Two tips for healthy lifestylers

A couple of things which I’ve learned this week.

Tip number one: if you have to bake something delicious for a school fete or fair or (as we did for a charity event) either make it something healthy or if you don’t want to be a party pooper make it something fatty and sweet and sugary and creamy and sticky and stodgy but don’t make something that you would serve as individual bakes. Make a whole pie, flan, quiche, cake, tart, loaf or whatever that way you won’t eat any before you make your donation (unless you are totally shameless of course). Doing this helped me to survive a baking session my daughter suddenly remembered a promise to donate to on Friday just as we were about to head off on our trip. It nearly killed me but it was so much easier not to eat anything. If I had made individual cup cakes or tarts or biscuits I would have stuffed several for sure. I’m not that strong and probably never will be.

Tip number two: enlist people who will push you out of your comfort zone when it comes to exercise (remember exercise is movement it doesn’t have to be what we would consider formal exercise, it can be any movement that you are capable of doing without injury or discomfort). This can be a trainer or a friend or a child… my kids were awesome on this trip at really pushing me. When I had had enough and really thought I could not walk another step they encouraged me, they didn’t let me stop and sit down where I was, they coaxed me another step and another and set me goals and challenges and every hill I conquered was another huge triumph for all of us. They would let me rest at the top but until the top there was no giving up. My son said “If it’s just aching muscles or tiredness you’re keeping going if you can’t breathe or are about to die we’ll let you stop”. It was always aching muscles and tiredness so I had to keep on going. They used all kinds of tactics including the favourite – telling me to imagine they were at the top of the hill injured and asking if I would just give up on them or keep going. They are hard task masters but it worked, they pushed me and made me feel proud of myself and that was the intention.

If you really have nobody to do this then don’t just say you have nobody, find it in yourself to do it for yourself, you have to let your desire to be fitter, thinner, healthier, to live longer, or whatever it is push you further than you feel you can go. I’ve learned from Darren that it’s when we really go beyond our boundaries that we burn the fat, that we find our true strength and that we start to have more faith in ourselves. It works in more ways than the physical.