My Current Outlook On What Being Healthy Means
lottiemurphyhealth
I'm quite relaxed when it comes to my choices around food nowadays and would say I have a balanced approach to health and my lifestyle in general. I try not to be too hard on myself anymore. Although perhaps to others it's still a very conscious outlook and I guess that's where we need to remember that everyone's idea of balance is going to be different and dependent on so many factors. I come from a once extreme view where I was obsessed with eating 'clean', with performing my absolute best day in day out as a ballet dancer and even since then having moved into a progressive and fast paced health and fitness industry where my early twenties were surrounded by juice cleanses, the rise of avocado on toast and whole lot of abs inspo! I'm happy that I realised that taking care of yourself is not just about lycra and protein shakes.
It's completely up to you and what you are comfortable with when looking at your own lifestyle. Maybe you're into supplements maybe you're not, maybe you hit the gym 6 times a week, maybe you just about manage one Pilates class a week, maybe you read up on the latest research about sleep and fasting and how much protein we really need or maybe you couldn't really care less. I think what I've realised over the years is that wherever you are doesn't make you any more or any less healthy than the person next to you. Yes even if that person next to you is eating their fourth jam donut.
Personally for me to be healthy is to be the best version of yourself. Maybe the best version of yourself is full of energy smashing ginger shots and cartwheeling your way through Monday to Friday and then the equally best version of yourself is feet up on a Sunday with a piece of Mum's homemade banana loaf in your hand having not moved all day. But maybe the best version of yourself is simply getting up, brushing your teeth, having a shower and getting out the front door, it's smiling at a stranger or asking a colleague how there day is going. Because the thing is is that who really knows what is right for us as an individual, if not ourselves than certainly not someone else.
Of course there are experts in nutrition and hormones and incredibly intelligent people doing incredible things for people's health and changing lives but I've always been one of those people that says 'well yes but I could be hit by a bus tomorrow...' - a bit morbid you might think but it always brings me right back to today and how I am feeling right now, how happy am I today. I remember that the choices I make yes will affect my future and how my skin might look and whether I get bad PMS next month but I also think do I want to share a pizza with my boyfriend on a Friday night, have a glass of wine on Saturday and be lazy on a Sunday- mostly always yes to all of the above.
Yes in a ideal world every plate of food I eat would be locally sourced produce, full of colour and texture and prebiotics and probiotics, leafy greens and edible flowers (eye roll) but actually I'm quite happy right now with a somewhat less ideal world where sometimes there's Linda McCartney vegetarian sausages on my plate and I eat them in front of the telly watching an episode of Friends I've watched 20 times before. With all of the above being said I am still someone who cares about how I feel, how I look (dare I say it) and live my life and I like to feel the best version of myself whatever that version may be that day.
I would say I have got to a place where I am in tune enough to know when I need a little more rest, a little less coffee and a bit more home cooked food. And really improving your health can be as simple as that. It's being in tune with you. It's being in nature, it's drinking more water, it's switching off from work, it's spending quality time with your loved ones, it's eating home cooked food, it's moving your body and it's laughing until your belly hurts. Who can't get more healthy than when you hysterically laughing.
Love, Lottie x