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I believe a multitude of illnesses both mental and physical can be prevented and cured with exercise and a healthy lifestyle. This doesn’t mean you need to be at the gym 5 days a week and it certainly doesn’t mean you have to obsess over your diet, it merely means living a life that has balance.
We were not intended to drive to the local shops to get some supplies – we were given legs to walk. You don’t have to run 30 minutes a day on the treadmill 5 days a week to keep excess fat off your bones, you just need to take time out to run outside and play with your children after work until you are out of breath, or run to catch the bus or train when you’re late instead of taking the car, start to move faster than walking pace at regular points throughout your day, this will release endorphin’s and kick start your metabolism.
Movement/Exercise/Play
The reason we’ve stopped doing this is probably because it just isn’t seen as ‘normal’ or ‘cool’ to run or play as an adult. There are certain rules that society says we have to follow and most people feel they need to conform to prevent feeling out of place or looking silly. These days we all wait until we are at the gym, or our sports club before we move faster than walking pace for fear of looking stupid and or sweating in front of our colleagues or friends. Human beings were intended to be moving constantly throughout the day, not sat down at a desk for 8 hours motionless with bad postures. I understand that we all have to work and jobs feed us and pay the rent but that doesn’t mean we have to wait until 7pm when we finally get to the gym to get our bodies moving.
I met a man called Chris Kevern about 10 years ago and he opened my eyes to just how silly ‘normality’ is – it prevents us from doing anything out of the ordinary in day to day life for the fear of looking silly. We are all clones just unknowingly following each other – break the mould – everyone’s waiting for someone to do it – that’s how leaders are made and people are liberated! Do it your way, you only get one life.
Having seen this I now regularly break into a run when walking my dog on the beach, or just sprint up some sand dunes until I’m out of breath, or run up some steps in a shopping mall. My particular favourite is going to a children’s park and playing on the zip slide. I take time out to remember what child like fun is and I play like I used to when I was a child – I love piggy backs and leap frog, chasing my dog round the garden and using my trampoline with my friends, it’s hilarious – people always stare but not because they think I’m crazy… because they wish they had the guts to not care what people think!
Everything we do in society today is to look good and fit in, everything we do has its appropriate time and place, now I appreciate sometimes there have to be rules, laws and social norms, otherwise the world would be crazy and out of control but I think you’ll agree, we could all do with being a little less stressed and a little more light-hearted.
Fuel/Energy for Life – Fill the Tank
Alongside getting that body moving you need to fuel it the right way – there is a way human beings were intended to eat because there is a natural supply of food available to us in the world – chicken, beef, fish, fruit, cereal, vegetable, nuts, seeds etc. These are all available outside in nature, curries, fish and chips, pizzas and pre-packed sandwiches, ready meals and other pre-made, pre-packed foods certainly are not available out in the wild.
To fuel your body to get the very best from it, try and eat as close to source as possible, this doesn’t mean you need to live in a tent and pick berries all day, it means go to Tesco and buy fruit veg, cereals dairy and meat and eat a varying combination of these ingredients regularly and not to excess. If you eat like this and move your body – there is NO WAY you can be excessively overweight, it’s just not possible!
Change, The Inner Battle
Now to the important part, if you have all this knowledge and understanding and are ready are raring to start your new healthy happy lifestyle, why do so many people stop and revert back to old ways? Well it’s true, old habits die hard, especially if you have an inherent dislike for yourself; most people who start a new exercise regime start because they don’t like the way they look, not because they can’t breathe when they walk up the stairs, or the idea of playing with the kids makes them break out in a sweat.
When you don’t like the way you look your fitness becomes ALL about losing weight and looking good but the problem here is, if you don’t like yourself, your mind will do everything possible to make you stay within your comfort zone and not step out of the box for ‘fear of looking silly’. This continual inner chatter going on in your head, the ‘no don’t go to the gym today’ the ‘your too fat people will laugh’ the old ‘I’m too tired tonight, I’ll go tomorrow’. All of those conversations are the minds way of preventing you from ridicule; it’s a safety mechanism and a very clever one because it works, BUT it also prevents you from ever changing or striving for better things in life for yourself, things you deserve.
Vicky, Vfit and The Team
At Vfit we understand ALL of these barriers to success and can talk to you and coach you from this. We understand how hard it is to change your lifestyle because we have ALL been there.
At 21 I started Taekwondo because I was fed up of being bullied and pushed around by people; before every lesson I was literally shaking with nerves, it took every bit of my strength and courage to walk through the door, even now I still don’t know where I got that courage from!
After about a year my instructor Mr Lamb entered me in to some sparring competitions which I won, I put it down to fluke (of course) but I kept competing and kept winning until I eventually got to black belt and was offered the opportunity to try our for the England girls team. I thought this was ridiculous but my coaches (thankfully) made me go. I walked in to this massive arena where I saw the girls in my category warming up, the same girls who had been black belts since I very first started Taekwondo; the ones I used to watch in awe.
The word nerves couldn’t describe it – I felt out of my depth, completely inadequate and actually tried to leave, but my friend Jake was there who somehow calmed me down, as did a phone call with Chris Kevern. I got in the ring and had 4 of the toughest fights of my life but to my amazement won all of them bar the last, that was enough to get me seeded No 2 in England! I literally couldn’t believe it! 3 months later I represented my country in the World Championships and fought my way to 3rd place. At every step of the way my mind was telling me ’no, you’re not good enough’ but with the help of close friends and some tough coaches, I kept going and achieved things I never thought ‘little old me’ was capable of.
5 years later and I managed to become 4 x British Champion, 2 x European Champion and ranked 3rd in the world and my most memorable and proud moment was beating the current reigning world champion who was my arch enemy in 2010 in a team comp – UK v Argentina. It was probably the best moment of my sporting career to date – the look on her face when I landed an axe kick on her face 3 seconds before the end of the last round was priceless, she just couldn’t believe it. In 2007 I had also started Thai Boxing along side TKD to sharpen my game and was lucky enough to be tutored by the best in the world – Nathan and Julie Kitchen, I fought for Touchgloves post ACL reconstruction on my knee from 2010-2016 and had 19 professional fights winning SW Area Title, British Title, European Title and World Titles. I fought in Holland, Thailand, Jersey and Las Vegas. I have had a gifted journey with Nathan my couch, he saw potential and took my career to the highest of heights, never allowing for my excuses and small thinking – he pushed me to fullfill my wildest dreams and I still look back now in disbelief with the utmost gratitude! https://www.facebook.com/people/Touchgloves-Gym/100063458355096/
My ambition in life now is to show people that they can be everything they dream of and more, in fact my ambition is to open people eyes so that they are honest with themselves about who they really want to be; I want to empower people to remove the barriers preventing them from being EVERYTHING they can be. All they need to do is get themselves out of the way and listen to the people around them who love and care for them. Those people know who you really are, they know what you’re really capable of and they will support you to be it.
At Vfit we become your friend, your coach, your mentor and your driving force, we make you realise you can achieve anything, you just need to be willing to tell your mind ‘thank you for your advice but I’m in charge’ and to have the courage to fight for that right to be everything you can be.
Below is my favourite quote of all time; this quote has and will continue to inspires me through my most troubled times and the funny and slightly spooky thing is that 3 completely different people throughout my life have given this quote to me, those 3 people were the people who helped me realise I could be more…
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” ― Marianne Williamson
