NEW YEAR, NEW START, NEW YOU, NEW FAD, SAME OLD RESULT?

Its 13th January, a new year and what have we learned so far…

• There are countless weight loss programs on the TV – take your pick of which diet will work for you.
• We have been inundated with super foods we should be eating and danger foods we should avoid completely if we don’t want to be ‘failures’.
• Everyone has a new range of sportswear.

Channel four has informed us that some people are too fat to leave their houses or to work in week long series of ‘fat shaming & fear mongering’ programs.
Many people have started Dryanuary

Weight Watchers and slimming world have special offers on to help us lose those unwanted pounds.

We have been sent endless offers for raspberry ketones and colon cleanses…

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM HERE?

How much information can I really absorb in mere thirteen days and why is so much of it conflicting?
How is anyone meant to know what to do and ultimatly how does this make us feel about ourselves? Is this actually more about shame, guilt and yes – cashing in, than health?

We would love in January to be flooded instead with thought provoking programs about peoples positive journeys. Peoples stories. Things that will inspire and challenge us to try something new and exciting.

THE PROBLEM WITH JANUARY

Weight is not just an issue after Christmas. Weight is an ongoing issue and is often linked to how we feel about ourselves and our lives. January is potentially the worst time to be trying to sort that out. Our mood is lower and the pressure is high thanks to all these programs and adverts.
Lack of daylight, overspending, the emotional crash after christmas, the miserable cold weather all come together to ensure that January is when we feel at our lowest. Does all of this not just add to that and therefore make the feeling of faliue all the more likley? Anybody depressed yet?

COULD IT BE DIFFERENT

So what if I indulged for a couple of weeks. So what if I gained a few pounds. Surely it would be better to learn to feel good about myself and the choices that i make. not to feel guilty or to be shamed. To realise that if i starve myself or punish myself with a gruelling exercise regime i will just yoyo back to where i started.
We postpone happiness until we have achieved our weight loss goals. Why? How does this help us deal with our issues around food and exercise. All of this would have us believe that we are not allowed to be happy until we are thinner and we will never be thin enough!
BUT
We have a sneaking suspicion that if we dealt with our emotional issues and ALLOWED ourselves to be happy that our motivation would soar, any excess weight would start to come off, our body image would start to improve and we would no longer be punishing ourselves and feeling ashamed and guilty.

In fact we have both tried all the fad diets – we have juiced, we have 5:2’d, we have counted calories. The guilt and shame has also in the past led one of us to make herself sick after eating.
We have been running (we hate that), we have joined countless gyms (and left again). NONE of it made us happy. None of it gave us a good body image. There was NEVER a point where we felt satisfied or that we had achieved.

Towards the end of last year, we took a radically different approach to our perceived problems. We started instead to lok at our own happiness. To try and be grateful for what was good in our lives and to take time out to appreciate those things. We started counting blessing instead of calories. The result has been, for the first time, a better body image and increased well being.

So this year we resolve to step away from the scales, switch off the diet programs, scroll past the magic pill adverts and instead seek out that which makes us feel good good about ourselves. We will detox our lives and our minds. We believe this will have sustainable long term benefits for ourselves, our bodies and our families.

So why not do something different this January, join us by subscribing to our page where we hope to share with you some of our experiences, some practical advice and some of the highs and lows minus the shame and guilt. Give your mine and body a break this January and resolve to do something different. Remember, if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got.