January Reflections [guest post by Teague Peterson]

Hi FITC followers! I’m so excited that I’ve been chosen to contribute to Fitness in the City. Sending my voice out on a blog and sharing information and views on health and wellness is my main intention for this new year that we’ve just started on.

Sometimes I find this time of the year super overwhelming, especially when it comes to making your intentions and “resolutions” for what you want to accomplish in the next 12 months. Too often I think we act as though the past 12 months wasn’t good enough. We didn’t eat well enough, work out enough, live enough. We put heaps of pressure on ourselves to be better this time. We set up goals as to how we’re going to achieve certain standards that we think are expected of us. We stop being mindful about what works for us and focus on what we believe we SHOULD be doing. Then, come the second week of January we’ve realized that our intention may be more of struggle than we thought and we give up all hope. We resort back to fear and guilt, probably the things that made you make those resolutions in the first place. So now we’ve just got this circle that isn’t helping anyone.

Geez I got exhausted just typing that!

But how about this year we do things differently. We’ve had our holiday now, we’ve done our celebrating and now we want to start fresh. Maybe some of you already have, and that’s great! For me this year I’ve used this first bit of January to remember how far I’ve come. Too often we get caught up in reaching some end point that we forget how far we’ve actually travelled down this road of wellbeing.

In the past 4 years my lifestyle has changed drastically. I’ve gone from heavy drinker/smoker/eater to excessive exerciser and under-eater to now, a search for balance. Four years ago a weekend didn’t exist without a case of beers and intense hangovers that followed. The gym also didn’t exist without a treat cigarette after (seriously). After I met my man I moved to Australia from Canada and started working with some girls that were really into their fitness. Cue a new addiction.

What started out as a healthy change in my life progressed really fast into a lifestyle of deprivation and only having enough energy for the intense workouts I forced upon myself every day. But without these struggles I wouldn’t have found the place that I’m at now. And of course there are days when I’m not too happy with the way my tummy looks but these are the moments I realize that I used to despise that same tummy (and wow this is so much better than that). My partying led me to Tom and this beautiful country so I can’t be mad at that. And my poor relationship with food and exercise led me to Natural Therapies. Now I’m studying Holistic Nutrition, have embraced healthy fats and have found yoga (which may have saved my sanity).

The things that we do “wrong” aren’t ruining us they’re building us. They are the first steps into realizing that you need a change, because you have realized that haven’t you?

Think about all the December 31st’s that you’ve gone through and said “I should exercise more” or “I should really eat more greens”. Those moments are important because it’s you realizing that you’re ready for a change. Thank yourself for that! This time though lets make these changes out of a place of love. Change because you know you’re worth being healthier, worthy of

I’m really excited for this next year and I hope you all are too! Let’s make this a big one filled with lots of love, laughter and some really epic food!

xx

Teague

Teague Peterson is a Nutrition Student from Melbourne studying at Endeavour College of Natural Therapies. She loves running in the middle of nature and finding her balance with yoga. She has a blog coming out soon called Simple Seasons where she hopes to inspire people to cook according to what nature gives them and to listen to what their body is asking for. Her inspirations are Michael Pollan, Alice Waters, and people doing kind things even when they think no one is watching. For now you can find her on Instagram @teague_simpleseasons.

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