Every year on 27th December a dramatic physiological change occurs within our bodies. After weeks of gorging on mince pies at hourly intervals and pouring Baileys onto our cornflakes (OK, that actually hasn’t happened yet but never say never,) suddenly the thought of shoving another segment of Chocolate Orange into our mouth becomes unbearable. Instead we start craving actual, real oranges, going to the gym and moving our weary bodies, even Kale becomes appealing. This naturally occurring phenomenon is for the best really as eating mince pies all year long would surely take all the fun out of it and coming as it does, just before the start of a new year, January is the ideal starting point for our new regime. Though this year we've done things a little differently. We're just being really, really nice to ourselves. Alcohol has not been banished, anything containing wheat hasn't been shoved in the bin and we've not set foot on the scales. Diet or detox this is not, nor is it being super self indulgent. Instead we've decided that life is hard enough, especially when it's cold and dark, and so we are simply going to treat our bodies and our minds with kindness. ~ • Go easy on the booze. It was true when we said that we hadn't sworn off the hard stuff but in the spirit of being kind to ourselves, and that includes our liver, we will indulge in the odd glass or two when it takes our fancy but only at weekends. • Dig out the smoothie maker. Last year we were converted to the wonders of a green juice every morning but by November were so frazzled that all hopes of shoving spinach into a blender at 6:30 am had well and truly faded. Now we aim to make a smoothie in the morning if we can, that's if the hairdryer doesn't blow us up and the cat doesn't slow us down by being so cute and we can actually find our shoes. If we don't get round to it then we won't beat ourselves up, maybe we can buy an Innocent one instead. • Don't eat cake every day. We can eat it some days but not every day at 3pm with our afternoon coffee. That really has to stop. • Go back to yoga. Like the smoothie making, by the end of last year, we were just happy to get through the day without crying in the supermarket or falling asleep at our desks. We stopped going to yoga regularly and our necks hurt and we really missed the lovely sense of calm that yoga brings. It's OK though, we're back on the mat at least once a week and we're not being hard on ourselves for falling off the bendy wagon. We also got some lovely new yoga kit, which is really helping. • Exercise regularly. This is so obvious but it's truly the kindest thing that we can do for our bodies and our minds, even though it doesn't feel like it when we're driving home from work and want to slip into our pajamas instead of our trainers. • Get out of bed when we say we will. Watching Making a Murder until midnight is really not conducive to getting up early and so we are rethinking our 'bedroom hygiene.' No screens before sleep and vowing not to keep pushing 'snooze,' are central to trying to get out of bed when we say we will. This is a work in progress. • Look after our skin. This is one of the best parts of the plan as it involves a weekly soak in the tub with our new favorite bath oil, plus a DIY facial. We noticed our skin was suffering thanks to the bad weather and constant blasts of central heating and so now we enjoy a deep cleanse, gentle exfoliation and a face mask. We're even figuring out how to body brush. As with every bath time, we're also burning candles like this Zest Natural Spa Jar, to compliment our favourite hand soaps and lotions and practicing our mindfulness exercises, or watching Netflix.. Be kind to yourselves candle lovers!
