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Far 2 Fabulous
Join Catherine & Julie, your feisty hosts at Far 2 Fabulous, as they lead you on a wellness revolution to embrace your fabulousness.
Julie, a Registered Nutritional Therapist with over 20 years of expertise, and Catherine, a former nurse turned Pilates Instructor and Vitality Coach, blend wisdom and laughter seamlessly.
Off the air, catch them harmonising in their local choir and dancing to 80's hits in superhero attire. Catherine braves the sea for year-round swims, while Julie flips and tumbles in ongoing gymnastics escapades.
With a shared passion for women's health and well-being, they bring you an engaging exploration of health, life, and laughter. Join us on this adventure toward a more fabulous and empowered you!
Far 2 Fabulous
How to Stay Fit and Balanced During Winter Celebrations
Ever feel like Christmas starts earlier each year, with its temptations pulling us into a whirlpool of festive indulgence? We get it, and we've been there too. Join us as we share our personal traditions and reflect on the sneaky "unhealthy Christmas trap" that tempts us to overeat, overspend, and neglect our well-being. We humorously critique the phenomenon of "shrinkflation" in holiday treats and share nostalgic memories of seemingly endless chocolate tins. Together, we explore ways to enjoy the festive season while maintaining a healthy balance, so you can avoid the post-holiday burnout and stress that often comes with January.
Looking to maintain your holiday cheer without compromising your health? Discover practical tips for holiday balance and stress management. We discuss the importance of sticking to healthy routines like staying hydrated, getting enough rest, and incorporating exercise even amidst the holiday bustle. Our conversation highlights strategies for planning and setting achievable daily health goals, ensuring a joyous holiday experience without the January crash. By focusing on balance, we aim to help you enjoy the festivities while caring for your well-being.
As the chill of winter sets in, we dive into essential health and fitness tips to keep you feeling your best. From the power of protein in reducing cravings and maintaining energy levels, to the joys of incorporating exercise into your daily life, we share insights and personal anecdotes to inspire your wellness journey. We also emphasize the importance of prioritizing self-care, even amidst the holiday excitement, with simple habits that make a significant impact. As the new year approaches, we encourage setting intentions for rest, reset, and consistent actions to start January with vitality and momentum.
Got a question or comment? Send us a text message here!
Want to stay focused on your health and fitness over the Christmas period? This is the time of year most people take a break from their health and fitness goals and end up having to start over again on January 1st. But what if this year was different?
If you want to keep your momentum going and feel a whole lot better in the process…
Download my FREE Healthy Christmas Checklist HERE
Thank you for listening.
You can continue the conversation with us in the Far 2 Fabulous Facebook group. Come and connect with other women on a journey to empowered health.
For more information about Julie Clark Nutrition, click HERE
For more information about Catherine Chapman, click HERE
As Julie said at the beginning of the show, she has created a fun, free download to help you stay healthy during the festive period. Simply click HERE to access.
We look forward to you joining us on the next episode.
Welcome to Far Too Fabulous hosted by Julie and.
Speaker 2:Catherine, join us on a mission to embrace your fabulousness and redefine wellness. Get ready for some feistiness, inspiration, candy chats and humour as we journey together towards empowered wellbeing. Let's dive in. Hello, hello and welcome to this week's episode of Far Too Fabulous. We hope that this episode finds you very, very well, and probably already in Christmas mayhem of things, it's fair to say. So. That's what we thought we would talk about today the unhealthy Christmas trap. What's that, julie?
Speaker 1:Well, I was going to start by saying that I absolutely love Christmas, but I am a bit of a person that it doesn't start until December. No, I agree, but we are talking about Christmas before December.
Speaker 2:Well, according to Kitty, who is my youngest one, this week is Christmas because December starts this week. That's what my daughter said as well, and radio seem to have also been on board with this, because they're playing Christmas songs.
Speaker 1:No, it's too early, right, it's too early. Starts this week. That's what my daughter said as well, and radio seemed to have also been on board with this, because they're playing christmas songs. No, it's too early, right, it's too early.
Speaker 2:We actually in our house. We don't start christmas until after the 6th of december because it's mikey's birthday on the 6th.
Speaker 1:So as far as I'm concerned, nothing happens until after that no, and growing up, my mum's birthday is on the 14th of December, so Christmas didn't start till the 15th.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I think I don't know, maybe I am. I am actually known as the Grinch in my household. I think that you're going to get fed up with it by the time it comes to the 5th of January. I can't wait to get those Christmas decorations down and for everything to look all nice and crisp and clean and and to be honest, I don't normally care with things that crisp and clean but once I've got those decorations down and everything's vacuumed and looks lovely, I'm very happy yeah, do you know?
Speaker 1:do you remember the book the squash and the squeeze from when the kids were younger? Yes, I used to love that book. So if you don't know this book, it's about this lady who complains about a house being too small and and she ends up bringing all these things in to her house.
Speaker 2:Yeah, old man, help me please. Yes, and he brings in the cow and the horse and everybody.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then she finally she's got no room to move. She lets all the people out, all the animals and everything, and then she realises that her house is big enough. That's what happens after Christmas, doesn't it?
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah and everything's nice and clear again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you asked me what is the unhealthy Christmas track? I did so. Let's start there because, although we don't want to be all bar humbug, because we love Christmas, we love Christmas food, don't we?
Speaker 2:we enjoy the whole okay, no, I'll give you. I like Christmas food. I am a do you know what it is? It's that and it's everything that we're going to be talking about. It's the over use the over, eating the over, drinking the over, spending all around. One kind of day really. It just makes me prickle a little bit. I love getting together with people. I do like eating and I do like drinking. It's the excuse that christmas is well like a month away and people are already using that as an excuse to eat more, drink more, do less like, exercise less. We're like oh no, don't worry, I'll start that after the new year, and you're like, that's like five weeks away it's definitely got earlier and earlier in terms of the food in the supermarket.
Speaker 1:You know, we've spoke before about how they whoever they are make it difficult for us to be healthy. When you start bringing in those christmas foods really early and they're ones that you like, you buy them and then they're never gonna you're never gonna save them till christmas, are you? So you're gonna eat them. Then you have to buy them again, which is what, what the supermarkets want.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a very popular supermarket, beginning with tea. I was in yesterday you're not the bbc, you can say tesco you, I have to, you have to actually slalom around the celebrations and the baileys and the heroes and that, yeah, you can't actually go in. No, you can't straight. You have to go around all these things and it's, it's in your face, yeah absolutely, and even I'm looking at them going.
Speaker 2:Oh, that looks nice. I mean, who doesn't like a box of celebrations and a baileys? Although let's just and I know everyone's going to be nodding to this I think that the boxes of celebrations have got smaller and I think the actual suites have got smaller. I know I'm a little bit bigger, but not that much and I'm sure they they have.
Speaker 1:I think you're right. There is definitely shrinkflation. That's it, shrinkflation, shrinkflation going on with food. So, yeah, the cost has gone up, but the size of the products has definitely gone down. I like that term.
Speaker 2:I don't like that term, but I like that term.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I wonder how much of it is me viewing it versus being a child to now, because we used to have a tin of Quality Street back in the day before celebrations and stuff and that tin just seemed so big.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it did last the entire time, yeah, until you got to the ones that no one liked. But then you would eat them anyway, because that was all that was left.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just eat the strawberry creams just because they were there. Yeah, then you would eat them anyway, because that was all that was left. Yeah, just eat the strawberry creams just because they were there. Yeah, strawberry cream, yeah, anyway, I'd still force one down.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, but we thought we would talk about without. Well, although you declared yourself as the Grinch. The Grinch absolutely.
Speaker 1:Without ruining Christmas. I think when we're talking about the unhealthy Christmas trap, it is partly to do with that. You almost give yourself permission to go completely off plan and just eat and drink and go over the top, and we all know where that leads. You get to that January, don't you? And then you have to undo all that rubbish you've done, yeah. And then you go through that emotional roller coaster of feeling bad about yourself. Why did you do that? You've done it again. Blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2:So we could take a different approach, but still enjoy christmas, yeah, and still enjoy the treats, if we just do a few simple things yeah, no, I completely agree, and it's losing sight of the reason that we live the way that we do for the rest of the year, reason that we put these things in our our lives because they make us feel better, and so it's yeah, it's a very bizarre concept that we then let those things go. Julie was talking about some statistics that she had here in a. According to a study by Ohio State University, two-thirds of the people they surveyed said that during the festive season, they overindulge in food. Now, first of all, two-thirds no way, far more than that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, probably is far more than that, to be honest, but we all completely agree with that. Yeah, and nearly 45% said they take a break from exercise. That really upset you, didn't it?
Speaker 2:I just I honestly, and it will start the minute we not even the minute we flick into December. I haven't had it yet, but I am pretty sure in years gone by somebody will say to me oh well, well, I'll start that after new year, especially when new year comes, you know, straight after Christmas, and there's that whole new year's resolution bs as well it gives people a reason, but the word beginning with e that um to not to not do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you know what I used to hate it back in the day when I used to have a gym membership? I used to dread January because I was someone that would go to the gym all the year round and then January would come and then you'd have all these new members and you couldn't get in the classes that you wanted to and you couldn't get into the places that you the swimming pool was packed used to drive me up the wall.
Speaker 2:You'd have to wait until February and March, when they'd all lost interest again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you'd see that, wouldn't you? But then you'd also know that the way that those memberships work, that those people had just got tied in for a whole year or whatever it was, and they've got no intention of going after that initial January surge.
Speaker 2:It's a massive percentage. Initial january surge. It's a massive percentage mark. Used to work in a gym and the percentage of people that didn't attend but just paid their monthly membership was absolutely huge yeah that's crazy what a waste yeah, absolutely, uh. So more than half reported feeling tired and that they had less time for themselves.
Speaker 1:Do you think they were tired because they were eating all the extra food and they weren't doing any movement?
Speaker 2:It wasn't that they were doing more stuff. It was that they were doing less stuff. Without a doubt, this is the same thing and we've talked about this loads of times before, and we've talked about this loads of times before when you go on your summer holiday and you move less and you've given yourself permission to eat literally and drink whatever you want ice creams every day, yeah, and I mean quite blooming right. However, when you come back and you feel like you need another week off, something's got to be wrong.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's not right, is it? You should always feel better after a holiday, not worse and that's what sarah had spoken about in the podcast. When we talk about alcohol or lack of alcohol, yeah, she was well, she went into that in quite a bit of detail and that really resonated with me. I think, yeah, when you're on holiday, if you then just overeat, over drink, just lay around all day, then how do you expect to feel better when you get back to normality?
Speaker 2:no, absolutely. Because you eat these good things, you drink plenty of water, you get lots of rest and you move your body to feel better. So why would you think, when you do the complete opposite for a week, you would feel better?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's not to say that you can't relax. There's a definite difference between those two things. So I think for me, a holiday is a break from the work and the commitments. On that, I think on the work side of things, but with the family, running the kids around, etc. But it doesn't mean that I'm not gonna move and I'm not gonna drink my water, and yeah.
Speaker 2:well, they're saying they're saying, isn't it? A change is as good as the rest and it's, yeah, doing something different, being able to spend a bit more quality time with the people that you love and that. So that, for me, is what christmas is about is being able to get together and spend a bit more time, so you're not necessarily working as much. You haven't got like the kids clubs or our clubs or any of those sorts of things, so you get a bit more time to spend socially, which actually I quite like. I think that's a really nice excuse to book a coffee date in or a walk, or so. That's the other thing, isn't it? Inst instantly, I went to coffee date. You did go to coffee day, but we could have done.
Speaker 2:We could go for a walk, we could go and do an activity. It doesn't have to be around eating and drinking.
Speaker 1:Although it's not, it's not. It's not too bad to have a coffee meet up. Yeah, you know, because a lot of the time we will say meet for a coffee. I say this to people and I don't even drink coffee. I say let's meet for a coffee. But what I really mean is that we'll go and have a catch up and I'll probably have like a green tea or something. To be honest.
Speaker 2:Yeah absolutely. And the other one was that one third of people said they drink more alcohol.
Speaker 1:Again, I think that's probably got to be higher. Yeah, yeah, without a doubt. But even so, if we, if we assume that in this study, most of these people were over indulging in food, not exercising, feeling tired, and they were drinking more alcohol, if you said that to someone, right? If you want to feel really rubbish, just do these things. And yet they're not really thinking about the impact on their Christmas, how they're going to enjoy it, because it is a stressful period for a lot of people as well. And how do we best manage stress? We drink our water, we get to sleep on time, we move our bodies, we nourish ourselves. That's how we support ourselves in stress. But during this lead up till christmas, according to this study and just general experience of life, we seem to do the opposite, don't we?
Speaker 2:yeah, and it's that lead up.
Speaker 2:It's not just the week or two weeks no, it's happening now, period now yeah, and the stress, so the stress that people are putting themselves under I think this is my beef with Christmas is the stress that we put upon ourselves that everything has to be and look a certain way and that it has to be perfect, and that leads up, that's already starting, so that builds up. And so, by the time we get to Christmas, we've effectively burnt out, because we have, we've brought in all those social engagements we've, we've been eating, we've been drinking too much, we've neglected our movement and all of our normal routines that keep us ticking along normally. So by the time we get to Christmas, we're, we are, we're effectively burnt out yeah, so what are we going to do about it?
Speaker 1:I don't know, julie, what we're going to do about it.
Speaker 2:I don't know, julie, what we're going to do. You tell me. Well, I tell you what we are going to do. The lovely ladies within my challenge at the moment are still moving their bodies, which I'm really excited. I would like to tell you that I planned it this way, but actually this is just when I booked it, and so I am hoping that just this little bit of movement through the HITS Plotters 10 challenge is going to at least bring them a bit bit further into December.
Speaker 1:Still moving yeah, well, it definitely will, won't it? Something I do with my clients and I will make this available for everybody listening as well is to do a christmas planner.
Speaker 1:I love a planner anyway, but it's like a checklist of just some basic things to do and we're going to go through them in a moment, but just aiming to do like five out of the seven on a daily basis, yeah, just to remind yourself of the good things that you can do to support your health but, more importantly, that you don't get to that January and feel like you've got to start again or beat yourself up or do these you know crazy diets or whatever it is that you then decide to do every single January because you're already ahead of the game yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely no, and I love that, and it is about that balance.
Speaker 2:Of course we are not saying don't eat, don't drink, don't rest, all of that sort of thing. It is about finding that balance and I love that you've got what a list of sort of six or seven things and that the aim is to do about five and Don't bash yourself over the head with it if you don't manage that Exactly I mean 80% of anything that you're aiming to do is a good place to start. Yeah, without a doubt, that whole 80-20 rule is a really good thing to use, definitely yeah.
Speaker 1:And a lot of people do get that round the wrong way, but they feel like they are doing the 80-20. This is true. This comes up a lot actually with clients.
Speaker 2:It is quite funny when we start to break it down yeah, it's, and they think they're doing 80, they think they're doing 20, exactly yeah, okay, so a really simple one that everyone could do, and I do this still every morning and it is a habit.
Speaker 1:so you know there is a habit forming part to doing this as well, and you could do this at any time of the year. It doesn't have to be for Christmas, but because we are in that festive period and we know what happens, you know, as we work with clients on their health, we know that these things go out. The window Is have a glass of water next to your bed when you wake up in the morning. Just drink it. It's quite simple's really simple, isn't it?
Speaker 2:yeah, and it's not like you have to worry about it's going to make you go to the loo because you'll be up and about straight away, so it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:No, take a glass of water up to bed with you, then, when you wake up in the morning, drink the glass of water. If you do that every day, you've got a tick in your on your habit tracker everyone likes a tick on their tracker.
Speaker 1:Well, I do, because that's that's the sort of person I am. I like a tick sheet. Yeah, absolutely. But yeah, if you do this consistently, then it's a good place to start, because I was talking to a client the other day about the fact that women have higher cortisol levels in the morning than men. So if we the first thing, we do, so within the first 30 minutes we have that peak of cortisol before it starts to tail off. If we have something that is stimulating within those first 30 minutes, it's going to push cortisol up even more. And what is stimulating that most people do in the morning?
Speaker 2:she's looking at me people you know she's looking at me. I people you know she's looking at me. I don't drink my coffee within the first 30 minutes, I promise.
Speaker 1:No, but a lot of people do. Yeah, they do, and so if you've got up and you've had your glass of water or you've just woken up, you're still in bed. Your glass of water's there. Drink the glass of water, tick on the sheet, you're good to go.
Speaker 2:I think that you can get hooked on those stories, can't you that I can't function until I've had a cup of coffee. And there's that habit again that the first thing you do is drink the cup of coffee. And it certainly doesn't help your body systems, does it, to have that caffeine in that first 30 minutes. It's relearning another way of doing it and perhaps that glass of water is going to be something that helps you just push that caffeine hit a bit further along the road yeah, and also people generally don't drink enough water, especially at this time of year yeah because it's colder, we tend to go towards those hot drinks, don't we?
Speaker 1:yeah, but at least you've. You've done a whole glass of water straight off first thing in the morning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're already winning, right yeah, absolutely, you've got that tick. I agree with that. With the cold, I'm really struggling with smoothies at the moment, but as soon as it gets cold I don't want to make a smoothie. I do. Actually, this is going to tie in very nicely with your next one. I do put a scoop of protein powder into my, often into my first coffee. Yeah, that's good the morning, so that if I haven't got time to actually have some breakfast, that's a good way of getting the, getting the protein, and you could put it into porridge you could put it into porridge.
Speaker 1:So one of the things I often get my clients to make is overnight oats, yeah, with birch muesli. And they will say, oh, I don't like the fact that it's cold, well, just heat it up. Heat it up, that's what I do. I do, yeah, just heat it up when it's the winter. Yeah, I'm in agreement that you want something warm when it's cold, so, yeah.
Speaker 1:So the next thing on the list is eating protein at every meal. Now, a lot of people are going to find that challenging, and it is a bit of a challenge if you look at what a typical standard diet is in this country. Breakfast is devoid of protein for most people, so that one might be a little bit more challenging. But if you focus on that and you're aware and you try and add that into breakfast, lunch and dinner, it will make a difference to lots of things. It will cut your cravings down, because when we don't eat protein, our body thinks that we're deficient in something it needs and it sends out the signals, but it only knows how to signal for sugar most of the time. So we then feel like we need to keep eating.
Speaker 2:It's mostly looking for the nutrients and the protein, yeah, and I find that if I have a protein rich lunch, if I have like a I don't know halloumi salad and I'm feeling particularly starving and I've added hard-boiled eggs and things to it that lasts me easily until dinner and I really, really notice and I've been concentrating a lot more on the protein content in my diet and it is tricky and it's highlighted how little protein I eat and how much harder I'm going to have to work at it, and it's not that it's going to be hard forever harder I'm going to have to work at it, and it's not that it's going to be hard forever, it's just relearning what like where to find that protein and where I'm going to put it in my diet regularly yeah, so with breakfast.
Speaker 1:Simple things that you can do to increase your protein intake at breakfast is, if you are a porridge cereal type person is add some ground almonds or some ground flax seed or some chia seeds or some nuts and seeds generally will help. You can definitely use protein powder and mix that in. If you're a toast person, use nut butter or peanut butter or eggs on toast. Yeah, that's going to give you some protein, even some cheese and ham or something like that in the morning, like a continental style breakfast gives you some protein.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, so it actually isn't as difficult as we initially think it is no, it's just that we've been outside the cornflake box I was going to say we've been brought up on cornflakes, haven't we?
Speaker 1:so we don't. Or toast and jam, yeah, but that is all sugar, and again we do not want to start the day with sugar. All sugar, not good I mean this.
Speaker 2:We could do a whole podcast on uh, on cereal bashing, couldn't we that?
Speaker 1:would be a really easy podcast because they've got a lot to answer for yeah, I was talking to a potential client who was spanish this week and it was a guy and he was saying that he's concerned about the children in spain because now they are considered within europe. They've got the worst diet. Children in spain have now got the worst diet, but we host students, and the spanish ones they drink chocolate milk yeah and they have nutella.
Speaker 2:They have nutella on everything and it's all sugar and all their cereals are chocolate based cereals and so that doesn't surprise me because when I remember when we used to host students that the spanish boys in particular were really hard to get any kind of nutrition into, I remember blending up vegetables and putting it in a bolognese sauce, just so I knew that he'd had some vitamins and minerals in his diet at some point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it's a shame because this country itself is part of that Mediterranean diet. Yeah, the food's amazing there and you've got all that food, but anyway we digress.
Speaker 2:Funny that yeah.
Speaker 1:Getting 30 minutes of activity.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, please, and build it into isn't there another one here? Build it into your 15 minutes of fresh air, then you get two ticks.
Speaker 1:I love that two ticks in one go I mean, get out and walk, do so.
Speaker 2:If you are a lady of a certain age, then don't just meander. Have a little bit of a blast every now and again. So do turn it into a mini hit session.
Speaker 1:So have a, have a little speedy walk and then have a chilled walk and then have a little speedy walk and then have a chilled walk, and then you've got activity as well as fresh air although if you're like us and we live by the sea, if you live by the sea, then walking on the pebbles and climbing over the groins increases that activity level right doesn't it just absolutely?
Speaker 2:oh, can I tell you something you said about the groins he's going to kill me for doing? This mark went out on a uh on a nighttime run the other day and there was an unexpected groin that was a bit closer totally stacked it totally didn't see it, tripped over it. Oh dear, he needs a head torch on I think I thought he had one on but sometimes it's actually easier to run without it, especially if you're walking towards the harbor.
Speaker 1:At nighttime, the, the the lights from the harbour are so bright you actually can't see anything else oh okay, but yeah, there you go, just uh yeah, that's mean, isn't it very happy with you saying that, yeah, so we've got our 30 minutes of exercise, but we've got 15 minutes of fresh air. So, yeah, combine the two and and you've got that made, haven't you?
Speaker 2:and I don't think that's too difficult to do or, of course, you could just join vitality rooms and come and do some workouts online with me. This is what I've been banging on to about for the last week is that there's now no such thing as a snow day. There's no such thing as trudging out in the snow or having to wrap up to go to a to a gym or a school hall to go and do your exercise class. You can just switch me on to zoom and uh yeah, there's no excuses and I can get you on any internet device ever and just say where are you?
Speaker 1:I love that. It's like no excuses. You know what? I went to gymnastics yesterday and it was five degrees in the gym yesterday. I have four layers on my hat, my gloves. I couldn't get my feet warm. I managed to get my body warm and I ended up with had to lose my hat and my gloves because you can't do certain things, and my socks had to go at one point because, again, couldn't really do that. But I got down to two layers. But yeah, by the time we left the gym had got to 10 degrees. But it's a cold, unfortunately it's cold.
Speaker 2:Oh my god yeah, that is freezing. It is actually very cold in my. I do have to do the very long commute down to the studio at the end of the garden and it is really cold in there. But yeah, once I've started moving and everybody else is, I can see in their nice warm homes yeah, at least you can wear trainers, can't you?
Speaker 1:for doing your stuff? I mean, I can, I don't actually don't yeah so you understand the cold feet thing that I'm talking about.
Speaker 2:Understand the cold feet thing, but that's all right, I just come and put them on, put them on my husband when I get back in the house.
Speaker 1:Okay, we've got eat five servings of veggies and fruits. Again. I just lots of people can't do this. I don't find it that difficult. Five servings of veggies and fruits pretty much goes in my smoothie in the morning. It's not that difficult. But again, you've got to be aware and just focus on it.
Speaker 2:And to get a tick in that box. You know, know, you've really got to be looking at what you're eating, and I think maybe that's part of the planning that's involved over the next season. We plan what we're going to eat at the beginning of the week and we shop accordingly. Yeah, we do as well, and, again, I think this might be a habit that would get thrown out of the window around this time for many people, and so, even if you might have to just sit there with your social calendar as well and just work out, you know when you're, when you're in, when you're not in, if you're having people over to dinner, but you don't have to serve them beige, serve them all of the colors of the rainbow, all of the colors, is going to help your immune system.
Speaker 1:It's going to help with stress.
Speaker 2:So it's, it's a no-brainer, and you're going to feel super, super virtuous and I, I know, when we have dinner, when my I go to girlfriends houses or they come over to me and the temptation is that you want to go for beige. However, when you have a really lovely, wholesome, home-cooked dinner and you're all together with that social connection, you feel so much better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you do, and I don't think you drink as much wine no, and don't forget that when you are indulging in, in more rich foods and things like that during the festive period and we're not saying, don't have those, but the fiber in those fruits and vegetables, it's going to help your bowels, because that is often the first thing that you'll start to notice when you, when you're really going for the, the, the heavy stuff, the extra treats, your bowels are going to let you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Although I think we had sprouts yesterday.
Speaker 1:And they can let you know as well.
Speaker 2:They can let you know as well, yeah, okay, do something fun. Oh, yes, please. Hopefully that shouldn't be too difficult to do, especially at this time of year, and it doesn't have to be a big thing again.
Speaker 1:You know it could be listening to your favourite song. That's something fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, putting Slade on the listening device in the kitchen and singing it's Christmas.
Speaker 1:I think that's fun. I cannot stand that song no I cannot stand it. My kids love that song and I really cannot stand it. There's lots of christmas songs I do like that is not one of them.
Speaker 2:It's an earworm though, isn't it even? I challenge you, even if it's playing, not to sing along to it. I talk about sing along. I need to go and find a sing-along for Wicked, the movie. I watched it the weekend.
Speaker 1:Did you? I love it. Yeah, I want to see it, I love it.
Speaker 2:If you're a fan. I think they've done a really great job of sticking to the stage show with their bit of cinematic drama and I am a serious fan of Ariana Grande, so it was just incredible. It was absolutely brilliant. However, the hardest thing I think I've ever done in my entire life was to listen to all of those songs without singing them out loud or flinging my arms around, so I had to sit on my fingers and bite my lip whilst I was watching the movie. So I need to go and find a sing-along.
Speaker 1:You should have thrown your arms around and had to sing a song anyway.
Speaker 2:I think I might have got thrown out.
Speaker 1:I've heard nothing but good things about that film, and I absolutely love the stage show and so, yeah, I cannot wait to see that. It's very exciting. So, yeah, that can be my do something fun, can't it Do something fun?
Speaker 1:yeah, okay, seven to eight hours of sleep. This is so important. And for those people who are listening and do struggle with sleep, I'm not having a go at you. It's the people that push their sleep time back because they get stuck in in the netflix or the scrolling or the, whatever it is. The sleep is so important. You cannot have good health if you're not sleeping yeah, and it's.
Speaker 2:It's. That point I've heard this many, many times is that you've had a super, super busy day and you go and sit on the sofa, probably already quite late at night, and I think the wording goes something like I just want to have a bit of time for myself, or I just want to have a bit of time for myself, or I just want to feel like I've done something for me and that something for you could be go to bed on time. And I am in no means whiter than white this is your Achilles.
Speaker 2:Heel is this yeah, no, absolutely, when I start to get tired earlier on in the evening. If I don't follow that and start some sort of bedtime routine and have the lights down, if I start doing something, that's me gone. I'm I'm up, I'm awake, I'm awake and I am have you got on the self-sabotage train at that point?
Speaker 2:oh yeah, absolutely. The annoying thing is I am actually really productive at that time because the house is really quiet and I can sit and get on with stuff, but I know that it's really really rubbish for me, and I really know it's really rubbish for me. Then, when I get up the next day quarter to seven the next day and try and pull the children out of bed and they're moaning at me because they're tired and I just want to poke them with something sharp and tell them how tired I am too which, of course, is not their fault.
Speaker 1:It's my fault for not going to bed on time yeah, it is a it is a biggie, but it's just so, so important. And it's about consistency. Again, I was talking to a client today about this. The body likes things to be consistent, so you've got to work on this, which is why, you know, doing a tick sheet and tracking these things can be really, really beneficial. And, like I said, it doesn't have to be just for christmas. This could be, you know, all year round. And these should be things that you are just doing as a default, because you are focused on your health and well-being. These should just be things that you automatically do without thinking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a really great list.
Speaker 1:If you manage to get seven to eight hours of sleep five days out of the seven, you're absolutely winning, yeah, and it's not about being perfect and it's not about getting a ticket for everything every single day. It is that 80%, it is five out of seven, and it's a good place because what you might find is that there's one thing on there that constantly doesn't have a tick in, and then it will really focus your awareness, because then you'll be like, oh, I need to look at that, yeah, you know where you need to put the work in and that will have the biggest results.
Speaker 1:Really great to show like to highlight where you need to put the work in, and if you do, the rewards are there and we spoke about this when we were looking at summer holidays about thinking now, how do I want to feel, yeah, when I get to the first of january or early in january how do? I want to feel and what do I need to do now and in the lead up to that to make sure that that?
Speaker 2:happens? No, absolutely. I've been speaking to people that have been excited about the time that they are going to have off over christmas and that they would like it to be productive, and that doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to go and like declutter their entire house, but they're looking forward to the rest and the reset. And the rest of the reset for your body could be that maybe you get to move more, maybe you've got a bit more time to to put these things in place and really look after yourself, and so then to come out on the 2nd of January all guns blazing yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:It's almost like giving you that momentum now, yeah, rather than holding off and waiting.
Speaker 2:How exciting would that be to have spent the time between Christmas and New Year really focusing on yourself? So definitely resting and relaxing, but being able to move, being able to drink plenty of water, being able to nourish yourself and then hit 20? I can't believe I'm gonna say this hit 2025 running. Yeah, yeah, what a great gift to give yourself. Yeah, yeah, such a great gift. And just, yeah, let go of that stress, let go of the perfection of what you think christ Christmas should look like, should feel like, or what somebody on Instagram makes it look like. Yep, and just focus on yourself and what you need I think it's that like facing inwards. Get having that opportunity to spend some time looking inwards rather than and I think Christmas is that again, that's probably what I hate about it the most is that is that whole external thing about it yeah, yeah, I think you're right.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, I think. Well, I hope we've given you lots to think about there. As ever, you can come join us in the facebook group and let us know. Thank you for keeping us company today.
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