Wednesday 1 January 2014

Healthy living in 2014 - Letting Go #newyearsday

(a design I created many years ago)
Wishing you a happy 2014!

I've been living a mostly-healthy lifestyle for several years now, and I have to admit that it never becomes easy. It gets easier after a time because the little things you do to be healthy become a habit, but it doesn't become completely easy.

There will always be temptation. And you will not always win against temptation. And that's okay as long as THAT doesn't also become a habit.

The hardest thing to do is to relax about it all. Let your healthy choices become so much of a habit that you don't have to think about them as much any more.

That's my personal goal for 2014.

Confession: I obsess about whether or not I have done my daily exercise or if that one treat that I let slip past my defences will show on the scales the next day. If I gain a little weight, I feel like a failure, and I feel the urge to hide my body in bulky clothes. None of this is normal behavior or even healthy behavior.

So my goal for this year is to learn to let go: let go of having to be perfect, let go of having complete control over everything from my diet to my fitness regime, and let go of weighing myself every morning.

And added to this, I intend to love my body, whatever size or shape it's in. And this will start by making a conscious effort, even when I am not feeling lovely, to act confident and to dress confidently.

Is there anything in your life, any habit or thought-process, that you hold on to which is not helping, or possibly even harming, you in some way? Will you try to let go of it this year too?

1 comment:

  1. a few weeks have passed into the New Year and I am sitting here reading your skinny dreaming. I want o lose weight, have wanted to lose weight all my life but instead I gain it. I was a chef for a long time and I was good at delicious. One of my signature dishes was a chocolate hazelnut swirl baked marble cheesecake. You only have to read the name to see the calories in it and I would never serve something I didn't like. I don't do any other thing that people might do to cope with the stressors of life except eat. I eat when I am sad, angry, depressed, worried, frightened, lonely...I joined groups. Lots of groups and I am always successful for a little while then I quit. I am now the size I thought I was when I was half the woman I am now. In the 52 week drawing challenge I am doing on FB next week teh challenge is to do a selfie. I have been crying for days. I don't want to look at myself or draw myself and honestly I don't like much about myself. I am talented, intelligent and kind but...and there is always a but. I tell people I am good at this that and the other thing but I am a lousy housekeeper or I say, yes I can do all those things but can't manage to keep a partner. The clown, the jokester, the entertainer who hides behind the laughing. My sister called yesterday and we spoke of the cruelty of our past and we each tried to recall just once in our childhood and youth when someone significant in our lives said a kind thing or told us we were beautiful. An art teacher told me once that I reminded him of Botticelli's angels, I thought he meant I had weak shoulders, a double chin, a round tummy and was girly and pathetic. I didn't know he was complimenting me and saying I was beautiful. Anyway i am going on and on and on here so I will wind up saying that I have a new years resolution and that is to work out what it is I really want. Good luck with your resolutions Becky, thank you for being an inspiration.

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