Building Sustainable Health Systems For Sustainable Health Outcomes
Implementation strategies that ensure your habits stick, when life does its thing
We ran through what makes a habit high-impact: evidence-based, process-driven, and sustainable. But knowing the framework is only half the battle. The real challenge is embedding these habits into systems that survive real life.
Most people fail because they set outcome-based goals without clarity on the process required to achieve them. So they change everything - exercise, diet, fluid intake, recovery and hope it all sticks.
But it doesn’t. Life gets busy, and when it comes time to prioritise, they don’t know what to pick. Slowly, they revert to their baseline.
Let's change that.
Designing for Sustainability
Sustainability isn't about choosing "easy" habits. It's about designing systems that work with human psychology, not against it.
The Sustainability Test
Ask yourself these questions about any health habit:
Can I do this when I'm tired?
Can I do this when I'm travelling?
Can I do this when I'm stressed?
Can I do this during busy periods?
Can I do this for 2+ years?
If you answer "no" to any of these, the habit needs modification, not elimination.
Example: Exercise Habit Design
❌ Unsustainable: "6 AM high intensity gym classes, five days per week"
Fails when: travelling, sick, or schedule changes
Requires: perfect conditions (at home, space in class, suitable schedule)
✅ Sustainable: "150-300 minutes weekly physical activity"
Options: gym, walking, home workouts, sports
Adaptable to: any schedule or location
Succeeds when: you focus on weekly total, not daily perfection
The Recovery Mindset
The most crucial part of building a habit is taking that action. The second most important part is getting back to it as soon as possible after you’ve stopped.
The perfection trap of missing one day, and feeling guilty and upset about ruining a streak, can lead to missed days and habit abandonment.
Many people with an all-or-nothing mindset decide to ‘start again next week’ but, in the meantime, forgo any of their habits. This significantly reduces the momentum of process-driven habits, making it harder to restart.
Instead, adopt a recovery mindset that if you miss one day, acknowledge it (and try to identify why) and focus on adherence over the coming days.
Losing a streak is frustrating, but the streak is not the objective. Instead, the purpose is to be a person who embeds these habits into their life.
What you do in the days following a bad day is a good measure of how deeply those habits are ingrained.
Managing Special Situations
Sometimes you can’t meet your targets, even if you want to. You get sick, are on the road, or life gets wild.
The key here is to prioritise habits based on time available and the habits' impact on your short-term wellbeing.
For example, if you only have 20 minutes while on the road and physical activity is key, get a quick workout in. If you can’t do that, practice mindfulness and order meals with plenty of fruits and vegetables.
Avoid the perfection trap and do what you can, even when you can’t do it all.
Sick days happen, although less frequently as you build high-impact health habits. When they do:
Reduce activity intensity instead of eliminating it, where possible (walk instead of run, stretch instead of lifting)
Maintain healthy eating, mindfulness and sleep habits
Travel can mean a lack of time to exercise and can make healthy eating harder. You can assist it by ensuring you:
Prioritise mindfulness and controlled breathing practice in downtime
Accept some changes to fruit & vegetables, sugar & fat, and alcohol, but not all three
Exercise when you can
Busy, stressful and emotional periods are a part of life and can impact habits. You can maintain your habits by ensuring to:
Prioritise mindfulness and sleep habits
Maintain exercise frequency, but manage intensity and duration as required
Be wary of increasing alcohol intake
As habits become embedded into your routine, these special situations have a minor impact. For example, regular exercise is a part of what you do, so you start booking hotels with good gyms and keep going during stressful and busy times.
Measuring Performance
The great thing about high-impact health habits is that they allow you to measure adherence to the process, instead of progress towards the outcome.
This allows you to quickly understand what’s working well and what may require more time and effort.
TENSH amplifies the measurement of high-impact health habits through two reporting tools.
TENSH Score
Proprietary health score measuring 14-day performance
Habits have unique weightings based on health impact
Provides a picture of recent adherence
Traffic Light Report
7-day snapshot of habit performance
Shows which habits need attention
Simple output: green (on track), yellow (near target) and red (below target)
These reports are available anytime, so there’s no need to wait until Monday to get started!
Your Next Steps
Audit your current approach: Are you focusing on process or outcomes?
Download TENSH to start building and measuring high-impact health habits
Start today - don’t wait until Monday
Plan your recovery strategies: What will you do when (not if) you miss days?
Remember: you don't need perfect conditions to start building perfect habits. You just need to start, and you can make adjustments along the way.
The Bottom Line
High-impact health habits work because they focus on what you can control: daily actions. Transformation becomes inevitable when you measure process instead of outcomes, celebrate consistency over perfection, and build systems that adapt to life's chaos.
Stop chasing outcomes. Start building systems.
Your future self will thank you.