Operation “Active Change”

You know how it is when you have been away on holidays visiting family. There’s lots of socialising over food and alcohol, family celebrations and eating in transit. Food is often very decadent or full of carbs and sugar, and you tend to over indulge and eat what’s convenient. It’s very easy to fall into bad habits, be lazy and not exercise. Then it all catches up with you and on goes those extra kilos.

You get home and your holidays are over. Then that little voice inside your head starts getting louder… “You can’t keep being in holiday mode forever. You need to change and start being good again. You have to reverse all the indulging you have done this last week. You’re home now so make the change”. To which you reply, “Ok, ok. I hear you. You are right. I will start fresh tomorrow.”

Well, that’s me today. I got back from a week away, unpacked, and that little voice got louder. If I was honest, that little voice was there a day or two ago, but I managed to silence it by telling myself that I was still away on holidays and I didn’t have to listen to it until I got home. But I heard it loud and clear this afternoon once I had unpacked!

At first I began to respond by saying, “I will start fresh tomorrow.” But then I came across a blog by fellow blogger, Jen at Styling Curvy. It was about making the decision to actually start making some small, achievable changes in various areas of her life, rather than just sitting about and thinking about doing it. She started making changes today by beginning a 4 week challenge and committing to 4 weeks of walking everyday (she even did it in the freezing 10 degrees weather today – that’s impressive!).

Jen, your blog post couldn’t have arrived in my inbox at a better time. Here I was sitting at home telling that little voice in my head “I will start fresh tomorrow” (which I had every intention of doing, starting with a healthy grocery shop), when I realised, why the hell I am waiting until tomorrow? Why am I not getting out there TODAY? I’m still on holidays for another week and I don’t have any other plans this afternoon, so why don’t I start RIGHT NOW?

And you know what… that’s exactly what I did! I got changed into my active wear, dusted off my sneakers, plugged in my headphones to my phone and committed to finding my 30 minutes of moving for the day. I then proceeded to do three laps of my local park, which took exactly 30 minutes at my own brisk pace.

Thanks for the motivation today, Jen at Styling Curvy. It was exactly what I needed at exactly the right time. Count me in on you Active Change Challenge! You can join Jen (and me too) in making some active and positive changes in your life. Make sure you read her blog so you are in the loop, then make a start TODAY, not TOMORROW, and share some pics of your changes by using Jen’s hashtag #stylingcurvyactivechange in your social media posts. It will be great to support each other and celebrate our successes together!

I’ve started my changes with moving or exercising more (hopefully everyday, if not at least every week day). I’m heading to Africa in October and I’d really love to have a little more core strength, general strength and be more active and walking fit for those safaris and humanitarian work I will be doing. After chemo and radiation, having lymph nodes removed as well as knee surgery, my core strength, muscle strength and bone density was stripped and I’ve had to work hard over the last two years to get it back. In the last couple of months, I’ve let that slip. So my challenge is to make a change in that area and have Africa as that little bit of extra motivation (hence the walk today).

So sistas, where will you start? Will it be with moving? Or perhaps changing something in your diet? Maybe it might be some daily meditation or a little self love and acceptance. Tell me what you will do in the comments below.