No one should care more about you than you do yourself. This is the truth. Your doctor, friends and family can all help you along the way, but no one should care more for you than you do.
Your health is your number one priority.
This may be contrary to how you’ve been living, possibly putting others before yourself, but you picked up this book for a reason – because you know your health is not as good as it should be, or you don’t feel as good as you think you can.
We’re all guilty of thinking that serious illness won’t happen to us, that it’s something that happens to someone else and we become complacent. Unfortunately, due to the nature of my work, I know this isn’t true and have seen first-hand, on more occasions than I wish to remember, how devastating and painful this can be. When you or a loved one falls ill, it changes every- thing.
Self-care and nurturing can prevent this from happening, so there’s no excuse not to take control, step up and take responsibility and make the changes now before it’s too late.
MY ADVICE
Work on the 70/30 rule:
If you are ‘good’ and eat well, exercise and manage your stress for 70 per cent of the time then your ‘well-being bank balance’ will stay in the black. This is equivalent to looking after yourself for five days a week so that for the other two days you can have a takeaway, some wine, cake or chocolates. That doesn’t sound too bad, does it? It’s about balance, and looking after your health but not making it into a chore. I genuinely believe if you look after your health extremely well 70 per cent of the time then it doesn’t matter what you do for the remainder, within reason, so you can let your hair down and relax.
Be Kind to yourself:
From time to time we all have periods where we overindulge. Remember this is just temporary, don’t punish yourself and just start again. For example, if you’re going away on holiday, or it’s Christmas or your birthday you should enjoy it. Be comfortable knowing that you now have the tools to set yourself back on track, time and again. There will also be times where you feel run-down and unwell. When this happens it’s important to rest and take extra supplements of elderberry, zinc, vitamin C and beta glucans to boost your immunity. At any time you can just go back to a week of ‘eating clean’ if you feel your energy or health need a boost, or do the three-week plan to really give yourself a deeper cleanse.
Your health is a combination of four key areas:
In my experience, you can’t achieve total health unless you look at a combination of exercise, nutrition, managing stress and cutting out vices.
For example, you can eat really healthily, go to the gym five times a week and do yoga for your stress, but if you drink alcohol like a fish or smoke you simply can’t achieve total health. If you don’t smoke or drink, eat well, manage stress but do no exercise you also can’t achieve optimum health. Likewise, if you’re a gym bunny and not stressed, don’t smoke or drink but live on junk food you won’t be fully healthy either.
All four of these areas need to be met to achieve total health. Remember: sugar is a vice that’s as bad as smoking or excessive alcohol consumption and needs to be managed and restricted in the same way.