The link between good health and leadership

While good health may or may not make a good leader, it inevitably contributes to improved brain function, sustained energy production and physical resilience. These characteristics are important for leaders to have, but the behaviors that contribute to the acquisition of these characteristics often do not receive much attention

There is no doubt that all people want to enjoy good health, but in order to obtain it, some healthy behaviors and habits must be included in daily practices, and there are four basic pillars of good health, which are eating nutritionally rich and health-promoting foods because they contribute to nourishing the brain, and getting enough From sleep, when you are tired during work, this will affect your ability to make decisions, to participate periodically in physical exercises, and finally to avoid turning pressures into stress and tension, and it is important to maintain all these things because they are linked to each other, and work synergistically in supporting health, for example It is well known that sleep deprivation affects brain function and reduces productivity, but it also has a negative effect on eating and exercising well. Not sleeping enough affects the internal mechanism of satiety, as ghrelin, the hormone responsible for increasing appetite, increases, while leptin, the hormone responsible for reducing appetite, decreases, and this contributes to the possibility of eating high-calorie foods and fast food. High calorie and nutritionally poor sleep is detrimental

Chronic sleep deprivation also hinders the ability to perform physical exercises and makes them seem more difficult, that is, it increases the effort to exercise, and due to the lack of available energy, a person may prefer not to engage in physical activity at all.

Lack of sleep, wrong eating habits and lack of regular exercise all lead to the inability to manage stress well, and thus to an increased chance of the accumulated stress turning into stress and tension and the accompanying difficulty of eating, sleeping and exercising well. Engaging in this bad negative cycle for a long period of time leads to many problems such as poor stamina, weight gain, high blood pressure, increased possibility of diseases, decrease in cognitive performance, joint pain, fatigue. Functional performance also decreases, in addition to an increased risk of certain diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, mental illness and strokes

Focusing on one of these three aspects of sleep, food, and exercise often leads to improvements in other areas of health and drive. For example, getting daily morning exercises on a regular basis would contribute to positive control of sleep habits, and waking up earlier in the morning than usual in order to exercise helps in sleeping early in the evening.

Going to bed early enhances the benefit from the melatonin surge at 10 pm, and morning exercise has a greater positive effect on sleep compared to noon or evening exercise, and when these exercises are done outside, they also encourage exposure to early morning daylight, which is Another factor that also helps in increasing alertness during the day and also helps in getting better sleep.

Therefore, we always encourage leaders to apply the saying Win your morning win your day

nutrition specialist

Saja Bukhari