Sarah (00:01.442)
Hello and welcome to Creating Active Lives with me, Sarah Bolitho and my guest, Claire Jones from Your One Life, Healthy Weight Solutions. We last saw Claire back in December where we were talking about healthy holiday habits, sort of kind of, I suppose, literally having a cake and eating it, but without the necessarily the damage or the guilt or whatever that goes with it. However, as much as we all love a good habit and we may have had good intentions. It is entirely possible that some of us maybe did overindulge or did overdo things and are kind of now faced with the sort of weight gain or feeling rotten or feeling rough and just okay that didn't go the way I planned it to, that didn't quite go the way I hoped. I need to get back on track. So Claire, a little bit about you and how important it is to get back on track.
Claire Jones (01:03.)
So I think, you know, it's important to remember that, regardless of what we might like to think, no doubt carrying extra weight does increase the risks to our health. And for me, in my own journey, that was quite a sort of stark realization that, you know, if I didn't get a handle on my lifestyle, then, you know, I was storing up for potentially some big problems for the future.
And so the way that I see it is, you know, we can either do something about it and improve our, you know, future and current health prospects, or we can choose to do nothing and then nothing changes. So if we give up, nothing changes. So every day that we have is a really good opportunity to continue to make improvements little by little.
And one of the things that I often talk about with my clients and with my audience in general is the film Groundhog Day, because I absolutely love the journey that he goes on in the film, the main character. And I would say to anyone listening, if you haven't watched Groundhog Day, watch it. If you have watched it, but perhaps aren't quite sure what I'm getting at, watch it again, because to begin with, he does try to, he's very frustrated that he keeps reliving the same day over and over again and nothing changes. But then he starts to change. And as he starts to change, he starts to do, because he learning and he's not giving up and he continues to obviously over, I don't know how many days he actually lived ground up David Liscar. It would have to have been thousands for the things that he actually achieved in the film. But, you know, the point was that he turned the situation to his advantage and he started to learn from his mistakes inverted commas. And as a result, because he didn't give up. He then achieved great things and it's recognising each little tiny step, each day is an opportunity to build on the day before.
Sarah (03:03.446)
That's it. His days repeated, not because he didn't make the changes or do the different things, it's because he hadn't learned why and made it part of him rather than just a token of I'll change like this and then it'll all be fine. It was right, no, this is why I need to change, this is the impact it will have. So it's more than just changing, isn't it? It's that understanding. Yes, it is.
Claire Jones (03:19.38)
It's a very, very powerful film for behaviour change. I just talk about it all the time. And Yes, so I think that's a great example. If you're struggling to kind of think, what's the point? You know, here I go again. I've made the same mistake again. That film is a great inspiration, I think.
Sarah (03:49.302)
This brings us, here we are, it's January, it's 2024, and chances are people went into kind of the Christmas period, the end of the year, with a lot of good intentions. I'm not going to overeat, I'm not going to overeat, I'm going to keep active, I'm going to drink sensibly. and they might not have gone the way it planned. And let's be honest, it happens, it happens. And I think one of the issues is people feel very ashamed of themselves. They feel quite embarrassed. They feel they've let themselves down. And it's not about that, is it? Behaviour change isn't about that. Behaviour change, in some ways, knowing that it's gone a little bit wrong is a good point to start from, because you can work from that and say, right, okay, why did it go wrong? What do I need to change so that by the time we get to next year, next Christmas I have better control over what I want to eat and when.
Claire Jones (04:48.644)
Yes, it's about the learning, absolutely. And I think, you know, when it comes to sort of dealing with the aftermath of Christmas or any other event, whether it be a holiday or social occasion where we have overindulged perhaps more than we intended to, I think it's recognising that, you know, at a conscious level, we might be thinking, oh, you know, I've mucked up and you know, I'm useless and you know I can't control myself and all that sort of thing but actually when we look at what's going on underneath the surface what we have to remember is that we're hardwired to enjoy food, we're hardwired to eat as much food as possible when it's available and so we do, there's a reason why our stomachs are stretchy, it's so that we can fit in food so that when it's there we eat as much of it as possible so that we then store the excess as fat so that we can use it later when food is scarce.
Unfortunately for us, the world we're living in, for those of us who are fortunate to obviously know where all our next meals are coming from, we are never in a position where food is scarce. So we're never in a position where we have to actually use up that stored energy that we stored when we overindulged. But of course our bodies haven't changed. The world around us has changed, but our bodies haven't changed. So when we are finding ourselves in situations where food, highly desirable, highly tasty, highly calorific food is in front of us, we're designed to eat it. So we're going to do that. So actually trying to resist that, we are literally trying to fight our survival instincts and our survival instincts are really strong. So it's no wonder that we might over-indulge. And it's important then to kind of recognise that that's what's happened. Just rather than beat ourselves up about it, to think, well, how can I be aware of that next time and do something different next time?
Sarah (06:25.8)
So how do we be aware of it and do something different? So what can we do? So somebody listening now is thinking, God, I did eat too much, I did drink too much and I really didn't want to. How did they get back on track now?
Claire Jones (06:54.384)
Okay, the first thing is forgive yourself. Forgive yourself for being human and doing what humans do, Yes, because that's part of our makeup. Yes, absolutely. So first of all, let it all go. Let it all go because we can't change what we've already done, but what we can do is we can learn from it.
Sarah (07:03.39)
It's your survival instinct after all.
Claire Jones (07:17.628)
People have different views on New Year's resolutions and, you know, new year, new start and all of that sort of thing. But actually, I think, you know, if you think about again, how we evolve, I know New Year isn't quite, you know, from an evolutionary perspective, you know, it's a manmade thing, isn't it? First of January is a manmade thing. But you kind of think of it in the same way as like spring and new beginnings and all of that is actually, I think, OK, is a great opportunity to just review what do we want to achieve in this coming year? And therefore, what are the steps that we need to take to do that? But steps that we need to make that are achievable, that are comfortable, because as soon as we start doing things that are uncomfortable, we can cope with one or two uncomfortable things at any given time. But if we suddenly say, right, I need to overhaul my entire life and I'm going to go to the gym every day and I'm going to not eat any unhealthy food, that for most of us is a step too far, you know?
Sarah (08:17.11)
Definitely. It's like saying I'm going to declutter every single room in my house at the same time. You're not going to do it. You know people will say start with one draw in one room. Do it. And this is the thing isn't it? It's like you wouldn't overhaul your entire house in one go at the same time. You would do it in stages and it's the same isn't it with behaviour change. It's kind of you might have a vision of where you want to be, what you want to achieve.
Claire Jones (08:23.216)
That's it. Yes.
Sarah (08:48.299)
But the way you get there starts now, not tomorrow, not next week, not the 1st of February or whatever. It's like, okay, what can I do right now? And that might be as simple as planning your meals for the next day. But this is small steps. So getting back on track isn't about, you know, beating yourself up and saying, oh, no, I can't do it. Oh, it was awful. It's saying, right, okay, so how do I get back on track?
Claire Jones (09:01.5)
Yes, absolutely.
Sarah (09:15.414)
What's one thing I can do today? And what are some of the simple things people can do?
Claire Jones (09:21.428)
Well, I think it depends on, I suppose, what people's priorities are and their preferences, because there's so many different ways that we can manage our weight, and there is no one single answer that's right for everybody. But one of the things that I think it's important to try and understand is, how much energy do we actually need to maintain our weight? And that gives us then a good indication of how much energy we might need to lose it. So if we know that we're going into January, having gained, you know, a few pounds potentially, sometimes more, I know for me it was, you know, I could easily put on a stone between beginning of November and the end of December because I just think, oh, there's no point in trying to do anything about it and then just eat all the food and drink and then think I'll sort it out in January. And then January would come and I'm like, oh, why did I do that?
But it's about understanding our energy needs, because if you think about, you know, the way that we live, you know, we need energy to survive. We need, we all have our own individual amount of energy that we need to maintain our weight on a daily basis. And obviously if we're gaining weight, we're eating more than that. And if we're losing weight, we're eating less than that. And if you think about when we go shopping or when we buy anything, we have to understand whether we can afford what we want to buy or not. So we need to know how much money we've got in our bank account, we need to know, you know, how the prices of things. So having a bit of an understanding about what things cost in an energy perspective can be really, really helpful. That doesn't mean to say you have to count every single calorie or track your food all the time, but just having an awareness of, you know, the government guidelines of you know, for a typical woman, it's 2000 calories a day, for a typical man, it's somewhere between 2000 and 2500. If we're consistently exceeding that, we're going to put on weight, aren't we? And equally, if we want to lose weight, we've gotta come underneath that somehow. So if we don't know the energy values of what we're consuming, it's a bit like going shopping with a contactless card, not looking at the prices and never looking at our bank account. And we wouldn't say to someone who was struggling with their money, well, it's okay, don't worry about looking at your bank account.
Don't worry about looking at the prices, spend what you like, do what you like. So it's the same kind of principle. The difficulty is, of course, we get very emotionally attached to what we eat. So what we need to try and do is rather than think about this from an emotional perspective, it's think, you know, from a practical perspective, how much do things cost? How much do things cost in terms of energy? And what do I actually need to consume in order to, to look after my health?
And obviously we need to look at the quality of what we're consuming as well as the quantity. So just raising our awareness because it is so, so easy to overeat in the world that we live in. 120 calories a day, more than we need, puts on a stone in a year. And of course, if we put on that over Christmas, as I used to do, it's so much harder to lose weight than it is to gain it, unfortunately, because it's harder to create that calorie deficit and still get the nutrition that we need.
So just having a basic awareness of what we're consuming, I think is useful. And perhaps look at where we can start making very small changes to what we're doing. And I do encourage people when I work with them to just keep a food diary, not with any targets or any judgments, but just simply, what am I eating? Because it's so, so easy to eat mindlessly. It's so, so easy to eat and not pay attention to what we're eating. Whereas when we keep some kind of record of what we're eating, whether it's simply just a pen and paper and just writing down what we add, then we can start to look at, well, you know, what small changes could I make that are going to have minimal impact on my enjoyment of life, minimal impact on, you know, the taste, minimum impact on, you know, what I'm consuming, but could potentially have quite a big impact on our waistline.
Sarah (13:29.214)
And this is the thing, isn't it? It's those small changes and you know, your first step might be to actually work out and you can do this online, roughly how many calories a day you need and look at as well. Actually, gosh, if I was a little bit more active, my requirements would go up slightly. That's a good thing. And I'll often say to people, if they're still having, Oh, I'll always have a couple of biscuits with my morning coffee. Um, I have a couple of digestives. It's right. Okay. Well, maybe swap to something like two ginger nuts. So you're still getting your two biscuits, but actually they've probably got half the calories in.
swap. You're not depriving yourself but after a while it will be like well maybe I'll just have one or maybe I'll take my coffee to go and go for a walk and it once you know I always say you can't change habits until you know what you're doing and this is where knowing what you eat means you can look at it and think well I ate that I didn't need it was way too close to my meal time or it was way too soon after my meal time. And I think that is a really important first step is without any judgment or, or kind of hiding anything. It's just literally write down what you eat over a three day period and see, okay. Yes.
Claire Jones (14:38.908)
Yes, I see it. And some people find taking photographs is helpful because there's no writing down involved, but it's like, oh, and then you've got that visual representation because some people find it easier to look at things visually and some people find it easier to write things down. Some people record it on a, you know, a food tracking app. And, you know, it doesn't matter what you do as long as it works for you. That's that's the that's the key thing. And as long as you're recording everything, because it's no good only recording half the stuff, because that's not going to give you the full picture. Awareness is the first step and then it's looking at small changes. I mean, one of my clients recently, she's just switched the milk in her coffee because she has every morning a lovely drink that she likes to have. She's just switched from full fat to semi-skinned. That's a really small switch that can, over time, make quite a big impact on the amount of energy she's consuming.
Sarah (15:08.98)
And if you buy your coffee in coffee shops, it's going from a medium to a small or a large to a medium. Don't make big changes all at once because you'll notice them. What you want to do is make subtle changes that you don't really notice. And I think that's one of the keys, isn't it? And it's like you're not going to suddenly start becoming more active and go out for a half an hour run if you've been sat down for the last two months doing very little. But you did it.
Claire Jones (15:48.918)
Exactly, like guys, if you're used to overeating a lot, trying to suddenly go on a diet is going to be a step too far. Let's get some stability going in what you're currently doing and then get you ready to then put you in a position where you can actually start losing. So I think this is where trying not to go from one extreme to the other is really important and just sort of coming back to that kind of January reset kind of feeling. I think you know, it's about rather than going, right, OK, in January, I'm going to cut everything out and I'm going to change everything all at once. It's in January, I'm going to take stock. I'm going to take stock of what I'm doing and then I'm going to start building in small changes here and there. And and over time, those small changes can add up. And it's no start with the thing that's going to have the quickest win with the least the least effort. And it's getting that balance right. And then building on that as time goes on and also recognising that some of the things, obviously when it comes to eating and drinking, knowing what we're consuming is obviously going to be the most important thing and making changes to that, but also we have to think about what are the softer things that go around that. So if we're having a rubbish night's sleep for example, trying to make ourselves do something that perhaps we know we're not particularly enamoured about changing, it's much harder when we're feeling rubbish, whereas if we've had a good night's sleep we're feeling stressed, we were feeling
Sarah (17:03.085)
Yes.
Claire Jones (17:23.108)
it's much easier to commit to. So it may be a case of before we even start addressing what we're eating and drinking, do we need to address our sleep patterns? Patterns, because that may be having a big influence on our ability to then implement what we're trying to do.
Sarah (17:32.344)
And things like building activity and whether it's a stretch, you know, a nice stretch or a short walk, a brisk walk maybe if you normally walk to the shops quite slowly, then maybe just still walk to the shops, but a brisker pace. If you're not used to, you know, if you've spent the last couple of months not doing much activity, again, you're not going to go snap back into it straight away so it's okay what's something I'd like to do oh I'd like to go for a walk I'd like to walk to my friend's house and have a coffee with her I'd like to do some stretching or you know think about things that you can easily build into your day or things that you're doing in your day that you can make a little bit more beneficial by doing for slightly longer or slightly quicker or things like that and I think you know it's the expectation is with new year that we're going to suddenly have all these new things that we're going to do and it's going to be successful. In actual fact, I think around half of us set New Year's resolutions. Only eight or 9% actually achieved them. Most people have given up by February. So for me, it's also thinking, why do I want to make this change? What will I gain? How will it enhance my life? So it's not just, I want to eat more healthily or I want to lose weight or I want to be more active. What will doing that give you or how will it enhance your life?
Claire Jones (19:01.988)
Yes, absolutely. And it's about being able to pin it on something really valuable. And for me, it was about looking at my health and thinking, I don't want it. At the time when I was really tackling this, I was in my mid thirties. I'm now 50 and my 50 being 50 is I'm in a very different place to where I would have been if I had carried on with the lifestyle I was leading back then. And, and, and I look back now and, you know, I thank my, my former self for having the courage and the determination to make the changes that I did back then, because now I'm living the life that I wanted to live and I've done so many things that I never would have done if I hadn't made those changes.
Sarah (19:43.426)
But it's, and this is it, it's the bigger picture, it's the bigger vision, if you like. So your bigger vision might be the summer or the autumn, something that you're planning to do then. It might be 10 years time, it might be 20 years time, it might be looking at your life and saying, right, if I carry on the way I am, what will my life look like in 20 years time? Compared to if I make these changes, what will my life look like, what will I be doing? And sometimes that can make people think crikey, actually.
Claire Jones (19:46.687)
Yes
Sarah (20:14.142)
But again, don't think you're going to go from eating unhealthy or eating foods that are less healthy to eating only healthy foods overnight. A, it's not practical, it's not realistic because there's always going to be foods with different nutritional values. But Yes, but also, you know, it's like anything, like I said before, but you wouldn't go out after years of sitting on the sofa, you wouldn't go out and run a 5k. You would follow the very gradual steps, which might be a five-minute walk. You know, and this is why there are programs like Couch to 5K and things. It's about those small steps that take you from the couch to the 5K. It doesn't happen overnight.
Claire Jones (20:45.737)
Yes. And it's about learning and it's about the learning and the building up of the skills. And I often describe my work as a bit like learning to drive because it actually takes months to relearn how to eat, you know, and then be able to implement that on a lifelong basis. So, you know, apart from obviously those people who take an intensive seven day driving course, which personally I know wouldn't have been right for me because I need that time to absorb and assimilate the learning but it takes months to learn to drive. It took me nine months from getting in the car the first time to actually passing my test. And the way that I kind of talk about my work is it's about changing attitudes and behaviors and beliefs, you know, and practice, lots and lots of practice of doing things and getting it wrong, but trying again, just like when we learn to drive, you have to get familiar with how to work the machine, and then you have to get familiar with reading the roadsides, reading the traffic, understanding what you're doing and feeling confident and competent in that. And it's the same with any change that we're trying to do in life. We have to go through the learning process. There's no shortcut to it. We can't just go from being where we are to where we want to be overnight. And we tend to expect when we're trying to lose weight that that's what's going to happen. And it's never going to.
Sarah (22:11.178)
And it does, but it's also thinking about everything else around. It's not just about the food you eat and when you eat and things like that. It's also like going back to the running thing. It's about the shoes that you wear, the clothes that you wear, the weather, the people around you, different circumstances. And again, your existing fitness level, your existing the way you eat.
Claire Jones (22:17.628)
Oh, that's it.
Sarah (22:32.49)
So it's about all of that. You know, you have to take into account your social life, your family life, your cooking skills even, because if suddenly you're going into cooking healthy foods and you haven't got a clue how, that's going to derail you. So it's so much more than just saying, these are the foods that I'm going to focus on. There's so much more around it. And I think with any habits, any things that you want to either give up or adopt in the new year, and I'm all about, I'm all about adopting positive habits because I think the more positive habits we have the more the negative ones get nudged out When you see the minute you think about giving up or stopping It's kind of like no I don't want to do that Whereas if you think about what you're going to gain what you're going to start doing It's more positive and I think but all of that you have to be realistic about your circumstances and about Where you are and anyone has done a course in the label know one of my big sayings is start where you are If at the moment your diet is not where you want it to be start with one small change, and then another small change and then do it gradually. And don't expect, like you say, it's not going to happen overnight and it won't be sustainable if you do it quickly, but the more gradually you do it, the more you embed it into your normal life, the more it'll get there. So whatever your visions or goals or aims are for 2024, start where you are and do it very, very gradually because you won't notice the changes until they all start adding up.
Claire Jones (23:45.053)
No, that's it. And it's about kind of, you know, if, you know, revisiting perhaps previous New Year's resolutions that you might have made and thought, well, what was the reason that you only lasted till February? And actually, does that mean that the resolution itself was maybe not appropriate and what could you do instead? You know, and, you know, what's better for your life, you know, than?
Sarah (24:30.516)
I often call them New Year revolutions because it's the same one every year and I think what people get really good at is setting the same goals and failing them every year or not achieving them and actually this year do something different, think of something different or think beyond the actual aim into why, what will this do for you, how will it benefit your life, how will you feel, maybe think about feelings much more than outcomes, think about how you'll feel when you've achieved it, what you'll be able to do that you can't do now.
Claire Jones (24:57.858)
Definitely. Yes. And I can tell you now, sitting here, every day, there's not a day that goes by where I don't feel grateful for the fact that I have got the freedom from the struggle with food, you know, I don't struggle with food, I haven't done for years. And that it's like the it's the absence of something it's hard to measure. But it the freedom of not having to worry about that. The, literally the weight that it lifted off my mind as well as my body has been so transformative. You know, I am a completely different person and people look at pictures and they say, was that you? I'm like, Yes, it was. And I'm very grateful to that person because I'm who I am today because I lived as that person before and I'm now able to pay that forward.
Sarah (25:34.326)
But it's for most of us, the things that matter the most, if you like, I mean, yes, we all have goals where we've got a very measurable outcome. It's like, well, Yes, I've done it, look, there we go. But sometimes there isn't a point where you go, I've done it, it's just, there's a point where you look back and think, actually, I've been free from eating issues for a while now. It's just become part of who I am. It's not like, oh, goodness, I've woken up on Monday morning and I'm free. You look back and realize, Yes.
Claire Jones (26:08.882)
Yes, that's it. That's it. And I've hit my goal weight. I've hit my goal weight, yes.
Sarah (26:22.598)
It's that looking back and thinking actually gosh I've been doing this automatically for a while this is part of who I am now and I think that's a much bigger achievement than right I've lost the weight it's the point where you Yes that might be you think right Yes I've lost all the weight I gained over Christmas but actually there'll be a point another point where you think I've changed the way I approach eating I've changed the way I approach food and that's not
Claire Jones (26:29.168)
Yes, that's it. That's it.
Sarah (26:53.158)
You can't set that as a goal. You can't say on the 29th of February, I will have changed the way. It'll be something that you suddenly realise has happened as part of the tiny little changes.
Claire Jones (26:54.829)
That's it. For me it was sort of like seven years into my success that I kind of thought I've achieved something here that not many people have achieved and I need to help other people to do this because what is it about what I've done and it took me several years to actually appreciate what I left behind because I never set out to leave that behind. That wasn't part of my vision. My vision was not to be free of struggles from overeating. My vision was just I just wanted to be a healthy weight. But it brought so much more to me than that, you know. And actually I never reached my goal weight, you know. And I don't want to reach my goal weight because my goal weight was like a bit of a red herring. It was the change in lifestyle, the change in how I feel every day. The weight started to become irrelevant especially when I started weight training, because I was never going to then reach my original goal weight, because muscle weighs. When you've got muscle, you have to accept that you're going to weigh more, but I'm still smaller. It's just not about the weight. It's about so much more than that.
Sarah (27:58.37)
Yes. And that's the thing, isn't it? It's I think this is where, you know, yes, I know some people need goals, they need specific outcomes to work towards and that's fine. I think even then always think about what beyond that, once I've achieved that, then what, you know, what, what will I do to maintain it? What will I do to build on it? What will I do to have it enhance my life? And, you know, like you say, if for a lot of people, it's if I lose this weight then I will have more energy and I will be able to do this. And that's the true outcome. It's kind of what's the superficial outcome, if you like, and what's the deep outcome. And I think the mistake so many people make when they're setting their New Year's resolutions, their goals or whatever, is they look at the superficial outcome. They don't look at that deeper, much more meaningful, emotional outcome. I'll be able to keep up with my friends. I'll be able to do this, I'll be able to skydive or whatever they want to do. It's a much bigger outcome, but it's one that we often don't really take the time to think about.
Claire Jones (29:21.038)
And I think, I don't, and I also don't think that we necessarily can think about it in the same way until we get there. And, you know, it's like when I, my husband was my very first client when I first started out and I helped him to lose four and a half stone, which he's kept off. And I remember asking him at the beginning, how do you feel, you know, about the weight that you're carrying at the moment? Oh, it's just a bit inconvenient, you know, his, his concern was more about the fact that he had high blood pressure. And that was the main driver. It was to obviously get that number down. So we didn't have to go on medication. That was his main reason for losing the weight. But obviously, as he lost the weight, and he started to have more energy and started to be able to do more things physically, he started to realize just how much carrying all the extra weight had made him feel, but he didn't realize it until he no longer had it. And, and that's the things we don't see the gap until later down the line. And, you know, for me, living the life that I'm living now is not ever something that I had even had the intention of doing. But here I am doing it because of all the doors losing the way unlocked for me along the way that I never envisaged would happen. So it's really hard, I think, to kind of step into that future self with clarity. But if we know that our intentions are that we want to feel better, then, you know, even just
day to day, the actions that we take that will make us feel better by moving more, by eating better quality food, by eating the right amount of food, by eating in the right way, by sleeping well, by hydrating well, by doing all of those things. Day to day, they're going to make us feel better. So we want to, we want to, we want to repeat those things and then step by step, we'll get to the end result without even focusing on it, if that makes sense.
Sarah (30:45.153)
Yes, it does totally. And it's something again, I'll always, you know, I'll always ask if I if I'm going to do something and I think, oh, you know, I'm going to do this, that and I think, Yes, what impact will this have on my progress? What impact will this have on what I want to achieve? It might be I'm writing a book at the moment and it might be I can't be bothered to write today. What impact is that going to have on my progress? Actually, it's going to slow me down. So I'll just write an introductory chapter, an introduction to one of the chapters. So I'll just do that today. So I might not be in the mood to write the whole thing.
I'll just set myself a small task because I know if I don't do it I'll lose momentum and it will take me much longer to actually get the whole thing written so I think sometimes it's you know Yes here's a big family bag of crisps what impacts it's going to have actually it's not going to be good for me so what I'll do is I'll have a few and put the rest of the bag away so it's not saying I won't have them but it's once you start thinking about the impact it might have on your progress or on the way you feel then I think you make much better decisions not necessarily I'm not going to have that but actually I'll have less or I'll wait until tomorrow or whenever.
Claire Jones (31:46.791)
That's it. And it comes back to using our rational brain, as I was talking about in our Christmas podcast, about the fact that our primitive instincts drive our desire for food. And we have to learn how to use the more rational part of our brain, the part of our brain that makes us human in making the decisions about food. And when we do that, everything, everything changes. And one of the things that I like to talk about with my clients is when we're focusing on what are the actions that we need to take to get us to where we want to be, because that actually is what needs to change. It's all very well thinking about it, but it's doing that makes the difference. If you imagine that we're walking on a hike to the top of a hill and you look at the hill and go, that's a long way, I don't think I can do that. Whereas if we think, well actually, how do we get to the top of that hill? It's literally putting one foot in front of the other repeatedly. And so all we need to do is look at, well, what's the general direction? and where am I going to put my foot next? And that, if we focus in on that and trust that by repeating those actions, we'll get to the top of that hill. We don't even need to look at it.
Sarah (33:20.354)
That's it. It's also sometimes you think, gosh, that's really, really steep. Is there a slightly less steep path? There might be a less steep path that takes longer, but you'll still get there. And so sometimes it is. Yep.
Claire Jones (33:31.633)
Exactly. And it's okay to take a little diversion every now and then as long as you've kind of got a rough idea of where the top of the hill is, you can then turn back around at any time. You know, you don't have to keep walking off in the opposite direction.
Sarah (33:39.406)
Yes, that's it. So for all of the people listening and getting back on track, for me, definitely, it's have a vision. It doesn't have to be rigidly fixed and everything, but just have a kind of idea of where you're going. What else would you say?
Claire Jones (33:49.704)
Take it one day at a time. And every day is a new opportunity. It doesn't matter what you did before. Just use it as an opportunity to learning and take that into the next day, rather than use it as an opportunity to beat yourself up if it didn't go too well.
Sarah (34:02.088)
One day and one step, so none of that today's been awful yesterday was awful type thing. It's okay. How am I going to move myself forward today? So, Yes, because every step forward is progress. Even, even staying still is progress.
Claire Jones (34:21.788)
Yes, what's the minimum thing you can do? Yes. Yes, absolutely. Especially if you would previously have been going backwards. Yes.
Sarah (34:33.994)
Yes, so I think that would be it. But for me, it's make those steps very small. Make them small, make them easy, because that A, it's all working towards your progress, but also I think the smaller and the easier they are, the more you achieve them, and the more your confidence builds, and you think, do not, it's not just, I can do this. You go from, I think I can do this to I can do this to I am doing this and then I've done it and then the next thing you set yourself may well be bigger but you know you can do it and for me that's it do even at the end of the day this is what I did today this is what I achieved I had one less biscuit I ate an extra portion of vegetables even small things like that it's a pat on the back it's that kind of I'm doing this.
Claire Jones (35:00.508)
Yes, that's it.
Sarah (35:22.658)
This is me. Anything else, any other advice then you would give people who are at the moment thinking oh my new year hasn't gone the way I wanted it to.
Claire Jones (35:31.06)
I think it's making sure you've got the right foundation in place. There's no point in trying to change your eating behaviours if your life is so chaotic that you can't actually do anything consistent. So it's perhaps looking at the bigger picture and thinking, well, how can I make a bit of a more stable foundation in order to build on the changes? So rather than going straight in for the food, it might be looking at, as I said earlier, it might be looking at, you know, what's your sleep like, what's your daily routine like, so that you can create that foundation to then build on.
Sarah (36:02.666)
Yes, and that's the important thing, isn't it? It's the bigger picture. It's not just, I'm going to change the way I eat. It's looking at how you can make it easier with the rest of your life. And, you know, and don't, again, we're all about creating active lives here. But remember, you know, being more active, whether it's a walk or a stretch or a swim, whatever you fancy doing all helps and I think as you notice that you can walk more easily, you can swim more easily, you can stretch more easily, that boosts your confidence and that boosts your motivation because you're thinking gosh actually DC is making a difference and that noticing those differences is to me is one of the biggest motivators because you think no gosh if I can if I notice this already then I'm going to notice even more.
Claire Jones (36:40.372)
Yes, that's the thing Just eating in a better way and being more active is going to make it more, you know, it's going to make you feel better and more likely to then be able to do more. And it is not focusing just on the weight but focusing on how nourishing our bodies and minds makes us feel better and want to do this. That's when you know you've cracked it.
Sarah (37:05.471)
And when we feel better, we want to keep going. And that's the big thing. It goes from, I need to do this, or I have to do this. It's that switch into, I want to do this because I'm enjoying it. And that's, to me, the big point is making sure that you've got that enjoyment because that will keep you going.
Claire, thank you so much. And it's been a really interesting couple of episodes actually on this and realistic as well. We're not saying to people, oh, you know, first January, you've got to stop eating, stop drinking, stop doing everything. What we're saying is, do not beat yourself up. Just start today and move forward. Yes, it's been a pleasure. I'm sure we will speak again at some point. You can follow Claire on all social media outlets at.
Claire Jones (37:46.652)
Yes, absolutely. Thank you very much for having me.
Sarah (37:56.626)
You can find Claire at Your One Life UK and I will make sure the links to contact her are in the in the podcast information and do follow her because she does do some lovely challenges for people every quarter just to sort of support change So let's do this Claire. Thank you so much for coming. You've been listening to me Sarah Bolitho and my guest Claire Jones Talking about getting back on track. I'm off out for a walk. Hopefully you all are too
Take care and see you soon.