Posted on March 14, 2019 by Emily Forbes

Since I came back from holiday, I have been reflecting and really want to prioritise my health. Before I went away, I had let myself get drained and exhausted. As such, it was hard for me to give 100% to my clients when I was not feeling 100% myself.  You can think of the line “place your oxygen mask before assisting others.” And this is true for all life situations whether at work, with friends or your family. It’s important for us to take time for ourselves to do the things that make us feel good. For me, training, food and sleep are my key ingredients for keeping me on the ball.  So if you are not feeling your best self, perhaps its time to take stock and get back to health.

Diet:

Ok, so as a personal trainer, I know the battles people are up against to keep their diet in check. I’m only human too, I can’t say that I am on it 100% of the time. My days are long and busy, this means I’m often grabbing food from where I can or having some cold leftovers. But I know to keep my engine ticking along smoothly, the best fuel is essential. Right now, for me to achieve this I have switched up my routine.  To save time, I’m using a slow cooker to help my meal prep and I’m eating hot food like dahl for breakfast. I chuck a salad together for lunch and have some porridge when I get in at night. I really feel like I’m nurturing my body with nutritious food and feeling good for it. A lot of people can’t get around the idea of not having “breakfast food” for breakfast. But I suggest to my clients to think outside the box. There are no rules! Often when we have to change things significantly we have to put more thought into it. There is research to show that this can support weight loss as we are being more conscientious with what we are eating and putting in more effort to do so.

  • The other week I did a recipe for yellow split pea dahl. I have now made this in the slow cooker with great success, just chuck everything in at once and use a bag of pre-cooked rice to serve. But I did swap the yellow split peas for split yellow moong (mung beans) instead, they “mush” up better.

Training:

Does your training need a wake-up-shake-up too? How long have you been working on your current training plan? Do you even have a training plan? As much as I love training in the gym, I admit my routine had slipped and I was feeling uninspired. Although I can easily plan my own sessions, sometimes I don’t want to. So right now I’m getting someone else to do it for me. The sessions are only 45 minutes rather than an hour so they are easier to fit in and it has cleared up some space in my head so I can just “get on with it”. Yoga always happens because I attend classes and they are in my diary, although I don’t get any home sessions in which I would like (one step at a time).

So if yore stuck in a rut, my advice is:

  • Join a class and get it in your diary. Perhaps try a class you’ve never tried before.
  • Get your training programme updated.
  • Set some new goals.
  • Set yourself a challenge, perhaps enter a race/competition that you need to train for.
  • Find yourself a training partner.
  • Hire the services of a personal trainer.

Back to health:

What else do you need to make yourself feel good? Listen in and give your body what it needs. You’ll be thankful for it and so will others around you. I wrote another blog on sleep that might help you too.  Make yourself your priority and get back to health.

Emily x