#24 - Graham Hawley - Breaking bad: why small changes lead to big results

You can know every health tip on the internet and still feel tired, stuck, and frustrated. That’s the gap we tackle with health coach, educator, and Small Steps, Big Results author Graham Hawley: the difference between “knowing what to do” and building sustainable health habits you can keep when work, family, and stress hit. We dig into why real transformation often comes from small, consistent actions that reshape your default routines over time. 

We break down Graham’s five pillars of health and how they work together: nutrition, sleep, movement, alcohol awareness, and stress management. You’ll hear practical guidance on shifting from ultra-processed foods toward real whole foods, navigating misleading packaging, and why constant snacking can keep insulin high and weight loss harder. We also talk intermittent fasting as a tool, not a punishment, plus why inflammation sits near the root of many modern chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and fatty liver disease. 

Sleep gets its own spotlight with a simple circadian rhythm approach: hydrate before caffeine, start the day gently, and build an evening wind-down that protects deep sleep and REM sleep. We also cover movement that doesn’t feel like another obligation, including walking more, tracking steps, walking after meals to support blood sugar control, and adding basic strength training to protect muscle as you age. If alcohol has become the default way to unwind, Graham shares how to get more intentional without pretending social life doesn’t exist. 

If you want practical, science-backed health advice that fits real life, hit play. Subscribe to My Best Life, share this with a friend who’s trying to reset their habits, and leave a quick review so more people can find the show.

Transcript

Why Health Feels So Hard

Peter Kolakovic 0:01

Welcome back to another episode of My Best Life, the podcast where we explore the ideas, experiences, and practical wisdom that help us live with greater purpose, resilience, and well-being. Today we're talking about something that every one of us wants, yet so many of us struggle to achieve lasting health. We live in a world overflowing with information. We know we should sleep more, move our bodies, eat better, manage stress, and spend less time glued to our screens. Yet despite having more health advice available than ever before, many of us still find ourselves feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, or stuck in patterns that don't serve us. The challenge, it seems, isn't usually knowing what to do. It's finding a way to make healthy choices sustainable amid the demands of everyday life. Today's guest believes the answer isn't found in dramatic overhauls or impossible routines. Instead, he argues that meaningful transformation begins with small, consistent actions that anyone can take. Those seemingly insignificant choices, repeated day after day, can quietly reshape our health, our mindset, and ultimately our lives. Joining me today is Graham Hawley, health coach, educator, and author of Small Steps, Big Results. Through his work, Graham helps busy professionals, individuals, and families identify the habits that may be holding them back across what he calls the five pillars of health. Rather than asking people to chase perfection, he focuses on practical, science-backed strategies that fit into real life, helping people replace unhealthy patterns with simple habits that are both achievable and lasting. Graham, there's a quote from the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, often paraphrased, that beautifully captures the spirit of today's conversation. He wrote, We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. That's a quote that has inspired countless people over the years. As someone who has dedicated his career to helping others create healthier lives through small consistent changes, how does that quote resonate with you? And what do you think it reveals about the true power of our daily habits?

SPEAKER_00 2:33

Yeah, that's a great well, first of all, thank you, Peter, for the invite. Uh yeah, that's a great quote. Uh that that is a fantastic quote, and it does fit in with today. Well uh, I mean, yeah, it's the absolute truth. It it really is all about well I it's all about creating habits. It's all about identifying the unhealthy habits that we've built over the decades. Because you'll be you'll be quite surprised is that when you get up on your on the on the morning, you go through pretty much the same routines and the same habits all day long. And then when you get home, if you work it, you get home from work, you'll find yourself doing the same routines. And the truth is, are they healthy routines or are they not? Because if they're not healthy routines that you've been doing for decades, especially around these five pillars of health we're we're we'll talk about, well you're heading for well, you're heading for poor health.

Graham’s Wake Up Call

Peter Kolakovic 3:44

We're gonna talk about some of those routines, but before we get into that, let's learn a little bit more about you. You've spent years helping people transform their lives. So, what first inspired you to dedicate your career to this work?

SPEAKER_00 4:01

It was I kind of got into this uh line of work by accident, Peter. After observing both my brother and my father become debilitated over the years through other conditions their type 2 diabetes had caused them, it was quite disturbing, and I I wondered if I was setting myself up for well, at least type 2 diabetes. As I started to delve into the research and studies, well, it opened well, I it took me down, it took me down a road I've never been down, and it made me realize I know nothing, or I knew nothing about how to be healthy because I'm like most people, we take as health for granted.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Right, we just take as health for granted. Well, unfortunately, in the 21st century here, in today's world, 2026, we're in, you can't take your health for granted. You just can't, things have changed so much in the last, you know, let's 40 years since the introduction of man-made products with unite healthy ingredients, and just to kind of prove that the fact that children and teenagers are now being diagnosed with non-alcohol, fatty liver type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, weight gain, something's not right. Something's not right. So that took me, yeah, that just led me down this rabbit hole of one making sure that I wasn't heading in that direction, and then I just started to help friends of friends, and what I well, I ended up taking a six-month course to be certified, and when I got certified, I just started to help friends of friends, and it's really gone on from there. And I think the biggest, even in the beginning, a big shock to me, Peter, was you know, because originally I guess I was helping my friends lose weight, uh, but some of them had high blood pressure or high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes, and within a couple of months they were heading back to the doctors who were reducing and then eventually eliminating these medications. And I'm like, wow, it's is it really that easy to reverse these type of conditions? Uh, not only the two things I've just said, but things like skin conditions, and and you just feel you're in a safer place once you start to get healthy. Your blood work, you know. I recommend everybody get the blood work done twice a year and uh learn how to read it. We're responsible for our health. Nobody else, not your doctor, your best friend, your mother, unless you're a young child. And again, parents, if you're listening, there's a reason and that these rates between children and teenagers are absolutely skyrocketing with all these diseases. Me personally, I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised if you see all the food, uh the kids' food I go around the supermarket now and again, I don't have children, but I'll just walk up and down the kids' aisle and and it's like, wow, I'm not surprised.

Why Chronic Disease Is Rising

Peter Kolakovic 7:22

Well, let's dive deeper into that because you know it's certainly true that rates of chronic disease are are higher than they've ever been for adults and children. You mentioned the role of food. Well, what else is going on? Why why are rates of heart disease, obesity, diabetes higher than they've ever been?

SPEAKER_00 7:42

Well, I think it's not one reason. There's a there's a num uh numerous reasons, but let's just kind of break it down into the more obvious obvious ones, and that's nutrition, you know. The only reason well not the only reason, but one of the main reasons we eat food is to nourish our precious bodies. Again, people we just take us body for granted. It's organ after organ. I mean, say for instance the liver does over 500 functions, that's crazy. You know, we've got a brain, we've got all these organs, and we just we absolutely abuse it. And uh like I said, yeah, what was it, the maybe 80s, beginning of the 80s, it really seemed to start to accelerate with more of this heavily processed foods. And the you uh the for the for these food companies to make all these preserve make sure they can preserve them on shelves or in in transport and they even get food scientists to to come, even fast food, it's made, it's it's not just I don't know what to say. I feel like I'm knocking the food company, but if you saw some of the ingredients in fast food and processed food, you'd be shocked. Yeah, I'm not making this up, this is fact. They use boatloads of sugar, unhealthy seed oils, and uh chemicals, some of them are even chemicals, when it comes like natural flavouring, that's that's chemicals. You know, arsenic is natural. So, and I think we're over the decades we've slowly been indoctrinated into quick fixes, instant gratification, and even if you go back 30, 40 years, uh look at the food permit, they were telling you to eat cereal and bread and uh all the simple carbohydrates. Well, if anybody knows anything about nutrition and health, simple carbohydrates is not what you should be flood flooding your body with because the human body is not designed for that influx of the simple carbohydrates, all the chemicals, inflammatory seed oils. So one would say common sense that over time, here's another thing people don't realize that it can take years and even decades before symptoms even show. I mean, look at distended bellies. Not often you're seeing 20, 30 year olds with distended bellies because it takes deck it can take decades, it can take 20 years before all the all the uh internal organs around your midriff that the fat it's called visceral fat, and it's the worst fat you can carry, it's very inflammatory, and it takes years before it's packed up all inside of you, and then there comes a point there's nowhere else for it to go but now to push it out your belly. And it's the same with type 2 diabetes, you don't wake up one morning or the next week with type 2 diabetes, something what has developed over years, right? Right, and then just to top your question off there, Peter, is it's not just the nutrition, it's the lack of exercise, right, and movement. The human body is designed to move, it's designed to move, it ain't designed to sit at a desk all day, come home, have something to eat, sit in your couch and watch one of the 300 TV stations until you go to bed, and it's just not designed for that. And then you've got the introduction of again all these channels to keep you occupied, play stations, Xboxes, this, that, and the other. I don't see children playing out anymore, do you?

Peter Kolakovic 11:43

It's a it's a battle to get my children to to go outside. I I have to admit. I have to admit.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

That's interesting, Peter. And how old are your children?

Peter Kolakovic 11:53

Uh 17 and 14.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Yeah, you see, that I wasn't actually thinking you were gonna say they were that old, but yeah, see, this is part of yeah, teenagers. It's not just children I don't see playing out, but teenagers because there's so much distraction, whether it's the social media, group chats they're on, they want to get home and uh attack the PlayStation, their Xbox. And it just takes a lot of time and energy and a lot of uh negative energy, I'm gonna say, and no reason you can't do that now and again, or you can't watch tell, but you should be scheduling those type of things just like you should be scheduling movement and exercise.

The Five Pillars Explained

Peter Kolakovic 12:36

Sure, sure. So I think you've already kind of hinted at some of what you call the five pillars of health. So can you walk us through what those pillars are and and why and how they work together?

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Yeah, sure. Well, if I've learned anything over the years is that these five pillars don't work independently. So when one is weakened or ignored, the others will eventually pay the price. So let's just take w uh weight loss. If someone's trying to lose weight and they spend, you know, a month m moving over from fast food and processed foods and stop drinking sugary drinks. If it takes them a month, even two months to do that, oh that's fantastic. That's a great way to lose weight. And then you start, oh, I start moving more. Oh, they're fantastic, you'll definitely lose weight. But if you have a stressful life, well, then you're gonna be you're gonna be producing cortisol, which will eventually disrupt your blood sugar and insulin, leading to weight gain. If you're drinking too much alcohol, you're gonna be in the same boat. And and if you're not getting quality sleep, you're going to have a disruption in your metabolic recovery. And and and again, the adrenaline and stress hormone, which is gonna disrupt your blood sugars. So you have to really like again, if you want to be healthy in today's world, you've got to commit to it. Because if you don't commit to it, I guarantee you you won't be healthy. You have to commit to it, you have to have a plan, just like a business, right? If you're starting a business, you have to have a plan. You're gonna get a notebook and a journal, you're gonna come up with a plan, and you're gonna say, okay, that's my end goal. What do I do tomorrow? What do I do the next day? When I'm a month down, where will I be? What will I do? It's the same thing when you're making these lifestyle changes because I think they can be very overwhelming for people, and I think that's why a lot of people fail, because they don't know what steps to take, why to take them. And and I think people overwhelm themselves, and which leads to burnout, I think, in the end. This is why you know you mentioned earlier my book is called Small Steps, Big Results, because I found out, including myself, when I had to make all these lifestyle changes, I'm no, you know, I'm no different, I'm not and I'm not special. I had to learn and move through all this myself, and I found an easy way to do it was to just pick just pick one thing this week. That's it. One thing you gotta change. And then maybe once you start getting into it, two two things this week. Oh, I'll do one of the sleep uh things thingy, and then I'll work on my lunch, make sure I'm making a healthy lunch, and I'm not gonna snack and I mean you've just got to not overwhelm yourself, and I think if you take it step by step, say within months you'll start to see and feel the difference. I've seen it firsthand with clients.

How To Simplify Healthy Eating

Peter Kolakovic 15:53

Right, right. So let's let's maybe focus on one of those pillars, nutrition, something we've we've already touched upon in this conversation. You mentioned some of the very unhealthy foods that you know we in modern society tend to tend to eat because it's frankly convenient. There's so much nutrition advice out there, so many, you know, fad diets that spring up and and it's hard to know what to what to believe. So how do you simplify healthy eating without making people feel restricted?

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Yeah, well, again, yeah, because that what you said there is true, and this is I think a part of the the confusion for people. Look, again, we eat food to nourish ourselves. You only have to go back 50 years, 100 years, 200 years, you can go back a thousand years if you want. There wasn't there weren't an epidemic of obesity, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, kids being sick. So again, something's changed. We know what's changed. So now we have to change. You have to be, you have to step outside the matrix. We've been dragged into this matrix of eating this food to make these food companies, you know, multi-billionaires, they have no regards to human health when they make this food. So if you tell yourself that if you were primarily eating fast food and processed food, I'm gonna tell you you're leading yourself and your family or your kids down the road to metabolic dysfunction. So you have to, as it comes to nutrition, you have to slowly, step by step, week by week, start to start with one meal, and you start to make your meals from real whole food. Now, what do I mean by real whole food? Lean organic meats you got bison, buffalo, steak, uh, lamb, beef, lean organic meats and chicken and well caught fish, seafood, fruits and vegetables, beans and legumes, nuts and seeds, herbs and spices. You know how many wonderful meals you can make out of that, Peter? I'm eating the best food I've ever eaten I've ever eaten in my life. I I I I just it's it's how humans have survived for centuries.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 18:30

So again, we've been dragged in, indoctrinated, told a bunch of lies. Look, I get clients come to me to lose weight and they go, I don't understand it. I eat healthy. And then once we get into the first week of the food journal, well, they realize they don't, and I think it may be primarily because of the misinformation, the disinformation, and deceptive packaging by food companies. Lead people to think they're actually eating healthy. So when it says organic, fat-free, sugar-free, okay, so oh, it's sugar-free, but they've used other sweeteners what are going to raise the blood pressures, and they didn't mention all these chemicals that got in there. It's garbage. Slowly move away from the man-made food. You can believe me or you cannot. I I I'm not because these people don't actually believe that all this fast food and processed food is the problem.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

Well, but it's funny when I get every client and comes to me, even they got type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure, once they start to eat real food, and once they start to move their bodies and work on their stress management and be mindful and conscious of when and why they're drinking, which all leads to better sleep, well, weight starts to fall off them. And it's like I said earlier on, before they know it, they're going back to the doctor who has to reduce the medications and eventually eliminate them.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

Type 2 diabetes, I hate to say it, but it's it's self-inflicted. But unfortunately, because of the misinformation, disinformation, deceptive packaging, I I I don't mean that how it sounds. There's so much dis look, is all these all these children and teenagers, right? They're getting all these diseases. I don't even call them diseases, they're conditions. I'm gonna say it's obvious that the parents are not feeding them this food on purpose. It's they actually have no idea.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

Right.

SPEAKER_00 20:49

Otherwise, they wouldn't be doing it. I just recently have gone into families and I went into a family's house with the kids there and and the parents, went through the fridge and the pantry, and they were shocked. Absolutely shocked. Even kids were shocked. They were actually looking at the parents, they're going, What you're trying to poison me? Yeah, it's uh it's I I yeah, I this is where I have this passion about, Peter, because the more I know about big food, big pharma, and where we are at the so-called healthcare system, it's disease management. Again, I'm not making that up. Everybody knows when you go to the doctor with symptoms, they're not rejuvenating your health. They're not sitting down and talking to you why you're overweight or why you have high blood pressure. They don't get to the root cause of it. They have a they have a band-aid called medication.

unknown 21:49

Right.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

Now, obviously, if you go to the doctors, you've got super high blood pressure, your your blood sugars are skyrocketing you. Yeah, you need to be on medication. But Not for the rest of your life.

Peter Kolakovic 22:01

Yeah. It's not going to address the root cause of how you got there in the first place.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

This is why everyone's sick. I mean, we're living in one of the sickest countries on the planet and the most powerful country on the planet. It don't it don't tally up.

Peter Kolakovic 22:16

Yeah. I don't know if you're familiar with the author Michael Pollan, but he's written a number of books that have really resonated with me about food and the food industry and about how our food is produced, including following a McDonald's meal from farm to plate. That's really shocking that particular book, The Omnivores Dilemma. But in another one of his books, I think it's called The Food Rules, he lays out, you know, his advice for how people should eat, and and that advice has always resonated with me. And one of the very simple rules that he outlines in his book is you should eat real food. And he defined real food as, well, depending on your age, if your grandmother or great-grandmother would not recognize it as food, then it's not food.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Yeah, right. And look, if it grows on a tree, if it grows on the bush, if it grows in the ground, or it has a parent, it's real food.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Right.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

But again, in people's defense, unfortunately, it just you know, there's a big blanket. Look. The two most important things I'm gonna say in anyone's life, probably always has been, is health and finances. And that's the two things are not taught in schools, universities, or colleges. I'm not gonna go out on a limb and say uh the one you're sick and the one you're poor. I mean, I'm not gonna say that. Oh, I just did. I just did, but it makes you wonder, all you gotta do is start adding one and two together. Why wouldn't the teacher that why wouldn't they teach kids and people the two most important things in life? You have to figure it out yourself, and that's why people get sick or they get into their so-called retirement years, and they're like, wow, this act because look, as you know, time goes so quick, before you know it, you're 65.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 24:30

And they go, hmm, I wish I'd have known a little different. Now, some people are smart enough to sort both of those things out at an early age, but it should be taught, and it's not.

Real Food And Label Traps

Peter Kolakovic 24:43

Well said. So let's uh shift to some of the other pillars of health. I know from having a look at your website that another pillar of health that you identify is quality of sleep. Oh, yeah. And sleep uh sleep is something that often gets sacrificed in our you know busy modern lives. So I wanted to ask you, you know, what has surprised you most about the role sleep plays in overall well-being?

SPEAKER_00 25:13

Well I I think people uh don't realize how important sleep is. It's not just you know, you go lay down for a few a few hours, it's you know, it uh uh i i I mean it improves quality sleep improves everything and it improves your energy, your focus, your mood, your recovery, your motivation, and even weight loss. And most people, I'm gonna say I'm gonna go out on a limb and say most people, because I'm led to believe that sleep uh sleep is one of the most overlooked pillars because to get good quality sleep you have to what's called set a circadian rhythm, which is a morning routine and an evening routine. And so let me go through these. If you're not already doing them, don't try don't go to try don't go to bed tonight and try and do all of it, and don't wake up in the morning and try and do all of it. Just pick maybe some of the first things I say, and then the following week move to the next. So look, when you wake up on a morning, your body releases cortisol, which is the stress hormone, and that's you know, that's normal. But if you're uh if you're immediately reaching out for caffeine or you're scrolling on your phone, you're rushing into stimulation of some sort, well you keep that elevator uh you keep that cortisol elevated and your nervous system on edge. That is not the way to start your day. So the ideal way to to start your day is wake up, just nice and slowly get out of bed. Here's some uh people need to take note of here, especially if you're over sixty. Your blood is the thickest when you wake up on the morning, especially when you're over sixty and seventy. That's why a lot of heart attacks occur early morning with people at that age. So so first thing you need to do instead of rushing for caffeine is hydrate. You've had no hydration for, I don't know, probably 10 hours, right? You've been in bed for seven or eight and probably didn't hydrate before you went you you went to bed. So that and put a squeeze of fresh lemon, a piece of Mediterranean salt, some type of uh

Sleep Routines That Actually Work

SPEAKER_00 27:55

which is some like electrolytes, it'll help get the hydration into your cells quicker. Then the second thing you need to do is, and nothing extreme, but just move your body. Look, the morning, we should look at the morning routine as a warm-up and not straight out the starting blocks. Right? So you've got to hydrate. Your body's like, oh, okay, oh, this is nice, this is good, it's getting to all your organs and everything's feeling good, and now you just move your body a little, and now that can be hold on to the kitchen countertop and do ten squats. Go do ten push-ups off the wall. Again, nothing extreme. Swing your arms around. Ideally, if you have a dog, or even if you don't, but if you do have a dog, it'd be a great way to start your dog's day and your day, is to then just to go outside and look into the vast sky. Apparently, it just does something. Starts to now your cortisol levels are coming down, your nervous system's all calming down. And ideally, if you can just go for a you know 10-minute walk of walk, even walk around the block or something. I guarantee you, after a while you'll come back, you won't even think of caffeine because your body will be awake, your mind will be awake, you'll have energy, your blood is pumping around your body. The only reason you're gonna reach for coffee is because of the habit you've developed over the decades. So I would say try for the first half hour, maybe more, 45 minutes, hydrate. I don't mean chugging it down, just get on with your morning, try and keep off your phone as long as you can, because that's all stimulation. You don't need, remember, warm-up, do some stretching. If you gotta get up, you've got kids and you've got uh look, here's the thing everybody makes excuse. I don't have time, I gotta be at work, I gotta okay, get up earlier, make the time before you're forced to make time for an illness. Because when you do have these illnesses and these problems, you'll be surprised not only time, but how much money it's costing you. Right? So that's a great way to start the day. Now, when it comes to the evening routine, three hours before, no food, no alcohol. Your body can't be dealing with what it's trying to do, which is uh rejuvenate, get rid of the metabolic and pathogenic waste. It needs it can't be dealing with food and alcohol, you'll disrupt all that process. Now, if you're ordinarily not doing three hours before, let's just say you're snacking and you're maybe having a drink till an hour before you go to bed. Well, that this week here, move it to an hour and a half, just add an extra half hour on the following week. This is what I'm on about small steps. The following week, two hours, the following week, two and a half, and so on, and then an hour before you go to bed, same thing. If you're not doing this, start with 15 minutes. You've got to turn the TV off, you've got to get that blue light out of your eyes, and all that stimulation uh in your ears and your eyes, and it's just when you do that, I suggest you do a few things. You can dim the lights, listen to a podcast, listen to a favourite comedian, play chess with your partner, just relax. Because what you're doing then, you're sending a signal to your body, and as you keep doing this as a routine on a morning and an evening, your body'll get used to that. Once it sees all these lights go out and you're relaxing, you're going to start to produce melatonin to sleep all morning. Then you go to bed, nice cool bedroom, in summer keep it cool, in winter keep it cool, sixty-five degrees, I'd say dark as you can, and you'll get a great night's sleep. Your REM sleep will go up, your your your uh deep sleep will go up.

Peter Kolakovic 32:07

Is there an ideal amount of sleep that each of us should be getting?

SPEAKER_00 32:12

Well, I I I think I've heard it very I mean, I've heard of people very I think it's more the quality of your sleep. Some people I think can, you know, seven hours, some people need eight, some people might need nine. But if you can track your sleep, then you can see what quality sleep you're getting, at least with your REM sleep and your and your deep sleep, which they say an hour and a half, two hours is a good amount of that. And yeah, it's sleep is I like I said, I think it could be one of the most overlooked ones because people love to snack before they go to bed, or they'd stay up and turn the lights, they turn the TV off, or shut the laptop down, they go to bed and they'll lay tossing and turning, staring at the ceiling. You gotta prepare your body for rest and sleep. Yeah. Just like you have to ease into the morning and not just like you've just, you know, shown them a racetrack and you're up and running.

Peter Kolakovic 33:12

Speaking from my own personal experience, I used to be someone that snacked at all hours of the evening and even late at night and would drink alcohol also, you know, a glass of wine late at the end. I've done it all myself. And I can tell you, once I s once I made some of the changes that you just mentioned, it it led to you know such a difference in terms of sleep quality. I most days I try to have my last meal around 3 p.m.

SPEAKER_00 33:41

So I'd Oh mate, I love to wear that. Yeah, my mine are I love that, mate. I love that. How many meals are you eating a day?

Peter Kolakovic 33:49

Uh typically two, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:51

I can tell, mate, by what you just said. If you're already having your last meal, uh mate, that's great. I'm the same. I have two meals a day within a six, six maybe six hour window, my last meal, so around noon and six o'clock, give or take.

Insulin Spikes And Constant Snacking

SPEAKER_00 34:08

Right. I I think here's what we should probably, I mean we can keep going through the pillars, but here's what people need to be aware of, because I know plenty of people who, you know, had type 2 diabetes, and they really weren't aware of, which is mind-blowing that the doctor don't explain this, but they just weren't aware of what I think people should be aware of, whether you're a type 2 diabetic or not, because this is part of the problem. Because at the root of every disease is one is inflammation. That's what these conditions are. It's in it's chronic inflammation, and blood sugar and insulin play a massive role in this, a massive role. So here's what happens when you eat anything, blood sugar rises. Now, obviously, depending on what you eat, if you're eating just like good healthy fat, you're gonna have a you know, it's barely gonna spike. But whatever you eat is going to do something to your blood sugars. And it's insulin's job to move that sugar out of the bloodstream into the liver and muscle cells as quickly and as efficiently as it can, where it's stored for for further use for energy and fuel, and that's that's normal, that's healthy. However, when blood sugar and insulin spikes repeatedly, hour after hour, day after day, week after week, from the ingredients like refined carbohydrates, sugars, all found and heavily used in fast food, processed foods and snacks. And let's not forget all the sodas, sports drinks, energy drinks, sugary coffee drinks, they're all sugar bombs. Constant elevation of insulin will lead to weight gain, non-alcohol, fatty liver, pre-diabetes, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and more, cardiovascular and heart disease and more. So if you're struggling to lose weight, then it's a clear sign that you're producing too much insulin, because insulin is known as the fat storage hormone. Once the liver and muscle cells are full, then it's insulin's job still to get it out of the bloodstream, so it doesn't really have many options but to store it in the fat cells. That's why you put weight on. So if you think about it, how do you lose weight? You stop producing insulin and weight falls off you. How do you stop producing insulin? I'd say stop eating fast food and processed food for every meal and stop having three meals a day and snacking in between because all that there that was invented by the food companies. We've got all these snacks, you have a little yo, we've got plenty of snacks for you. Don't worry about it. We've got every flavour, every every snack you can think of. It's clever. It's a clever plan they have, and but it's kind of evil.

Fasting Without Burning Out

Peter Kolakovic 37:26

What are your thoughts on fasting?

SPEAKER_00 37:29

Fantastic. Love it, mate. Lots of uh look, science have proven this. Science and studies have proven fasting is fantastic. It sounds that well, you fast, obviously. You're eating two meals a day, you're fasting. I'm eating two meals a day, I fast. The thing with fasting is is you've got to like don't if you're having three meals a day now and snacking in between, I won't go jump to two meals a day and fasting 16, 18 hours. That's that's not gonna work, and I I just advise you not to do that. I i i I but at some point, once you're down to three meals a day with real food, you move in your body, you're working on all of them, I think it's a great way to it to eventually to eventually do that. And once you know a bit more about snacking, you can do a 24-hour fast. Everybody thinks, and you'll probably attest to this, Peter, when you like you're down to two meals a day, so am I. When I have that first meal of the day, because I make it out of real whole food, it's high in protein, it's high in healthy fats, and it's got fiber in there from complex carbohydrates. Because when you eat real food, then your body naturally produces GLP1. So two hours later, you're not looking for a snack. Do you agree?

Peter Kolakovic 38:59

I I agree wholeheartedly.

SPEAKER_00 39:00

Yeah, you're not looking for a snack. It's not even coming well, it might right in the beginning because it's more of that habit. But yeah, I I don't even like when I get up on the morning, I don't get to nine o'clock or ten o'clock or eleven and go, oh, I'm hungry. I'm I'm just not. And if you do get a little oh oh I oh I'm a little hungry, learn to enjoy that. Every time you're hungry, don't we say you got to pile something in your mouth? Sure. Right? Enjoy it. So sometimes I might have gone out all day and I'm a little bit late home, and I might be driving home, and more than I'm saying I'm hungry, I'm like, oh, oh, I can't wait to get home and make my dinner. Oh, I can't wait. You know, I know what I'm having. I've got a piece of salmon in the fridge, I throw that on the barbecue, and I've got already got roasted vegetables uh in my fridge. Uh so I always have we can get into that maybe shortly, about just prepping some meals will make you eat healthier.

SPEAKER_01 40:01

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 40:03

Yeah, so yeah, fasting, it's a winner.

Peter Kolakovic 40:07

I think so as well. I've been doing it for a number of years. Intermittent fasting, as it's called. I've done I've done extended. I'm I'm currently doing a five-day fast.

SPEAKER_00 40:18

Oh mate, I love it, absolutely love it. You know what you're doing. You've you've educated yourself around health, so you know what you're doing. That's fantastic. I've never done a I've never done a five. I do I like to once a month throw a 24 hour in.

Peter Kolakovic 40:32

Yeah, that's wonderful as well.

SPEAKER_00 40:33

Yeah, exactly. I throw that one in and it just feels good. And you know, we eat we've got to a point in civilization here. We eat too much and too often.

Peter Kolakovic 40:43

We certainly do.

SPEAKER_00 40:44

Especially here in America.

Alcohol And Hidden Health Costs

Peter Kolakovic 40:47

Another thing we do, or many people do, is is drink too much, which you've alluded to on several occasions already. Let's talk a little bit about alcohol consumption. Yeah. And again, speaking from personal experience, I used to be someone who drank two glasses of red wine every single day for about 15 years. And I was living for a good part of that in Europe where, you know, a lot of people drink wine and and we're told that it's very good for you. One of the first things that I noticed after I quit alcohol, it would have been, I don't know, six months, a year later, I I had, you know, a glass of wine just just to see what it was like. And I woke up in the middle of the night that night, this was after, you know, having completely quit alcohol. And what I noticed was that I was well, first of all, I woke up at 2 a.m. in the morning and I was completely dehydrated.

SPEAKER_00 41:42

Yeah, well, it it will do that. Well, uh that animal.

Peter Kolakovic 41:45

Yeah, and and you know, I again I was doing this for 15 years every single day, and I did not realize how dehydrated I was.

SPEAKER_00 41:53

Yeah. Well, so yeah, I well, actually, that's interesting you said that because of all these pillars, these things that you don't realize are what you're actually doing to yourself until you don't do it anymore, and then again, when it's like you've got energy and you've got you're not looking for afternoon naps, and it it I mean, to just yeah, just trying to be healthy is this is the start of it all, but when it comes down to alcohol, well, I was the same, I went from drinking uh well, a bottle of wine a night. And now I might drink a bottle of wine a month. I don't drink at home, uh uh I had no desire anymore for alcohol. If I go to a nice restaurant, I'll have a glass of wine, sure, not three like I used to do, then come home and then open a bottle of wine because oh, I need another one, I need a night cap. And but look, alcohol, excessive alcohol, it disrupts your sleep and recovery, it affects your hormones, your blood sugars, your insulin, it increases inflammation, and over time it can slow your metabolism down, it will increase fatigue, contribute to things like alcohol, fatty liver, weight gain, high blood pressure, cardiovascular system, it goes on and on and on, let alone skin, skin issues. And I think for many people, alcohol alcohol becomes the default way to unwind, manage your stress, socialize. Look, and I get it, because they were all three of mine. They were my excuses, if you want to call them excuses. But when alcohol becomes habitual instead of intentional, well, it will definitely slowly uh work against you. So, my advice with alcohol, and it works different for different people's. Some people can go cold turkey. I weaned my way off of alcohol over the months and that worked for me. I think it's just becoming a bit more mindful of when you drink, why you're drinking, and how much you're drinking.

SPEAKER_01 44:19

Right.

SPEAKER_00 44:20

Right? And so when you're sitting down, whether it's a social thing or a thing, just ask yourself that question and be honest with yourself. You know, am I drinking more than I should? Am I drinking uh too much? And if the answer is yes, well, that's a good place to start, and that's a good place to start having conversations uh with yourself.

Peter Kolakovic 44:42

Well, Graham, I I think we could probably you know dedicate a whole episode to alcohol and and to each of the five pillars.

SPEAKER_00 44:50

No, you're absolutely right, because there's more involved, yeah. There's more involved than just but yeah, just become conscious of it's because look, the bottom line, it's ethanol, and ethanol in its purest form is poison. So yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't mean to say you've got to stop drinking, but just control it. Have a glass of wine, have a beer if you go out. Do you need four to five? Well, you might do, and if you do, then you need to go see a professional and get you know right, get some help.

Peter Kolakovic 45:19

Great advice, and you know, again, I speak from personal experience.

SPEAKER_00 45:23

Yeah.

Movement That Doesn’t Feel Like Chores

Peter Kolakovic 45:24

I would like to touch upon the subject of exercise, movement, before we before we you know run out of time, and something that we haven't really addressed up to this point.

SPEAKER_00 45:36

Yeah, no, good one.

Peter Kolakovic 45:38

Movement means different things to different people, and and so how do you encourage exercise without making it feel like another obligation?

SPEAKER_00 45:48

Yeah, I say uh is to one start with just walking more. Again, that's a very uh uh uh uh uh under uh estimated uh form of exercise. Walk more, get a pedimeter on your phone or a smartwatch and just be curious with your steps. You know, log your steps down and go, okay, I did 5,000 this week on average. So the following week say I'm gonna move that to 6,000. So how do you do that? Well, go for a longer walk. A good blood sugar hack to bring your blood sugars down is walk after a meal. Anytime you eat food, just go for a walk. Now that'll feel awkward in the beginning because most people go sit down to let the food digest. It doesn't work like that. So just even if you go five minutes out and then five minutes back, as the month, weeks, and months go by, I mean, I can after after each of my meals, I'd probably go on a 40-minute, 35, half an hour walk at least. Because at one, I can make phone calls if I need phone calls, I can listen to a podcast, I'm not just walking willy-nilly. So start to track your steps, and then I'm going to say at some point, strength training, a little bit of strength training, this don't mean you've got to go to the gym and be pumping iron, but it's non-negotiable because remember, I mentioned earlier that's where the glucose is stored in your muscles. Now it's very common people that get in the 60s, 70s, and they haven't maintained or developed muscle. Well, you got no storage tanks. So, what does that happen? It goes back into your bloodstream, causing high blood pressure, more insulin, probably get weight gain. So just find ways of moving more. If you will if you if you work in an office building and you work on the fourth floor, don't take the elevator, walk up the stairs on a morning. You come down at lunch, walk down the stairs. Uh you go to the supermarket, park at the far end of the supermarket. Just find more ways of moving when it comes to this strength training. Again, do some push-ups, some squats, uh push-ups off the wall, start with. Do some squats every time you go to the bathroom. Move your body more, get more steps in, little bit of strength training. Just start there. Once you've got to that stage, even if it takes you a month to get to that stage, then start doing a bit more research of other type of things you can do. You might want to join a gym. The only reason I joined a gym was to for the steam room and sauna, and it's got a swimming pool there. So when I go, that's primarily what I go for because I do a bit of strength training at home. I play soccer three times a week, and I make sure I get 10,000, 15,000 steps a day in.

Peter Kolakovic 48:44

That's wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 48:46

Move your body, the body, human body, is designed to move, it's not designed to sit hour after hour. You'll get yourself look if if you want to be mobile and be alive and thriving as you move through your life, you need to keep that body moving.

Peter Kolakovic 49:00

Right, right.

Mindset, Journaling, Consistency

Peter Kolakovic 49:02

Now, many people overlook mindset when thinking about health and and in particular movement and exercise. Why do you believe our thoughts can be just as important as our physical habits?

SPEAKER_00 49:15

Yeah, well, I think it all is a base, it's all about mindset. Because you're not gonna do it if you don't if you don't have that mindset and you don't make that commitment, it's just not gonna happen, right? It don't matter again, don't matter what it is. If you're trying to make positive changes in life, then you yeah, it it really is about about my about mindset and gonna maybe throw the law of attraction in there. But you've that's why I like journaling. That's why I you know I get all my clients to get a journal and journal your journey. That'll help with your mindset because you can go back and you can go, oh look, I go, I got my steps in this week, and uh, oh look, I did uh I did a bit of I did me I did my squats every day. Yeah, it truly is. I think uh mindset is a massive part of this mindset and then commitment and then what's the word consistency because consistency demonstrates commitment, right?

Stress Triggers And Simple Boundaries

Peter Kolakovic 50:20

So I I think we've mentioned four of the five pillars thus far, and if I'm not mistaken, the final one that we have not yet addressed is stress management. So so talk to me about how we manage stress in our busy modern world where we're yeah, well you're right overwhelmed with all sorts of distractions all the time.

SPEAKER_00 50:41

No, you're absolutely right, mate. I think it's a lot more stressful than it was in the 50s, 60s, and 70s for some reason. But yeah, look, look, when it comes to stress, it can't it can't always be eliminated. It's just part of being human too, but we can learn to manage it better, and I think becoming aware of what's driving your stress, sometimes it's obvious it's work, it's family, it's finances, but other times it's just small daily pressures that we don't even really notice anymore. And sometimes, if we're honest, we're creating more stress for ourselves than we realise. And I was definitely guilty at that. So ask yourself some simple questions and write them down. What are the few things in your life right now that are draining your energy the most? And then find small ways to reduce their impact. And again, I'm big at writing it down. You're not gonna play around with all this in your head, but if you write it down, if it's a certain uh a certain place, uh uh a place you go, or certain people, eliminate certain situations and people if you can. I know it's hard when it comes to family and things like that, but uh you might have done the same. I know when I wanted to cut my drinking down, unfortunately, I had to walk away from some friends because the only thing we did together were drink. But I couldn't keep doing that. So you've just got to be responsible in all of these pillars and realize that if you want to be alive and thriving as you move through your life, you've got to start today thinking and making plans and moving forward with getting healthier because just like it took you decades to become unhealthy, it's gonna take a little bit of time to become healthy. The body's always trying to heal itself, but you've got to help it. And once you start helping it, you'll be amazed at within a couple of months, three months, how you can turn your life around, then when you keep going and you look 12 months back, you go, Wow, I can't believe it.

Peter Kolakovic 53:00

Graham, if someone could improve just one of the five pillars today, which would create the greatest ripple effect?

SPEAKER_00 53:09

Oh boy, that's a tough one because like I say, they're all I mean, if you're if you're if you're drinking like a lunatic, I'd work on that one first. But I would I mean when I get clients, we usually start on nutrition. And that is obvious depending where they are with nutrition, slowly work the way off from sodas, sports drinks, energy drinks, sugary coffee drinks, come up with a good quality meal for the first meal of the day. We all know, or we've all been told the first meal of the day is important, but it's what you have for the first meal of the day that's actually important. So you come up with a good healthy meal which will produce your GLP1, that'll at least get you s stopping snacking on that first snack, and and you've already cut your calories because discounting calories personally I think is unnecessary. Just if once you start to slowly stop snacking, making healthier meals, within a couple of weeks, you your calories will come down just naturally, because real food is way less calories than all these processed foods. So start with that, I would say, and then just drift into uh exercise and movement. Like I said, journal it. If you don't journal it, you'll get lost.

Hope For Better Health Care

Peter Kolakovic 54:36

Looking ahead, what gives you the greatest hope for the future of health and well-being?

SPEAKER_00 54:44

Uh yeah, that's a great question. And I'm going to answer this by saying that I get a lot of my information from studies and surveys, but I also get it from all the doctors I follow doctors who have left the conventional medical system and are really talking about how broken it is. And the more of these who are coming out and talking because I feel like I am more of a soundboard for these doctors, I'm just somewhat repeating what they're talking about because they want to help people, they want to rejuvenate people's health. So I think that is a big that is and I've noticed over the last, you know, X amount of years that there's more doctors coming out and more doctors talking about it. I personally know doctors. I've had conversations with my own doctors, you know. It's it truly is a a situation what needs to be changed. Look, at least educate people, at least give people an option. If you want to live the lifestyle you're living beyond medication and probably ruin the last ten years of your life, go for it. But if you don't, here's a better solution. Because they haven't come up with a solution, they've come up with band-aids.

What Living Your Best Life Means

Peter Kolakovic 56:17

Right. Graham, I often close these conversations by asking guests to reflect on what it means to truly live their best life. For you personally, after everything you've learned and experienced, what does living your best life look like today?

SPEAKER_00 56:35

Well, I realize I can't live my best life if I'm not healthy. Right? I've got I've got dreams, I want to travel, I got, you know, I want to be, you know, I'm 68 and I'm still playing soccer. I'm a little disappointed. All my teammates uh a bunch of my teammates uh went to Vermont to play a soccer tournament and I couldn't go because I'm not old enough. It because it's the over 70s. So I've missed it by a couple of years. Uh and you know, I play with guys who uh the couple of them are 80, some of them in the mid-70s, and I know I know the life's the leading. So yeah, we I mean without your health, you really don't have it. I mean, you don't have a life, I'm sorry. And uh not the life I want to live anyway.

Peter Kolakovic 57:24

Well said. Graham Hawley, thanks for joining me on the podcast today. I've really enjoyed our conversation.

SPEAKER_00 57:31

It's been my pleasure, Peter. I I truly and uh I truly uh I truly appreciate the invite