Keri McKibbin Personal Training

When the Christmas message gets lost

The tables of food you see in christmas adverts I have never seen in any house I have ever been in, and I have trained very wealthy people, and I have trained a LOT of people yet still have never seen that over-indulgence in food.

It’s making a lot of people feel inadequate because the parent cant afford all of that food, it’s making the child feel poor because they haven’t got huge quantities of everything in all the christmas adverts, they don’t know how unrealistic that is.

As we get older, and we see the full impact of christmas, it’s hard not to be cynical of the marketing effort alone, and the way it really makes people feel.

Then fast forward to the end of the month, look at the coop’s in Burry Port to Mumbles, it’s funny they have massive adverts in the window for cold and flu remedies in abundance, they know you will get sick from eating so much rubbish most of December, drinking more than usual and not moving so much, so the pharmaceutical companies become happier because they know their products will be in very high demand.

Then the debt management and banks to well after christmas as they get more requests for loans to cover the cost of christmas, plus banks and solicitors do well late January when they get more requests for the implications of divorce, and this reaches it’s peak from jan 15th to 31st January apparently.

This is not a all doom and gloom message though

It’s not all bad news though, I see more people depressed at this time of year than ever, due to christmas reminding them of bad times and many of them will want to join the gym as a way to overcome depressive thoughts. 

When I actually tell them not to believe the marketing people and there is another way to feel better, the stories start to become way more positive.

I see more and more of you swapping ultra processed food for REAL food that is still in it’s original form, and it’s not only making your body healthier, it’s flushing out some toxic stuff from your mind too-it’s what you tell me. 

I see more of you hitting the gym in December rather than throwing the towel in and accepting that putting on two stone is somehow a “good thing”, many of you who USED to be in poor health realise that being in a good health is NOW is nothing you should take for granted and you have worked so hard to turn it all around you won’t want to blow it all now, and you are celebrating the options/opportunities you have now in life, and well as the great gratitude now for the health you are in.

When life offers you two choices in December, there’s only one way to guarantee you lift your sprits, start feeling good about yourself again and it’s never going to be the “eat as much as you can” version, “spend as much as you can” version on stuff you never really needed in the first place.

It’s great to enjoy yourself but as long as you still eating well 80% of the time and still training at least 3 times a week, you know everything will stay in good order with your body and mind and you won’t succumb the endless lows after christmas in January which will only drag you down to a dark place you never want to be in, keep fighting and make December a great month all round.

Life is a risk, we could get knocked down later on, we could slip on a sheet of ice, we could actually “fail” at something, society will always tell us to take the “Safe Route” and not have a go.

The problem is when the “safe route” becomes really the most dangerous route and fraught with danger and ill health.

When we don’t get out and have a go every day in life, we never “fail” at anything at all and don’t have to deal with disappointment, after all we can look at our past achievements through rose tinted spectacles and wax lyrically how our life “used to be”, and no doubt recall our “daring moments” in our “younger days” which happened to fill us with pride.

With our food choices, we can fit in with “everyone else” or least the people we know, and giggle as we say “ready meals are easier, they are only 2 minutes to warm up”, and they are all “low in fat”. That is “being safe” for most people.

If that is your “status quo” in life, or the way you have started to think just to “fit in with others”, then you need to re-check the facts and the science.

Having a go is a human need as much as fresh air is vital for us, it’s a desire to test ourselves that lets us thrive and keeps us young in all ways, are we still strong enough, do we still have enough energy, can we still walk up that hill or down those stairs just like we always did? Can we still lift heavy things off the floor?

We were brought up on home cooked food, no additives, no crazy chemical experiments that originated in the laboratory now called food, in our food shops back in the day we didn’t have rows and rows of ultra processed food now disguised as good food for us, and to be truthful we don’t have to stand for it now, we can still buy food in the natural form and with a small bit of imagination we can cook a meal with less than 5 ingredients that not only tastes amazing but is actually good for us.

I urge you to take the tiny risk but massive reward of exercising and eating natural and the right way, because that’s what’s really going to make you change, in terms of feeling better, have a much better chance of not getting ill, and finally get back your self-confidence and self-pride, which has been so easy to lose over the last couple of years.