It can be all too easy to focus on the negative statistics. The figures about Scotland’s obesity crisis; children being overweight younger; then comes our binge drinking issues, diabetes and heart disease – it can get a little bit doom and gloom can’t it?
Research shows that a healthy body and healthy mind are related; that focusing on the positives helps us to feel better – and that dwelling on the negatives can suck all the energy out of us.
We are bombarded with the bad stories and the frightening statistics but what about the good ones? What about the fact that teenagers are ditching the binge drinking and hitting the gym instead? What about the wave of ‘clean eating’ and finding balance in an all consuming world?
They say that our thoughts can become our reality. Does this mean that focusing on the bad statistics can subconsciously encourage us to stay on the sofa with a supersize bag of crisps? If everyone else is, why not?
Let’s just get overweight together. It is just the society we are living in. Being a size 16 or above is normal. Times are changing. I confess there was a point that I felt like this. I was tired – too tired for exercise. I loved eating and drinking wine. I deserved treats. I was a working Mum.
When I went back to work after my first baby I had great intentions. I packed my running gear. I ran home. A couple of months into the routine, I started to find excuses. I was too tired to run. I got sucked into the office culture. I ate at my desk. Food and I became good pals. I ate when I was working on the boring jobs. Eating made it a bit more fun. Then I saw some photos on facebook I had been tagged in and I felt awful.
Surely that was just a bad angle? The camera never lies they say. Really? It must do. Please tell me the camera lies because if that is how I look I am never going out again. I don’t want people to see me like that. I have let myself go.
After my 2nd baby I decided that I had to do something. I really meant it this time though. I knew I meant business when 7 weeks after an emergency c-section I was off running up hills early on a Saturday morning.
I started running to lose weight but I soon realised that there was so much more to it than that. Weight loss and compliments were just the icing on the cake. My mind felt better. A run cleared my head and gave me much needed headspace from my two young kids.
It turned from a chore into a passion. I knew I was onto a good thing. Even on the days when I craved the sofa, I knew that I would never regret a run instead.
Over a year later, I realise that things could have been different. I could easily have piled on more weight. My confidence would have continued to spiral downwards and I would be avoiding social situations because getting ready would just be too much. Nothing would look nice so I would just stick my pj’s on, hit the sofa and grab a bar of chocolate. Mum’s shouldn’t be going out anyway. Mum’s should be at home.
You see focusing on the negatives can be very easy to do. We can’t ignore the negativity going on in the world but at the same time we must be aware that things can and do improve. People can change. I am evidence of that.
It might have taken me 33 years to really stick at something but with my first marathon now successfully completed and a mental health awareness campaign underway I now realise exactly why I want to.
