Achieving health without dieting

Believe it or not, food freedom and health CAN go in the same sentence! 

In this episode I go into the 3 key questions you can ask yourself to check whether you’re making healthy choices from a place of weight neutrality. Making healthy choices from a place of “wanting to lose weight” will backfire in the long run (hence why you’re listening to this podcast!) 

If every time you’ve tried to be “healthy” you “fall off the wagon” or if you’re further into your recovery and you want to make strides toward your health from a non-diet mentality then THIS is for you either way!

Transcript below:

Hello queens, how are you doing today, I am currently sat in my office and I’m looking at a window and the sky is a beautiful, bright blue colour. And I can see the contrast of the autumn leaves, they’re starting to turn orange, and brown and red and all the things and it looks so beautiful. So I just thought I’d share my view with you. So you can imagine it right now. So if you want to share with me, your view or what you’re doing when you’re listening to this podcast, I would absolutely love to know. So tag me on Instagram, whether screenshot of this podcast, and let me know what you’re doing. I would love to know.

Okay, so let’s get into this week’s episode, which is called achieving health without dieting. I want to first start off with a question, which is what I usually do, but it’s a really important question, because what is health? Right health can mean different things to different people. So my first question to you is, what does health mean to you. So feel free to pause this, I really advise you to journal on this even if you just literally like bullet point what health means to you. Or pause this and just think about it if you’re not in a position to grab your pen and paper. And before I go any further health isn’t a moral issue either. So if you’ve chosen to listen to this episode, which of course is tied toward achieving health without dieting, most likely health is important to you. But I just want to clarify as well for you towards anybody else that doesn’t value health. That is okay, it doesn’t make them less of a person because they don’t value their health, I think a lot of us can get on our high horse. If we’re taking care of ourselves and doing the best we can for us, we just automatically decide that others should be doing the same. And that’s not the case. So I just want to give you a bit more of an awareness around other people and their health values as well. Health is not a moral issue. So food freedom and health do actually go in the same sentence, believe it or not, when I first started my journey to food freedom, and intuitive eating and giving up dieting and all of that.

I honestly first thought that food freedom literally meant eating chocolate, ice cream, sugar, donuts, cookies, brownies, pizza, all day every day, not literally, but you know, you get my jest, like all the time. And that was it and almost like completely giving up on any form of feeling good, feeling healthy, and all those things. Whereas actually, that is not what food freedom is. Food freedom is absolutely eating what you want, when you want. Regardless of whether you’re hungry or not, is eating however much of it you want without having to stick to portion sizes, or using that awful word moderation. I hate that word. I really hate that word. And also, I kind of like don’t like the word balance, even though it can be really helpful in some contexts. And I probably use that word sometimes. But it’s got such a bad, not reputation. That’s a wrong thing to say. The diet industry of overuse the word balance. And they’ve just made it not a nice word for me to use because balanced to me. And again, this is my personal feelings towards the word balance means restriction. Balance to me means kind of the same as moderation. Like you’re allowed to have some of your favourite foods but only like a little bit and it’s all about balance and moderation. No, that doesn’t do it. For me, that didn’t work for me. So I just wanted to share my thoughts and views on that word balance and moderation and go back to food freedom here. So I went off on a little bit of a tangent there.

But food freedom isn’t just eating all of your binge foods forever and feeling awful about yourself is also saying no thank you, or choosing not to have your favourite foods if you’re really aligned with your health values and your health goals. So what that means is I’ll take myself as an example chocolate is my jam. Okay, I love chocolate I always have I always will. Admittedly chocolate doesn’t mean as much to me now as it ever did when I was dieting and bingeing because I’m so desensitised de sensitised to it. I have allowed Hold it for so long. And trust me when I allowed it, and I still allow it, I get a lot of chocolate and I judged myself for it. And I thought this can’t be okay. All of the things which a lot of people go through in recovery, because we’re going against anything we’ve ever been taught, and I was eating a lot. And I don’t really want to go into amounts, because it can trigger some people and you know, people compare, but I feel like it’s necessary because in my personal opinion, and experience, I used to listen to people really feel bad about having had a quote, binge. And they would say that a family sized bar of chocolate, and some ice cream and I feel awful about myself, and I just want to clarify, if this is you, and you feel this way, you are so valid in the way you feel a binge, which is why I’ve said the word binge like in quotes, and you can’t obviously can’t see me doing air quotes with my fingers right now because it’s a podcast, and I’m not doing it as video anymore. But the reason I use bingeing quotes is because a binge, to me is any form of reaction to any form of restriction. And it’s when we feel bad and shameful around what we’ve eaten. So if you feel shameful for having one normal sized chocolate bar, you could call that a binge because that is real for you. So I don’t want to compare like quantities in in that regard. But I used to hear people say things like that, and then think to myself, Oh my God, if only they knew what I actually ate on a quote, binge. I am just so shameful of what I eat. So, just give you an example of what I used to have on one of my usual binges. It would be a kilogramme of m&ms, you could actually buy them in the shops over here in a kilogramme bags, for brownies, a tub of Ben and Jerry’s two family sized chocolate bars. And that was just at the end of the day after I’d eaten loads all day, because when I got to the towards the end of my like, towards the end of my days, in bingeing days where I got to the point where I was like, I cannot do this anymore. I wasn’t only just bingeing like a few times a week, in the evening, I was bingeing like all day, every day, and it was not good for me. It wasn’t good for my mental health, my physical health, my emotional health, any of that.

So the point in this little explanation is a binge can feel like a binge to anyone, regardless of how much they’ve eaten. But also, I did eat a sort of severely large amount of food that I used to call a binge. So when I started this food freedom journey, let me just like backtrack and align. What I’m trying to say with what I started saying is food freedom I genuinely thought was basically bingeing all day, and being okay with that, and although I went through a lot of that at the beginning, I absolutely needed 100% to go through that you cannot skip that part, unfortunately, by the way, but I am so desensitised to chocolate now is just chocolate, I love chocolate. I still love it, not as much as I used to. But food freedom is also me saying no thank you to some chocolate, even when I can always enjoy it, because when am I not going to enjoy eating the chocolate. But if, for example, it’s the middle of the day, and it comes to the afternoon. And I have like a bit of an energy dip, which I tend to do in the afternoon. And I think that’s very common for a lot of people. I did read a scientific reason as to why this was but I can’t remember that so I can share that with you. But there is a reason for it.

But anyway, so if I was having my afternoon slump and someone would say to me, Oh, would you like some chocolate? Usually, I would love to eat chocolate. And of course I would eat it with no guilt no shame because I’m in that position right now. And it’s great and it’s free. But if I don’t want to have that sugar rush and then the dip, I can easily now say no thank you. And instead choose I’ve got like a goodie drawer full of like all these different protein bars. Because I actually love there’s a specific brand I like I like grenade and carb killers which I don’t like the name because it’s like promoting it like diet behaviours, but I love carb killer protein bars, and also my protein. I’ve got some awesome protein cookies of like Cameron in the middle. So I would have one of them with a cup of tea instead of a bar of chocolate. Sometimes not all the time. But if I want to stay focused on my work, fill myself up because protein is great to help you feel full for longer. And all of those things I can say no Thank you to my old binge foods, when Yes, I would like to eat it because who wouldn’t want to eat chocolate or something that they love, but it honestly doesn’t feel restrictive to me.

So this is the next key thing I want to share with you if any of what I am saying to you now, because I don’t know how far along you are on your recovery journey, this will probably be too advanced for you right now. And when I say advanced, I don’t mean like, oh, you can’t handle this, I don’t mean that. I mean, depending on where you are in your recovery. If any of this feels restrictive, or triggering, then it just is clear to see to see that you need to build trust with your body, you need more time to keep allowing an eating, even if you just thinking about food, allow yourself to eat, allow, allow allow, you need more time in kind of phase one, I like to call it a recovery. So if that is you just listen knowing that if you continue your recovery journey, you will be able to get to this stage, I promise you that. And again, if you want support in this, because I know I sound so confident that you will get there, I am confident especially if you work with me, it’s like guaranteed you are going to be in this place. So just reach out to me if you want more information about group coaching, or one to one coaching, I am here to serve you.

So if it feels triggering, just listen with an open mind and open heart knowing that this is available for you in the future. If you want it, you don’t have to want to work towards health behaviours. Okay. So the point of that part of explanation was food freedom isn’t just eating what you want forever, all day. And that’s it. It’s also saying no, if you want to align to something else, alongside your health related goals, etc. So weight neutral health behaviours. And when I say the word weight neutral, that means everything is on the table, let’s use like the let’s let’s have an actual pun intended for the word table. If you imagine you’ve got a table, every single thing to help you make a choice or a decision in the moment with regards to your health and your lifestyle, and anything else can be on the table, the only thing that cannot be on the table is body size and weight. So let me give you an example.

If you were wondering what to eat, and on the table was blood sugar, energy digestion, physically, like bloating, like however, that’s that kind of food sits in your stomach, everyone’s different energy levels, pleasure, satiety, fullness, all of those things, they’re on the table to help you make the decision in their choice that you’re making in the moment. What isn’t on the table is weight loss or weight gain. Okay, so you remove the context of wanting to change your body size. So that’s what what I mean, when I say weight neutral health behaviours. So you could want you could say no to the chocolate or the ice cream, if you wanted to, if you know that you’re lactose intolerant or ice cream just bloat Chu, and you would rather not be bloated because maybe your ad no go into the gym later. And you’d rather not be gassy and bloated for the gym. Just as an example. You could say no to the ice cream, and that would be a weight neutral health behaviour that you’ve just just done and took action on right?

Can you see how that works? So there’s three questions that are really helpful that you can ask yourself, so that you know if you’re working towards health goals from a weight neutral perspective. So the first question is why? So why are you doing the health behaviour? Or why are you choosing to eat that? Why are you choosing to do this? I’ll give you an actual real life example, when I’ve given the three questions. So the first question is always why what’s your motivation behind this behaviour? The second question is, is this flexible? Meaning if it did not happen? Would you be okay with that? Or would it cause and bring a lot of anxiety with that? And then the third question is, is this pleasurable to me? Is this pleasure driven? Am I going to enjoy this? Is it going to taste good? etc. So let me give you a real life example where you would stop and ask yourself those three questions.

Let’s say you are at a coffee I’m in a coffee shop cafe. And you’re stood at the counter ordering your cup of tea or coffee or chocolate, whatever. And you’re looking in the counter and you can see all my mind’s going crazy here. Let’s say you can see a Tiffin or like a chocolate Tiffin, you can see a scone. You can see a granola bar. And then on the menu, you can see this kind of green mango smoothie. Okay, so let’s say you’ve got those few things. As an example, if you gravitated towards the Green Smoothie with Mango in, would you let us ask the first question why? And I’m going to give two examples. The first example would be not the right way to do it isn’t it would be a motivation for help for weight loss, which would not be beneficial. I’ll give that example first. And then I’ll give the second example from a weight neutral perspective, choosing the green smoothie as an example.

So let’s say you chose a green smoothie and you asked yourself why. And in the back of your mind deep down because it never goes away. You bring up the internal dialogue out of Oh, well I kind of really want the tiffin however, I’m going to choose a green smoothie because it’s got less calories, and it might make me lose a bit of weight. So that’s like a negative way reason to choose that. The second question you could ask yourself is, is this flexible? So say if you were choosing the green smoothie, because she wanted to have weight loss in the back of your mind, and then they the woman said, oh, sorry, we’re out of green smoothies. What else can I get you instead? And you had to choose the tiffin or the granola bar or the scone and you’d be like, Oh my god, I’m so anxious now because I had it in my head that I was going to have the green smoothie. And this is not okay for like that anxiety. That’s obviously a red flag as well. If you’ve if you don’t feel if you couldn’t just be like yeah, okay, no worries shall have the scone instead. Thank you, right. And the last question you would ask yourself is, is this pleasurable? So if you chose the green smoothie, when you would much rather be tasting the chocolate Tiffin, but you only chose a green smoothie, you don’t particularly like it, but you know, it’s quote better for you or your health. That’s again, a red flag and not a very good place to make decisions from.

Let’s take it for a second example. And let’s say you chose the green smoothie again, the second time. By the way, in this example, I would be stuck. I would be torn between the tiffin and the scone if I’m being honest. And I would most likely the person who was without like, can we have this go on the TIFF and then share it. That’s what I would totally do. Anyway, let’s say the second choice. The second example. Sorry, is you’ve chosen the green smoothie and you ask yourself, Why am I chose choosing the green smoothie, I’m choosing the green smoothie, because actually, I’m going to feel so much better. When I go on a run after meeting this friend, I’m planning to go on a run with somebody. And I’m going to feel so much more better. So much energy, I can’t speak English so much better. So much more energised. When I have the green smoothie, because I’m doing XYZ later, plus, I’m thirsty. So it kind of is a two and one like liquid and food at the same time. Okay, so that’s like a tick, if you like on a weight neutral health decision. The second question is this flexible? So if you imagine you, you’re you ordering the green smoothie, and then the woman or the man behind the counter said, Oh, I’m sorry, we’re out of green smoothies. And then you said had the granola bar or the scone instead? Would you be okay with that? Would you just be like, okay, no worries wanted that button. I’ll have the granola bar instead. Because that will fuel me for my run. And I really enjoy it. All okay, no worries, I’ll have the TIF in them, because that was my second choice. Or would you be like, Oh, no, like I really wanted that it was, you know, the anxiety again. So let’s say this example is okay, no worries, I’ll have a granola bar instead. That’s a tick on a weight neutral health decision. And then the final thing, is this pleasurable? Do I actually want to drink the green smoothie? And will I enjoy it? If the answer is yes, and you’ve that you’ve ticked all of those three boxes, then that is proof that it’s a health weight neutral health decision.

Do you see the difference between the two examples? So also is well I feel like asking you to share a lot this podcast. What would you choose? If you was in the cafe and there was the green smoothie with the mango? And I say mango? Actually like mangoes? That would probably be an option I would consider a scone with clotted cream and jam, a chocolate Tiffin and a granola bar. What would you choose? Because I really want to know I love talking about this kind of stuff. So share with me so those Three questions you can ask yourself and then I just want to emphasise the word pleasure, because for me, whenever I make any decisions or choices around what I’m going to eat, the number one thing that drives me is pleasure, first, and very, very, very close. Second for me is nourishment. Meaning I have I don’t know, if any of you are listening most, I think it’s a worldwide thing.

So wherever you are in the world, you’ve probably most likely have heard of HelloFresh. It’s this. It’s not a meal delivery, because you actually cook it yourself, you go on line every week, you choose your recipes, you choose the menu if you like, we have six delivered every week. So I love going on and choosing what I want to eat. And then it comes in like little bags, with each recipe diff in a different bag, and then I cook it fresh every night. And so I love that I get to choose what I want, I get to cook it from fresh, and I absolutely love it. So that to me is pleasure driven. When I’m choosing the recipes that I’m going to cook on the menu like before it gets delivered to me when I’m making my decision on what I want to eat and cook that week. My first choice is pleasure. And the second choice is nourishment. So say for example, I’m looking at two, I’m stuck between choosing either Oh, I don’t know, a coconut, Cory. And a no spinach and brussel pastry tart, which was actually two of the things I made last week, if I would like them both equally. The next question I will ask myself is which one is more nourishing which one has more vegetables, which one has more fibre, etc. And then I would choose the more nourishing one after I’ve chosen because if they’re both the same pleasure kind of level, I then go for the most nourishing one.

That’s how I make my decisions. When like for example, I’ve just eaten some chocolate protein porridge. And because I didn’t just want the chocolate protein porridge, I wanted some chocolate with that, because I love chocolate. And the reason I didn’t just eat chocolate by itself was because I care about my health and I care about nourishing my body with what it needs. So I chose the protein porridge because it’s got protein in it. And I don’t actually eat enough protein for the amount of weight training I do. So every time I can sneak protein in there I do. So I chose a protein porridge for health, I actually then put some melted chocolate so well some big chunks of chocolate that melted into the porridge. Because that was that’s delicious and fun for me to taste that’s pleasurable. And then I put loads of frozen cherries on top. So then I’ve got my fibre and my fruit in there as well. So that’s how I based my decision of what I was going to eat. So I didn’t just want the fruit. I didn’t just want the porridge. I didn’t just want the chocolate. So I created that all together to make sure I had pleasure and nourishment together.

So ask yourself this. How are you making your food choices? What is driving your decisions? Are you going for only nourishment, but then literally like chewing bland vegetables with a face like as laptops thinking this tastes disgusting? And then most likely could have been jam because you’re not even enjoying your food, right? So you’re going to seek pleasure from food, even if you’re full from the bland food. That’s just human nature. Especially if you’ve been dieting, you’re more actually biologically driven to find and seek an eat more pleasurable, palatable foods anyway. So ask yourself, Am I making choices from pleasure and nourishment? Or is it just one or the other and ask if you’re happy with that, and then if you need help with that just reach out to me.

So the next thing I wanted to move on to is, again, just to clarify a weight neutral health decision, or Health Choice is being driven by everything to do with health apart from changing your body size or losing weight. Because if you choose health decisions or healthful actions, from the place of wanting to change your body, it will not serve you in the long run. So just ask yourself what is my motivation behind this? And you’ve heard me say this time and time again, but I’m absolutely going to repeat it now because it’s so key. Dieting is not an action it is a state of mind. So the reason I shared this quote with you again now is because when you reach this stage and recover which I like to call phase three is like kind of the final phase of of recovery, dieting behaviours, such as eating only plant based or eat Seeing mainly Whole Foods, you can actually engage in diet behaviours. And when I say diet, I’m doing the air quote thing.

Because dieting is not an action, it’s a state of mind.

You can be in diet behaviours, for example, eating more whole foods because you care about your health, and they’re pleasurable to you. And you’re also having your favourite foods that aren’t as nourishing. Alongside that, because, you know, I’m gonna say that word that I was slagging off at the beginning balance, ah, because it is all about balance in that respect of like, you don’t just want to be having nourishment you need to be and you need to be satisfying your mind, your body, your emotions, everything, right. That’s what balance means to make to me, satisfying all of you, not just one part of you. So you can be eating mainly plant based or be eating mainly Whole Foods, because that feels good to you, without being in dieting meant in diet mentality, because your motivation isn’t weight loss. The same with exercise, I exercise and move my body six days a week, and I have one full rest day. And the reason I do that is because I absolutely love moving my body, I love hitting my strength goals in the gym with weight training, I love going on a run a few times a week with my dog and just being in the woods and walking for a bit when I can’t be bothered to run any longer and sit on a bench for a bit and then running again. Like I just love moving my body. So all of the the body movement I do has nothing to do with changing my body shape, and everything to do with my mental health and how I just love to move my body and be outside.

So you can do again in quotes, diet and behaviours without actually dieting because dieting is not an action. It’s a state of mind. Get it? So it’s separating health, and weight loss and body change. And it’s just motivating and moving from a place of motivation for your health from a place of love and self care, without anything to do with changing your body shape or size. Right. So the last thing I wanted to talk about, in fact, I’ve got two more pointers I want to talk about in this podcast episode. The next word I want to use is lifestyle. So in all honesty, did you when you first saw the titled this episode, like achieving health without dieting, did you only think of food, and maybe exercise, because that’s what I used to think about when I heard the word when someone would say I’m trying to be healthy, or when I would say I’m trying to be healthy, or I’m being healthy, I would only put it to diet and exercise. But actually health is a lot more than that. So this is why I brought the word lifestyle into it.

So health is not just what you put in your mouth. Lifestyle is exactly that, like how you live your life, the style of your life or day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year. That is that can always be driven by health as well. That doesn’t just mean food and body.

So my next big question for you is what does a healthy lifestyle look to you? So take a look at the first question I asked you at the beginning of this podcast. What does health mean to you? And now I want you to see if you only put like food and body food and exercise behaviours or actions or bullet points. Now I’d like to invite you to expand your list your thoughts, your heart, your mind to what does that healthy lifestyle look like to me? So for me, it’s sleep. Oh my gosh, sleep is such a huge, important part of my healthy lifestyle. I’m just moving around in my chair. So give me a second. Okay. So sleep is so important to me. I actually go to bed and wake up at a very similar times every night. on a weekday on a school night. I like to call it which is basically like Monday to Friday, maybe a little bit later on a Friday, but usually I still have a very busy very full day on Saturday with coaching and things like that. I go to bed between 830 and 915 the very latest every single night. On a Saturday night I might push it to 10 but that’s it no later. So on average, I’m going to bed at like 850 Every single night and that’s important.

Obviously you don’t have to go to bed at the same time as me God forbid that you’d probably have no even left, especially if you’ve got children. And by the time they’re in bed, you’re probably going to bed 10 minutes later, I’m just sharing with you what’s important to me. And every time I do this, I want you to take a look at your own lifestyle in the area that I’m talking about. So now I’m talking about sleep. Do you go to bed at the same time? Or at least a similar time each evening?

And do you wake up at a similar time, every morning, I’m very blessed. I didn’t have to have an alarm in the morning. And I created this, this lifestyle for myself. So I didn’t have to wake up to an alarm. And I wake up naturally between, I would say about quarter past six and half past six every day. Not gonna lie. I’m recording this on a Thursday. And this morning, I woke up at half past seven. And I was like, whoa, okay, I’ve kind of lost an hour of my day compared to what I usually have. But my body must have needed that. And I’ve planned my morning. So there’s going to be no client waiting. For me. It’s my morning routine. And my first client call is usually around lunchtime. So if I need more sleep, my body has more sleep, and I can just adjust my workout time or my walk in the morning to suit my day and what time I have left. So I know I’m very privileged and in a great place to be able to do that. But even before I could have done that, I got up at the same time every day, because it really helps with your melatonin production, which is your sleep hormone, which actually gets released in the evening before you go to bed. And then when we wake up, we get the hot distress hormone release cortisol, on purpose, cortisol isn’t a bad thing, we need it. And it’s just when we’re chronically stressed, it’s not a good thing, which I’ll come on to in a moment. But that has its own natural rhythm. So if you’re going to bed at nine o’clock one night, and then two o’clock in the morning, the other night, and then midnight, some nights and getting up at six o’clock for work and then line into 11 o’clock on your days off, your body is going to be all over the place.

So if you’re happy with the lifestyle you have around sleep, that’s absolutely fine. Leave it as it is. But if you would like more sleep or more quality sleep, then just get curious about how you can improve that. For me, for my sleep again, yes, I’m still talking about sleep, I wear blue light blocker glasses, half an hour to 45 minutes before I go to bed, I have a little alarm that goes on and off on my phone at 8pm. And it says put your glasses on Queen and a little heart to myself, Claire speak to myself, like someone I love because I do love myself. And then I put my blue light blocking glasses on which help me wind down even more than stops the blue light from the TV. And the light switches which doesn’t look blue, but that’s what they call the light that actually stops us from getting tired. So I do that before I go to bed. So take a look at your sleeping habits. Are you scrolling on Instagram or Facebook whilst you’re in bed, that is not going to help you sleep. So just exercise a bit of discipline. And try it for a week. Not looking at your phone half an hour before bed, making the lights lower in your house. If you can half an hour to an hour before bed and start actually preparing for bed before you actually go to sleep.

Start aiming to go to bed at a similar time and waking up at a similar time to and just notice the positive effects it will have on your life. Okay, the next part of my healthy lifestyle is managing stress. Stress is needed, which is the whole point while we have it, but not when we’re chronically stressed. It’s like the stress of eating the chocolate is way more unhealthy than the chocolate itself. And I will always stand by that. And I mean that stress is that actually the biggest killer of all. And don’t say that to scare you. But it is so easy to help yourself feel less stressed day to day. It just takes a bit of effort. So what helps you to relax what helps you to feel less stressed for me? It’s planning my day. So I know what I’m doing each day. And I’m not in like a tizzy in the morning with so many things to do. And I don’t know when to do it and what time I’ve already planned that out on a Sunday.

So that helps me planning. Also, reducing distractions helps me like not having my phone notifications on ever at all having my phone out of my way when I’m writing articles or doing work or anything like that. Having that out of the way because that will create stress, stress and distraction when I’m trying to get things done. Also, self care is a huge, huge thing for me that helps me to reduce stress. So what are your stress levels like if you was to mark yourself out of 10 with 10 being really stressful and zero being like totally Ozanne what would your score be? With 10 being really stressful? And zero being totally sad? What would your score be score be? Mine would probably be a two right now. So what would yours be? Again, if you feel free to tag me and share this with me, because I genuinely would love to know.

So then take a look at your lifestyle? How can you manage your stress better? How can you make time for yourself, I used to say, I don’t have time for self care. But that’s actually a lie, because we always make time for things that are important towards Yes, I haven’t got children. Yes, I don’t know what it’s like to have two or three children running around to look after. But I do know, I have seen my family members with children, I have stayed with family members with children. So I do know a little bit as to what it’s like. And I can still stand here and say, with my hand on my heart, if you really wanted to make time for yourself, you absolutely could even if it’s half an hour a day, if you ask someone to help with the kids, or whatever it is, if you want to enough, you can make it happen.

So having time for yourself is so key to help manage your stress levels, and also to just fill your own cup first. And that is so important for me, I make time for myself every day. My morning routine is my sacred routine. Nobody interrupts that and that is my time. Also, eating regular meals and nourishing myself with fats, proteins, carbs, and vegetables and fibre. That to me is a form of self care. So my lifestyle is nourishing myself physically, emotionally, and spiritually. So whatever that means to you, again, get pen and paper out, write this all down. Having fun, and pleasure is a massive part of my healthy lifestyle. Because what is life if you’re not experiencing fun or pleasure, it’s not a life worth living, if you asked me. So what brings you fun? And what brings you pleasure?

Again, write a list about what brings you fun, and what brings you pleasure. And take a look at how many times you’re actually doing that in your day to day life, how many times a day, or how many times a week, you actually allowing yourself to have fun and have pleasure. All of these little things make such a big difference. Boundaries, creating boundaries with loved ones, and with work colleagues and with people in your life. If we don’t have boundaries, that’s not a healthy lifestyle, because we’re going to be all over the place. We’re going to be saying yes to everything. And when we’re not going to be saying yes to ourselves. So imagine if you were only had one yes, per month. Meaning if someone asked you to do something, then you’re only allowed to say yes, once a month, would you definitely be thinking more before you said yes. Would you be weighing up?

Okay, is this really important for me to do knowing I’ve only got one chance in the month to say yes to somebody else. Just think about that for a moment. It’s really a powerful question. And the last thing and yes, this is the last thing, lifestyle, realistically, as you’ve just heard from my explanation is more about creating the life that you actually want to live. So lifestyle, a healthy lifestyle is absolutely all of those things I’ve shared and more book, take a look at your life, what is happening, or what are you experiencing or what is going on in your life that you’re not liking that you don’t want, because you have the power to change that.

Okay, so you have the power to change anything in your life, it is your responsibility. It’s not your fault. And it’s not all on you to do it all by yourself. But it’s your responsibility to change things. So just think about that, like do a little less due to columns. Write down the column on the left things you love about your life, the column on the right things you don’t love about your life. And then take a look at the differences between those two lists. If the column on the right the things you don’t love about your life is way longer than the column on the left. The things you do love about your life is definitely time to make a change if you want to be happy and fulfilled in your life and who doesn’t. If you only have a few things on the list on the right that you don’t like about your life, you still get to change those you are never stuck.

So this is kind of gone a little bit away from specific health goals, but in my opinion, it’s all interconnected. So reach out to me if you need any help around this. Reach out to me if you have any questions off the back of this I am here for you. I want to answer your questions and I can make a podcast episode out of it. I can speak to you privately on direct messages just reach out to me in the best possible way for you whether that’s email or direct message on Instagram. direct message on Facebook is also fine. Sometimes if we’re not friends on Facebook, the message gets lost for a few months randomly. So if I’ve not replied to you, it’s because I’ve not seen it. I don’t ignore anybody. I am here to support each and every one of you. So I hope this episode has been helpful.

As always, please review the podcast it will mean the world to me. Literally, I’m not even a lie. If you’re an apple podcast right now, it will probably take you 20 seconds. You don’t even have to write anything. You can just five star it because it will help people find me. And this can change lives. So thank you in advance.

I love you each and every one of you. You can have it all. And until next time, had the most wonderful day. Morning evening and I’m here for you if you need me.

Share

Latest podcasts

Nourish yourself with weekly food freedom & body love yumminess

Served directly to your inbox

More podcasts you'll love

Answering a listeners question today: “How do you get rid of eating disorder thoughts? Can you talk about how to live a normal day? Because
Dr. Anita Johnson joins the podcast to discuss using metaphor and storytelling to address struggles with eating disorders, body image issues, and finding freedom through
When I first heard about the concept of listening to your body and relying on it to tell you what and how much to eat,

Nourish yourself with weekly
food freedom & body love yumminess

Served directly to your inbox

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *