embedded in who we are. These are actions taken automatically - behavioural patterns which are repeated and become imprinted in neural pathways.

Waking up at a certain time each day without an alarm, having the same breakfast each day and biting nails are all examples of repetitive behaviours done automatically for the most part – habits.

To care for our wellbeing, we need to carry out behaviours - conscious and subconscious which support our wellbeing. And for wellbeing to become more than something we dip into now and then (a class, a massage etc.), these behaviours need to become accumulative automatic actions – habits.

40 years ago, it was believed that it takes 21 days on average to form a habit. In the 21st century, new research revealed that it takes around 66 days. However, each of us is different. Ultimately, it takes time, conscious effort and an understanding of our behaviours.

Motivation driven behaviours

The Olympics is the pinnacle of motivation driven behaviour. The reward of a gold medal and being accepted as the best in the world at a given sport is a huge motivator. And most sports competitions tap in to this motivation. This reward-based desire to take certain actions and behaviours is known as extrinsic motivation.

However, some of our behaviours are driven by intrinsic motivation. This is the internal reward for carrying out a specific behaviour such as meditating. Reading a book for the pleasure of story-unfolding, going for a run because of simple enjoyment, or doing yoga because you love the practice are all examples of internal reward.

These motivation-driven actions form less of our daily choices than behaviours through responsibility or habit. But these reward-based actions often play a crucial role in the formation of habits – usually the starting point.

What we do out of responsibility

Doing something often and consciously isn’t a habit. For instance, we brush our teeth through responsibility not habit. Each night we put our children to bed or walk the dog out of responsibility - not habit.

Our wellbeing can be influenced by the conscious actions and decisions we take out of responsibility. And in the early stages of improving lifestyle, how we undertake our responsibilities is crucial. For example, choosing to have a healthy breakfast each day requires planning the food, purchasing the ingredients and waking up in time to prepare and/or eat your breakfast. These are all conscious actions out of responsibility (to eat, to cook).

Habit comes in when the choice of breakfast is automatically a healthy one, when the food choices when shopping are healthy ones. And this comes from repeated behaviours.

How do the three types of behaviours combine to help wellbeing?

Take a look at your responsibilities which could affect your wellbeing. Food is the ideal starting point. You have a responsibility to yourself to eat or feed your family. However, you may have developed a habit of not eating breakfast or perhaps lunch. The times you eat and what you eat are influenced by habits. Keep a week’s food diary noting food consumed, times and how long you spent eating meals – where you were – the environment (desk, restaurant, dinner table).

Now, let’s look at your motivations to change current behaviours and eat more nutritiously. Note down why you want to improve your nutrition – current health issues, avoiding future health issues, fat loss and other aesthetic goals. Perhaps you have an event or occasion coming up that you’d like to have as a target date to implement changes and feel the benefits. Or, come up with a reward for yourself for meeting nutritional goals for 4 weeks – a weekend away, new clothing etc. These are your extrinsic motivations – external rewards for improving your diet.

Next, note intrinsic reasons for changing your nutrition: eating more of what you like the taste of, having the time to cook fresh meals – the enjoyment in cooking, your desire to feel more satiated and having more energy.

Address the habits which currently affect your nutritional wellbeing: processed ready-made meals, habit of eating the same thing each day, eating at your desk etc.

Look at the list and choose 3-4 habits which you choose to change in the coming weeks. Note, how you will change these – perhaps setting time aside at weekends to cook from scratch for the week. Perhaps lunch dates in the diary with friends who work in the same area, or getting up 30 minutes earlier to eat breakfast at home.

Give yourself the best environment to achieve these few changes to your habits. And keep returning to your motivations as a reminder of why you’re choosing to make these changes.

Four weeks later do another food diary and see what changes you’ve implemented – you’ll be surprised.

Forming habits takes time. And whilst habits are automatic behaviours, it is concious motivators and an awareness of our responsibilities that leads to these.

If you'd like to learn more about how we work with employers to instil wellbeing habits in the workplace, get in touch.

Employee wellbeing is company wellbeing

Thu, 15 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMT

The need to nurture employees and company culture

Up and down the country offices receive a daily basket of fresh fruit and for many this forms part of their wellbeing initiatives – and for some – is their only wellbeing offering. But it isn’t enough. Here’s why.

Employer accountability

Employee wellbeing is company wellbeing – a company can only grow when its people grow. And many workplace environments actually hinder growth rather than nurture it.

According to a recent CIPD survey, 86% of respondents said they had observed ‘presenteeism’ – working while unwell – in the workplace. What drives us to be present at work when unwell? Often, it’s the pressures of the work environment, manager’s expectation and/or company culture.

Our very ability to perform our role can be affected when our wellbeing suffers. Research from CABA found that over half of respondents experienced stress, anxiety or depression as a result of poor personal wellbeing at work. And 74% felt that their concentration was impacted with 53% seeing poorer results and or performance.

There's a clear disjoint between what employees value and what is currently provided by employers. Recent research from Deloitte illustrates this:

Is your organisation holding itself accountable for its role in the health of its people?

The work environment – stress inducing or growth enhancing

Conditions such as anxiety, depression and unmanageable stress are experienced by one in six UK workers each year. The work environment and poor job design can play a huge role in the manifestation of these conditions.

In fact, according to a REBA survey, 73% of employers themselves say high pressure work environments are the biggest threat to employee wellbeing and are worried about the negative impact on their employees.

Making wellbeing a priority in your business can lead to increased productivity, improve staff performance and reduce absenteeism. But the very fabric of people’s lives is often shaped by the time spent at work. And it’s imperative that employers hold themselves accountable for the role they play in creating the conditions which negatively impact employees’ health and wellbeing.

Our next blog will look at the steps employers should take to address wellbeing at work.