Ways in Which I’m Trying to Be Healthier*

I have to admit, in 2018 I have barely made any effort to have a healthy relationship with food. I have stuffed myself with cakes, chocolate, fizzy drinks, ate tons of take aways and just never batted an eyelid. But I am now officially heavier than I was at 9 months pregnant (although I underweight before falling pregnant) and I think that was the eye opener I needed. Not only am I the biggest I’ve ever been, I’m actually noticing it. I’m short with a small frame an the extra weight is taking it’s toll on my hips and back. My skin is a mess from all the sugar and my hair doesn’t look great. My friend is getting married in 10 weeks and my bridesmaid dress isn’t comfortable,  so I have to make some changes.

What I’ve Done
The biggest change I’ve made is i’ve swapped to a low carb diet. When looking at diets most make you drastically reduce your dairy and that’s not something I can do. I live on iced coffee and cheese. If I cut them out I’d be miserable. I haven’t gone keto, but I’ve significantly reduced my carb intake. I’ve also given up fizzy drinks. I was drinking so much diet coke that if I didn’t have at least one bottle a day I felt shaky. I’ve also cut out crisps, chocolate and cake. At the moment I haven’t seen huge changes but I’m hoping if I can develop this into my diet long term that not only will I lose weight but I’ll be able to maintain it better than if I did a fad diet. The one thing I have noticed is by cutting out easy carbs I’m eating more vegetables. I get my 5 a day most days now, where in the past I was lucky if I got one!

Because I’ve started eating less carbs I’ve had to invest in a multivitamin. I’ve been trialling Pharmaton Vitality tablets. They provide relief for short periods of daily fatigue which is perfect during this period while i’m getting my body used to the change. I think they’re the reason why I haven’t noticed feeling exhausted despite reducing my carb and caffeine intake.

My final big change is my sleep patterns. At the end of last year I was noticing that I had 3 sleep patterns, the stay awake til 4am, sleep until 8am and then we have the fall asleep at 10pm wake at 2, stay awake til 6 then sleep for another hour, then finally we’d fall asleep at midnight and wake at 5am. None of these are particularly healthy and most see me getting between 4/5 hours asleep at night. To try and combat this I’ve been trying Neuro Rest, not working on my laptop after 5pm and instead of lying awake tossing and turning, I now put something on Netflix quietly, turn down the volume and use it as white noise. It means I can’t over think things, the noise drowns out my brain.

What I Still Want to Do
It’s been just under a month since I started making these changes and although I do feel better for it (especially getting on average 7 hours a night!) there are still some other changes I want to make.

I want to increase my water intake. I have to admit, I am the worst for drinking water. When I’m on holiday I drink so much of it, but as soon as I get home I’m back to coffee and juice. I know the benefits of drinking lots of water but I just can’t get on board with it. But I want to try. Especially for my skin. I also want to try and do Couch to 5K. My friend swears by it but i’d have to do it in my lounge and right now I just don’t have the motivation. If I can’t manage Couch to 5K I at least want to do more walking. I know it’s not really coming into walking weather but I still want to do more walking and less relying on lifts. On a Saturday while LM is at theatre I could walk around the walls rather than sitting in a coffee shop for an hour! It’s the little changes that will add up.

Finally, I want to reduce my stress levels. I spend so much of my time stressed (being a self employed single parent does that to you) and I know it’s not healthy. I want to find a way to de-stress as I know my mind and body will benefit from it. Yoga perhaps? I need to look into it more.

I hope by the end of the year I start seeing the benefits of all my changes. I’m 30 now and it’s time I made a concious effort to look after my body.

What are some ways you try to stay healthy?