Podcast: Find Joy in Your Journey: Making Healthy Living Fun and Easy
Introduction
Are you ready to transform your health journey into an enjoyable adventure?
Dr Orlena shares her insights from a recent high-energy conference and offers practical tips to keep you motivated and excited about your wellness goals.
Discover how small, sustainable changes can lead to significant results, and learn the secret to finding activities that light you up and make healthy living a delight.
Plus, Dr. Orlena dives into the importance of self-care and self-compassion, providing you with actionable steps to celebrate yourself and your achievements.
Tune in and find the joy in your journey towards a healthier, happier you!
Mentioned in the Podcast
- Free Workshop: "How to Lose Weight, Keep It Off, and Lead a Vibrant Life." This interactive session will cover essential strategies for achieving and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Sign up here: https://www.drorlena.com/vibrant-life-workshop
- Interested in working with Dr Orlena and having her support as you transform your life? Book a call! Click the link and find a time that works for you: http://drorlena.com/book-a-call-fb
Transcription of Podcast
Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to Fit and Fabulous with me, Dr. Orlena. I hope that you are feeling fabulous. Firstly, apologies that today's episode is a day late. Well, I went away for the weekend. I went to this amazing conference. It was, what should we say, a high energy conference. And we had to do a lot of being in high energy.
And I find that when I came back, my voice was really hoarse. I think because partly the music was so loud, the only way to hear each other was basically to yell at each other. And then I think I got a little bit of a virus. I wasn't feeling on top form, but a day late is better than never. My little weekly inspiration for you to keep motivated and to keep going on this amazing health and wellness journey.
Now the other thing that happened yesterday was we had the workshop How to Lose Weight. Keep it off, and lead a vibrant life. Now, I did think about wrapping that up and doing it as a podcast, but it was an hour long, and I think that's probably a little bit too long, so if you would like to sign up for that, you can still sign up for it, it will send out the replay.
And it is available for the next 48 hours. If you want access to that, you need to sign up and it will send it to you rather than me putting it together as a podcast. Okay, what are we going to talk about today? I thought I would keep today short and succinct and I want to make three points. Three points to inspire you to keep feeling motivated to feel confident that you can make these changes to leading a healthy and excuse me my voice a healthy life another reason i'm going to keep it a little bit short today so number one focus on small changes so many people say to me when they go through my reboot for example they say oh do you know what it wasn't actually that different from what i already do I'm changing how I eat, but it's not a huge, big change.
But that's amazing, because it is going to give you a whole new set of results. That's one example. It could be something else. It could be going for a walk. It could be adding a little bit more movement into your day. These small things that we do, they add up. And we have a tendency to think, oh, it's only, I don't know, a ten minute walk.
It doesn't really make much difference. Excuse me. But, here's the way of thinking about it. Instead of thinking about one thing that you do, what's the impact of, for example, let's say doing a seven minute workout. Quite a lot of my clients do a seven minute workout. I do a seven minute workout on Tuesday and Thursday, although, number one, my seven minute workouts are ten minutes, and number two, I skipped it yesterday because I wasn't feeling very well.
But here's the, here's the way of thinking about it. Instead of thinking, oh, it's just ten minutes, think about, well, if I do that every day for a week. Actually, that's, let's say 50 minutes, if you do it 5 times out of 7, that's 50 minutes. And then, that's 200 minutes in a month. And many more minutes if I do it for a year.
Think about the impact that it has. Not one time, but if you do it consistently for a year. That small habit that you do, what is the overall impact? Think about it, think about brushing your teeth. We all brush our teeth, or at least I hope you do. And brushing your teeth feels like nothing. But what's the impact of brushing your teeth?
Well, you have healthy teeth. Because you brush your teeth. Now, brushing teeth is one of those funny things that actually, in the same way as healthy living, it's sometimes difficult to see the impact because you see the negative impact if you don't brush your teeth. If you don't brush your teeth, as I say to my kids, your teeth turn black and they fall out.
And that is literally what happens if you stop brushing your teeth, particularly if you're eating lots of sugar in your diet. And so when you're brushing your teeth, you're stopping that from happening and you don't see the positive effects of brushing your teeth. Your teeth might feel a bit clean and shiny for a few minutes, but that often wears off.
But it's the same thing with healthy living. We often don't see the positive impacts until we make those changes. For example, when I went away for the weekend. I really noticed how I wasn't exercising as much as I normally would do. I didn't feel as good. I didn't have as much energy. I wasn't sleeping as well.
I had to sleep I actually slept in a hostel and that was an interesting experience. I decided to sleep in a hostel because last time I went to a conference I spent so much money on a hotel and hardly slept and I thought, if I'm hardly going to sleep, might as well go for the cheap option. And all of this combined, I came back thinking, oh, I don't feel so great, partly because of my throat.
which I think then led me to get a virus. But even in a few short days, the change of not looking after myself so well, I noticed it. And I'm so frustrated that I'm unwell for two or three days afterwards. , small, sustainable changes in my life. Lead to big results. And not only do they lead to big results because actually that change has an impact, but you do that and then you add on another one and then you add on another one.
You don't normally start by running a marathon. Think about it as running a marathon. You don't go, Oh, I'm going to go and run a marathon tomorrow. No, you build up. You might run a kilometer and then two kilometers and then five kilometers and then 10 kilometers until you can get to the whole 40 kilometers.
Okay, point number two. Focus on enjoyable activities. You know what I say? I say, if it's not easy and fun, it doesn't get done. I was talking to somebody yesterday and she said to me, Oh how much activity do you do? None. I have no idea what I want to do. And we were chatting for a little bit longer.
And she said, I love dancing. Okay, great. That's one of your activities. We were talking for a little bit more. And she said, I really enjoy Tai Chi. Great, there's another activity. It is as easy as this. Find an activity that you enjoy doing. And go and do it. And it's the same with everything. It's the same with healthy eating.
Find the healthy foods that you like eating. You don't have to torture yourself by eating foods that you don't like. And there are so many healthy foods that I don't believe that you can say, I don't like all of the healthy foods. If you don't like all of the healthy foods, then go and make some healthy foods that you do like.
Take the food that is your favourite non healthy food, and figure out how to turn it healthy and I promise you can, you can do this. And if you're in my Facebook group, if you're stuck with this, I challenge you to come up with, like, you know, I want to make this thing and I will show you how to do it.
Like, it's not going to be exactly the same, of course it isn't, but you can make a replica of that using the tastes or the textures or whatever it is that appeals to you and you can make it healthy. This is one of my favourite games to play. One of the things that I have developed over the years is what I call Mummy's Yummy Chocolate Cake.
my son likes to make a chocolate cake which is so decadent and rich and he has it for birthdays. Now I make a chocolate brownie, don't think of it as chocolate brownie, but I make it out of chocolate. Obergines, or eggplants if you live in the states. Now its not exactly the same. Of course its not the same.
I'm not claiming that my aubergine chocolate brownie tastes like decadent rich chocolate cake. But, on another level when you're eating something, its chocolatey, its rich, it has the same kind of experience. Except its not as sickeningly sweet and you can eat it and think, actually this is quite healthy for me.
there's your challenge. Take a food that is unhealthy that you really like, or less healthy and try and make it more healthy. Or find your activity that lights you up. I always say, pillar number two is exercise or movement that lights you up. Why? Why is it not just exercise and movement? Because if it doesn't light you up, you are not going to do it.
You need it to light you up. You need to enjoy it so much that you're looking forward to doing it. Now you all know that I love swimming. We're excitingly going to Paris next week. And we're going for basically seven days. I'm super excited. It's the first time we've really been on holiday with my kids.
But, big but, I'm super excited. I'm not gonna be able to swim for seven whole days. Somebody said to me, Oh, you know they're cleaning up the Seine and You're going to be able to swim in the Seine, they're going to be doing some of the Olympics in the Seine. And I thought, oh, perhaps I can swim in the Seine.
Well, it turns out that, actually, I don't think they're ready right yet, and it's still a bit dirty and horrible. I'm going to have to go for seven whole days without swimming. My poor family. Will they survive? I'll be so grumpy. No, I'm joking. I won't be grumpy because I will be excited about all the other things.
And then I'll be super excited to come home and get back into swimming. And it will be swimming in the sea season by then. Every single day. So exciting. Okay, what's my third point? Empowerment through self care and self compassion. And I think this is a really important point. I was talking to another client recently and something had happened to this client.
She'd lost something of value and was upset about it. And when we talked about it, I put it to her that it wasn't so much that she was upset about the object, it was more that she was upset with herself. And this led us to do some Self care exercises. And I think this is important for everybody. Here's a question for you.
When I say the phrase, I am bright, beautiful and brilliant, out of ten, how much do you believe that? Now, I used to not believe that at all. I remember the first time I wrote it out, years ago. And I wrote it out and thought, ha, that's not true, is it? And over the years, I've come to accept, I am bright, beautiful, and brilliant.
Now, I don't mean I'm better than everybody else. I think everybody is bright, beautiful, and brilliant. But I can own my own being bright, beautiful, and brilliant. And I can talk to myself with compassion. Now, I'm not saying I'm perfect. Yes, there are times when I beat myself up, of course we do, but the more we are aware of that, the more we can go about changing that.
This is one of the exercises that we did in coaching today, and which I invite you to do. If you're got access to pen and paper, it's easiest if you do this with pen and paper. But obviously you can just do it in your head if you're walking. I know lots of people walk and listen to podcasts at the same time.
Here's how it is. It's called an avalanche of gratitude. Now the first step is you can just write out 100 things that you are grateful for in your life. And these can be physical things. These can be not physical things. For example, It could be you're grateful for your bed, it could be that you're grateful for the love of your partner.
Now, that's step one. Step two is to go back over the list and explain exactly why you are grateful for that thing. , for example, I am grateful for my house because I feel safe in my house. It gives me shelter and other things like that. , that is step one. Now, step two is to do this specifically for yourself.
Just about you. Now it can be your body, it can be you, your personality. It could include all your physical attributes. I am grateful for my arms, my legs, my eyes. You can go through every single organ that you want to and then explain why you are grateful. I'm grateful for my arms because they allow me to walk and to swim and to move.
Sorry, my legs allow me to walk, my arms allow me to do other things. Swim and write and all those other things. Cook, You can also be grateful for your attributes. I am grateful for my personality, for my generosity, for my ability to learn, etc, etc. Now the third step of this exercise is is to write out a hundred achievements.
Now you don't have to do this all at once. You can start with ten and then add another ten and add another ten. These are your achievements and successes and they can be big achievements. I graduated from medical school. I've had four children. I moved to Spain. Or they can be more mundane achievements.
I cooked a healthy dinner. I cleaned the kitchen. I sat down and did some work. We do not celebrate ourselves enough. And when we do celebrate ourselves, we often do it in a really cursory kind of way. Yeah, I did that. Isn't it great? As opposed to, I really did do this. And do you know what? It actually is amazing.
I did this thing and it is amazing. I really celebrate myself. , three steps. Number one, avalanche of gratitude. Write down 100 things that you are grateful for and explain why you are grateful for them. Number two, things about yourself that you are grateful for.
Number three. Successes and Achievements. I want a list of a hundred from all of them. Now, if you're in the Facebook group, come and show them to us when you have finished. I can show you my long list. I did this yesterday with my coaching clients. So, my friends, let me recap the three things that I'm telling you today.
Small, sustainable changes lead to big results. Two, focus on enjoyable activities. Number three, a little bit of self love and compassion goes a long way. So, my friends, remember to go and watch that workshop, How to Lose Weight, Keep it Off, and Lead a Vibrant Life. It will be up until Friday. I'm also opening my program to anybody who is interested.
I explain the program if you're interested in the video, so it explains a little bit about it. There's an amazing offer that is going on, so if you're interested, go and watch that. You can book a call with me or you can just sign up. Either way, now is a fabulous time to come and do positively healthy weight loss.
And where I suggest you start is with something called a Guided Reboot. It's a four week program. You'll get all the information in that video. If you don't want to watch the video, just message me and say, I want to know about it and I will tell you about it. Have a fabulous week and I look forward to chatting with you.
Oh, there is not going to be anything next week because I'm on holiday and I have not been organized. Bye! Organized enough to do a podcast. I will be back in July. Have a fabulous week and I will see you in July. Bye bye.
