A different perspective on wellbeing.
Everyone has been back to school for a month or so. Back to the grind, back to “being good”, back to everything and being backwards. The nights draw in and this is where “real life” carries on, where the backward way is trying to achieve health and fitness through personal punishment. Ask yourself how successful this has been for you at the end of other holidays and you might find that you have pressed that on-off button many times before. The yo-yo effect of not caring and being ultra-careful. Bingeing followed by fasting. It’s nothing more or less than torture in batches. It will have no great long-lasting effects and in the short term it will make you feel guilty and grumpy. I know this well, because I’ve been there so many times.
Do it differently this autumn. Don’t be slave to regimes that prescribe what to do. Low carb, no carb – Keto options, low or high intensity activities, mindfulness and yoga as the next new thing. There are as many wellbeing strategies as there are individuals; make sure it suits your life, your mindset where you currently are.
A client of mine said these words: “Let’s start Kirsten in September – let’s get brutal”. He’s motivated and driven to get fit and healthy, but I’m motivated to teach him that for life. To his utter surprise, I told him two things: we are Not starting and we are Not doing it brutally. That is a recipe for finishing somewhere injured. Instead, we continue incrementally and up the volume button on Discipline.
Don’t be slave to a regime. Take gentle care of your incredible mind and body, implementing movement and nutritional aspects that make you smile. Better to do one tiny successful task a day than have 25 intentions that evaporate into thin air unactioned. Buddy up with someone and surround yourself with like-minded people. It’s not about calories consumed or workouts completed, it’s about what you won’t do when you’re tired and what you can reach to when you’re at a low ebb.
Let me share with you a graph for long-term success from my book “The every-year itch”. Instead of reaching for some unattainable fantasy goal and giving yourself 50 lashes when you -most likely- don’t achieve it, draw a super-duper easy bottom line below which you won’t go. Even on the most awful days you can at least satisfy this objective. Then give yourself something a little more challenging but still easy to aspire to.
Set yourself up for success. Count small steps, little efforts, measured in kindness to self. You make hundreds of well-being decisions every day from what you put in your mouth to how much sleep you get and movement you take– make it all count. Love the imperfect of what you have and if you want to sculpt your way to a newer body or enhance the way you feel inside, then don’t start some frustrating programme that gets you nowhere. Get some sleep, eat little and often, make it your mission to move. Find your feeling happy in your skin; it’s your forever house, so make sure it’s a nice place to live.
