Your Health is Not Seasonal

Health is not seasonal. Investing in your health shouldn’t be something left to that “last-minute rush to get fit before a holiday” or “lose those holiday pounds”. I have been part of a few conversations recently about rushing to get fit for a summer holiday and have also seen a lot of “ beach body” challenges online. Though I am not against using a goal as inspiration to get you moving and it can help your health, the question we should be asking ourselves is- is there a better way to do this? 

Do you always revert back to old habits after the challenge is over? 

Pushing yourself to extremes to look good for a holiday can be a great idea at the time, but how do you feel afterwards? Do you need to go to more and more extremes every year to feel that way? What type of mental pressure does it put on you and your own body image? Does it stop you then from enjoying your holiday? I feel like these questions could go on and on. Most of us already have years of evidence that show these seasonal challenges are unhealthy and unsustainable. So how can we shift away from this behaviour that the online health and wellness industry is feeding?

First, let’s pause and take a big breath after all these questions. 

If we approach our health in a day-to-day consistent manner, we can remove the pressure of extremes and achieve a better overall sense of wellbeing.

Every time I’ve fallen into the trap of “prepping my body” for a special occasion it’s left me with unhealthy eating habits, overdoing it exercise-wise and in a bad space mentally. I have previously become too obsessive about the goal and it has made simply enjoying life impossible. By identifying this behaviour and how it was not serving me, I have freed myself from the unhealthy mindset loop and am able to concentrate on more day-to-day basics of my health.  

A few things that have helped me are –

• Having my meals based on how they will nourish me, rather than worrying about putting on weight from particular foods
• Having a regular exercise program so I don’t need to constantly reset my fitness 
• Being kind to myself and Identifying when I am getting into a loop of unhealthy thinking and saying “stop” to these thoughts (this took some practice)

I am sharing my experience with you, not to tell you how to do it, but more to share where I have been and where I am at now. I would like to simply pose some questions you could ask yourself in relation to this “seasonal fitness” theme:

1. Do I fall into this trap? 
2. How does it feel? Good or Bad for me?
3. How could I approach this differently?
4. How can I be kinder to my body?
5. What could I do daily to help my overall health?

Looking after ourselves should be our number one priority, even though life often makes it difficult. So just remember to check in with yourself occasionally and be kind to yourself.