Prioritise your health always

It has been a LONG year, to say the least. I feel like this has been the longest year, but it has also vanished at the same time? I don’t know if anyone else feels like this but I certainly do!

This year has had a huge effect on all of us both mentally and physically - not one person has been untouched by the coronavirus in some way, whether that be having the virus, or the pandemic causing stressors in life due to significant life changes.

At this time, it is more important than ever to prioritise our health over anything else. And by health, I do not mean our warped deception of the term e.g. exercising until you feel sick, and eating chicken and broccoli for life. This is not health, this is restriction and stress - two words that I do not think have ever been interlinked with the word health.

When I talk about health, I mean nourishing your body with a balanced diet of colour, whole-grains, and healthy proteins & fats. When I talk about health I also mean allowing yourself those less nutritional foods when you want them, I also mean exercising when you want to, to make you feel good and improve your strength, mobility and mindset, not to “lose weight”, I am talking about being active, walking every day and taking part in little rituals to de-stress every now and then when it all becomes too much.

I felt compelled to talk about this topic off the back of a coaching call with a client yesterday - we are working to try and help her shed a little bit of unwanted body fat, however she has a history of an eating disorder and a tendency to bingeing when she feels restricted. So right now, dieting down and restricting her calories is just not the right thing for her to be doing. There are four pillars of health in my opinion, stress, sleep, activity, nutrition. And you cannot work on one, and let all the others go downhill. We must be working with these pillars together. So if everything else is suffering, and you then go to restrict your calories and try and eat a healthier diet - this is just not going to be sustainable or enjoyable because guess what, stress, lack of sleep and decreases in activity levels are going to take you right back to the beginning and then some. This will lead to overeating, under exercising and a poor mindset - which will lead to increases in restriction when you fall off the wagon, which will then lead to bingeing, poor mindset, restriction, binge etc etc and can you see how the cycle continues?

This is why health is harmonious, and we cannot prioritise one pillar and let the others fall down. If you are suffering currently with high stress, I would recommend instead of trying to restrict calories if you want to shed some body fat, eat at your maintenance, and try to get as many micronutrients in as possible - these are the foods that make us feel GOOD, and as you are eating at your bodies set-point, you will not go hungry , are less likely to binge, in turn, you will feel better due to nourishing your body, you will feel better due to the fact you are not bingeing, you will have more energy, therefore you may increase your activity levels and end up burning more calories than if you were back on the binge-restrict cycle. And this is sustainable.

If your weight stays the same here so what - you are working on yourself and you can always try and decrease your calories again when all your other pillars are strong and tall. Please remember that for your nutrition pillar to be strong and tall - we need maintenance calories, we need lots of micronutrients and a balanced diet of protein, carbs and fats. A calorie deficit is a stressor, so this is diminishing your nutrition AND your stress pillar. So please only embark on this when everything else is strong, robust and ready to take on a challenge. It is never too late! So if that is not yet, don’t fret about it, do not be so hard on yourself. There is ALWAYS time. But there is not enough time to be under stress for too long. So focus on your health first and always.

When you are ready to go into a deficit, or ready to work on your health but don’t know how or where to start, this is where I come in! We are always students and we always have more to learn, so let me help you! Let me be your number one supporter and guide you along the way rather than you doing it blindfolded. I can devise you an awesome training program, give you nutrition, stress and activity guidance, we can have a coaching session, or you can join my girl gang of weekly PT, it is all about what works for YOU.

If it is something you are interested in do not forget to reply to this or send me an email.

I hope you found this interesting and if it resonated with you or helped you in any way then I have done my job :)