Would you put your hand in the fire again?
How was your Christmas? Did you let your hair down and turn off the inner voice telling you what you should and shouldn’t eat or drink?
I hope you did and I definitely did. I’d a great few days with my family and in-laws. It is the one time of year where I definitely relax my own defences. I don’t know what it is about sitting in my parents front room beside the Christmas tree, fire is lit, no TV’s, phones or iPad’s. It’s as though I transform back to my 12 year old form and that includes my mother telling me to stop shovelling the roses into my face.
But hey! It’s Christmas and just like moaning but never actually doing anything about it or knowing how to party, overindulgence at Christmas appears to be hardwired into us Irish and trust me I’m not going to tell you to change a thing about it because I wouldn’t ask anyone to change something that I wouldn’t.
However keep in mind accountability. If you’ve a medical condition and that requires specific nutrition or no alcohol then some habits are worth changing if you want to live to see next Christmas.
So, what I do want to say as I sit here with a bloated tummy wondering if there are some laxatives inside is a little food for thought for the next 360 days.
Let’s keep it simple. How many of you eat white bread knowing that in a couple of hours you’re going to have an uncomfortable distended belly. You know you’re going to struggle to poo or else have the runs? How many of you know that you only get 2pm slumps after eating bread or pasta the day before?
So why do you continue to do it? If you put your hand in the fire and burn yourself you wouldn’t do it a second time.
ACCOUNTABILITY!!!!!
It’s a word I use an awful lot. Simply because most of the time people don’t take accountability for their actions but yet will continue to moan about the outcome.
Let’s see if you can relate to any of these examples that I deal with all the time.
You know a food makes you bloated but you continue to eat it anyway.
You go to a GP and you’re more willing to swallow a pill for IBS rather than discover what’s actually irritating your bowel.
Your popping Renni like smarties instead of a quick Google to realise that heartburn or reflux can be so easily controlled by nutrition.
You’ve a sore knee but instead of retraining yourself you run properly you continue to do what you’re doing until you need surgery or you just stop training altogether.
These are just a couple of examples of how people just ignore what they need to do to look after themselves properly. Instead you just hope the pain will go away or someone will come out with a new quick fix that actually works for your excess body fat and sure you’ll definitely not get cancer. Come on people cut the crap. If you can relate to any of the examples above then I know something very important about you. You’re unhappy!
Trust me I’ve been there, I’ve done it and I’ve felt it. I am today an accumulation of 31 years of experience, education, habits and loads and loads of mistakes.
So here is something I’d like you to do. Take your new year’s resolutions and shove them. A goal without a plan is just a dream. You need to know what the problem is, what the solution is and a plan to get you from A-B. Have a read of one of my previous articles on goal setting HERE.
Making the plan is really number two. Education has to be number one. You need to replace brain numbing TV time with reading books, articles or documentaries. I already know and have heard all the excuses. You do have time, yes you can’t believe everything you read online but that’s not a reason to read nothing at all, you don’t have to understand 100% of it for you to benefit from it and your doctor doesn’t know it all. Remember he studied medicine not nutrition, physical therapy, strength or fitness coaching.
To sum up….Accountability, you have to look after yourself, you need to learn how to eat, you need to make sure you're sleeping right and exerting the body efficiently. By all means ask questions but don’t just follow blindly. Even no matter what I tell you, don’t believe a word out of my mouth. Go off and study it further yourself.
Until next week,
Love and Happiness,
John T