I was at a conference last weekend discussing Nutrition in all its forms, + one of the speakers talked about your “WHY”
WHY do you want to get healthy?
If I ask this to my clients I will often hear “I want to tone up, I want to be thin” If I push that question more deeply, the answer I usually get is “Because if I am thin then I will be HAPPY”
But what does happy mean for you? And what is making you UNHAPPY now?
Happy for me personally means being able to spend time with my son, move, workout, enjoy my work, help people, and spend time with friends.
Why do I workout? I workout because I want to feel stronger in my mind + body. This is MY WHY!
It wasn’t always that way for me. I worked out because I thought I HAD TO – This didn’t come as a by product of me thinking I was fat. It came about because I have an addictive personality and knew that I could no longer indulge in certain substances to cope with what was going on for me in my life. It basically came about as an accident.. Someone (an ex) told me I couldn’t do it + I wanted to prove that person wrong. I started exercising for the wrong reasons as I had no idea about who I was or my why… I equally did not understand about health either. As the weight loss started to happen + I began to change my career into fitness, I continued to exercise as I thought I needed to ‘look’ a certain way being in the industry. I thought that people would judge me the same way I judged myself (through very critical eyes) I became OBSESSED with training (although still clueless about how Nutrition, sleep + stress impacted on the female body)
I was dreadfully unhappy, training twice a day, not eating and drinking heavily.. I thought I ‘deserved’ that glass *bottle* of wine..
This is me with my sister at this point in my life (age 32)
I weighed about 7 stone here.. What you can’t see from this picture is that my skin is AWFUL although I do look ‘thin’ ~ I still thought I was fat despite being in size 6-8 clothes (UK size)
No-one could see that I was unhappy as most people were so complimentary about my weight loss.. No one mentioned my poor skin health or tired eyes or boozy nose 😉 People only saw the ‘thinness’
The problem with ‘Diets’ is that they do not deal with the behaviours or cravings or emotional relationship an individual has to food or drink. There is no one size fits all as we are all so unique both mentally + physically. Diets never seem to get to the route of WHY we eat what we eat, or binge in the way some of us ladies do. Its so important for us to CONNECT with our WHY – Why are we eating?
Is it out of boredom?
Sadness/ Stress?
Are we controlled by food?
Are we trying to control food by not eating because we feel powerless in other areas of our lives?
WHY do you eat? And by asking this question I am not meaning the 3 meals a day, I am asking you to think about why you mindlessly eat stuff you know will make you feel unhappy in the longer term? What emotion are you trying to mask by eating or not eating?
Once I started to learn about Nutrition, I began to be able to have more control over my thoughts, mindless starving, mindless drinking. I began to learn to eat intuitively which is something we try to teach our ladies at CBC
I also worked on my WHY ~ I began to understand that all the while I had not been focusing on what I wanted or needed, but I had been driven by what I thought others thought of me… and this in itself was a projection of what I thought of myself.. “Not good enough” “ugly” “fat” “stupid” etc and all the other negative nasty things we (I) call ourselves in the course of a day.
I now try to live by these rules and stay inspired to keep healthy for my own personal reasons. INSPIRE comes from the Latin, meaning “to breathe life into” Thus if I work towards things that inspire me I feel more alive. THIS is really important to me. I connect with what makes me feel passionate about my life (see points above) + no longer feel the need to keep healthy for others. I do it for myself. I no longer feel the need to try to change who I am, as I am grateful to be ME.
I am aware that my inspiration + goals will be different to everyone else’s, as like I say we are all unique …
These particular lines I thought were really insightful during the talk last weekend:
- Identify what makes you HAPPY + do everything in your power to have it
- Identify your emotional triggers. What is happening around you + what is food replacing in your life?
- Value yourself
- You are ENOUGH!
Me now with my 16 year old son:
(Well this is as good as its going to get!)
HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT YOUR WHY?
Charlie 🙂
To find out more about what we do see website http://www.cambridgebootcamps.com or email me to find out about a Nutritional 1-2-1 consultation or Personal Training.
