Easy ways to reclaim your va-va-voom

Snow is on its way! Ugh Scottish winters are enough to have even the most vivacious of us running for cover - just at the time we’re supposed to feel most fired up and filled with ambition and goals…

If you too are struggling with flagging levels of motivation, we have enlisted the help of nutritional therapist Wilma MacDonald, to share her top tips on helping busy women upgrade energy levels and start the year with less doom and more va va voom.

While I’m a big fan of a new year – new beginnings, placing a big permanent marker pen line under the previous year, big possibilities and all that – I’m not a fan of the cold and dark winter days either. It takes all my willpower, motivation and a small human kicking me in the head to get me out from under the duvet. I know I’m not alone in feeling this way.

You probably finished last year knackered, clinging on by your chipped fingernails, loaded up on Quality Street, prosecco and cheese and now you’re meant to emerge from your duvet cocoon and transform into your best self, drink celery for breakfast, give up caffeine, croissants and pizza, join a gym (again), figure out your word for the year– all while not furrowing a brow, breaking a sweat or raising a voice.

It's tempting to stay in bed.

While you’re not a hibernating hedgehog, you are a human who’s evolved from a person who used to live in a cave. When it was dark they chilled out, when it was daylight they did life. But I’m not going to recommend a primal diet or only living life in daylight hours – however tempting that is, we all know fun things can happen after dark.

Instead I’m here to give you three recommendations to boost your energy and get some oomph back in your life, so it doesn’t fizzle out alongside your no-carb resolution.

1. More not less.

New Year. New you. New diet. Less food. No carbs. More exercise. Way less fun. That’s what it takes right? Winter is the season of detoxes, diets and deprivation. It’s almost like, ok you’ve had your fun, now’s your time to pay for it. Well… no!

Do you remember the teenage magazines we used to devour? Being ‘healthy’ was always about eating tiny portions so that we were our smallest selves. Heaven forbid you were a girl with an appetite (for food or life!). We were so distracted by shrinking our waistlines instead of elevating our voices. Decades on that leaves us hungry for attention, food and power.

Every cell in your body needs fuel that comes from the food and liquids you digest.

Want better periods? Eat fat to make the hormones needed. Want to support your detox? Eat protein and fibre, not sugary juice. Want to feel less tired? Eat to balance your blood sugar levels.

Less isn’t more when it comes to food. Eating what's right for you doesn't need to be complicated and doesn't need to be perfect. It needs to be enough. It needs to be different. It needs to nourish you to give you energy.

If you're reading this and thinking, ‘But I must be eating too much ‘cos I'm not losing weight’, I'm still saying you're not eating enough.

2. From small things, big things one day come

30 different vegetables a week

An hour of exercise every day

10 minutes of mediation at 5.30am

2 litres of water a day

9 hours of uninterrupted sleep

Split your macros, count your peas, weigh your butter, lose the will…

I could go on. It’s A LOT. Add a job,personal admin, some small humans or furry friends into the mix and it’s no wonder you’re more knackered than when you started and your enthusiasm has disappeared, along with all the fun and pizza.

Strip it back, way back… further than that. Make it so small that you wonder if you’ve done anything.

Eat an extra portion of green vegetables

Meditate for 2 minutes

Drink one extra glass of water

Chase your toddler down the street

Take the dog out for an extra 20 minutes

Go to bed 15 minutes earlier tonight

Read a page of your bonk buster before bed

Choose one or two of these and do them over and over again until they become habitual. It’s the small things we do repeatedly that build up to make a big difference.

3. Use kindness and understanding instead of stress, force and belittling

 You would never call a good friend a ‘failure’ or ‘loser’ if her plans didn’t come to fruition, so why are you being so cruel to yourself? Shoving, stressing, shouting, forcing or hating yourself to change isn't going to be a joyous, long-lasting or rewarding experience. It's going to be tedious and leave you feeling unworthy and exhausted.

Be your own best friend and mother. You're with yourself 24/7, 365 days a year and no one wants to hang out with someone who bullies them.

There are no hacks, shortcuts, secrets, green powders or gold-packaged supplements that’ll give you the long-lasting oomph you need to get you through the winter. These recommendations aren’t about you pushing through no matter what, they’re not to make you even more productive so you can crush your 2023 goals (although I do want you to be your most fabulous self, who does what she sets out to do).

These recommendations are here to remind you that you deserve the same love, care and attention that you give everyone else and that, like many things in life, low and slow is way more effective than quick, burnt out and unsatisfying.