The weekend is here!

We have now reveled through the first public holiday long weekend of the year – and the first full week back for most people will seem SO long!  But never fear – Friday is here!!

And so the run of Public Holidays begins for the year – and there are quite a lot of them at the start of our year.  Fantastic I hear a lot of you say!  Absolutely – who doesnt love shorter weeks and longer weekends?  Great time to catch up on things we have been meaning to do, catch up with people and celebrate.  And there is the key to the undoing of most of our well-meaning New Years resolutions.  Celebrating.  How can we have the best of both worlds?  How can we relax and celebrate on these events, and also stay fit, healthy and happy?  The answer – it comes down to your own will power and belief of what you need to do to relax and have fun.

I know you are all waiting for that personal trainer speak – you dont need alcohol to have fun, make healthy food choices when out etc.  And there will be a bit of that.  But an admission first – I used to party.  Hard and often.  *Gasp*!  But realistically – majority of us have.  I used to think the only way to enjoy myself at any kind of ‘celebration’ was to make sure I had lots of alcoholic drinks, tasty foods (my vice is savoury – cheese, crackers, chips, and then more cheese) and that it lasted for a loooong period of time.  A few days in a row.  Then a very painful recovery day that often required transfatty fast foods, lots of sleep and movies in a dark room then at the end of the day when I could emerge to the sunshine a pool or beach to float in.  And this was my pattern for a long time.  Until I started finding telltale signs that it was not good for me – longer recovery, reactions to food, low energy levels, bad mood swings, and poor effort at work.  I was a binge drinker with a taste for a good time.  It took me a long time to realise that although I was having a great time, a lot of the time I wasn’t nearly as fun to be around or as witty as I thought I was (and I thought I was definitely comedian quality!).  And it got me to thinking.  Which started me researching what I was actually doing to my body – my liver, kidney, brain, and intestines.

And what I found shocked me.

If I was to keep going I was going to end up in all sorts of trouble internally and externally, that could result in organ failure, transplants and degenrating issues.  Not ideal.

It took me a while to break habits – habits are hard to break!  And by no means was it a nice or happy journey.  But it was rewarding… I slowly had more energy, my reactions to foods decreased, my general skin tone and outter body appearance improved and my focus improved.  So much that I actually got a promotion at work, and it became more interesting to be there rather than just getting through another day till the weekend.  Of course I had all the fears that my friends wouldn’t understand, they would make fun of me and that I would become an outcast from my group.  The ones that mattered understood and rolled with it.  The ones that didn’t matter just fell into the background.  You start to miss a lot of things in life if you spend time relying on substances to create your enjoyment.

So my call out to everyone is simply – stop and think.  Moderation is an amazing thing.  It allows you to satisfy that desire to enjoy the luxuries of our lifestyle, but also allows you to enjoy the entire night with full memory.  Your choices can lead to a more enjoyable evening, more control over situations and be able to enjoy your following day to its full potential.  Its difficult to completely cut out things from our diet and habits, but we can all minimise.  Little bit by little bit, making the right choice more often will really surprise you with the changes you will notice.

Less is more doesn’t only refer to outfits and decorations! Knowledge is power – check out how much exercise you would need to do to work off something you are wanting to spoil yourself with.  You may find a little motivation to make a different choice.  Think how excited your Personal Trainer would be to hear that one!