The Connection Between Physical Health & Intentional Living

Are you living intentionally — or simply reacting to life as it happens?

In this special episode of The Runner's Sole Podcast, podiatrist and runner Sharon Miller is joined once again by relationship architect, life coach, speaker, and author Benjamin Tagoe to explore the powerful connection between physical health, daily habits, mindset, and intentional living.

From the growing loneliness epidemic and the decline of community connection to the importance of movement, family activities, healthy routines, and personal responsibility, Sharon and Benjamin discuss how the choices we make every day shape not only our health but also the quality of our lives.

This conversation goes beyond running and fitness. It's about creating a life with purpose, connection, energy, and wellbeing.

If you've ever felt stuck in unhealthy habits, overwhelmed by daily life, or disconnected from the people around you, this episode offers practical insights and inspiration to help you move forward with greater intention.

🎧 IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL LEARN:

✔ Why intentional living starts with intentional health
 ✔ How physical activity impacts mental and emotional wellbeing
 ✔ The connection between movement, community, and happiness
 ✔ Why loneliness has become a growing modern challenge
 ✔ How healthy families build stronger relationships through shared experiences
 ✔ Why today's lifestyle habits are contributing to long-term health problems
 ✔ Practical ways to become more active and connected
 ✔ How small daily habits create lasting life changes
 ✔ Why action matters more than good intentions

🌱 KEY TAKEAWAY

Intentional living isn't about perfection.

It's about making conscious choices that support your physical health, emotional wellbeing, relationships, and future.

The small habits you repeat every day ultimately shape the life you live. When you become intentional about your health, movement, relationships, and community, you create a stronger foundation for everything else.

🔗 LINKS

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👟 Online Foot Consultation: www.runnerssole.co.uk

👥 Join Our Running Community: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/17oz7x3jFe/

🏃 ABOUT THE PODCAST

The Runner's Sole Podcast is where running meets science, stride by stride.

Hosted by podiatrist and runner Sharon Miller, this podcast helps runners prevent injuries, improve performance, and better understand foot health through practical, evidence-based advice while exploring the wider connections between physical wellbeing, mental resilience, relationships, and healthy living.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to The Runner Soul, the podcast where running meet science stride by stride. And who am I? Well, I'm Sharon Miller, your resident podiatrist of 20 years, and we love helping you runners out there become better, stronger, more resilient, and most importantly, we're here to try and reduce those injuries that always keep you back. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to The Runner Soul, the podcast where science meets running stride by stride. And today we're going to continue our conversation with Ben. Hi, Ben.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Hi, Sharon. I hope you're doing great.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Oh, definitely. Yeah. So we've been really enjoying talking about how relationships intertwine with um, you know, mental health, keeping active, looking after your body, you know, because when you look after your body, you're gonna feel good, you're gonna give a better vibe. Yeah. So today we're talking about living with intention and how the connection between the physical health and daily habits, mindset, and intentional living.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Wonderful. Obviously, intentionality is key in everything we do in life. Intentionality is basically you being focused, you knowing what you want, how you want it, when you want it, where you want it. So intentionality is is key for every individual for general life. And the same applies to physical health. You need to be very intentional with how you want your physical health to be. Because anything left unattended deteriorates.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Do you feel that maybe we as you know as a nation, we're not intentional enough about where we're going. You know, we don't make enough time for physical um activity.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Yeah, I think so. I think I think most nations are not intentional when it comes to the health of their people. I'm a Guinean. I've fortunately traveled to a few places, and I noticed that just recently I was even talking about it with someone that most nations are not very intentional when it comes to the physical, emotional, psychological well-being of their people. Most nations are just interested in how they can collect the taxes and whatever, whatever, whatever. But when it comes to physical health, emotional health and psychological health, most countries don't invest much into that. And I believe it's one of the reasons why a country like the United Kingdom is having a pandemic when it comes to loneliness. Because what is the country's policy in getting people to do physical activities together? What is the country's policy in getting people to intermingle? What is the country's policy in getting people not to not to be isolated? I don't think I've seen a policy like that. I don't live in the UK, yes, but I follow BBC and other news agencies, and I follow the parliament and all that. And I'm yet to see a policy that goes to promoting people to interact more, to intertwine more, to do a lot of physical activities together, to go to the gym, to run, to jog. Like I'm yet to see, well, I don't know the whole country's uh every country in the world, but I'm yet to see a country that has it as a policy focusing on the physical health of their people. Yes, it's good to build hospitals and all that, but what about preventing the people from going to the hospital?

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Do you think the reason for that is that there's no money in healthy people?

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Probably, because we're not.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Because obviously, if we're if we're a healthy nation, the government's not going to make any money from us, are they? There's more money in disease, diabetes, you know, people overrating, and then it creates more work for the doctors, the pharmaceuticals, they rule the world. So, you know, there's there's no money for the pharmaceuticals if we all get too healthy.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Yeah, I'll not necessarily put that on the government. I'll put I'll put that on individual companies that want to benefit off the back of human beings. For instance, in recent times and past times, we've heard allegations against big pharma and other organizations, how they manipulate all these things. So, yes, indeed, there could be some heavy truth in that some of these companies promote some of these things in order to benefit from us. And I I will recall, I would commend the United Kingdom, if I'm not, if I'm not mistaken, on the recent policy they put out not to advertise junk food and particular kind of food between certain hours, because they've realized that a lot of children are becoming obese. However, I would encourage them and I would want them to go beyond that, beyond just banning those adverts to literally promote the idea of families doing physical activities together. Because it's not enough just banning the adverts. What should the person do in the absence of the adverts? And what the person should do is for the nation to come up with a policy where they roll out adverts, they roll out information, they encourage physical activities, they they subsidize gym activities, they promote organizations to organize marathons, running activities, working activities, activities that keep the nation healthy. So, yes, it's in the right direction to ban those, the adverts of the junk food and all that, but they are still on the shelves. So why don't you rather put a policy to encourage families to do physical activities together?

SPEAKER_01 6:03

Yeah, definitely. Or what they could do is the healthy foods, you know, the bananas and the fruit and stuff that children don't want to eat, they could make that cheaper and make the sugary foods more expensive. I think the other problem is they are not monitoring enough what they're actually putting in into our foods. Because you can pick something off the shelf and it says, you know, healthy all natural ingredients, you look at it and you say sugar, this, this, this, and you think, no, that's not healthy. You know, that you're being uh in a way manipulated into thinking something healthy when it's not.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Yeah. And that's why I would I would want to encourage the health department or the government to be very intentional about that. Because when you look at, I might be mistaken, but due to some of the news items I've I've seen and some of the things I've seen on the internet, you'll notice that a lot of the European countries have an aging generation. So what do you do to make sure that the nation is healthy? Because if you have an aging generation, what happens when those people pass away? It means that you're gonna you're gonna run out of deficits in the way. And so for me, it is it is important for the government to put it as a policy where they encourage healthy living, whatever they need to do, to put in the resources to inform the people, to run advertisements, to encourage ordinary organizations to put in programs that promote healthy living, our eating, exercising, family living, all these things are very important to keep people healthy because emotional, psychological, physical, mental, these are the core exactly, and in the center of it is mental and physical, because your physical and your mental exercises impact on each other. When the body is active, it promotes the mind to be to be fresh and to be active, so it cuts down depression and stress and all those things. Once people are stressed, it affects their body because now they don't feel like they eat the junk, they don't feel like getting out there, they don't feel like doing physical activities, they sit in one place, they eat all the junk and all that, then it leads to obesity, diabetes, and all those things. So these things are intertwined. And I would really, really be happy if governments channel some policies and some funds towards some of these things.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

Absolutely, I totally agree. I think it's very sad that research has now shown that it's likely that children like the younger generation is more likely to die before the parents. And that's because a lot of teenagers have type 2 diabetes, and that's from obesity and lack of exorcist. And, you know, usually type 2 diabetes only affects the over 40-year-olds. So we're seeing it more and more and more in the teens, which is very sad, really.

SPEAKER_00 9:05

Yeah, and it's also very sad that now you have young children having part problems, having lung problems, having serious diseases when they're not supposed to. And Sharon, I don't know, but I believe it's your generation was like that. But you notice that in the previous generation, let me say the baby boomers, the Gen X, and the millennials, you notice that kids played all day, basically when you're on vacation.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

We played all day, all day. We would you know, we'd get thrown out after you've given your your witchy bicks and your teen toasts in the mornings, and then your parents didn't expect to see you until it got dark.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

And we would do all sorts of things, you know. We were on the go, we were on our bikes, we were racing, we were playing football, we were catching bees, and you know, we had we had a great time.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

We were just like out there all the time, and we invented our own games, exactly, and all those were exercises. So you notice that in those days, we were not really experiencing a lot of what we are experiencing today when it comes to health issues because the child, sorry, is running the whole day, it's running on bicycles and everything. In today's world, they are on their phones 24-7, they are on their laptops, they are on their video games. So they eat and they're sitting on what they have eaten, and we know the effect of that. So instead of the food turning into glucose, the food now turns into cholesterol. And I believe that it is influencing what we are seeing today in a lot of children having obesity, diabetes, and all this, all the sicknesses that were unheard of the days past. It was unheard of to hear that a child has diabetes at the age of five, unless they inherited it, or at the age of 15, at the age of 20. It was unheard of. But nowadays it's prevalent, which means that the nations are not being healthy enough. And you can imagine what is going to happen in the next few decades. So I would really, really, really, really promote this ideology of governments getting involved and coming up with policies that promote physical health. Most importantly, it's it shouldn't cost too much for the government to say that you know what, across the nation, on this particular holiday, there's going to be a walk. Or we are organizing five-kilometer marathon, three-kilometer marathons, two kilometer marathons, and we want everybody to get involved. These are the incentives. There is t-shirts, there's whatever to encourage people to love that idea. And after that, there's a picnic, there's music in particular places. Counties can organize that by themselves. So simple. Yeah. A county can say on this particular holiday on Freedom Day, this is what we are doing. We are going to have a walk from here to here. We are going to have a run for those who want to run. And then after that, we're going to gather in this pack, this pack, this pack. There's going to be music and there's going to be interaction and fun. That day alone can increase people's lives by five years, seven years, ten years, because they came out to walk, they came out to meet people, they interacted, they danced, they like they were on the out of sun.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

And of course, studies show that we are healthier when we are, you know, in community. Sadly. When we're isolated, which is the sort of life we live at the moment, you know, you know, just being on our devices, it's a very like individual thing. So we're not interacting with other people, and that's how we're not becoming so healthy, not just for the physical side, but the emotional side. Because when we live in isolation, we are not healthy.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

Very true. And so you will notice that with what I'm proposing now, just one activity, but you get everything in one. You get a physical activity, you get an emotional activity, you get a psychological activity, you get a mental activity in one event. Because people were otherwise were feeling depressed, were feeling stressed, were feeling lonely, were feeling isolated. They now get a reason or they now have a reason to get out of their house without feeling that I'm going to be pushed away. Who am I going to talk to? Would this person accept me? Because it's a general program. So now the person now has a sense of belonging. And guess what? Out of that, they may make a friend.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Absolutely. And it's encouraging the family to get out and spend time together, to do something as a family, you know, to do an event as a family, you know, having that sort of um, you know, shared goal. And it's fun and something that they can talk about. Oh, remember when we went and you've got the pictures and you've got the memories. I mean, that is it's yeah, it's key.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

Because when you want when you watch carefully, the things we hold on to as families, most of the times, are the memories, the beautiful memories. Those are the things we hold on to, and those are the things that keep us going most of the most most importantly. And so encouraging the family or encouraging families to have activities together, something as simple as monopoly can bring the family together beyond your imagination. Because it's a mental exercise, and that is uh psychological exercise, because it may not necessarily be physical as such, but you can do it on the outside, which brings you out of the of the of the home and gives you the outside flesh. So on your yard, and then you are playing Monopoly, you're laughing, you are teasing each other, you're kicking each other, and all these bring the family together. More so if you can have a habit of exercising together, going for walks together, gyming together. These are very healthy activities that establish the bond. So once a bond is established, you'll notice that the problems that come into the relationship cannot damage the relationship because your bond is beyond the problem.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

And I guess when you're happy together, you've got less problems, haven't you? Sometimes people get more problems because they're not getting their needs met, they're not spending time together, they're not listening to each other. But if you're spending time together, it's not just about that one day, is it like the effect will you know the effect could go on for years, just that one day together.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

Exactly, exactly. You you know you notice that you are you are more tolerable to people you love and people you care about and people who make you happy. And so even when sometimes they do the grievous things, you look at it lightly. But people who are not in your favor, even the slightest thing you pick on them. You get irritated, don't do that. Exactly. So it goes a long way that when the families do activities together and they bond, they are in each other's favor, which means that they they easily forgo, they easily overlook for because they are in each other's favor. But when they don't do activities together together and they are not bonded, they are looking, they are looking for every opportunity to flare out and to flare up, which becomes devastating to the relationship.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

Yes, yes, because you know, sometimes we do see things that are not really there, and that's because we are stressed. You know, our perception is a little bit like you know, mucky.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so I I would I would really encourage if you can you can take up this task to put up a policy document for your county, or I don't know what you call it in the in the UK, your municipality, to partner with you to host some of these activities, maybe once in three months, uh, you know, for families, family tournaments, you know, family running together, family marathons. I believe it can go a long way to help the the municipality or the county because it will bring you guys together. And like I said, you have families befriending other families, and before you realize families are having picnics together and promoting healthy living. So if you can take that up, I think that would be great.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Yeah, yeah, I love that idea. You know, I'll um maybe get in touch with some of the local schools and you know, we can use the event even to raise money for that school. You know, if everyone gave a pound, you know, pound is nothing. But, you know, if we were to get like, you know, a couple of hundred people, a couple of thousand people, then those funds can really help.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

Exactly. Imagine, and we are saying this, uh, imagine you you partner with a local school and then you host a family walk, and you say the registration is five pounds per each adult or 10 pounds per family, or let's say five pounds per each adult and one pound or two pounds per child. Let's say you have a family of four registering, it means that for the family of four, you're gonna get, let's say, 24 uh 14 pounds from that family. It means that if you are lucky to have let's say 100 people registering, just 100 people, that alone is about a thousand something pounds. Amazing the school can do can do something with that. So you you're getting the family unity, you're getting the people to do physical exercises, which releases or lowers their stress and their depression and all that, and at the same time towards a good cause. I think it's something that some people or a number of people may like to get involved. It may not be easy, but it's doable. And if it becomes a consistent thing, once in three months, maybe you may be able to get a lot of people to look physically good and to take some of these things as a habit.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Yes, and it's just the simple things, isn't it, Ben? I mean, that's a very simple thing that you know um schools could adopt. It could even be a yearly thing.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

Yeah, yeah, it could be a yearly thing, yeah. That you can even have people traveling from distance to come and join. What matters most is usually the beginning. And so for me personally, I believe in putting your efforts where your mouth is. I don't believe in just talk, talk, talk, talk. I believe in practicality. So whatever I talk about, I believe in putting in the actions, putting in the tools to make it possible.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

And as we encourage people to get active, I believe we can also put in our quarter to create uh physical tools or activities to demonstrate what we are saying because it goes on in a well I I think you know, as people we talk, talk, talk too much when we really should be move, move, move more.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

100% if we could just make that small shift. Maybe maybe I'll fly to the UK and come and be a part of that event. You never know.

SPEAKER_01 19:53

Absolutely, you will be our guest of honor. Right. Well, I think we're running out of time, Ben. So that was a great discussion. We have sorted the world.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

Awesome, awesome, and I look forward to us having it again.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

Definitely tune in, listeners, and we will be getting together again in due course for another wonderful summer. Okay, thank you, Ben. Bye-bye. Thank you for striding on by with us through this episode. If you've enjoyed this podcast, and it doesn't have to end here, you can continue connecting with us via our Facebook community. And that's a place where you can learn tips, you can ask us questions, you can connect with other runners, and we will give you the link in the show notes.