Surrey Homes | SH76 | May 2021 | Restoration & New Build supplement inside

Wellbeing
Body Loving Goodness
Sarah Maxwell stresses the importance
of learning to take care of yourself
The idea of what constitutes
the perfect body has changed
frequently over the decades,
from Kate Moss (90’s chic) to the
touched up images of perfectly sculpted
bodies we see everywhere now.
It’s at this time of year that I’m
inundated with requests from fitness
and slimming magazines and health
websites to come up with a perfect plan
to get in shape for the summer. With
everything we’ve been through in this
last year, I thought it was time to make
a change and show you a different but
highly successful way to make positive
changes to your body image, lose weight,
feel great and enjoy our new freedoms.
Firstly, I would like to tell a little of
my story and why I do the job I do.
I remember the exact moment when I
developed a negative image of my body. I
was 14 years old and had up until then
been a very skinny child. As puberty
descended on me in full throttle, puppy
fat started to lay down (this is actually
quiet natural, your body is changing
from a child into an adult during that
time). I was immediately taken to a local
doctor and put on a strict diet. This
unfortunately took me down a path of
extreme exercise and disordered eating.
At the age of 21 I embarked
on my first training course as a
health and fitness professional.
It’s a big admission but I have to
confess, I still hated my body.
Every day I weighed myself (more
than once a day) and beat myself up
because my body didn’t conform to
what was considered the right type of
body (especially as I had embarked on
a career where the perfect body meant
everything). I followed the standard
theory of eating less and moving
more, but it wasn’t working for me
and neither did the daily step onto the
scales (it doesn’t work for everybody).
After many years of working with
people to lose weight and feel great,
I can tell you that I encourage most
of my clients to throw away the scales
because the power they have over our
body image is shocking and, in most
cases, greatly hampers long term weight
loss. Not only is it hugely liberating to
throw away the step of shame (this is
what I call weighing scales), the results
I see from this simple act are fantastic.
I have spent many years teaching self
esteem and body confidence workshops
to young adults. I show them positive
examples of body image, emphasising
the importance of wellbeing and health
through proper nutrition, regular
exercise, good sleep, stress management
and relaxation. All of these are equally
important to sustain long term
weight management and with that
naturally comes a dramatic increase
in self esteem and body confidence.
One of my favourites to follow on
social media is @sundaymorningview
(a self-love magazine that shares what
real bodies look like, and it has some
wonderful mental-health information).
Affirmations really do work!
Science really does back up the
effectiveness of positive affirmations.
If you want to check out the
technicial bit for yourself, the
following link is a good read:
https://www.healthshots.com/mind/
happiness-hacks/we-decode-the-sciencebehind-affirmations-and-how-theycan-infuse-positivity-in-your-life/
Below is an affirmation that I have found
very effective for myself and my clients.
I recommend trying this for 7-10 days.
Repeat it out loud a few times a day and
see if you feel a shift in how you feel.
“I feed my body healthy nourishing food
and give it healthy nourishing exercise
because it deserves to be taken care of.”
Worth giving it a try, don’t you think?
Sarah Maxwell is a multiple awardwinning
Fitness and Lifestyle coach
and mum of two who juggles a lot
of balls. Find out more about Sarah
and her work at sarahmaxwell.com
Sarah shares her Fitness and Lifestyle tips
on Instagram @sarahmaxwelllifestyle
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