When life gets in the way...

People often say that they need to have a pause from their diet or programme because ‘life just gets in the way’. I include myself in this. It often seems as though the ups and downs life throws at us take over and our diet is just one thing too many to think about.

June has turned out to be a pretty hectic month for me. It has been easy to begin to feel swallowed up by job interviews and offers, increased work hours, visitors and decisions to make. Amidst all of this it has been hard to train to my optimum and eat as healthy as I would have liked. I have started to say to myself, ‘well that’s just life, it gets in the way’.

However, it then occurred to me that the above phrase could actually go the other way round. Could my diet or my programme or my general attitude towards healthy living be getting in the way of life?

Life is full of little bumps and dips, smacking great mountains to climb and peaks to reach. Life is ever moving and changing; it goes in seasons of great joys to heart breaking pain to many places in-between. The way we live our life is affected by these highs and lows in many ways. It’s natural for us to fluctuate in our lifestyles in correspondence to whatever comes our way.

Sometimes though, I forget this. I struggle and strive towards attaining an impossible ambition of a perfectly healthy lifestyle when really I need to focus on other things, more important things. My attention becomes focused on my achievements and my failings, bringing more judgement into my view. The judgement clouds my vision until all that I can see is pressure and selfish ambition. My family, boyfriend and friends have to wait until I can attain this perfect healthy lifestyle.

It is then that I give myself a good shake and delve deep into my faith to part the clouds in front of my eyes and look at what is around me. There are job interviews and offers, increased work hours, visitors and decisions to make. But, there is also a liberating truth and I have so many things that can help me to not feel so swallowed up by these things.

Diet and exercise turns out to be one of these weapons I can use to help. Going running provides me with space to collect my thoughts and a hard workout at the gym help s me to burn off some nervous energy. A meal with a close friend provides me with yummy comfort food and laughter to make me feel at home and at rest. A jam doughnut brought back from work over a cup of tea with my parents in the garden gives me a sugary burst of delicious energy after a long day. A healthy meal cooked by my Mum provides me with the nutrients my body needs to keep going during this stressful and busy time.

We can use food and exercise to socialise, nourish the body and burn off physical and mental energy to live life to the full. It is a weapon and a powerful one at that which can be used to help but can also have the potential to hinder. We just need to keep our eyes fixed on our prize we are living for.

Homemade chocolate brownies with strawberries and ice cream for Father's day 

A delicious and very healthy prawn curry - one of my Mum's specialties 

A lovely walk in the rain on the beach