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I'm 73 years young . Ladies

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and gentlemen , Vincent Hiskowski is a health

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coach and his mission is to help people

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to look better and feel better . Why

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did you become a health ?

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coach . It's been my passion throughout my life . All

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the way through my life , from being eight to

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nine years old , I was always playing sports

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playing football , playing rugby . If there was something

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that was anything to do with sports , I was there .

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Bestselling author award-winning podcast

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transformative purpose . Today

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, we'll touch on three important topics Work , nutrition

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and sleep . But before we go on with our conversation

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, I am going to ask you a question

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from our paper skis , like Hutchison

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, the CEO from Fleetbar . The

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question he asks for you is how do

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you ensure you have gotten

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enough out of each ?

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day ? Wow , that's a super question . I

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think that for myself , if

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I look at how I use my day , and I'm

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sort of , let's say , from the work

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I do , I do get a

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lot of time when I'm not doing work

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, work . I use the day

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very , very well . So

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I start the day from , I start

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doing sort of breathing , I start doing

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meditation , I start looking at

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my heart rate variability

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, so I do some measures on myself . Then

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, depending on what clients I've got for

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that day , let's say , I then do the

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works with the clients . But

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then at the same time I'm a kind of

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lifelong learner , so I'm always

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looking to see what I can do to

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up my skills as

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a health coach and also generally

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read books . I spend so much

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time reading books . Then , just to cap that

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off , I'm a firm believer in

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pushing yourself . So in the evening

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it might get to around seven o'clock

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and I'll , even if I'm not feeling like

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it , I'll push myself and I say come on

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, you've got to go to the gym . And

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I go to the gym . I've got my own weight training

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coach . So coaches , lead coaches

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. Why did you become a health coach ? Yeah

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, and that's a super question . So I've

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had three careers in my life . My

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first career was as a teacher and I

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taught maths and physics

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and I really enjoyed it . And

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I got to , I think , around about the 14th

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year . And always nagging

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in my brain was what's it like on the other

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side ? Once it like an industry

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. And I had a

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super opportunity because at that

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time the British government

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was actually giving me money to

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go into a master's degree and

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they were paying for my family at the

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same time . So of course I took the opportunity

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, went and did a master's degree . Then

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I got a job in microelectronics

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which , yeah , before I got the job I didn't

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know anything . I trained as an engineer

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, then went on to do sales and marketing

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and that job lasted

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30 years and

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that took me all around the world . That brought

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me to Hong Kong . So

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that gave me that sort of view

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of the corporate world , of

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managing a team , coaching

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a team , all those nice things

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. And at the end of the it wasn't

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really the end of my contract . They wanted me to go back to

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France and I said my

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wife wants to stay here in Hong Kong . They

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said , no problem , we'll give you a redundancy

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and you can stay . And actually I was coming

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up to 65 , so it was like they

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were actually giving me a present to

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leave the company . So I took that and

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that's when I decided to become

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a kind of full-time health

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coach . I thought , well , if I want

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to stay fit and healthy , then

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the best way for me to do that is

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to help other people get fit

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and healthy , because you can't be a

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health coach if you're not healthy yourself

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. It's been my passion throughout my life

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, all the way through my life , from ever

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since I can remember , you know

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, from being eight

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or nine years old , I was always playing sports

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playing football , playing rugby , playing

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. In Wales , we actually played

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Welsh baseball , athletics

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. If there was something that was anything

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to do with sport , I was there . That passion

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is not just the passion that arrived

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when I was 65 , it's been

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there all the way through .

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What have you learned between the age of 65

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to now you're 73 ?

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As I said earlier , I've always been a lifelong

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learner . So what I've done in

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terms of this new career is

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I've relearned a lot of skills

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. I mean , when you're working in a

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job and industry I

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was in the marketing department and

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our customers were lined up by the sales department

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I didn't have to do anything . But

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when you do a job yourself , you

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have to do everything . You have to

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be the marketing , you have to be the sales and

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marketing , you have to be the IT

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, you have to take all of the roles and you

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have to do them all . And I'd be very

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honest , that didn't come easy . So

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that was certainly a challenge , but it's

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a challenge which I've appreciated

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and I think and I hope .

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I'm getting better . Can you walk us through

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the process At least ? I know a lot of people who are juggling

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with work and people . There are a

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lot of people also trying to look for jobs . We

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are facing a rather challenging economic environment

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. So , from having

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a lot of resources in a corporate environment

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to getting into a new space

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where you had to relearn everything

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and be a live learner yourself , and

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also juggling the many responsibilities

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that you mentioned , from sales marketing

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to doing the actual delivery , the

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coaching work how did you juggle ?

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all of those . I think I need to share another

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bit of information with you , because one

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of the reasons I became a

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health coach was to stay active

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. Earning money wasn't the primary reason

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. So I was in a very privileged

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position in that I

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had a pension from my company and

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, having worked in the UK , having worked

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in France on the next Patrick

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contract in Hong Kong I mean

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the pension is easily enough

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for me to live on . So what I'm doing

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now is a passion project . But

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of course I think , like all people

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who have any kind of competition in them , they

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want it to be successful , they want it to be

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meaningful , they want it to be something

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which they can show that

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they're making progress . So those are the challenges

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for me , but they're not the fundamental

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challenges where I have to chase

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people for business

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. So , for example , if

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somebody comes to me and we're working

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together and they're getting sort

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of grouchy and

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they're sort of saying you know , why don't you do

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this and why don't you do that , then

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I'm more

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than happy to help them . And

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if I'm feeling I'm not helping them , I'm

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more than happy to refer them to somebody else

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and that comes . That is a

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luxury , you know , I'd be very honest

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. It's a luxury , but it's a luxury

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which I think , if other people

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can do it , then I would recommend it yeah

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.

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But what would you say were the qualities

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that you have in you which got

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you to this state , this comfortable state

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where you can selectively or

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turn away customers which aren't exactly

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aligned with you ?

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Yeah , and that's a great question . I

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think from my personality

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, I've always been a person

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, you know , when I was at

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school I used to get up at six

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o'clock in the morning and go and deliver newspapers

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. Sometimes I would deliver

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on two rounds of newspapers , so I wouldn't

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finish until eight o'clock . Then

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I would go to school . I would do

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my day in school and the first thing I did

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when I came home was my homework . And

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the reason for that wasn't because I wanted to

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be the best student in the class , it's because

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I wasn't allowed out until I did my

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homework . So I did my homework and

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then my mother said okay , you can go out now , you

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can go to youth club , you can do whatever you want to . You

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know , make sure you're backed by a certain time

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. So that discipline

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and I would call it discipline , that

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discipline in my life is

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lifelong and of

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course that makes it easier . I mean , it's

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easy for me to push myself . Now . It's

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easy for me to push myself because it's

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not something where really

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I'm pushing myself , it's . You

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know , some people might think they're pushing

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themselves as something that's hard

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and difficult and unpleasant , but

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I actually feel it's a pleasure .

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I'm going to be selfish here and ask you a personal question

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because I'm a father of two young children

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. I learned that you have , you

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know , a lot of kids and you also have five grandchildren

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. The point you mentioned about discipline

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do you see in the next generation and

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if not , how do we nurture it ?

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Yeah , again , super question . So looking

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at my children now , the

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thing that I've tried to sort of help

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them with , and of course their mother as well

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, is for them to be independent

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. And if

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I look at all my children now , they're

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all independent . I mean , children

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always come back to daddy for sort of money , you know

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. They always come back

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and say , oh , can you help me

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? Blah , blah , blah .

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And you handle those conversations . When they come for money , do you

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always give it to them .

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Within what I can manage . Yeah , because

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for me I feel like

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it's a part of my family

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, it's a part of my life . I don't want to go to the

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grave . I'd like to go to the grave with

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, like , zero in the bank . You

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know , with you haven't got to the point

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where any money that I've got

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has been shed out before

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I get to that point where I die , and

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of course they're properly . I mean

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, my wife would be a part of that as well as the children . Yeah

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, that's beautiful .

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Let's talk about why we're here today . Let's talk about health . You

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mentioned there are seven pillars of health . Can

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you tell us what these seven pillars are ?

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Okay . So , in fact , in

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terms of the pillars of health that

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I really work on for myself , fundamentally

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there's breathing

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Okay , so breathing sits

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, you know a foundation and very

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closely followed by sleep , then

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nutrition , movement

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a movement covers so much , but

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I call it movement then

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mental and emotional health

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, and then hydration

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, and that's six , and I can't remember what the

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seventh one is . Basically those that , for me , are

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the important pillars of health . And

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the other thing I would say , which I think is

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really important , they're not independent

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variables . Most of my customers come

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to me and they say look , I need to

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lose some weight . Okay

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, so we can work on that and

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we start to develop habits that

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they can help themselves to lose some

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weight . One of the things that I

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asked them right at the beginning is

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what's your sleep like ? Why

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? Because it's a very dependent variable

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. If somebody is not sleeping

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properly , the level of fat

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in their body goes up . If

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they're not sleeping properly , it means

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that their stress is going to be going up . Their

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mental health is going to be not where

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it should be . So usually

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when customers and clients come to me

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, they come to me with one thing

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, but then , by the time we

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find the solution . It's kind of it's

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meshed across everything and

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that is , you know , it's a pattern

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which I've seen regularly and

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even to the point . You know , the example

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I gave you with respect to sleep is

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fundamental . You know

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, if you're stressed , you're

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releasing more cortisol . If

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you're releasing more cortisol , the body

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says , oh my God , what's going on ? Hold

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on to your fat and

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it burns muscle . So

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when you're stressed , not only are

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you getting stressed physiologically

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, you're starting to burn muscle , you're

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starting to build up fat . And

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if you're getting stressed about being overweight , I

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mean , then it becomes a vicious circle .

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How does someone know whether their quality of sleep

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is good ?

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Yeah , so many good questions . So

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what I recommend with

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my clients is they start

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to monitor their sleep and

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even you know , without using any

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watches or things

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, that instruments that they can put in their bed , etc

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. You can usually

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tell when you've had a good night's sleep . You

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just ask yourself when you get up in the morning , how

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do I feel ? And that is

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that takes you 60 to 70%

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of the way forward in terms

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of knowing what your sleep is doing . If

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you wake up in the morning and you feel like shit

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, then you can and

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you know straight away you're kind of

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tense . Then you know that

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wasn't a good night's sleep . So

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then for the next step

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, and what I do for myself is

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that I've got a watch that measures

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my sleep and it's one of the first things I do every

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morning . I , you

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know , as I told you , I've got a kind of routine and I get

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up in the morning , I look at my watch and

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I see what my score is

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on my watch , and of course you

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know it's not something that's perfect , it's

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an indication . But it's

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really interesting as an indication

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because of course you

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know , we're in a group called

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BNI and on the Tuesday morning you

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have to get up early . I get up at 5.30 . And

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I look , yeah

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, and I look at my sleep for that night and

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if I'm good then I can usually get more

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than seven hours and that's what I aim to do . But

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then when I look at my heart rate variability

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, you can see it's

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starting to get pushed into

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the sympathetic , it's starting to get pushed into

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the stress side of the equation . It

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kind of gives you a score , you know . So either

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central you're in there , so that sympathetic

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, or your paradigm sympathetic , so

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you can see it . Just even

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thinking about you know what was my

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sleep last night , that's gonna

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give you a good indication .

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What are some of the basic things , fundamental

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things people need to know about getting

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a good night's sleep , like things that we're not

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supposed to do . I mean , I try not

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to look at smartphone blue screen

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some say you know , an hour before

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that . I've heard of this three to one theory where

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you're not supposed to eat three hours before , drink

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two hours before and not supposed to look at blue

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screen one hour before sleep . What

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you know . What are some of the basic things that people shouldn't

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be doing which would affect you

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know this sleeping pattern and

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maybe know a few things that people should , again

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should be doing after they get up .

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So what I do with what I do usually with

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my clients , I say to them

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okay , what

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time do you normally wake up in the morning ? What

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time do you want to wake up in the morning ? Okay

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, so that's the starting point . Then

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I work backwards so I say okay

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, you wanna get up at eight o'clock ? You

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need to be in bed before

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12 o'clock . If

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you need to be in bed before 12 o'clock , what's

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your wine down routine ? Do you have a wine

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down routine ? If you don't , let's

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develop one together . What time

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do we need to start our wine down routine

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? You know , and that all of what

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you mentioned , you know not looking at blue screens

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, not , you know , not getting excited

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, not , you know , it's scrolling your telephone

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that all comes into your wine down routine

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. It could be that you take a night . Well

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, I do , I just take a nice warm shower . It's your

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body , so you take the responsibility

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to look after it .