Nature is pleased with simplicity. And nature is no dummy.
Sir Isaac Newton
KISS. Keep It Simple, Stupid. A phrase continuously thrown at me from my languages teacher in secondary school. I now realise the value of this statement.
Throughout life, I’ve always had that horrible inner voice that says “That can’t be the answer, it’s too obvious, it must be more complicated than that.” But the more experience I gain, the more I am able to stifle this voice. Simplicity is the key to my entire philosophy because it makes life easier and often, more effective and more enjoyable!
Training.
When people first start out in triathlon, they want to know your secret tips, the little “miracles” that helped you achieve success. MYTH BUSTED: THERE IS NO SECRET FORMULA. Doing well in anything, comes from three things:
- Training consistently.
- Building a strong mindset.
- Learning and listening to your body.
People expect that as an age-group athlete, I must follow a series of complex prescriptive training sessions to improve. Nope! I understand the physiology of my sport. I’ve learnt about myself and my responses over the years. I’ve built successful programmes year on year for myself from the moment I started out in triathlon. That’s because I have a passion for physiology, nutrition, coaching and training. But all it does is inform a simple, easy to follow, enjoyable programme without the need for sessions so complex I have to have them engraved on the inside of my eyelids for reference.
When you start out on your fitness, weight loss or sporting journey, it really is as simple as getting up and moving. If you’re aiming at your first triathlon, it’s about running more, cycling more, swimming more; time on the road, time in the water. That’s it. You will get better.
Obviously as you improve, the gains from spending more time in your chosen sport starts to plateau and you need to get a bit more specific – incorporate some variations in speed, some strength work. But essentially, my success came from chasing down people who are faster than me and getting the right balance of intensity, recovery and the rest of my life. That’s it. I have no “magic bullet” sessions or advice. The importance of training CONSISTENTLY well, is massively underrated and unless you’re a top level elite athlete, then the need for complicated sessions working on the minutiae of performance at the limits of human endurance, are laughably unnecessary.
Simply Beautiful.
And what about skincare? Surely as an athlete with sweaty, oily, acne prone skin, I need a horrendously complex routine to keep on top of that? How could I possibly turn up to a professional photo shoot without any make up on without a ridiculous time consuming regimen behind me?
I use the right products at the right time with the right treatments at the right intervals. That sentence is probably the most complicated thing I did today.
My skin isn’t perfect – NEWSFLASH: Perfect skin doesn’t exist. But it’s better than it’s ever been…when I’m training more now than I was when it was at its worst? How…?
I understand what my skin needs and when. So my routine is as simple as two products in the morning and two at night, punctuated with a peel or some microneedling now and then. Stop listening to the people that tell you you need mud from the bottom of some Peruvian lake, steamed off with the water of the blue lagoon and finished with a goop mask from the saliva of slugs and some vine leaves. Also stop wasting your money on it. If it worked, dermatologists everywhere would be prescribing it and nobody would have any skin problems. And my client results wouldn’t be so remarkable.
What does simplicity translate to?
Confidence. When I know I don’t have to spend hours constructing complicated training plans, when I can just get out and enjoy myself in the great outdoors, when I can wake up and be camera ready in 15 minutes because all I need is some facewash, SPF and a cup of tea, life just gets easier. Complexity creates pressure; pressure to perform, pressure to look good, pressure to be something we’re not, pressure not to forget. These routines are hard to keep, they’re hard to complete and so we’re setting ourselves up for failure from the word go.
Just stop it. Simplify things. Simplify your workout routine, your nutrition, your skincare. Your life will become easier, more enjoyable. Your mood will be lifted, your confidence will improve and your stress levels will drop. And what does a lower level of stress hormones do? Feeds back into making you fitter, healthier, happier. It makes you glow on the outside too – no more inflammation in the skin, the muscles, less fatigue, better sleep.
Simplicity is streamlining life. Take a few lessons from nature and realise that life should be a bit less prescriptive and have a few less rules…