People need to stop saying they’re going off the booze for a month or on a diet until they lose 10kg because they want to be healthier.
What a load of absolute bollocks. The reason they say these things is guilt. Guilt from stuffing too much food in their mouth or binge drinking until their body is so toxic they feel sick. There is nothing in their rationale about getting healthy and maintaining health. Maybe, just drink less, and eat less for more than just the prescribed time.
I’m sure you are all aware of what happens next. They will start drinking again and start eating crap again and thus the cycle continues like a bad habit or ferris wheel ride. This is especially not good for either mental or physical well-being. I’ve heard people say, ‘I’ve lost 10 kilos so I can have a bag of chips, or I haven’t drunk for 1 month so I can get shit-faced with my friends.’
Bad Habits Die Hard
Here’s where the problem lies, you haven’t broken your habit, in fact you are creating a new habit that is just as bad or perhaps worse (like losing 10 kilo, ditching the habit and gaining 15 back – relate?). They need to realise that bingeing is far worse on the body. No matter what it is: food, alcohol or even exercise. Bingeing puts the body under undue stress and makes you feel even worse than you did before.
Here we go again, I hear you say. Another health nut preaching to the deaf. However, as it happens, I am describing myself! I did these exact same things for years and I am supposed to be a health expert! It just shows that even doctors smoke – or in my case binge. After many years of alcohol, stress, and up-and-down eating habits, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s, an inflammatory bowel disease. I had a choice to make, I either change my life or go on medication for the rest of my life. In my mind, it was a slippery slope of not being bothered to look after myself. In other words – I did this to myself. I put my body in dis-ease. Note the hyphen. ‘I’ created excessive inflammation in my body, so ‘I’ decided that ‘I’ had to find health and get rid of Crohn’s. Note my use of ‘I’. That’s because ultimately I was the only one who could help myself by making better choices minute by minute, moment by moment and day by day.
Time Flies
Years later, having maintained this new lifestyle, I can say I am rid of Crohn’s and have a healthy lifestyle with occasional minimal blips. They call this being in remission. People around me have accepted that I drive when I go on a night out or what foods I can eat when I go around for dinner parties. It doesn’t change how much fun I have now. I am still a crazy Yorkshire man who likes to express himself from time to time.
Drop the Facade
It’s also not about what other people think. Do you want to feel good and look after yourself? Live a long life and look after your children whilst being able to put your socks on or feel your fingers when you’re 80? If so, now is the time for change! ‘You’ can change. ‘You’ can implement a new routine. ‘You’ can adopt new habits. Make it part of ‘you’. Not my use of ‘you’. That’s because it really is up to you to make choices that lead to a healthier life. The biggest choice being that the change isn’t just for now, but for life. Don’t question what others think. It’s not about them and who cares anyway? Right? If you feel better and healthy, you’re doing the right thing and keep doing it. Then you’re on the right track because this is what healthy feels like. Fitness and health are not fads they are lifetime journeys. Food is fuel and you should know what you put in the tank to maintain your health. Would you put substandard fuel in the tank of your car? The answer is probably no. So why do that to the most precious vehicle you have – your body?
Change is Hard
I know. I make it sound easy. I understand, however, that I can be hard and so I encourage you to GO and see someone. Stop being scared or lazy. The quicker you change the better your life will be.
Don’t bother wasting your time or anyone else’s procrastinating over what and how you should do something and for how long. Ultimately, nobody really cares about what you want to do, apart from you. You are the most important person on this earth. Without your health, you cannot help anyone and without your urge to live you cannot look after your health.
My grandfather wisely used to say to me, ‘everything in Moderation even moderation’. And oh how true those words are. You must look after yourself as best you can. And of course, life will get in the way and go sideways. But it’s not an opportunity to stay sideways, but rather a chance to truly live your best life and quickly get back on track. There will always be the light between the trees when you’re living a healthy life.
So don’t waste your time, enhance your health, and just do it!
About Danny Williams
Osteopath and British expat Danny Williams has lived in Australia since 2010 and is the founder of South Yarra Osteopathy.
In the UK he was known as ‘the back doctor’ on national television and radio. Danny was also a lecturer and tutor at the British School of Osteopathy (BSO), spokesman for the British Osteopathic Association (BOA) and one of only two Consultant Osteopaths at London’s prestigious Portland Hospital treating pregnant women and children.
Since moving to Australia Danny has continued spreading awareness of the benefits of osteopathy including building a centre of clinical excellence and developing corporate health.
