What I aim to do with almost all aspects of my life is to set an example for people around me.

I’m not perfect, I have heaps of flaws and I struggle with lots of things.

But despite that I am always trying to:

do my best
push myself to be a little bit better
be consistent
learn new things so I can keep improving

In practice what the looks like for me is:

I push myself really hard (across most areas of my life)
I don’t make excuses
I am always trying to make incremental improvements (i.e. I haven’t changed everything all at once)
I am often doing things that make other people uncomfortable (e.g. I don’t drink alcohol, I get up at 4 am even if I’m on holidays, I work weird hours of the day, I am exceptionally disciplined)

I think too many people forget that we are only on this earth for a short period of time and in the blink of an eye it’s all going to be over. I am reminded of that every few days when I go and visit my 88 year old father in his nursing home, who is bed ridden these days and nearing the end of his life.

One day we are all going to be that 90 year old person who is lying around and reflecting on our lives.

And I know for certain that I don’t want to be lying there with any regret. I want to know that I have pushed myself to my limits and that I have achieved everything I wanted to achieve.

I don’t want to have made excuses or not done things out of fear.

I also am keen to actually get to be that 90 year old person and, although that’s not promised for any of us (and my brain aneurysms mean I am at greater risk of that potentially not happening), there are so many things we can do for ourselves now, that will make life so much easier for us when we are older.

I like to think of it as an insurance policy for my future, older self, that I’m going to be very thankful for!

And taking care of my health and fitness is one of the significant ways I do that.

I realised that I have never actually written about exactly how I think about fitness and nutrition on my blog, but I always find it fascinating to learn about how other people think about and approach these topics - so I thought it might be something worth documenting, even just for myself to look back on in time.

But please don’t read any of this post as me thinking I’m some kind of health or fitness guru!!

I am definitely not an expert in any of what I’m going to be talking about in this post. All I can share with you is what I try and do myself and how I approach all of this as a busy person who is doing my best.

So with that little intro out of the way - let me share some of how I think about things across health and fitness. Hopefully some parts of it will be interesting or helpful :)

1: Fitness

I’m a bit of a maniac exerciser. After being a very inactive child and teenager (as I was a musician so spent most of the hours other teens are doing sport practicing my oboe!) I actually have loved exercise since I was in my early 20s and have been pretty active since then (that’s about 25 years for those counting 😱).

For the last few years my main form of exercise has been group training sessions and semi-private (personal training) sessions with my trainers at TRX Group Training.

These are outdoor training sessions that I do most mornings of the week and as of writing this post my weekly routine looks like this:

Monday: group training session
Tuesday: semi-private training session
Wednesday: group training session
Thursday: semi-private training session
Friday: group training session, followed by a semi-private training session a few hours later
Saturday: group training session
Sunday: no session (but only because they don’t run one, otherwise I would go Sunday as well 🥳)

I do a mix of both the group training and the semi-private sessions because we focus on a sort of circuit-type training in the group sessions (good for cardio but we also do some strength training in these sessions as well) but then in my semi-private sessions I focus on lifting heavy weights and increasing my overall strength (e.g. my 140kg hip thrusts or working on my pull ups etc.)

I have been training with Miguel and Jane from TRX for about 4 1/2 years now and it is no coincidence that the improvement in my fitness has been so highly correlated with my business skyrocketing.

I also strongly believe that the fact I went into my brain surgery last year being really fit helped a lot with my recovery from that operation.

What I have gained from my years at TRX:

discipline - apart from when I have had surgery or been sick (which is rare) I’ve almost never missed a session in 4 1/2 years - I have even dialled in via zoom from holidays I’m that crazy! 🤣
confidence - it’s just a fact that when you look and feel better your confidence increases
higher levels of fitness - obviously!
an wonderful group of like-minded friends who I look forward to seeing each day - we have a lot of fun and there’s always lots of banter being thrown about (with a lot of it being directed at me as I’m way too competitive and take everything way more seriously than it needs to be taken 🫣🫣 and they make fun of me because of that)

In addition to my TRX training sessions, I also walk every day for 5.5km.

I have the same route that I walk every single day, which many people think sounds so boring. But I love that I don’t have to think about the route. I just put on my shoes and head out the door. The 5.5km takes me around 45-55 minutes, depending on how fast I am walking that day.

I use this time to listen to audiobooks or podcasts, so I’ve always got something new and interesting in my ears. I also use my daily walks to chat to my community on Instagram stories - which is a great way to stack one great habit on top of another (i.e. I wanted to get more consistent about showing up on stories so a few years ago I decided to attach that habit to one I already had embedded in my routine - i.e. going on a daily walk).

So I do quite a bit of exercise each week and if you follow me on social media you’ll know I’m almost always in active wear - so I can be ready to exercise at any possible moment 😅😅

One thing I need to get better at is stretching and mobility. I am almost always injured because I exercise a lot and don’t do enough mobility work (plus I’m getting to be an old lady 👵🏻) - so that’s something that’s definitely on my list to try and improve over the coming year. I also always train through injuries, which probably isn’t the best idea either. An injury would rarely stop me from turning up for training (it just annoys my trainer as he then has to modify stuff so I can do it!)

2: Nutrition

Over the time I’ve been training at TRX I have got more and more dialled in with my nutrition.

I don’t really have a set way of eating or anything like that. Again, it’s just about doing my best and eating as well as I can overall.

But here are some of the main pillars of how I think about nutrition:

we mostly cook at home (although my husband and I do often go out for lunch - if you follow my personal Instagram page you’ll see our ‘girl lunch’ vs ‘boy lunch’ pictures quite often
we don’t often order food or eat out (as we aren’t sure what goes into that sort of food)
we spend what we need to on high quality ingredients and food (e.g. organic chicken, wild-caught fish, grass fed/finished beef, organic veggies etc.) - it’s not unusual for our weekly food bill to be as high as $600 (and often higher now with inflation)
I focus on eating plenty of protein at every meal
we eat protein and veggies (and some fruit, but I don’t like fruit much) at most meals - a typical dinner might be chicken, roast sweet potatoes and asparagus, for example (this is for the kids as well as we all eat together)
we try and avoid as much processed food as possible
we try and avoid anything with seed oils in them (surprisingly high number of products - including things you may think are ‘healthy’ - so always read your nutrition labels!)
I don’t eat until around 12 each day - I have been doing this since I was a teenager (and before intermittent fasting was a ‘thing’) as my body just seems to prefer it
I try and drink about 4L water each day - recently I’ve been adding a pinch of sea salt to my water bottles to improve my electrolytes
I never drink alcohol - I gave that up 4+ years ago now (you can read about that here if you’re interested)
I don’t drink coffee (but I do drink tea with oat milk - making sure to get oat milk that doesn’t contain seed oils)

So that’s how I think about nutrition on a day to day basis (and my husband is pretty much the same although if we eat out he’s more inclined to eat a burger than a salad 🤣). But, as I mentioned, I am still a normal person and I’m not perfect at all. So from time to time we will have pizza or when we are on holidays we will go out for dinner. If we are having afternoon tea or a party and there’s cake - I always eat the cake.

But overall I aim to be as good as I can for around 90% of the time. The rest of the time I fall off the wagon, just like all other normal people do.

So here’s what a typical day of eating would look like for me:

4am - a few cups of tea before training (the caffeine spike acts as a sort of pre-workout for me as well)
Lunch (around 11am-1pm or when I’m hungry) - either chicken and salad, leftovers from dinner the night before or sometimes sourdough with eggs (yes I eat bread and I love it but not all that often and only sourdough)
Afternoon meal (around 3-4pm) - a smoothie made with frozen banana, raspberries and spinach plus almond milk and a scoop of True Protein protein powder
Snacking - I try and avoid it as I think it’s my downfall, but I do sometimes eat a small handful of nuts or sneak a few bits and pieces from my boys’ afternoon tea. I think this snacking is why my final few kgs always stick around and so I really should stop this bad habit 🤣
Dinner - could be chicken done on the BBQ, white rice and asparagus or it might be home made beef rissoles, sweet potato chips and broccolini. We eat dinner with the boys - so they eat like this as well (in case you’re wondering).

So I really only eat in a window of about 8 hours or so each day. That’s what works for me, but I’m not saying it’s right for everyone.

3: Sleep

If you’re new to my community you may not know that I get up at 4am every morning (and yes that includes weekends and also if I’m away on holidays).

My early morning hours are sacred. I LOVE them. They are also when I get the most done for my business as it’s so quiet at that time of day and I’m always extremely focused first thing in the morning.

If you want to read more about why (and how) I get up at 4am, then read this blog post next

But I am always asked questions about what time I go to bed/sleep in order to be able to get up at 4am and generally I try to go to bed as soon as I’ve tucked my youngest son in for the night, which is around 8.30-9pm.

If I’m being good I’ll read my kindle for a few minutes before sleeping. If I’m not being good (more often) I’ll watch Netflix.

I’m always so tired that I am pretty much asleep within about 10-20 minutes at the most (generally I fall asleep and drop my iPhone on my head while I’m watching Netflix, which is normally my sign to start sleeping 🤣).

I get around 6-7 hours of sleep each night and I am able to function pretty well on that, but I also know that sleep is so critical to helping the body recover and for so many other reasons as well. So I think I could probably sleep for a bit longer. I think I would probably have more nights at 6 hours than I would at 7 hours.

But I’m not willing to sacrifice my 4am sacred, morning time - so whatever time I’m asleep, I’m always awake again by 4.

I don’t use an alarm clock so I naturally wake up somewhere between 3.30-4.30am. But normally (weirdly!) it’s exactly 3.57am….I have no idea how the body does that! However, it’s not uncommon for me to be up before 4am.

Although not directly related to sleep - I also meditate for 10 minutes every morning using the Calm app. I do this before I get out of bed. I put in my earpods and listen to a 10 minute meditation session before getting up.

I don’t have any problems getting out of bed each morning because I think my body is so used to it now, but also because I love what I do so much that I’m excited every day to get up and continue what I was working on the day before.

So that’s basically the way I think about fitness and health. I’ve probably forgotten to include some important details or information here, but that’s the general gist of it.

I’m definitely not perfect but I am exceptionally consistent, try my best for about 90% of the time and then fall off the wagon for the other 10%, just like the rest of the world does.

Thanks for reading and catch you in my next post :)

Clare x

Dr Clare Le Roy

PS: If you enjoyed this then don’t forget to follow me @thelittledesigncorner for my daily tips on growing a profitable design or architecture business.

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