Just as the tag ONE SIZE FITS ALL strikes fear into the hearts of many women, so too should the legion of ONE SIZE FITS ALL weight loss/destress/find happiness/unlock your mojo programs out there in the marketplace.
Let’s face it. ONE SIZE FITS ALL really is not true to label is it? It really means, way too big, or way too small, or just not the right shape at all to fit you personally. It really means ‘we could not be bothered making a form-fitting piece just for you, so we made something that fits some of the people, some of the time, and we kinda hope you won’t notice!’
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Just as a perfect tailor-made pair of jeans fits snugly and enhances your figure, so too is there an alternative way to treat, to tailor-make your health, your happiness, and indeed how you show up on this gorgeous planet. Here are my top 3 tips for tailor-made health:
1) Take your cue from you
Trying to fit into the norm when the goalposts of the norm shift every day, depending on what diet or exercise program is being shouted out from the tabloids is fraught with failure.
You gorgeous are an individual and your nutrition is no different! Learning to listen to your own body’s cues and response to foods, to movement, and indeed to your entire life gives much more powerful information with which to steer your health.Learning to listen to your own body’s cues and response to foods, to movement, and indeed to your entire life gives much more powerful information with which to steer your health
Different backgrounds, climate, taste and texture preferences, constitution and even gender will dictate how a food affects you. Some people feel fabulous with a mainly raw, lots of juicing kind of gig, others feel energetic and full of beans with lots of good quality organic plant and animal protein on board.
Break free from a prescriptive rules based approach, and take your cues from you. Simple, yet so effective.
2) Do what moves you
Focus on what feels good and give up the exercise-is-a-chore mindset. Stop going to the gym and grinding out on the treadmill if swiftly walking across sand in the great outdoors is what really gets your soul wagging its tail.
Instead of negatively spinning exercise by just counting calories burnt, turn your attention to moving the energy around your body. The sheer joy of stretching and flexing and challenging yourself, then the softer, more inwards and gentle movements of dance or yoga is for you. Try them out and find out ways of moving your body and honouring yourself that you actually enjoy.
Exercise is not simply a way to maintain your weight or make yourself pay for eating ‘the wrong thing’. Tap in to understand that movement unblocks energy, invigorates your body and its processes and gives you a natural feel good effect. It’s when you stop making it a chore it becomes delicious and is freeing.
3) Trip up that inner b*tch
Just as movement and nutrition must be personalised and driven by joy and feeling good, so too must our internal landscapes. Many a woman has worked on her physical health yet neglected to shove a sock in the mouth of that inner b*tch living between her two ears. The difference between conventional health and a holistic way of caring for ourselves is the understanding that every thought, every feeling, every decision and interaction accumulates to our overall health. So an integral part of staying healthy is watching that inner dialogue and this is also is a very personal aspect of ourselves.
That inner b*tch is born usually during childhood or our formative years when we learn ridiculous things like “don’t rock the boat, your needs are not important” or “Sarah’s always such a good girl” or “Georgia is so bossy, she’ll never make any friends”. (Of course, childhood breeds many happy memories as well!)
The trick is no one else will ever live inside your head, so make friends with yourself! Insert the friend filter in your mind, run every little voice through the filter and be vigilant to any self-defeating BS going on. Your health and happiness will thank you for it.
Remember you are an individual. Your nutrition, your movement, your mindset, they are still just a small piece of the puzzle – but please beware. ONE SIZE FITS ALL deals will never give you the tailor-made solution you seek to up the ante on your all round health and happiness.
Kylie Patchett
Kylie Patchett is the author of The Tall Poppy Project:: Stand Tall + Stake a Claim On Your Delicious Life. An inspirational speaker, and former forensic scientist turned holistic health coach, she is the founder of The Tall Poppy Project: an online holistic health oasis for gorgeous gals. She delivers life-transforming workshops and coaching programs designed to bring awareness to true integrated holistic health and the impact that learning radical self-respect can have on your time on this gorgeous planet.