As specialities emerge in the field of health coaching, there is a tendency to overvalue the one certification or habit or intervention that you hold sacrosanct.

Let’s say you think the gut microbiome as the single most important aspect of good health. That intervening by eating a certain combination of foods timed meticulously is the most important thing for good health (subjective). This endeavour might take a significant chunk of your time, energy and attention. So much so that you don’t notice your body fat levels are north of 35 percent and you can’t hang for 20 seconds or do a single push up on the floor. You don’t get 80 grams of protein a day simply because you believe your gut microbiome doesn’t need it.

This is an extreme example. But this absurdity is common.

There are people who train solely for vanity or body composition who discuss cardio solely through the prism of ‘cardio burns muscle’.

Or runners who constantly talk about ‘strength training to be a better runner’.

People who seek out diets to improve insulin sensitivity only to ignore the single most useful thing to improve sensitivity: muscle. And the only thing that can give you muscle systematically is strength training. But they won’t do that since ‘diet is enough’.

Add to the above list fasting, keto diets, low fat diets, powerlifting, bodybuilding, now hyrox are stupidly siloed and narrow ways to think about things you do to feel, look and move better.

In an era where coaching tends to get siloed into specializations and everyone or every decision is pining or competing for priority, your body probably might benefit a lot from trying to scale a little of everything by just a little every single day rather than draining yourself by focusing on just a lot of one thing at the cost of all the other things.

What this practically looks like?

If you are training, the time you take to cover 3-4 kms should improve alongside the load and repetitions you can handle on a good, deep squat. A good deep squat does not come at the cost of hip rotation or hamstring work.

The protein does not come at the cost of veggies. Just as efforts to include fiber don’t come at the cost of protein. And of your whole foods can get you a required healthy fat or enough protein, don’t be afraid to find a quality supplement.

Sleep shouldn’t come at the cost of training. Even if the Rock tells you that’s what he does.

Behind all the studies, philosophy and content bombarding you about lifestyle choices, there is a simple idea that you need to make a few decisions everyday. And get a little better at how you execute those things every single day.