10 reminders for the change of seasons
As Daylight Saving’s ends and the days start becoming shorter, here are some reminders I think some of us might benefit from as we head into the colder seasons.
You don’t owe it to anybody else to change.
If you want to make a change to your lifestyle, that’s great. But you also don’t have to if you’re not ready to or if you don’t want to. It’s common to think that if we’re in a funk with our eating and exercise habits, we need to flip everything around as quickly as possible. But your body and your health aren’t on a deadline. Sometimes, looking after yourself just means getting through whatever life has thrown at you first.
2. You will feel a heightened desire to change when your life gets uncomfortable.
We often feel worse about our bodies and ourselves when we’re going through stressful, emotional or draining periods. The urge to jump on a diet or pick ourselves apart can coincidentally occur when life takes a turn in a direction we didn’t really want it to. Sometimes, our way of processing a difficult reality check is to blame our bodies for making us unhappy and seek to change them instead.
3. Using the number on the scales to scare you into changing doesn’t work.
‘Seeing the damage’ to determine how ‘bad’ you’ve been and, thus, determine your actions for the day ahead rarely works in terms of leading to long-term behaviour change. Feeling a sense of shame about your weight is what leads to preoccupation with food and weight - making you susceptible to overeating anyway. If you do use the scales, don’t use it to determine whether you’ll try harder one day versus the next - it will always end up backfiring.
4. Telling yourself how bad you look doesn’t work.
On that note, telling yourself repetitively (or equally, telling everyone around you) how much you dislike your body, your face, whatever - will never result in you making peace with the way you look. Here’s a harsh truth - you might not ever like the way that you look. But that doesn’t mean that the world doesn’t value you as a person, that you’re not deserving of love or that you’re not brilliant at a million other things and deserve to be here, just like everyone else. Rather than whinging about your appearance, decentering the opinions of other people will make more of a positive impact on your well-being than obsessing over validation ever would.
5. Letting go of the need for control will set you free.
Wellness culture and diet culture tend to promote the idea that we have complete control over how we look and whether we end up with diseases or not. There are endless tips we could be following every single day - breathwork, ice baths, journaling, supplements, workouts, avoiding toxins, counting calories - and whilst these aren’t bad habits, if keeping up with this entire laundry list of things you’re supposed to do is overwhelming, might I suggest just accepting the fact that we’re all going to die anyway? We can do the best that we can to keep ourselves healthy, but it’s never a guarantee that we’ll be exempt from bad things happening to us.
6. Deprivation doesn’t make you a better person.
With extreme thinness becoming fashionable again (recession, but make it chic), this is your reminder that the people who have the best time in their older years are the people with muscle mass. The people who don’t have any issues getting off the toilet because their thighs haven’t wasted away. The people who slip on banana peels and catch themselves from falling because they’ve worked on their balance. The people who don’t break bones because they haven’t spent their younger years nutrient-deprived from all the dieting they’ve done.
7. Even the people you’d least expect still struggle with body image.
I struggled with body image because every woman around me from a young age seemed to struggle with body image, so I took it as a right of passage. When I was younger and thinner and got loads of compliments, I still picked myself apart and didn’t feel good enough. Attractiveness and self-confidence are completely separate. I gained confidence in my body by looking after it properly and by getting stronger, and also when I realised that bodies are supposed to, well, body (by which, I mean bloat, squidge, wrinkle, sag, and wobble - all completely normal).
8. The less you can complicate healthy eating, the easier it will be to stick to.
I don’t follow recipes anymore. I eat mostly the same meals each day and just switch up the protein, fruit and veg I tend to go for. I think about what’s going to keep me full when I plan my meals, I aim to prioritise fresh food, and I just want my meals to taste okay- not necessarily restaurant-level quality. I think recipes can help you get habits off the ground, but if you’re finding it overwhelming, ask yourself if you can dial it back a notch.
9. Healthy eating is not the same as eating perfectly.
When you look at the science of nutrition, it’s all about overall trends - not individual foods - that make or break somebody’s overall health. If you’re generally making an effort to include plenty of plant diversity in your diet and eat balanced meals, it won’t hurt you to include a cookie here and there or a glass of wine now and again.
10. Joy is the healthiest nutrient of all; aim to get some daily.
At the end of the day, there’s no point obsessing over self-optimisation if it’s not actually making you any happier. Connecting with other people, having a laugh, living according to your values, creating things for the sake of creating - those are the things that not only make you truly happier, but they’ll be the things you’re remembered for as well. No one is going to remember you for having abs or perfect skin. But they’ll remember you for the jokes you told and the kindness you shared with them. Isn’t that more meaningful anyway?
Lx
