This week I’ve been busy preparing for a talk I’m giving at a Wellness Convention over the weekend on: How to stay fit and healthy whilst leading a busy lifestyle.
So today I want to share some of the content with you because I know that many people feel like they don’t have enough time to keep up regular exercise and eat as well as they’d like to.
Firstly, I want to say that almost all of this is about changing your mindset.
Not in the sense that you need to make being healthy more of a priority in your life.
This does play a part, yes…
But I’m talking more in the sense of it’s what you personally think being ‘fit and healthy’ requires of you.
Just stop and think about that for a minute…
Do you think it needs to take a lot of restriction and willpower to avoid the things you like eating and instead, eating healthily means eating a lot of foods you may find boring or not enjoy and in small portions?
Do you think it means you need to spend an hour a day in the gym or out running – are you assuming it takes a lot of time and effort to keep your body slim?
Do you associate health with lots of hard work and discipline?
Because odds are, if you’re thinking it’s going to require lots of time, restriction, willpower, maybe even boring activities and food, of course you’re not likely to be motivated!!
…I know I certainly wouldn’t be!
So, if this is you, I want to change the script a little bit for you.
How is that some people can eat pretty much whatever they feel like, they don’t do intense exercise and yet they stay slim, fit and healthy?
Contrary to the myth, no it’s not because they were genetically blessed! Yes of course some people are genetically wired to be very slim rather than curvier but that’s down to their body shape and muscle type.
What I’m talking about here is a naturally slim body for your shape, build and height.
In fact, I can tell you that I am now one of those people and I have been for the past 8-10 years … I was once the other way and now I am just effortlessly slim and so having been on the both sides, I know how very wrong so many people get this!
It all changed for me because of a few key things:
- I learnt to trust my body because I now know it’s always on my side.
- I focussed on filling my body with delicious and nutritious foods.
- I learnt that balance is everything, in what I eat, how much I exercise and rest.
- I learnt that enjoyment of food is key.
- I learnt that fat is not the enemy and it’s essential for long term weight loss*.
- I learnt that blood sugar regulation is super important.
- I learnt that you have to do and eat what makes you feel good.
- I stopped counting calories, fat content, my weight.
- Mostly, I turned my attention to what’s good for me rather than what’s bad (I also learnt that I got a lot of the good/bad stuff wrong!).
Relating all of this back to the theme of this blog, what I’m saying is that if you connect lots of time/pain/restriction and discipline to being healthy, and yet you lead a really busy lifestyle – maybe you have a demanding job or you’re super busy running a family household or both even – Then firstly, you’re going to assume that you don’t have enough time and secondly, in the time that you do have for fun, enjoyment and relaxation, you’re not going to want to be exercising like a crazy person or eating boring restrictive meals!
… Of course you want to relax and enjoy the limited downtime that you have!
But what if all of that isn’t actually necessary for a good level of health and slim body?
What if you could make some very minor changes to your usual routine, you could think differently about food (-which will probably require changing some stories), you can find a way to exercise that barely disrupts your life and the bonus being that it actually gives you more energy back and makes you feel great…!
I’m telling you that it’s all totally possible … If you can think outside the box and open your mind to other possibilities and other ways, then anything is possible.
Now I want to say that if you’re training for some kind of endurance activity like a marathon, then yes, you may need to really put in some hours because you’re doing the unnatural – that’s a whole different story.
But what I’m talking about here, is a good standard of health and a slim body for your natural shape.
I’m talking about real health and it’s there for everyone. You included!
Love,
Kate x
P.S * Where I say that ‘I learnt fat is not the enemy and it’s essential for long term weight loss’, I am of course referring to good quality pure unprocessed fats – NOT any kind of fats, some fats are very bad for you. Notably animal fats from a poor quality overly processed sources where the animals are unhealthy, and also trans fats and vegetable oils … olive oil is not counted as a vegetable oil. Always go for fats from a pure source and with animal fats make sure the animals are grass fed and pasture raised.
