The article below is an excerpt from my newsletter: Well Enough with Harry Bullmore. To get my latest thoughts on fitness and wellbeing pop your email address into the box above to get the newsletter direct to your inbox.
Podcaster Steven Bartlett recently claimed that drinking a few glasses of wine “ruined” three days of his life.
“Is there anything more miserable-looking than Bartlett’s perfectly optimised life?” asks my colleague Rosamund Hall, who explains this week why health optimisation tools are backfiring and making people increasingly unhappy – and even lonely.
No amount of alcohol is good for you, granted. But Bartlett’s reaction also got me thinking about a wider problem: has our modern obsession with living optimally – strict bedtimes, stringent diets and endless health-promoting protocols – actually made us more fragile?
I grew up rurally, often making bows and arrows out of sticks and string for fun. I soon learned that stiff, brittle sticks snapped when you drew back the string and applied a bit of pressure. But pliable sticks bent with stress, pinged back into position and stood the test of time.
I think the same applies to routines. Rigid routines are easily broken and, if you’ve subscribed to one, any wayward step can feel like the end of the world. The days following your perceived misdemeanour are “ruined” and your fitness plans are soon tossed in the fire.
But a flexible routine with sustainable, healthy behaviours weaved in – lots of walking and moving; occasionally getting out of breath and lifting something relatively heavy – develops a pliable person free to enjoy life’s many pleasures.
If you’re not an elite athlete, you don’t have to live like one. You simply have to do enough healthy stuff to facilitate the things that make you happy – whether that’s playing with your kids, walking the dog or exploring new places.
That bar is likely lower than you think, and it’s epitomised by the old adage: something is better than nothing.
My fitness pet peeve at the moment is “-maxxing” trends telling everyone to optimise their fibre intake, sleep schedule, gym routine and more. As a fitness coach and journalist, I’ve found balance is the key to better health, so the idea that we should “maximise” everything feels rather flawed.
A better aim would be to establish a baseline of “enough”: enough movement, enough nutritious food and enough sleep to function happily. Then, if you want to push your performance further or you enjoy a particular type of exercise, you can do more when life allows.
For me, during a recent week-long road trip around Scotland with friends, this meant having some form of protein and vegetables with each meal, doing a quick bit of movement each morning (whether that was a stretching session or a short bodyweight workout), sleeping in when tired and walking a lot – easy to do in the Highlands.
But what I didn’t do was turn down a trip to a bakery or a late-night chance to spot orcas off John O’Groats just because these clashed with optimal health advice.
What optimisation advocates often overlook are the science-backed longevity perks of socialising, purpose and friendship. Sometimes these stand at odds with their definition of “optimal” living, but for the sake of a fun life, I think this trade-off is often worth making. There is health to be found in happiness.
To support this point, I’m going to turn to my time as a reporter for a regional newspaper. Colleagues and I would write stories about local people celebrating their 100th birthdays, and each time we would ask them the secret to reaching the milestone. Not one person named a supplement or specific protocol.
“Brandy and biscuits” came up more than once. Not consumed by the bucketload, but as a treat that brought people joy every now and then – balance in action. Staying active also earned recurring mentions, as did spending time with friends and loved ones.
Genetics play a considerable role in longevity, but from my experience, happiness and/or purpose are also fairly common denominators among those who reach a century.
On the flip side, some of the worst nights of sleep I’ve endured came when I was worrying about getting enough sleep. Obsessing over my stress levels has, in my experience, only pushed them higher.
So what conclusions can we draw from this? Health and happiness make for excellent bedfellows, and one should not come at the expense of the other.
Something is better than nothing on the fitness front, whether that’s a short bout of morning movement or a few extra vegetables with your meals. But you only need to do enough to keep you healthy and happy, and fixating on this should not detract from your ability to live a life you love.
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