New year, new you?

A new year has started and with it many new resolutions – am I right? What is your resolution for this year? Is it health related? Is this the year you are finally going to shed the extra kilos that have gathered over the years? Or the year you are going to get your eating habits under control? Or is this the year you are finally going to put yourself first and do something good for yourself?

Most people are super motivated to get fit and healthy at the turn of the new year. Fitness centers have their busiest month in January because everyone wants to get back in shape – or simply get in shape.

January is also the month most people take a break from drinking and unhealthy eating. Are you one of them?

I used to do that too. One year I even managed to stop smoking for the first 3 weeks of January – that was my first ever attempt to quit. It didn’t go so well because drinks and cigarettes just had to go hand in hand, and by the third week I had a drink in one hand…

I am happy to report that smoking is no longer a part of my life although it did play a huge role. I never thought I could quit but I did and I am so grateful for it!  –for any smokers out there trying to quite: if I can do it, you can do it! You just need a big enough motivator! I hope that your health and wellbeing can be important enough for you.

I felt quite shitty about myself!

When we are young we don’t think about our health much. I know I didn’t. I drank, ate and partied like a mad man! I was overweight and felt quite shitty about myself. I had no self-esteem, except when drinking, then I was the queen of the world and I didn’t care that my clothes no longer fit. But when the hangover wore off, I was miserable, fat, tired and constantly mad at myself for not being able to stick to a diet or workout routine. Until the next drink was in my hand… I spent years living like this. I just kept going.

So what was the great motivator I had to finally turn my life around? Other than some digestive upsets – that by the way I thought were completely normal, I had no real reason to get healthy. I wasn’t sick and I was only a little overweight… I wasn’t morbidly obese or had diabetes, or something like that. I was simply so f***ing tired of listening to myself complain about my unhappy body. It was a constant struggle to find a good outfit when I wanted to look nice for a nice occasion and I was just quite honestly disgusted at what I saw in the mirror.

BUT the truth was, that I had no idea how to turn my life around!

In come I I N – Institute for Integrative Nutrition! Taadaaa!

Suddenly it all made sense! What I learnt at IIN was that I had it all backwards! I wasn’t going to be happy when I lost the weight, I would lose the weight when I was happy!!

But how does one become happy when being so miserable? The answers lies in something I had never thought about: I was neglecting my primary foods. I was too focused on what was on my plate that I forgot all the other things that were nourishing me. What we so often forget is that everything around us feeds us in the same way food does. Our relationships, our career, our spirituality, the way we move and are active, and the air we breathe! Everything around us affects our health and wellbeing. When we understand that, then the food we actually eat, the one that is on our plate, becomes secondary.

This was my first turn around. I started looking at my life in a holistic way and then I started to clean it so all my primary foods were nourishing me in the most powerful way! I was finally accepting myself for who I was! How empowering that was!!

Bio-individuality

The next concept we need to understand is that we are all uniquely beautiful people and there is no one diet that fits us all. Our fingerprints are unique to us and so is the composition of the bacteria that reside in our gut. Even identical twins have their own fingerprints and microbiome. How amazing is that? We all have different needs and we are all nourished by different things. So why shouldn’t our food be any different?

It is not. The truth is that the reason the nutrition world is so complicated and contradictory is because of bio-individuality. We are all different and need to eat differently. One persons food can be another persons poison. Simply because something has worked for one person, even your best friend, this doesn’t mean it would work for you. You need to find out exactly what works for you and your lifestyle and your unique body!!

So this year, instead of doing the same old routine that has failed before, I invite you to try something new. I invite you to look at your primary foods and see if one of them needs upgrading, twitching or changing. Look good and hard at these 4 areas of your life and be honest with yourself!

• Relationships (your family, your colleagues, your friends, your partner, etc)
• Career
• Exercise
• Spirituality

… and see what comes up.. You may be amazed! 🙂

You only have one life – let’s make it a good one!

Happy New Year to you all!!

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