The Fink team have been exploring exciting new collaborations over the past few weeks. James and Lewis have been working closely with Newbury-based fitness business Team Bear Fitness and their Wellness partner Nicki to learn more about the links between diet, physical exercise and mental wellbeing.
Team Bear Fitness are an awesome business who share many of our mental health values. Unlike most traditional gyms, they focus on the benefits of sport and physical activity on our mental health. The benefits of regular exercise are massive including: improved mood, decreased chance of depression and anxiety, and a better and more balanced lifestyle.
We are really excited to have built this new relationships and we have lots of exciting ideas in the pipeline for 2020! We'd just like to say a massive thank you to Nicki who has written this weeks guest blog...
“We are what we eat, drink and think,”
By Nicki Perkins C.N.C.,
Advanced EFT Practitioner, Plant-based Wellness Coach
Ah, the enigma of the ‘perfect diet’! As a plant-based nutrition coach, I’ve always believed (peer-reviewed studies and pioneers such as T. Colin Campbell, Esselstyn, Ornish, Barnard, Greger, back me up) that a diet rich in whole plant foods is definitely the way to go; it’s good for us, our planet and the animals. A win-win-win situation!
But is any health-promoting diet alone enough for optimal health?
Mindfulness
We can be sipping on the ‘perfect’ wheatgrass boosted green juice before having that antioxidant-rich salad with all the healthy trimmings, but if we spend the rest of the day or week (I’m being conservative here…we often hold onto emotions for far longer than days or weeks) angry, sad or frustrated about traffic, co-worker, incident that happened 20 years ago, then we’re missing an important piece of the ‘perfect diet’. Anger and resentment sit and fester deep inside us and fear tries to protect us by holding us back in life. Sooner or later we need to acknowledge that something needs to change.
But why wait?
Mindfulness comes in many shapes and forms. My two favourites are meditation and EFT Meridian Tapping. I’ve seen first hand on myself and with my clients what can be done when we go inside and free blocked energy - energy we can then use for living a better and more fulfilled life. It is especially helpful when people lack motivation to maintain a healthy lifestyle and continue to self-sabotage their efforts. It’s not always laziness that stops people, it’s that willpower is limited.
Bones: Use them or lose them!
Our bodies are meant to move, not sit on a chair all day. However, many of us have jobs in which we are ‘tied’ to the computer and don’t always have the time or desire to hit the gym.
I believe that planning physical activity ahead of time is crucial, especially when starting a new routine. Willpower is strongest in the morning, so if that means getting up a little earlier to fit in your activity, I say go for it. Nobody has ever come back from 30 minutes of exercise first thing in the morning and thought, ‘well that was a waste of time!’ Get everything ready the night before so you won’t have time to procrastinate and waste time. As the slogan says, ‘Just do it.’
To wrap it all up, be kind to yourself. Give yourself a pat on the back, a self-hug and some self-love. We are all doing our best and so let’s acknowledge that.
Peace, love & veggies,
Nicki
