In this video, Daniel Clough conducts a monthly habit review for June 2024, evaluating his adherence to seven foundational health habits: no alcohol, 6.5 hours of sleep, 175 g protein, ≤2 cups of caffeine before midday, 3 L water, 10 k steps, and a whole‑foods diet. He outlines his annual habit goals—maintaining the six core habits above 80% (green) and building the newer whole‑foods habit above 50% (orange) with a long‑term aim of 80%. For June, he reports that the six core habits all exceeded 80% (most comfortably in the green) while whole foods reached 53% (orange). He provides a habit‑by‑habit breakdown, noting performance metrics, occasional “misses,” and insights: alcohol remained at 100% sobriety; sleep averaged 87% with four misses; protein hit 80% with one double miss; caffeine at 80% with intentional overs, water at 87% with good timing; steps at 80% but flagged as fragile due to weather and planning; whole foods at 53% with several double misses from meals out. He identifies steps and sleep as the most fragile habits and outlines strategies (e.g., earlier water intake to aid sleep). He reflects on progress over the year, showing a shift from reds/oranges to greens in his tracking spreadsheet. Finally, he sets July goals identical to June’s—keep the six core habits >80% and raise whole foods above 50%, aiming for the 60% range, motivated by upcoming summer holidays and body composition goals.
Chapters
So this is one of those episodes where I take a look back at the previous month to see how well I am doing against the 7 foundational health habits that I track and hold myself accountable to. So we'll start the episode by looking at my goals or what my goals were for June, then take a little bit of a look at what my results were at a high level, and then we'll go through each habit individually. One, to see where I came, and then two, there's usually some insights there that I can take to improve next month. And then we'll wrap the episode with looking at what my goals are for July. So actually, before we jump into what my goals were for June, I just wanted to sort of take a step back and remind myself of what my overall goals are for the year with my foundational health habits. So the first goal is I want to take the 6 foundational health habits that I've mostly established and I want to double down on them, making sure that they're second nature. Whilst most of them are in a pretty good place, some of them are still a little bit fragile here or there, and I really wanna get them into a place where I'm just undoubtedly going to be over 80% and in the green with them. And the second goal is to get my newest foundational health habit, which is whole foods. I would like to see that regularly above 80% and in the green. Now it doesn't have to be second nature like the ones I just talked about, and it can dip below it sometimes,. But for the most part, I want to see it there or thereabouts, 80% and in the green, at least feeling like my other habits are now. And then I will probably use 20-25% to really build upon that and cement that 7th habit, whole foods, so that it's always above 80% and in the green. But as a reminder, whole foods is kind of my nemesis. It's easily the hardest habit that I'm finding to establish. And also it's only been worked on for the last 4 or 5 months versus the other habits I've been working on for a couple of years. So I'm still in the kind of early midstages of building it. So if I can just get it to be there and thereabouts for the end of the year, like I said, I can then use 2025 to really then get into a place where the other habits are. Um, and overall that just sees me moving into 2025 in a really strong place. So what were my goals for June? It was to get those 6— was to keep those 6 habits that we just talked about in the green, and hopefully as comfortably as possible. And those 6 habits are no alcohol, sleeping 6.5 hours, eating 175 grams of protein, drinking no more than 2 cups of caffeine and before midday per day, drinking 3 liters of water per day and walking 10K steps per day. So there are the 6 habits that I want to be in the green and comfortably at 80%. And then my second goal for the month is to keep whole foods above 50%. I managed— it's my— I think it's my 4th or my 5th month working on whole foods. And last month was the first time I managed to get it over 50%. It was like 55%. Or something like that. So I want to get it over 50% for the second time, and preferably if I can get it closer to 60% so I can see a little bit of progress. But at a bare minimum, I want to see it over 50% so I can really feel like I've turned a corner with it, and it's always now about taking it to 60% and 70% rather than worrying that it's going to drop below 50%. So let's take a look at my results. So if I look at the month actually for June in general, I had a really, really great month. I had a great month last month, by the way, in May, but this month was just as good and actually fairly similar. So my 6 habits were all over 80%, most of them comfortably over 80%, and Whole Foods came in at 53%. And like I said, I just wanted Whole Foods to be over 50%. So overall, 6 habits in the green, one in the orange, and that whole foods in the orange looking like it's turned a corner and above 50%. So I couldn't be happier with June. It's exactly where I wanted to be and it meets my goals exactly. Let's go through them one by one and we'll see where we're at with each one. So alcohol, alcohol, I'll say this every single month was at 100%. I've been sober for nearly 3 years. That's always going to be the case. I just like to keep it there because it's such a foundational health habit. And I just want to hold myself accountable to being sober for the rest of my life. So no alcohol, 100%, exactly as I would have expected. Sleep, 6.5 hours. That came in at 87%, a small improvement in May. But really, when it comes down to it, nicely over 80%. And actually sleep was, yeah, only 4 misses, no double misses. And generally speaking, my sleep just felt great in June. And to see it 80%, 87% and in the green, it's just super comfortable. And if I look at sleep as well, you know, it's been in the green now for 6 months consecutively. So again, anything around 82, 85, maybe even 90% is just perfect for me with sleep. And the goal is to keep it like that for the rest of the year. Protein, 175 grams came in at 80%. So right on the button for protein. And if I look at my protein now only one double miss. Um, look, generally speaking, throughout the month there's always going to be a handful of days where I struggle to get my protein in, and it's usually around a trip, it's usually around just having a, a very low protein dinner, and perhaps a bit of disorganization in terms of planning, um, in response to that. But for the most part, I'm fine so long as there's no more than 6 misses in a month, and so long as Generally speaking, it's 80% or above. And even, by the way, when I miss one of those days, my average is still well over 175. So it's not the biggest thing in the world if it's just hanging around 80% exactly, because I know that my protein on average is actually higher than 175 grams. But it's really useful to hold myself accountable to seeing no more than 6 misses, um, on protein. And I achieved that for June, so super happy. Caffeine was another one that came in at 80%. Caffeine is usually always going to come in at about 80%. Like now and again, I like to really push the boundaries with caffeine and I would like to have a third or fourth one in a day, whether it's to kind of stimulate myself for a workout, whether I'm just enjoying myself on a trip. So, you know, usually there's 5 or 6 very intentional breaking of the caffeine rule. And again, if I look at my caffeine, no double misses and for the most part they are always just intentional misses. Usually around something happening. So 80%, just fine, it's in the green. Um, all of those misses are intentional, so not a problem. Drinking 3 liters of water, um, 87%, really, really good. And if I look at my water, no double misses, um, a really nice couple of stretches of 10 days plus where I was 3 liters in a row. So I don't struggle with this. And actually, one of the things I've been trying to improve about water, which I think really helped in June, or I've managed to do a good job of in June, is to not drink my water too late into the evening. And for the most part in June, most of my water consumption was achieved by about 7 PM or 8 PM, and it usually left a couple of hours before going to bed with having no fluids, which is super important for good sleep and not getting up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet, etc. So 80%, 87%, really, really nice for water and couldn't be happier. Steps, 80%. Um, that one was a little bit of a struggle. If I look at my steps, um, there is a double miss there, which I don't like to see. But for the most part, steps is usually either bad weather or poor planning from my perspective. And the one thing that I found a bit of a struggle was I left it quite close then towards the end of the month where I was kind of a little bit at risk of falling under 80%, but then I really went above and beyond a couple of the days to make sure that I got my 10K steps in, no matter, to make sure that that was over 80%. So there's still a little bit of fragility with steps I don't like, and I would like to see that just more comfortably at 85%, 86% most months. I don't want to be scraping in with my, with my steps. I think actually at the beginning of the year I talked about the fact that sleep and a little bit of water but actually, you know, from a pure consistency perspective, because water is really just about drinking too much in the evenings, I usually do it, usually hit my goal with it anyway. Really, the two habits of those six that are a little fragile are steps and sleep. But sleep is really improving. Steps is still a little bit fragile. So I really want to kind of improve that one next month. And then whole foods, 53%. And I feel like I've, you know, about the same as what it was last month. Last month it was 55%., you know, so I'm classing that as in the orange. Really great to see a second month above 50%. I think that really sets me up for the second half of the year to really keep things above 50% and then creep into the 60% and the 70%. And hopefully by the end of the year, I'm starting to get a few 80% and in the green, and that will put me in a fantastic position to then work on building upon that next year. So 53% for me is totally fine for now. And I think importantly, I've been making real strides in on a day-to-day basis, just making better conscious decisions about, you know, food that I'm putting in my mouth, resisting the temptation to eat bad foods. I think actually if I look at my whole foods, quite a few double misses there. And I think there were a few kind of dinners out and stuff like that that kind of hurt me in June. I'm still really kind of vulnerable to, but for the most part, 53%. Great. I'm hoping to be kind of above 50% and hopefully closer to 60% in the way that I'm thinking about whole foods now. So look, really, really happy with June. 6 habits above 80% and in the green, and my 7th habit, whole foods, in the orange and above 50%. And they were exactly the goals I set myself for June. So I consider June an absolute smash. And look, just to put June into perspective as well, I'll try and share We'll do this for the first time. I'm not sure if this is going to work. Give me a second. If you're watching this in video, you'll be able to see my habit tracking spreadsheet. And if you look at— where are we? You will be able to see the progress I'm making there. You can see 10K steps was pretty vulnerable. There was a little bit of vulnerability with the sleep as well. You can see in December I actually fell below it, and then I'm scraping in here or there.. But as I started to get into 2024, and certainly in, you know, April, May, and June, you can really start to see a picture of the greens building up and becoming stronger and thicker. And, you know, steps really improving and coming from an orange habit into the green, and whole foods becoming from red to orange. And even if you go back further than that, you can kind of see, you know, more, more oranges happening in 2023. And as I'm in 2024, much less orange, much more green, and any reds turning into oranges. And again, that's exactly where I want to be. Like, I really hope that in Q4 this year I'm seeing mostly greens with the odd orange creeping in here or there for Whole Foods. And any oranges for Whole Foods should kind of be more like 65%, 70%, 75%, not 53%. Let me stop sharing my screen. So cool. Look, that's me. I'm really happy with how June went. So what are my goals for July? Exactly the same as what they were for June. I want to keep my 6 foundational health habits. No alcohol, sleeping 6.5 hours, eating 175 grams of protein, drinking no more than 2 cups of caffeine before midday. Drinking 3 liters of water and walking 10K steps per day. I want them all to comfortably be over 80% and in the green again. And I would like to see my whole foods above 50% again. But I think also now is the time to try and get it closer to 60%. And you never know, maybe into 60%. I feel like I've got like a new attitude and a renewed enthusiasm for whole foods, particularly as I'm coming towards my summer holiday. And I know that the quality of my food and also the quantity of my food needs to really be nailed down if I'm going to come in looking as lean as I want to look. So I have a sort of extra incentive to really improve upon that whole foods and nutrition side of things. So yeah, they're my goals for July— keep those 6 habits in the green and above 80% and as comfortably as possible, um, and to get the whole foods habit above 50% again, hopefully into the 60s. And I will see you in, um, I will see you next month and we will look back, um, probably be around early August and we'll look back in July and we'll see how I did. Nice, thank you.
