Peace

My knee is a lot better (rest helps who knew!) and my cough, whilst still lingering, has improved. So my plan to spend the back end of 2024 creating good habits and finding my groove is going pretty well.

I think in the past, unless I was at the size / shape I wanted and doing lots I felt like I wasn’t in the right place, but actually I can say that, whilst no where near perfect, I’m eating reasonably well and I’m being active. The habits are coming and I’m feeling pretty good and I know that from that the weight loss will eventually follow.

It’s all a process and I need to get things in place bit by bit if I want to feel good whilst I’m losing weight. I don’t want to sacrifice enjoying things for the sake of getting to my goals a bit quicker.

One thing I have decided is that I only want to do things that I enjoy and make me feel good. I’ve given up forcing myself to aim for goals I think I should aim for and am looking to do more pilates and classes which are maybe less manic but more focused on technique and strength. I also accept that as I’m older and my knees are not what they once were, I am going to struggle with some things – that’s ok – I can work with that.

I feel like my mindset has shifted a bit and that in itself has made me feel better about myself even though I am not yet where I’d like to be and I think that’s a pretty good thing.

I’m Back

Well I haven’t written a blog post in ages!

This being fundamentally a fitness blog I’ve kind of lost my way with it as I quit teaching fitness classes and subsequently lost my fitness mojo too.

After years of having the regimented timetable of classes (which essentially means you have to exercise regardless of how you feel) the loss of structure made me feel a bit adrift. That’s not to say I haven’t trained, I’ve still lited sporadically, started attending some new classes which I really enjoyed and have run a half marathon and 10k. It’s just not quite the intensity I’m used to, and that, combined with illness and hormonal changes I’ve put on weight and generally lost a lot of confidence.It feels like I’ve not quite managed to gte that spark back.

I signed up for a challenge in October with the aim of getting myself out of that funk, but realised it was too soon and that made me even more demotivated. So I’ve had a total rethink.

I’ve split my goals up into several chunks over the next 16 months or so (obviously subject to change) and will be focusing on different things one block at a time, to give myself more structure and make it all seem much less overwhelming.

For the next 10 weeks I’m focusing on the basics. Rebuilding some strength with some basic lifts and overload in the gym, working on my diet to lose some weight and trying some different things to get myself out of a rut.

Last week I tried a Tower Pilates class (the tower looks scary but it was actually good fun and I really felt like I’d worked afterwards) and I’ve signed up to a block of sessions at that pilates studio. I’ve also signed up for a trial of Class Pass and have booked in a few different classes over the next couple of weeks.

Hoping that by breaking my goals and training into periodic chunks I’ll start to feel the difference and feel good again.

Some weeks are tougher than others

The last couple of weeks have been busy at work so I knew I’d struggle to do loads during this time.

I’ve managed to run a few times though and as soon as I was quieter at work I got myself back to classes and did a step and cycle class on Wednesday. Generally I’ve felt pretty lacking in motivation though so I’ve also skipped workouts I could have got myself to.

I’ve been eating a lot too, I really find the food side so much harder than exercising! I’ve also struggled to regularly stick to healthy habits which is something I need to be more consistent with.

It’s starting to get a bit lighter though now so I’m hoping that will lift my spirits a bit so I can get outside more. Not looking forward to this week much but hoping that I can at least get to the gym and eat a bit better so I can look back on the week and be happy with my progress.

Too Many Balls

Do you ever feel completely overwhelmed with everything that is going on?

I suspect a lot of people do because one of the most common reasons people give for not exercising or looking at what they eat is that they are too busy.

I’ve said here before that really this can be overcome with planning, working out what you need to prioritise and what you can realistically do, being realistic about your goals. I stand by this, but I also get it, it’s something I’ve struggled with recently.

I think it’s a natural feeling to have sometimes, to be completely overwhelmed. Whether you already train regularly, eat pretty well, juggle lots of jobs and tasks or whether these are things you aspire to do but don’t feel like you do right now, sometimes it just feels like there’s too much stuff.

Sometimes out of nowhere the balls your kept in the air for ages feel like too many balls or trying to change one small thing in your house of cards feels like it will bring the whole thing down.

This is when you need to stop and evaluate.

‘Hustle’ is great. If you want things you do have to work, whether that be in your career or working towards your ideal physique, but when you attempt to do everything perfectly you can end up reaching the point you actually are doing nothing because it’s all just got too much.

Sometimes you need to sit and look at everything on your to do list. Take off some of the pointless tasks that don’t really matter. Look at your training, look at your diet and pin point exactly what is you need to focus on right now and forget about everything else you hear about and think maybe you should be doing too.

My plan for the 8 weeks or so before Christmas? Well I noticed these last few months I’ve been putting off important shit because I’ve felt a little bit overwhelmed. When I’m overwhelmed I comfort eat, when I comfort eat I feel sluggish and don’t really want to train.

My plan? I’m going to track my food, not cut stuff out or eat too differently (I’m not good when I cut things out) just make sure I’m staying within my TDEE. That will make me feel better about training – Training I need to rebuild. Not spend hours in the gym, but plan my sessions in and treat them like appointments and be 100% present in the session to be the best of my ability that day.

Essentially I’m planning to finish 2023 by focusing on doing the basics well. That’s going to make life feel simpler and therefore reduce that feeling of juggling lots of balls.

If right now you feel like you can’t hit your fitness goals because you’ve too much on try taking a look, seeing what you can drop and what really simple things you can commit to right now to get you closer to your goals by the end of the year.

Consistency over detail

Successful people do the basics well and consistently

Sometimes it’s easy to look at these things and think- they’re too simple there must be more to it than that. The reason I’m not getting the results I want isn’t that I’m eating too little or too much it must be how my body responds to certain foods… and so on.

Now the truth is there are lots of variables to our health and fitness. But, you can take account of all these things and yet if you don’t nail the basics it won’t be effective.

Think of your fitness and nutrition like levels in a game- to get to level two you must master level one. Each level acts as a foundation for the next level. You’ll often hear of things like the nutrition pyramid – that’s the same concept, you need to establish a solid base (in nutrition that’s getting your energy balance right) before looking at macro and micro nutrients, meal timings or supplements – you basically don’t want to build on a shoddy base!

It’s human nature for us to want to look into the specifics, the idea that little tweaks will be the things that makes everything fall into place for us is a tempting one. But it’s the little tweaks at the basic level that will first make the difference. Once you’ve cracked those then feel free to move onto looking at the specifics of what and when you eat if you still want to- although you might find that you feel less of a need to.

The key is you need to do these things more often than not and over a sustained period of time. That’s not to say you must never take a break or have off days, just that you do things more often than you don’t.

What Healthy Is

Share a lesson you wish you had learned earlier in life.

Being healthy is not:

Being a certain weight

Being a certain size or shape

Being ripped / having defined visible muscle

Being able to run a distance in a certain time

Being able to lift really heavy weights

Eating really strictly

All these things can be a result of being healthy but in themselves they are not indicative off being healthy.

I know people who live incredibly disciplined lifestyles and look in great shape. They are undoubtedly fit. That doesn’t mean they are healthy.

You can be in great shape but have difficulty managing your training and beat yourself up if you don’t stick to your training schedule and feel like you must do a certain amount each day.

You can be in great shape but beat yourself up for eating certain foods or having some time off from your normal diet, or find yourself being careful on nights out to avoid causing damage to your fitness.

You can have an Instagram worthy routine and lifestyle and find yourself turning down social events because it would interrupt that.

Equally you can be a little bigger than you’d like and eat a more rounded diet and still be fit and healthy, and importantly healthy in more way than just one, because you know that not doing things perfectly doesn’t matter.

That’s not to say I think being overweight is healthy. If you don’t do any exercise and eat too much that is likely to lead to health problems and not be healthy.

We don’t have to live to an extreme though and a balance where we eat well and move (preferably in a way we enjoy) to allow us to feel good and enjoy life is probably the healthiest way to be.

Habits are key

What daily habit do you do that improves your quality of life?

Real life health is all about habits.

You might think it’s about eating ‘good foods’ or training every day or drinking protein shakes but really it’s about creating small habits that you can do everyday without really needing to think about it that help improve your general well-being.

Here’s a few things I try to do daily that have now become habits I barely even think about.

1) Drinking at least 3 litres of water. Staying hydrated is good for you.

2) Drinking a pint of water and taking supplements when I first wake up. Helps with habit number one, wakes me up and the supplements help contribute towards anything I might be lacking. I only take a general multi vitamin and Omega 3, nothing expensive – whatever shop brand I happen to come to when I need to buy some. The Omega 3 I take because it’s supposed to help combat depression and I have taken them since 2015 because of this (even if it’s a placebo effect I take it!).

3) Getting at least 10,000 steps a day. NEAT is arguably more beneficial than exercise in staying healthy.

4) Having a simple but regular morning and bedtime routine. Just simple things that tell my brain it’s times to wake up and time to go to bed because I do them daily. The routine helps me wake up and then later in the day fall asleep!

5) Eat 5 portions of fruit, veg or salad. It might be an old fashioned number to aim for but if you can get this in as a minimum daily you’re likely getting plenty of vitamins in.

If you can’t train or eat your normal diet or do the perfect things every day but you can keep to some simple daily habits you’re more likely to stay on track. These things can also act as anchors, things that keep you feeling in control even if you don’t manage to do everything you planned in a day. Mentally that can be a good thing to help you stay on track because a lot of the time it’s mindset that matters when it comes to making progress and staying consistent.

Think, Plan, Do, Check In

How do you plan your goals?

Goal setting, something which can help you focus in on what you want but also something that can seem a little overwhelming. Like honestly how many times have you put of doing something until you’ve planned it out and put off planning it out because you just don’t know where to start?

Goals and all they entail come in two parts – firstly you need to know what you goal is and why, because honestly, a goal you don’t really care about will not help motivate you. The goal you have needs to mean something to you, be something that will bring benefit to you in some way.

Then they need to be achievable. If you’ve never run before aiming to be in the next Olympics probably isn’t going to happen right. But even the more mundane of goals needs to be realistic. If you’ve got a full time and kids aiming for something that requires 5 hours of gym time a day is setting yourself up for failure. You want something that will push you, that’s tough sure, but it does need to be possible for you and your lifestyle.

Then you get to the planning, the how. Here I find it easiest if I break it down. Work backwards, what do I need to be able to do, how can I do those things and what will I need to do step by step to get there. Once you have those steps you can plot them, how much time will you need on each one, when will you do them, how will you fit them into your week, what equipment will you need, who will you need to ask for help from. Once you’ve done that your plan is literally mapped into your diary, it’s appointments that you just need to keep each week. Your goal suddenly is just something you’re doing anyway and that makes it’s way easier to reach.

Regular check ins with yourself are then needed. Each week or month you want to see if you’re where you wanted to be. If you are great. If not you’ve got the chance to rejuvenate your plan a bit. Do you need to slow things down, do a bit more, repeat a few steps again.

Goals once reached sound inspirational, great, like someone just woke up one day and said I’m going to do xyz and just did it via pure determination. In reality, you need to think, plan and create habits to reach goals and realistic planning is the key.

If you’d like to hear more of my ramblings on goals here’s a podcast I did last year …

https://anchor.fm/heather-sherwood/episodes/Goal-Setting-Your-Why-and-How-e1pver7

Bad Things

Things that are bad for you.

We’re endlessly hearing that this that and the other is bad for your health. Not getting enough sleep, drinking too much coffee, eating too much sugar or fat, the list is endless.

If you listened to every single piece of advice you’d never be able to do or eat anything.

The thing is if you look at the ideal there are lots of things we wouldn’t ideally do or would ideally do. It would be practically impossible and very dull to live like that though.

So how do you find a balance and decide what changes to make and exactly how far to go with them?

Let’s take coffee as an example. Drinking too much coffee can affect your sleep, it can cause adrenal fatigue, it can make you feel jittery, if you’re having lots of coffee shop coffees with creams and syrups it’s adding a shed load of calories to your week.

But coffee tastes good, it’s a cheap pre workout, it helps kick start your mornings. There are worse habits to have to be fair. So really do you want to cut it out all together?

Here’s where balance comes in, what negative effects does coffee have for you personally? If you’re trying to lose weight cream based Café Nero’s might not be great for you, but you could swap to an Americano each day and maybe have one of you favourite drinks a week instead. If you don’t sleep brilliantly, stopping the caffeine hits earlier in the day or limiting yourself to just a couple of cups might benefit your sleep. Neither of these scenarios require you to cut coffee out completely, just make some adjustments which will hopefully produce enough benefits for you to see the worth in the change.

Not everything you do has to be perfect to start making positive changes in your health and fitness, not everything has to be dramatic or black and white.

I’ll Start on Monday

Starting things on a clear starting point always feels good.

January 1^st – New Year

1^st Month- New month

Monday- New Week.

Mentally we have this fresh start mindset with these kind of days and dates.

The problem is, if you decide to start on a Monday and it goes wrong on Wednesday, you end up writing off the rest of the week to start again Monday. Or you get to October and think well I might as well wait until January now. All that time in between start points just takes you further away from your goal. In fact if you think well I’ll start again Monday on a Thursday you far more likely to binge over the weekend because you know what’s coming.

The first thing to remember is it doesn’t matter what day you start. You can start the gym or a diet on a Friday or 6^th of the month or November, calories don’t only work in week or month long blocks.

The next thing to understand is you don’t need to be perfect. The only reason you want to stop a diet or training plan once you start is because you feel you’ve failed. You probably feel like you’ve failed when you don’t manage to do everything you planned to. Yet you are never going to stick 100% to something with no meals out, takeaways, days when things go wrong, days when you’re too busy to train. Accepting that a ‘bad’ day is just that and getting back to it the next day keeps your progress on track and means you won’t keep having to ‘start again’.

Progress is rarely linear. When we start anything we have ups and downs and your fitness or weight loss are going to be no different. Restarting every other week will be much more detrimental to that progress than the occasional bad day.

That’s not to say if what you’re doing for you doesn’t suit you and isn’t working for you, that you should just stick with it. If you want to train differently, try something new. If you wat to adjust your eating habits to suit you better, you can. Instead of seeing it as starting again though, see it as an adjustment in a long term journey, where you are going to make changes as time goes on. Those changes will be what keeps progress coming.

It might make things feel a bit messier but life is pretty messy so trying to make your fitness and diet the exception to life is pretty pointless.