Keri McKibbin Personal Training

The clocks going back sparks the start of the unknown, the darkness, the cold, the rain, the time when it’s easier to snuggle up on the settee-and let the fear win.

Yet letting the fear win goes against the beliefs we have in life.

We always talk about how it was back in “our day”, it was tougher? We must have faced the fear then? And we became better for it!

We always encourage our kids to go to school when they don’t want to,, we encourage them to take their PE kit even when they may not want to do it, because it will be “good for them”.

Yet most people’s goals as they get older is to make our lives more comfortable and move less, get a newer car to sit in, so we walk less, we have less fresh air, we want to have a new conservatory because it’s nice to SIT in there, get ready meals delivered because we can’t be bothered to go out, it seems worlds apart from our lives as a youth, when we walked everywhere, we got on our bikes and we caught buses too only when we were desperate.

We can’t encourage our youth to do more, move more though if we aren’t prepared to move more ourselves. 

The season and clocks change is only a mind test. Are we up to it or do we want to make our lives easier by taking the easy option every time?

I hear of many people who retire and longingly want to get up late in the day, as if its a badge of achievement. Getting up at 1130 and then calming its “lunch time before I know it!”, the irony of that is incredible without them realising it.

When we move less, we move much more quickly to our end of days, we move quickly towards more pain and stiffness in our bodies, and we move much quicker to surrendering to the unknown, the darkness and indeed the very challenge and excitement of life, that makes us thrive, live with purpose and fight much longer and with more pride against the dying of the light.

The clocks going back should be the starting gun to another great season to come, some will rise to it, some won’t, but nobody can complain about being miserable and lacking energy and excitement if they aren’t even prepared to keep having a go in life. 

Your best days are ahead. 

Training well and regular often motivates us to eat well too, because we don’t want to waste any of our efforts at the gym.

I believe NOT training causes a disconnect in our relationship with eating healthy and our motivation to keep doing so.

When we don’t train, we move into a different realm of belief system.

It becomes “okay” to eat like non-exercisers do, and we all become more influenced by the people we hang out with most, and when we don’t look after ourselves anymore, then its much easier to get swayed by others’ opinions and their justification for eating and drinking much worse than we usually do or used to do.

Discipline and routine are often unfashionable words these days, but what they do is keep us in good health, when it would be all too easy to go off the rails eating what we wanted, and justifying not exercising as something what “lots of people do”. 

We ALL need routine and discipline in our lives or we will sacrifice optimum health because we fell into the trap of lowering our standards, just because it’s “what some people do”, and it is much easier initially, but long term will lead to a much lower quality of life which comes from having poor health.

Exercising regularly works super well with eating healthy, never forget this magic formula and how it impacts your life for the better.